Cultural Changes in the Weimar Republic (Edexcel GCSE History)

What Caused a 'Golden Age' in Weimar Culture? - Summary

Weimar Germany in the 1920s experienced a ‘cultural explosion’. There are several factors that fuelled culture in the Weimar Republic:

1. Before 1918, the Kaiser's government censored the arts. Artists could not freely express their thoughts for fear of punishment. Under the Weimar Constitution, the German people gained freedom of speech. Weimar artists could work without restrictions.

2. The First World War impacted Germany’s cultural identity. Weimar artists reacted to the pain of war in the New Objectivism movement. They also explored the possibilities that peace could bring to Germany through Modernism.

3. By 1924, Germany had recovered from the political and economic turmoil of the early years of the Republic. Artists wanted to create pieces that reflected the zeitgeist - or mood of the time. The Expressionism movement used this approach.

4. New technologies such as radio and film provided German artists with new mediums to explore.

5. The Weimar government gave grants to artists and cultural organisations like theatres and libraries. The government supported, rather than restricted, new approaches to the arts.

The experimental nature of Weimar culture upset many right-wing and extremist groups. The arts of the Weimar Republic clashed with these groups’ traditional values.

Weimar Art & Culture

• Expressionism in Weimar Germany used grotesque or exaggerated figures in violent scenes

• This aimed to make the audience uncomfortable. In doing so, the artist hoped people would begin to question the society in which they lived

  • Otto Dix was a famous new objectivist artist in Weimar Germany. One of his paintings highlighted the issues war veterans had once they returned to Germany

  • George Grosz painted ‘Grey Day’, which used expressionism to represent the boredom of day-to-day life

• Weimar Art horrified the conservative upper classes and the extreme right wing

  • Traditionally, the more educated upper classes controlled and produced Germany’s cultural output. In the Weimar Republic, the upper classes no longer monopolised this power

  • The meanings of the artworks were unclear. The pictures had many interpretations 

  • These pieces could have undermined the authority of the upper class

  • Many artists had strong left-wing beliefs. This challenged the traditional ways of life valued by the right

Weimar Architecture

• In 1919, a new form of design called ‘Bauhaus’ emerged

  • Walter Gropius founded the movement in Weimar Germany in 1919. He aimed to create a unified style that connected all types of art forms

    • The Bauhaus design school existed in three German cities between 1919 and 1933, Weimar, Berlin and Dessau

    • Lecturers at Bauhaus College included the artist Paul Klee and the sculptor Oskar Schlemmer

• ‘Bauhaus’ architecture uses geometric shapes to create practical buildings. The movement saw the beauty of technology and the use of familiar materials in different ways. For example, they constructed entire buildings using only concrete

• The ‘Bauhaus’ movement inspired Weimar architects such as Erich Mendelsohn

  • He designed the Einstein Tower, an observatory in Potsdam, to look like a rocket

Weimar Cinema

• The popularity of cinema exploded in the 1920s

  • By 1929, there were roughly 500 cinemas across Germany

  • In the early 1920s, film did not allow the recording of sound. In the cinema, a pianist played the film's musical score in time with the pictures. Films with sound, called 'talkies', became available in 1927. This highlights the new technology available to film-makers

• Germany began to compete with American film production

  • The expressionist film The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari (1920) was one of the first horror films. The director, Robert Wiene, created the first ‘plot twist’ ending in cinema history

• F. W. Murnau directed the film Nosferatu (1922). It was the world’s first vampire film. Many films today use the tension methods Murnau created while filming Nosferatu

• The Weimar government funded Metropolis (1926) through an organisation called UFA. It cost 5 million Reichsmarks. Fritz Lang created a modernist science-fiction film that centred on the impact of technology on 20th-century life. It was unsuccessful at the time but has influenced many modern-day films such as Star Wars

• Germany produced its first talking film in 1930

  •  The capability to play films with sound was available in 3,800 German cinemas by 1932

Opposition to Weimar Culture

• Many extremist parties opposed the Weimar culture

  • Extreme left-wing parties like the KPD saw the government's funding of culture as a waste of money. They believed it took resources away from the people who needed financial help, for example, the workers

  • Extreme right-wing parties like the NSDAP believed that Weimar culture was destroying German traditions. They argued that Weimar culture was responsible for the moral decline of German society