Social Developments - Arts and Culture in the Weimar Republic

Berlin’s nightclubs

• Showed cultural and personal freedom within vibrant nightlife - especially after 1924

• Clubs in Berlin allowed individuality - such as the Eldorado - those who were forced to confine their sexuality could display it openly in the club described as the ‘supermarket of eroticism’

• Played American jazz music, mainly played by black American musicians

• Many comedians in these clubs attacked politicians and authoritarian attitudes

• Older, more traditional Germans regarded the Berlin nightclub scene with horror

• Hated the influence of the USA on German cultural life and attacked Weimar relaxed cultural censorship. Felt order and discipline was destroyed and that German society was becoming morally degenerate

Art

• Weimar Germany experienced the Expressionist movement in art

• Expressionist painters believed their art should express meaning or emotion rather than physical reality

Music

• Expressionism influenced German classical composers - attempted to convey powerful emotions rather than traditional music

Literature

• Expressionism was a key influence of German literature - focused on character’s mental states rather than on social reality

• Common themes in literature was revolt against parental authority

Theatre

• German dramatists incorporated expressionist ideas into their productions

• Much of experimental theatre in Weimar Germany was explicitly political - attacked capitalism, nationalism and war

• A form of music theatre was developed to symbolise Weimar Berlin - satire which was left-wing and treated middle classes as villains

Film

• Berlin became in important centre for world cinema - developed modern techniques that would be later exploited by Nazi propaganda