Dental Bookshop - Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy by Eric D. Weitz

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Publisher:		Princeton University Press
Edition:		illustrated edition
Date:		February 23, 2009
Binding:		Paperback
Pages:		448

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Weimar Germany still fascinates us, and now this complex and remarkably creative period and place has the history it deserves. Eric Weitz's Weimar Germany reveals the Weimar era as a time of strikingly progressive achievements--and even greater promise. With a rich thematic narrative and detailed portraits of some of Weimar's greatest figures, this comprehensive history recaptures the excitement and drama as it unfolded, viewing Weimar in its own right--and not as a mere prelude to the Nazi era. Weimar Germany tells how Germans rose from the defeat of World War I and the turbulence of revolution to forge democratic institutions and make Berlin a world capital of avant-garde art. Setting the stage for this story, Weitz takes the reader on a walking tour of Berlin to see and feel what life was like there in the 1920s, when modernity and the modern city--with its bright lights, cinemas, "new women," cabarets, and sleek department stores--were new. We learn how Germans enjoyed better working conditions and new social benefits and listened to the utopian prophets of everything from radical socialism to communal housing to nudism. Weimar Germany also explores the period's revolutionary cultural creativity, from the new architecture of Erich Mendelsohn, Bruno Taut, and Walter Gropius to Hannah Höch's photomontages and Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's theater. Other chapters assess the period's turbulent politics and economy, and the recipes for fulfilling sex lives propounded by new "sexologists." Yet Weimar Germany also shows how entrenched elites continually challenged Weimar's achievements and ultimately joined with a new radical Right led by the Nazis to form a coalition that destroyed the republic. Thoroughly up-to-date, skillfully written, and strikingly illustrated, Weimar Germany brings to life as never before an era of creativity unmatched in the twentieth century-one whose influence and inspiration we still feel today.

Customers' Reviews:

Biased and Misinformed, February 26, 2010

Very well researched if you trust the bibliographic references. Yet it only proves scholars can still get it wrong when they interpret history with hindsight. If you enjoy satire, then you'll absolutely love this book. I mean it has to be satire, because Weitz makes some huge leaps in credibility that will have you rolling on the floor with tears of laughter. To suggest, as the author does repeatedly, that the Weimar Government is in some way influential in the explosion of creativity in Germany during the 1920's is like saying Al Gore invented the Internet. The rest of the book reads like a Sophomore term paper. This author has no idea what National Socialism is - nor does he understand the causes that brought it about. An 8th grader could "Google" a better treatment on this subject. In the last paragraph on page 365 (Conclusion), Weitz actually rises to the occasion and makes a very prophetic, though accidental, observation: "Weimar's history does show us that a society lacking consensus, a society in which no set of ideas and no group constitute hegemony, can be a dangerous place. A democratic political system cannot long endure a situation in which virtually every issue becomes magnified to an ideological contest over ultimate meanings. But it especially cannot endure when its elites seek to undermine the democracy from within, when they whine incessantly about a system in which they still exercise privileges and still dispose of immense resources." Substitute "America, post 9/11" for "Weimar" and you've just described 8 years of Bush-Cheney. Bravo, Dr. Weitz.
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Lessons Not Yet Learned By Political Leaders, January 27, 2010

Awesome History of the Weimar Republic Ch 1: A Troubled Beginning - Broad overview of the environment in Germany prior to the creation of the Weimar Republic in midsummer 1919. Ch 2: Walking the City - Interesting description of German society to include daily life, offices, hotels, cafes, entertainment, and the night life. Ch 3: Political Worlds - Discusses deep political divisions within Germany and shifting alliances among Social Democratic Party (SPD), German Democratic Party (DDP), and the Catholic Center Party (with interesting discussions about the rift between liberal-social reform and conservative authoritarian wings). Discusses the major parties on the right to include the German National People's Party (DNVP) and German People's Party (DVP) with a focus on pro-business, private property, and low taxes (versus the Marxist message of class struggle). Introduces the concepts of Jewish Bolshevism versus German National Socialism. The discussion of printing money, monetary inflation and hyperinflation has frightening parallels to the US Government today. Ch 4: A Turbulent Economy and an Anxious Society - Discusses postwar readjustment, inflation, hyperinflation and then the Great Depression to include printing too much money and introduction of new currency. Overview of German rationalization and the negative impact of German social welfare programs, and subsequent cuts to try to get their spending under control. Ch 5: Building a New Germany - a focus on architecture Ch 6: Sound and Image - focus on radio, photography and movies (great photos reprinted) Ch 7: Culture and Mass Society - discussion of German intellectuals, philosophers, and social theorists to include their preoccupation with the meaning of the "masses" and "mass society" Ch 8: Bodies and Sex - Eye opening description of social shifts in physical fitness and sexuality, to include Velde, who wrote "the key to enduring happiness in marriage lay in mutual, ongoing sexual pleasure" (p. 299). Discusses the "new woman" who emerged from the sexual revolution of the 1920s. Ch 9: Revolution and Counterrevolution from the Right - Powerful discussion on the melding of German nationalism and socialism, and the emergence of the Nazi Party. Superb historical analysis combined with an easy to read narrative and awesome photos. Five Stars! Dr. B. Leland Baker, author of "Tea Party Revival" Tea Party Revival: The Conscience of a Conservative Reborn: The Tea Party Revolt Against Unconstrained Spending and Growth of the Federal Government
1 of 1 people found the above review helpful.



The Lost World of Weimar Germany, November 19, 2009

Sandwiched in between the glittering world of the Second Reich and the nightmare that was the Third Reich, the Weimar Republic continues to fascinate students of modern European history. The perennial interest is due in large part to the belief that much of what became characteristic of "modernism" blossomed during the brief life of this ill-fated experiment in republican government. Although much of what became known as "Weimar culture" was merely latent during the Wilhelmine period and simply burst forth once the oppressive atmosphere yielded to the fresh air of the postwar republic, it cannot be denied that Weimar Germany was one of those unusual periods in history when the creative spirit of a people gives birth to what may rightly be termed a golden age. In this case, what followed the golden age was such an antithesis that the memory of its brief life continues to haunt us, not unlike that of the mythical Atlantis. Professor Eric D. Weitz is particularly well-suited to present us with this new and well-written history of Weimar Germany. He has researched and published extensively in the area of twentieth-century German history. The narrative itself, as well as the notes and bibliography, testify to the fact that Professor Weitz has done his homework. Weimar Germany is a survey of the history of the Weimar Republic, not merely a study of its cultural life in all its diversity. The book's theme is well known. The Weimar Republic was born of an incomplete revolution in 1919, one best described as "a set of compromises aimed at steering Germany from the chaos of defeat and revolution toward democracy and economic revival" (28). In the beginning, the "forces of order" that feared a real revolution from below (i.e., a Bolshevik revolution) cooperated with the Social Democrats who, "in the grips of panic" embraced the old elites rather than carry through a revolution that would lead to a new order in Germany. Once the initial panic passed, the old elites who never wanted a republic looked to "other allies, which they found, ultimately, in the Nazi Party" (28). There was "no societal consensus on any of the fundamental issues of politics, social order, and culture" (367). The "conservative revolutionaries" who betrayed the republic "were, in many cases, serious thinkers and writers [Weitz uses Oswald Spengler as an example.] , who also happened to be profoundly anti-democratic and, in many but not all instances, anti-Semitic as well" (334). In the end the old elites betrayed the republic to a new, more thorough-going, revolution that had mass appeal, and that brought with it a new order that would eventually frighten the darkest imagination. It is common to view the Weimar era in German history positively, especially in light of what followed. In fact, it was a period of cultural decadence. Wilhelmine Germany gave way to a new cosmopolitan Germany. The Weimar constitution seemed to legitimatize a new spirit the was alien to all things "German." It was the triumph of the Enlightenment over the true German spirit. Could American Negro jazz ever be as German as a Wagner opera? The cultural decadence of the period lives on in the popular musical Cabaret, based on Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Stories. Isherwood, a homosexual, was drawn to Berlin in the early 1930's because all moral restraints seemed to have been jettisoned in the name of individual freedom. The belief in the freedom of the individual was contrary to what Leonard Krieger has called "the idea of German freedom." Most Germans displayed half-hidden, if not open contempt for all that the Weimar regime stood for. They became willing converts, if not already believers in, the romantic Volkish nationalism that arose in Germany during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, a nationalism that became the pseudo-religious ideology of the National Socialists. During the Third Reich, nationalism would become idolatrous, as recognized by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The Weimar interlude, and that is just what it was, an interlude, was crushed in the revolution of 1933 that brought Hitler to power. The real revolution would come with the defeat of Germany in the Second World War. Only total military defeat could break the spell of Volkish nationalism with its roots deep in German history. In the end the democratic and cosmopolitan spirit of the Enlightenment triumphed in Germany, as it already triumphed in Western Europe. Is the Germany of today, a product of that revolution is preferable to Wilhelmine Germany? Is the multi-cultural Europe of today preferable to the Europe of the Edwardian era? These are questions beyond the scope of Professor Weitz's book and this review of it. Still they are questions worth asking and pondering when reflecting on the history of Weimar Germany. Professor Weitz has served the profession well by giving readers a new, fresh history of this most interesting period in German and European history. Weimar Germany deserves to be read by the general reader as well as the history student. By going beyond a history of only the cultural flowering that characterized Weimar Germany, it provides a balanced and integrated history of the Weimar Republic that surpasses Peter Gay's classic, Weimar Culture. But when it comes to bringing the Weimar Republic to life in all its color, it falls short of Otto Friedrich's Before the Deluge: A Portrait of Berlin in the 1920's (1972), still this reviewer's favorite history of Weimar Germany. Whereas Weitz has written a history, Otto Friedrich uses numerous interviews with participants (still possible during the sixties) to bring the era to life as if the reader was able to visit the cabaret with "Herr Issyvoo" and Fraeulein Sally Bowles.
1 of 1 people found the above review helpful.



Pulling your own Plunger---the decent into Weimar Germany, October 19, 2009

I don't know which is more 'rediculous'---Weiss's tome on Weimar Germany or the utter nonsense you read about Y2K gays reminessing on the glory days of the 70's gay scene (bath houses, circuit queens, and any-hole parties). Weimar Germany was nothing to be proud about and certainly nothing to desire---it was an outrageous decade whose excesses lead to WWII and the death of millions(1918-1933). WEIMAR GERMANY was the closest man came to hell on earth. When Americans of 2009 sniff "why did you Germans vote Hitler into Office in 1933---the proper answer is "You didn't go through WEIMAR GERMANY, Did you Yank? No, your American scumbags (WWI, WWII) sit on the sidelines and wait until everybody bled to death before you American Vultures decended to feast on the decaying flesh!!! Look what those poor Jerrys went through!!! 1. Germany lost a war is didn't start---it simply came to the aid of a treaty-ally (As if the US went to war against Russia to defend Poland) and lost. It suffered the abdication of it's Kaiser. IT suffered through the Communist punsch of 1918, The Rightist Punch of 1919 and the communist threat of invasion in 1920 Russo-Polish Wars). It experienced the ruination of its currency (hyper-inflation) in 1923, the Nazi beer hall punch of 1923 and the allied revengist (and stupid) occupation of the Rhur in 1924-6. The Weimar government was as about as usless as California Government in 2009 and, to make matters worse, the great depression hit 1929-1933. Adolf Hitler didn't steal the election in 1933, he was carried through the streets on people's shoulders---all because of the failures of the Allies and Weimar Germany. Now, if Weimar existed today, would I go? HELL YES!!! Weimar was party Central during the 20's. You want a breath taking White Woman (a piece of ass) and have $0.50 American money? Three whores and/or starving war widdows for a $1.00!!! Wanna have sex with a tight, little toddler? Weimar Germany was your hook-up (just as Cambodia or the DR is today's sex tourist mecca). Want endless beer, booze, drugs, snuff films, donkey shows, dancing girls? Weimar Germany was your hook-up. READ VOLUPTUOUS PANIC and tell me you wouldn't be singing "Those were the days, my friend; we thought they'd never end, we'd sing and dance....." Weimar in the 20's is Tiajauna Mexico today, only more so. It is to be pittied, not applauded!!!
2 of 13 people found the above review helpful.



good cultural history, May 7, 2009

The Weitz volume is good if you're interested in a history of the political left and of Weimar progressive culture, but much social, economic, and political history doesn't get as much attention as the left-wing parties and progressive architecture, performance arts, and fine arts.
0 of 1 people found the above review helpful.