Development of arts and culture in weimar republic

developments

• 1919 german writer ernst wrote “our age is over! thank god its over! new age dawns that will be different”

• new political and social freedom in weimar germany gave rise to experimentation and innovation in arts

• as social and political change not all g welcomed new developments in culture ongoing tension w modernist n conservatives.

berlin nightclubs

• greater cultural and personal freedom was feature of weimar, epitomised in vibrant nightlife of berlin in 1920s, esp in more prosperous years after 1924.

• berlin nightclubs became renowned for cabarets in which nudity featured strongly,

• one such club the eldarado described by g composer hollaender as “supermarket of eroticism” gay men, lesbians and trans vetoes now felt free to display it openly.

• american jazz music, much play by black american musicians became popular

• many comedians attacked politicians and authoritarian attitudes

• many older more traditionally minded g regarded berlin nightclubs scene w horror and contempt, hated inf usa had attack weimar for relaxing censorship

• felt order and discipline been destroyed by rev of 1918 n g society becoming morally degenerate

Art

• expressionism, originated early 1900 associated with artists like Grosz, Marc, Ludwig

• expressionist painters believed works should express meaning or emotion rather than physical reality, hence paintings were abstract in style and vivid in colour.

Music

• expressionism also inf g classical composers in this period

• among innovative were hindensmith and schoenberg

• schoenberg attempted to convey powerful emotions in music but avoided traditional forms of beauty, lack key, sounded harsh → “atonal”

Literature

• expressionism also key inf, novelists and poets adopted free form of writing in which they focused characters internal mental state rather than on external social reality

• common theme was revolt against parental authority, leading g writer was thomas mann, awarded nobel prize for lit 1929, staunch supporter for weimar went to switzerland when nazi came to power 1933.

Architecture

• founding bauhaus by gropius in 1919 were a key event in the development of modernist art in germany

• altho primarily an architectural school bauhaus also school of art, design and photography, students encouraged to break down barriers between art n tech by incorporating new materials, steel, concrete and glass in designs.

Theatre

• many g dramatists incorporated expressionist ideas, sets stark and plays relied on abstractions and symbolism to convey message

• much of expiremental theatre in weimar explicitly political attacking capitalism, nationalism and war.

• bertold brecht and kurt weill developed new form of music theatre came to symbolise weimar berlin, the threepenny opera, left-wing satire treated mc as villains while making hero’s out of criminals and prostetutes

• attacked by right as “cultural bolsheviks”

Film

• berlin became imp centre for world cinema, developing modern techniques that would be later exploited by nazi propaganda

• important jew decendants in g film industry inc lang, wilder and sternberg.