448 pages, Princeton
University Press, ISBN-13: 978-0691016955
Whenever
one thinks of “Weimar Germany” (and really now, who doesn’t?!) they usually
dismiss it as merely the precursor to the Nazi era. This is a shame because
Weimar Germany is itself an extremely interesting period well meriting
extensive study on its own, and that is just what Eric D. Weitz, professor of
history at the University of Minnesota, does in Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy. Most books on Weimar tend to
focus on the political developments that led to Hitler’s rise, and while that
is naturally covered in this book (the initial chapters focus upon the aborted
German revolution and the political worlds), it is clearly secondary to other
concerns of the author, as Weitz sees Weimar Germany as fundamentally being
about trying to cope with modernism and all of the technological changes that
swept life in the 1920’s and 1930’s. So instead of politics and the
ever-present Nazi/Commie clashes in the street, there is sustained discussion
of the mass printed media, radio, theater and film, architecture, photography,
music and expressionist art, as well as political developments and the impact
of economic crises on German life. Culture and the mass society is a constant
focus here, including some interesting capsule discussions of individuals such
as Thomas Mann, Bertold Brecht, Kurt Weill, Martin Heidegger and an absolutely
fascinating figure of whom I had not previously been aware, the artist Hannah
Hoch.
But
all is not well with Weimar Germany,
for while there is excellent coverage of culture, there is much that is still
missing. The significance of the somewhat popular view of Weimar as a
“Jew-Republic” is not well captured, and important politicians of the era –
Friedrich Ebert, Gustav Stresemann and Karl Liebknecht, to name but a few – get
only passing coverage (while I get that Weitz’s focus is not on the political
realm, politics is still downstream from culture, to quote a phrase, and cannot
be entirely dismissed out of hand; although Hindenburg rates a nice picture in
uniform and jackboots). German science is curiously absent, with Einstein being
mentioned only as a friend and guest of architect Erich Mendelsohn, and there
is no mention of the significant contributions of Heisenberg or other German
scientists, although many were already looking for other venues. In spite of
many references to the German inflation of 1919 to 1923 and war reparations,
coverage of economics is sparse; Hjalmar Schacht is never mentioned, while the
Dawes, Locarno and Young plans are all mentioned with but few specifics.
But
still, but still, but still…this long-overdue study of the Weimar era from
different angles was sorely needed. For all its myriad problems, Weimar society
was still free, democratic and vibrant, but with an underbelly of hate that
knew no political bounds. Nobody liked it, from conservatives to communists,
and nobody wanted to support it: the government was loathed by most even though
it offered considerable freedom. For all that the Weimar Republic may still
have lasted if not for the many political assassinations, hyperinflation in the
1920’s and, finally, the Great Depression in 1929, which proved to be its
undoing. As Weitz points out, a democracy (and make no mistake, the Weimar
Republic was a real democracy) can be
usurped from inner forces and replaced by another more insidious force. The
Weimar politicians were for the most part mediocre, addicted to maintaining a
status quo and had uninspiring leadership – the Nazis were anything but.
