Lessons 13&14: The Weimar Republic

AgendaObjective:1. To understand life in

the Weimar Republic.2. To understand how life

in the Weimar Republic was a time of social change in Germany.

3. To understand how Germans conceptualized the causes and consequences of the social changes.

Schedule: 1. Lecture & Discussion

Homework:1. Read excerpt from

Mein Kampf Due: Orange = Wed 3/18 Yellow = Fri 3/20

2. Unit Test – Friday 3/27

Our Focus/Goal for the Next Two Days

• What is life like in the Weimar Republic?• What social and economic changes are

happening in the Republic?• Who was most likely to be effected by these

changes?• What did some Germans view as the cause of

these changes?• What did some Germans view as the

consequences of these changes?• Thesis about Weimar? (How would we describe

it and how people felt about it?)

The Weimar Republic • The new government

created out of the German Revolution of 1918, was the Weimar Republic.

• August 1919-1933• Democracy

(Parliamentary)• Led by members of the

Social Democrats, Catholics, and Democratic parties.

• First democracy in Germany

The Weimar Republic • Democracy was new to Germany.• Germany had been ruled by an emperor and was semi-

autocratic.– This system had virtually no democratic elements thus

the introduction of democratic ideals (universal suffrage, political parties) was a radical change for Germany.

• Emerges in the shadow of Germany’s defeat in World War One.• Germany embarks on its experiment in democracy at an unfavorable movement: a moment when the political and social system was already cracking…

Politics

Politics in the Weimar Government

• Structure of the Government – How is the government built

according to the Constitution– Strengths?– Weaknesses?

• What are the challenges that the government faces towards its legitimacy?

Economics

Hyperinflation in Weimar Germany

• To understand the effects of hyperinflation, we need to some math.

• Consider the following:– Assume that in July 1922 a stove cost 100

German marks.– By November 1923 that stove cost 726,000,000,000 marks.– How is this possible?

Rate of Hyperinflation in Weimar Germany

• Take out a calculator…

• Monthly rate of hyperinflation (Divide by 15) = • Daily Rate of Hyperinflation (Divide by 30) = • Hourly Rate of Hyperinflation (Divide by 24) = • Rate of Hyperinflation per Minute (Divide by 60) =

• With this rate of hyperinflation what happens to wages?• With this rate of hyperinflation what happens to the

price of goods?• What is everyday life like under this sort of inflation?

A million mark note being used as notepaper

Economics in Weimar Germany

• Who lost the most from hyperinflation?• Did anyone gain from hyperinflation?• How does the hyperinflation crisis invert the

social and economic structure in Germany?• During this time, how did Germans envision

their future? The future of the nation?• How did the hyperinflation crisis make some

Germans view the past?

Gender, Sex, and Sexuality

Cabaret

• Musical set in 1931 Berlin

• Focuses on nightlife at the seedy Kit Kat Klub

Abortion in the Weimar Republic

• Paragraph 218 was the law banning abortion in Germany.

• What does this poster suggest about attitudes towards this law in the Weimar Republic?

• What does the poster suggest about gender/sexuality in the Weimar Republic?

Anti-Semitism

• The “Dagger-stab-in-the-back Legend”: Austrian caricature of a Jew stabbing the German Army in the back with a dagger. (1919)

• “Germans, consider this!”: A German cartoon of the dagger-stabbing-in-the-back of the German Army by the politicians Phillipp Scheidemann (Social Democratic Party), who proclaimed the Weimar Republic, and was the second Chancellor; and the anti-war militant Matthias Erzberger (Centre Party), who signed the Armistice with the Allies. Note the caricatured Jews in the background.

Putting it all Together• What was life like in the Weimar Republic (in our six

dimensions)?• Go back and look at all of the graphs in the reading. What

do you notice?• Where do we see social change in each of these

dimensions?• Who was most likely to be effected by these changes?• What did some Germans view as the cause of these

changes?• What did some Germans view as the consequences of

these changes?• Thesis about Weimar? (How would we describe it and how

people felt about it?)

Crisis of Modernity• Modernity is simply the sense or the idea that the

present is discontinuous with the past, that through a process of social and cultural change life in the present is fundamentally different from life in the past. – This sense or idea as a world view contrasts with tradition,

which is simply the sense that the present is continuous with the past, that the present in some way repeats the forms, behavior, and events of the past.

• The “crisis of modernity” is the sense that modernity is a problem, the traditional ways of life have been replaced with uncontrollable change and unmanageable alternatives. The crisis itself is merely the sense that the present is a transitional point not focused on a clear goal in the future but simply changing through forces outside our control.