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Weimar: A Cultural History 1918-1933
It was the first truly modern society, a cultural hothouse. Uniquely creative and permissive, Weimar was the age of Enlightenment and Einstein, Thomas Mann and Bertolt Brecht, atonal music and the Bauhaus, Paul Klee, existentialism, Max Reinhardt, and Marlene Dietrich. But it also witnessed the emergence of another regime that was neither avant-garde nor left wing in inspiration--that of Adolf Hitler. No other book better chronicles this most unique period in 20th century history.
- GenresHistoryGermanyNonfiction
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
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155 people want to read
About the author
Walter Laqueur
140 books46 followersWalter Ze'ev Laqueur was an American historian, journalist and political commentator. Laqueur was born in Breslau, Lower Silesia, Prussia (modern Wrocław, Poland), into a Jewish family. In 1938, he left Germany for the British Mandate of Palestine. His parents, who were unable to leave, became victims of the Holocaust.
Laqueur lived in Israel from 1938 to 1953. After one year at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he joined a Kibbutz and worked as an agricultural laborer from 1939 to 1944. In 1944, he moved to Jerusalem, where he worked as a journalist until 1953, covering Palestine and other countries in the Middle East.
Since 1955 Laqueur has lived in London. He was founder and editor, with George Mosse, of the Journal of Contemporary History and of Survey from 1956 to 1964. He was also founding editor of The Washington Papers. He was Director of the Institute of Contemporary History and the Wiener Library in London from 1965 to 1994. From 1969 he was a member, and later Chairman (until 2000), of the International Research Council of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington. He was Professor of the History of Ideas at Brandeis University from 1968 to 1972, and University Professor at Georgetown University from 1976 to 1988. He has also been a visiting professor of history and government at Harvard, the University of Chicago, Tel Aviv University and Johns Hopkins University.
Laqueur's main works deal with European history in the 19th and 20th centuries, especially Russian history and German history, as well as the history of the Middle East. The topics he has written about include the German Youth Movement, Zionism, Israeli history, the cultural history of the Weimar Republic and Russia, Communism, the Holocaust, fascism, and the diplomatic history of the Cold War. His books have been translated into many languages, and he was one of the founders of the study of political violence, guerrilla warfare and terrorism. His comments on international affairs have appeared in many American and European newspapers and periodicals.
(Wikipedia)
Laqueur lived in Israel from 1938 to 1953. After one year at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he joined a Kibbutz and worked as an agricultural laborer from 1939 to 1944. In 1944, he moved to Jerusalem, where he worked as a journalist until 1953, covering Palestine and other countries in the Middle East.
Since 1955 Laqueur has lived in London. He was founder and editor, with George Mosse, of the Journal of Contemporary History and of Survey from 1956 to 1964. He was also founding editor of The Washington Papers. He was Director of the Institute of Contemporary History and the Wiener Library in London from 1965 to 1994. From 1969 he was a member, and later Chairman (until 2000), of the International Research Council of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington. He was Professor of the History of Ideas at Brandeis University from 1968 to 1972, and University Professor at Georgetown University from 1976 to 1988. He has also been a visiting professor of history and government at Harvard, the University of Chicago, Tel Aviv University and Johns Hopkins University.
Laqueur's main works deal with European history in the 19th and 20th centuries, especially Russian history and German history, as well as the history of the Middle East. The topics he has written about include the German Youth Movement, Zionism, Israeli history, the cultural history of the Weimar Republic and Russia, Communism, the Holocaust, fascism, and the diplomatic history of the Cold War. His books have been translated into many languages, and he was one of the founders of the study of political violence, guerrilla warfare and terrorism. His comments on international affairs have appeared in many American and European newspapers and periodicals.
(Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 2, 2017
Although Norwegian and brought up almost entirely in the USA, my intellectual homes have been elsewhere. In high school I first got that feeling of familiarity, of homeliness reading about the philosophes, Diderot's Encyclopedia, Voltaire, Gracchus Babuef, Jean-Paul Marat. The French Revolution, the published ideals of it at least, seemed more "my" revolution than the American. Maybe it was slavery. Maybe it was because I already knew too much about America to be taken in by the published ideals of it.
In college and through graduate school the feeling shifted towards Germany--not necessarily the state, but the German culture inclusive of Austria, much of Switzerland et cetera. My favorite novelists, philosophers, theologians, essayists seemed to be disproportionately German in this sense: the Mann brothers, Erich Fromm, Jung, Freud, Adler, Hesse, Goethe, Brecht, Marx, Engels, Jaspers, Kant, Wittgenstein, Nietzsche, Bultmann and on and on and on. This, I think, was because of German academic supremacy during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They simply had the best schools, the most rigorous standards. They created whole academic disciplines. Their exilic community in the USA in the middle 20th century profoundly enriched our own academies.
The peak of an attractive German culture was in the years between the wars, during the time of the Weimar Republic. I read this book in order to get a sense of what it was like, culturally speaking, to live in Germany during those tumultous and creative decades.
In college and through graduate school the feeling shifted towards Germany--not necessarily the state, but the German culture inclusive of Austria, much of Switzerland et cetera. My favorite novelists, philosophers, theologians, essayists seemed to be disproportionately German in this sense: the Mann brothers, Erich Fromm, Jung, Freud, Adler, Hesse, Goethe, Brecht, Marx, Engels, Jaspers, Kant, Wittgenstein, Nietzsche, Bultmann and on and on and on. This, I think, was because of German academic supremacy during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They simply had the best schools, the most rigorous standards. They created whole academic disciplines. Their exilic community in the USA in the middle 20th century profoundly enriched our own academies.
The peak of an attractive German culture was in the years between the wars, during the time of the Weimar Republic. I read this book in order to get a sense of what it was like, culturally speaking, to live in Germany during those tumultous and creative decades.
January 8, 2018
On the whole, it's a good intro to the Weimar Republic, if you don't know anything about it.
I enjoyed the first half better then the second. Focusing on the politic of the Republic, the first half also covers several points of social history and I found that very helpful in understanding the time period.
The second half tries to cover too much. Literature, theatre, cineman, science, architecture, the visual arts. The Weimar Republic was a lively and ripe place for all of these fields and trying to cover each of them with just one chapter is really too much. I also had a feeling that the author didn't really understand the relation between these arts and the society that produced them, to the point that he often stated that artists and academics were just, simply detached from the political arena and their work did nothing to shape their time. Which I personally find quite weird, especially in a place like the Weimar Republic.
So, a mixed bag, in my opinion.
I'm still happy I read it. It gave me an idea of what we're talking about.
I enjoyed the first half better then the second. Focusing on the politic of the Republic, the first half also covers several points of social history and I found that very helpful in understanding the time period.
The second half tries to cover too much. Literature, theatre, cineman, science, architecture, the visual arts. The Weimar Republic was a lively and ripe place for all of these fields and trying to cover each of them with just one chapter is really too much. I also had a feeling that the author didn't really understand the relation between these arts and the society that produced them, to the point that he often stated that artists and academics were just, simply detached from the political arena and their work did nothing to shape their time. Which I personally find quite weird, especially in a place like the Weimar Republic.
So, a mixed bag, in my opinion.
I'm still happy I read it. It gave me an idea of what we're talking about.
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August 25, 2025dnf
June 11, 2018
I really enjoyed this book, but I feel lost much of the time because of my own unfamiliarity with
the German artists of that 1918-1932 period. That's not Mr. Laqueur's fault but does color my reading. And yet, in spite of my ignorance, do come away with a feeling of the vibrancy, the fearlessness, and absurd creativity of the Weimar period art. The Bauhaus, Brecht, Dada, just a few of the names that shined, then dimmed, and now somewhat shine again. What the strident right, and Nazis, vilified as decadent I see as wonderfully exorbitant and extravagantly revolutionary. Laqueur seems to deny that many, if any artistic geniuses emerged from that period. He may be right. Yet lack of genius is easily forgiven. To me, much more important and its lack not easily forgiven is absolute artistic fearlessness, and so many of the Weimar artists exhibit that. There are way too many characters to mention in this review. But following are some quotes- From the German Jewish writer Moritz Goldstein, about rampant anti-Semitism-"Goldstein realized that it was futile to 'show the absurdity of our adversaries' arguments and prove that their enmity is unfounded. What could be gained? That their hatred is genuine. When all calumnies have been refuted, all distortions rectified, all false notions about us rejected, antipathy will remain as something irrefutable. Anyone who does not realize this is beyond help." Laqueur on right wing paranoia- "But our patriot was in no mood to engage in quantitative analysis...While arguing that he represented the great majority, the right-wing intellectual felt acutely isolated. The enemy, on the other hand, was omnipresent; he dominated the scene, his voice was the only one to be heard." The right wing exalted anti-Semitism, rabid nationalism, racial purity and extreme anti-democratic authoritarianism. Starting to sound familiar? "The Nazis were the principal beneficiaries of the crisis; they promised no more and no less than the immediate solution to all of Germany's problems and their assurances found willing ears." Then followed censorship, deportation of German citizen critical of the Reich, and worse. Oddly enough, after World War II, a short resurrection of Weimar art and culture took place, in, East Germany. Very short, though, since Soviet Stalinized authoritarianism also could not brook Weimar creativity. The Weimar period, as remembered by German poet Gottfried Benn-"The most wonderful years of Germany and Berlin, its Parisian years, full of talent and art- it won't come again."
the German artists of that 1918-1932 period. That's not Mr. Laqueur's fault but does color my reading. And yet, in spite of my ignorance, do come away with a feeling of the vibrancy, the fearlessness, and absurd creativity of the Weimar period art. The Bauhaus, Brecht, Dada, just a few of the names that shined, then dimmed, and now somewhat shine again. What the strident right, and Nazis, vilified as decadent I see as wonderfully exorbitant and extravagantly revolutionary. Laqueur seems to deny that many, if any artistic geniuses emerged from that period. He may be right. Yet lack of genius is easily forgiven. To me, much more important and its lack not easily forgiven is absolute artistic fearlessness, and so many of the Weimar artists exhibit that. There are way too many characters to mention in this review. But following are some quotes- From the German Jewish writer Moritz Goldstein, about rampant anti-Semitism-"Goldstein realized that it was futile to 'show the absurdity of our adversaries' arguments and prove that their enmity is unfounded. What could be gained? That their hatred is genuine. When all calumnies have been refuted, all distortions rectified, all false notions about us rejected, antipathy will remain as something irrefutable. Anyone who does not realize this is beyond help." Laqueur on right wing paranoia- "But our patriot was in no mood to engage in quantitative analysis...While arguing that he represented the great majority, the right-wing intellectual felt acutely isolated. The enemy, on the other hand, was omnipresent; he dominated the scene, his voice was the only one to be heard." The right wing exalted anti-Semitism, rabid nationalism, racial purity and extreme anti-democratic authoritarianism. Starting to sound familiar? "The Nazis were the principal beneficiaries of the crisis; they promised no more and no less than the immediate solution to all of Germany's problems and their assurances found willing ears." Then followed censorship, deportation of German citizen critical of the Reich, and worse. Oddly enough, after World War II, a short resurrection of Weimar art and culture took place, in, East Germany. Very short, though, since Soviet Stalinized authoritarianism also could not brook Weimar creativity. The Weimar period, as remembered by German poet Gottfried Benn-"The most wonderful years of Germany and Berlin, its Parisian years, full of talent and art- it won't come again."
March 25, 2020
The book Weimar: A Cultural History 1918-33 is far better than the other books I've read on the period (so far). It is very in-depth; well written - not like an essay like other books which continuously use references or quotes from another source. Laqueur had quite an interesting and unique interpretation of the period, as he suggests the appointment of Brüning as Chancellor of Germany was the start of fascist rule, or that the grave-digging of German Socialism by Ebert was worse than the Nazi's.
Although it was in-depth, it also was quite vague in certain areas of the book; e.g. states several people who quoted from someone called 'Schiller' while not giving any information as to who this 'Schiller' person is, why they quoted from this person, who this person was.
I recommend this book to someone who is already very familiar and/or an expert in the period and seeks a different interpretation on the period, not for a History student like me. I will definitely reread this book once I have learnt about the period more. While this book has greatly aided me in my knowledge of the period and will certainly aid me in future essays, the book is a difficult and complex read and it had me reaching for the dictionary and Wikipedia for certain words or people which I had never heard of.
Although it was in-depth, it also was quite vague in certain areas of the book; e.g. states several people who quoted from someone called 'Schiller' while not giving any information as to who this 'Schiller' person is, why they quoted from this person, who this person was.
I recommend this book to someone who is already very familiar and/or an expert in the period and seeks a different interpretation on the period, not for a History student like me. I will definitely reread this book once I have learnt about the period more. While this book has greatly aided me in my knowledge of the period and will certainly aid me in future essays, the book is a difficult and complex read and it had me reaching for the dictionary and Wikipedia for certain words or people which I had never heard of.
October 13, 2011
Schönberg, himself also a painter, and Kandinsky were friends, and in the first Blaue Rieiter almanac an essay by the composer on the new music was published. There were close links between the avant-garde in music, in literature and in the visual arts; those involved were all more or less clearly aware that they were part of one general movement. After listening to a Schönberg work in 1911, Franz Marc wrote to his friend August Macke that the new music reminded him of Kandinsky. "There were no longer consonances and dissonances: a dissonance was simply a consonance more widely spaced..."
The world was discovering Modernism but Germany had much more on its mind; the Atonality predicated by Herr Schönberg may have been an apt corollary for the shifting landscape of the Era itself.
Walter Laqueur's book is a precisely decanted survey of the microcosm that was the Weimar Republic. At a fulcrum point in world history, Germany had proceeded from imperial / monarchic control under Wilhelm directly into the unprecedented disaster of the Great War under the generals. Strikes, unrest and sectarian confrontation eventually produced the Weimar constitution and a parliamentary republic, all overshadowed by the punitive Versailles treaty.
A test-tube case, a cauldron of unresolved conflict, an experimental new governance heading right into the Depression ... and the worst yet to come, with National Socialism only building its foundations during the 1918-33 era.
Laqueur does a very businesslike round of the institutions, the sciences, arts, media and academic structures of the day. As a reward for a fairly strict intellectual history in the first part of the book (internecine party conflict, influential strategists), the middle comprises the obligatory round of the cultural state of things, and the last goes with a little tour of the Middlebrow --the pop culture, the cinema, the mood-swings of the day.
Every time I thought there may have been too much of one discipline-- financial policy, say, or the developments in physics or chemistry-- Laqueur deftly switched channels and moved on to yet another perspective. While I could have done with a lot more on some topics (how did Advertising shift between Wilhelm / Weimar / National Socialism ? what transpired with urban planning ? mass transportation ? how were novelty songs, et al -- via the brand new medium of radio broadcast-- shifting ground with the changes, and what was the continental European viewpoint on the republic's varying freedoms vs limitations ?)-- the author manages to touch on nearly every aspect of the gestalt and furnishes enough authors & touchstones for future research.
Under all the hyper-pressures of the situation, it's worth remembering that Wiemar produced Brecht, Einstein, Murnau, Fritz Lang, Thomas Mann, Kandinsksy, and ... the Bauhaus : Gropius, Mies van der Rohe, Breuer, Albers, Moholy-Nagy, Klee, and a young Le Corbusier; visiting lecturers there included Hindemith, Stravinsky, Bartok and many others. The strange confluence of temporary liberation, undiscovered political ground verging on the cliffs of impending disaster-- seemed to ignite the Ideas sphere of the Wiemar era.
What this volume (1974) could use now is a deluxe updated edition, with numerous color plates and maybe a dvd for film and music; every section prompts new interests and further investigation.
The world was discovering Modernism but Germany had much more on its mind; the Atonality predicated by Herr Schönberg may have been an apt corollary for the shifting landscape of the Era itself.
Walter Laqueur's book is a precisely decanted survey of the microcosm that was the Weimar Republic. At a fulcrum point in world history, Germany had proceeded from imperial / monarchic control under Wilhelm directly into the unprecedented disaster of the Great War under the generals. Strikes, unrest and sectarian confrontation eventually produced the Weimar constitution and a parliamentary republic, all overshadowed by the punitive Versailles treaty.
A test-tube case, a cauldron of unresolved conflict, an experimental new governance heading right into the Depression ... and the worst yet to come, with National Socialism only building its foundations during the 1918-33 era.
Laqueur does a very businesslike round of the institutions, the sciences, arts, media and academic structures of the day. As a reward for a fairly strict intellectual history in the first part of the book (internecine party conflict, influential strategists), the middle comprises the obligatory round of the cultural state of things, and the last goes with a little tour of the Middlebrow --the pop culture, the cinema, the mood-swings of the day.
Every time I thought there may have been too much of one discipline-- financial policy, say, or the developments in physics or chemistry-- Laqueur deftly switched channels and moved on to yet another perspective. While I could have done with a lot more on some topics (how did Advertising shift between Wilhelm / Weimar / National Socialism ? what transpired with urban planning ? mass transportation ? how were novelty songs, et al -- via the brand new medium of radio broadcast-- shifting ground with the changes, and what was the continental European viewpoint on the republic's varying freedoms vs limitations ?)-- the author manages to touch on nearly every aspect of the gestalt and furnishes enough authors & touchstones for future research.
Under all the hyper-pressures of the situation, it's worth remembering that Wiemar produced Brecht, Einstein, Murnau, Fritz Lang, Thomas Mann, Kandinsksy, and ... the Bauhaus : Gropius, Mies van der Rohe, Breuer, Albers, Moholy-Nagy, Klee, and a young Le Corbusier; visiting lecturers there included Hindemith, Stravinsky, Bartok and many others. The strange confluence of temporary liberation, undiscovered political ground verging on the cliffs of impending disaster-- seemed to ignite the Ideas sphere of the Wiemar era.
What this volume (1974) could use now is a deluxe updated edition, with numerous color plates and maybe a dvd for film and music; every section prompts new interests and further investigation.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews