Culture in Weimar Germany

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Last updated 6:52 PM on 5/17/26
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7 Terms

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Reasons for a boom in Weimar culture

  • Weimar Golden Age 1924 - 1929 gave rise to a middle class with far more disposable income and leisure time

  • German states increased funding for art and culture

  • No more censorship as was the case in Imperial Germany

  • Commercialisation of Mass Culture: culture consumed by the masses begins to focus on profitability (eg.: Cinema funded by companies)

    • This also meant that ‘trashy’, cheesy culture like romance novellas and films were popular among the masses

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Bauhaus movement

  • Artistic and architectural movement

  • stresses the beauty of simplistic line and careful craftmanship

  • Pioneered by Walter Gropius

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Neue Sachlichkeit

  • New objectivity

  • Pushback against the romantisation of the world by expressionism

  • The world should be shown in its harsh reality including suffering and poverty

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Modernism

  • The idea that art shouldn’t have to constantly look back on the past

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Key Artists

  • Otto Dix: paints expressionist paintings critical of Weimar society

  • George Grosz: paints scenes of ordinary lives in impressionist style

  • Erich Mendelsohn: architect who built the Einstein Tower

  • Erich Remarque: author of All Quiet on the Western Front

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Developments in Film

  • in 1919, there are 2800 cinemas in Germany

  • by 1928, there are 5300 cinemas

  • German films were very innovative for their time

    • The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: one of the first horror films

    • Metropolis: Sci-Fi film in 1929

  • The most popular films at the time are trashy romance novels

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Pushback to changes in the arts

  • Communists: denounce any art that isn’t ‘for the workers, by the workers’

  • Nationalist: believe that these changes are a corruption of traditional culture

  • Censorship: the judiciary system is still overwhelmingly controlled by right-wing judges who dislike the new art styles

    • Grosz is fired for ‘insulting the German Army’

    • Law against Trashy and Smutty Literature is passed in 1926

    • There are cuts to state funding in 1923, forcing art to become more profitable