Adolf Hitler fancied himself an artist in the classical style but was rejected twice by the Vienna Art Academy and then made his way to Munich in 1913, where he earned a meager living painting watercolors for tourists.  He volunteered for the German army in the First World War and was appalled by what he saw when he returned to Munich after Germany’s defeat and the abdication of the Kaiser in November 1918.  Mein Kampf denounces “cultural Bolshevism” as a Jewish plot to divide and confuse the German people, applying this term to abstract and expressionist art, atonal music, jazz, anti-war art and literature, “obscene” art and literature, Freudian psychoanalysis, and Albert Einstein’s bizarre theory of relativity.  The new Weimar Republic had indeed become a hotbed of cultural experimentation, as avant-garde outsiders suddenly gained influence as professors in art academies, museum directors, theatrical directors, film makers, architects, and writers.  Women had gained the vote, and the Republic welcomed foreign immigrants while exposing a mass audience to avant-garde cultural experiments through the new media of film, lithograph posters, and radio.  Hitler was by no means alone when he denounced these trends; the Republic witnessed the emergence of many forms of xenophobia and anti-modernism before the Nazi Party became a major political force in 1930.  In this class we will analyze the relationship between art and politics, to ask why Germany became such fertile ground for cultural experimentation in the 1920s, why that experimentation caused so much anxiety, and whether the backlash against “cultural Bolshevism” explains the rise of the Nazis to power.  We will seek in other words to make judicious use of film, literature, and works of art to enhance our understanding of social and political history in these turbulent years. 

          We will take as our starting point Peter Gay’s classic work, Weimar Culture: The Outsider as Insider, first published in 1968.  Gay interprets the complex debates among Weimar intellectuals in terms of a basic conflict between rational modernists, who embraced the urban industrial world and sought to make their audience feel at home in it, and “neurotic” anti-modernists, who experienced so much anxiety in the face of modernity that they regressed to childish emotional states and sought authoritative guidance from powerful father figures.  You will all be asked to write a five-page book review of Gay by the end of the first week of class to summarize his argument clearly and take a stand regarding its persuasiveness.  In the rest of the term your assignment will be to update, refine, and/or refute Gay’s arguments.  From today’s perspective this book clearly suffers from major omissions; it says almost nothing about the contributions of women to Weimar culture and the emotional debate over gender roles in the 1920s, neglects the role of the many Communist intellectuals who do not fit neatly into either of Gay’s basic categories, and relies for its analysis of film on the first book published on the topic in 1947, neglecting recent advances in film studies.  Gay relies heavily on Freud’s concepts of the “Oedipus complex” and “regression”, which are more controversial today than they were in 1968, and he is also vague about the causes of the failure of parliamentary democracy during the Great Depression.  Today even Gay’s admirers must ask whether there were perhaps “neurotic” modernists in the 1920s, whether Freudian psychoanalysis offers any helpful guidance to understanding women’s history, and whether some conservatives presented a rational critique of the flawed institutions and economic policies of the Republic.  Our common readings and film screenings are designed to enable you to fill in the gaps in Gay’s argument by the time you take our final exam, and you will then be invited to reevaluate his basic thesis.  You will also be asked to conduct individual research on one Weimar intellectual of particular interest to you, and write a term paper of 12-15 pages to analyze the usefulness of Gay’s hypothesis for explaining his or her career.  You should consult at least three sources in addition to our required readings for your term paper, if possible including a significant primary source, i.e., an autobiography, diary, or other substantial work written by your subject. 

To earn credit for this course you mast attend class faithfully, participate actively in class discussions, and complete the following assignments: 

1. Write a five-page book review of Peter Gay’s Weimar Culture, to be submitted via e-mail by midnight on Friday, April 26.  Evaluate in particular the strong and weak points in the controversial arguments of chapters 4-6 (worth 15% of your final grade).
2. Write an essay of 4-5 pages to compare the stage and film versions of Brecht’s Threepenny Opera, due on May 7 (20% of your final grade). 
3. Write a term paper of 12-15 pages on the life and times of one Weimar intellectual of special interest to you, and present a 15-minute oral report on your research findings to the class at the end of the term (25% of final grade for the paper, plus 10% for the oral report).  You should submit a first draft of your term paper by 9:00 p.m. on May 15, so that I can give you feed-back by the time you deliver your oral report on May 17; final drafts are due by noon on Monday, May 20.     
4. Take a three-hour final examination on Saturday, May 18, to expand, update, and reevaluate Peter Gay’s argument about Weimar Culture in light of our class readings and film screenings (30% of your final grade).

Please remember that in the spring term format, to miss one day of class is worse than to miss a whole week of a normal history course.  Each day of class will involve a two-hour period for lecture and discussion in the morning plus a “lab session” of two to 2 ½ hours in the afternoon to view and discuss films.  PLEASE TURN OFF ALL ELECTRONIC DEVICES IN CLASS!  Take notes with pen and paper, look each other in the face when we converse, and focus all your attention on the topic under discussion.  All formal lectures will be based on image galleries that will be posted on the course website for you to review at your convenience.  A list of our required readings and a schedule of class meetings follow:

v  Peter Gay, Weimar Culture: The Outsider as Insider (Norton, 2001).

v  Anton Kaes et al., eds., The Weimar Republic Sourcebook (University of California Press, 1995).

v  Berthold Brecht, The Three-Penny Opera (Penguin, 2007, first published in 1928).

v  Anton Kaes, Shell Shock Cinema: Weimar Culture and the Wounds of War (Princeton University Press, 2009).