Weimar Germany

Description

The Weimar Republic was born out of Germany's defeat in the First World War and ended with the coming to power of Hitler and his Nazi Party in 1933. In many ways, it is a wonder that Weimar lasted as long as it did. Besieged from the outset by hostile forces, the young republic was threatened by revolution from the left and coups d'�tats from the right. Plagued early on by a wave of high-profile political assassinations and a period of devastating hyper-inflation, its later years were dominated by the onset of the Great Depression. And yet, for a period from the mid-1920s it looked as if the Weimar system would not only survive but even flourish, with the return of economic stability and the gradual reintegration of the country into the international community. With contributions from an international team of ten experts, this volume in the Short Oxford History of Germany series offers an ideal introduction to Weimar Germany, challenging the reader to rethink preconceived ideas of the republic and throwing new light on important areas, such as military ideas for reshaping society after the First World War, constitutional and social reform, Jewish life, gender, and culture. Weimar Germany Weimar Germany Contents Glossary of terms and abbreviations List of contributors Introduction The ‘doomed’ republic Weimar and the limits of‘crisis years of classical modernity’ Weimar and the ambiguities of‘classical modernity’ Conclusion Notes 1 Political culture The republic as contingency The republic between Volksstaat and plebiscitary state Revolution and reaction Towards the plebiscitary state Plebiscitary dictatorship Notes 2 Foreign policy The Versailles Treaty The Stresemann era German-French rapprochement The end of rapprochement Aggressive revisionism Notes 3 The Reichswehr and the Weimar Republic The army and the new regime, 1918-1920 Seeckt’s prescription, 1920-1923 The state and the militarization of society, The consequences of Weimar’s military vision Conclusion Notes 4 The Weimar economy Economic performance Economic policy Economic constraints Conclusion Notes 5 The ‘urban republic’ A republic of cities The problem of urban modernity Reform pressures The Städtetag The cities’ ‘new order’ ‘Reform born out of catastrophe’ Notes 6 Women and the politics of gender Women, war, and transformations of gender, 1914-1918 Women and gender in the founding of the republic Gender and the party-political arena Labour, consumption, and sexual politics in the era of rationalization Sexual crisis and the crisis of the republic Notes 7 The Weimar welfare system Introduction Historiographical parameters Unemployment relief Veterans, dependants, survivors, and the other new poor The Reich Social Welfare Law Welfare, corporatism, and the Weimar state Social hygiene, social discipline, and the question of continuities between Weimar welfare and Nazi racism Youth welfare The law that wasn’t: correctional custody and the ambiguities of social citizenship Conclusion Notes 8 ‘Neues Wohnen’ Introduction Visible evidence of social reform The concepts of the reformers and the profiles of the housing estates The obligation to the modern lifestyle The nuclear family and the well-maintained neighbourhood The traditional gender order in modern guise Modern taste as hygienic obligation Complex ways of appropriation The ‘new feeling of life’ in society Transnational communication Conclusion Notes 9 Weimar Jewry Who were the Jews? The origins of Weimar Jewry : liberalism ante mortem? Jewish politics In a liberal key: religious-cultural debate Notes 10 High brow and low brow culture The public promotion of art and culture Art as leisure Arts and the public Notes Further Reading Chancellors of the Weimar Republic, 1919-1933 Chronology Index