Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy, by Eric D. Weitz

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.