Living And Cultural Standards In The Weimar Republic

The sheer torment and carnage in WWI brought home a ‘frontline generation’ of men ultimately scarred from personal and national loss. For many veterans, their fundamental beliefs and thoughts had been forever changed. Born out of political and social anguish and culture of the missing identity of Germany, Dada is a clear reflection of a protest movement with an anti-establishment manifesto. The liberal experiment in Weimar Germany was at the forefront of this experimentation of new ideas and movements, providing a foreground to allow Dadaism to thrive. Indictments of capitalism such as Dix’s ‘Prostitute and Disabled War Veteran, Two Victims of Capitalism’ were common amongst Dada artists due to their underlying support of communist and socialist movements. Dix’s savage distortions indicted the state’s brutal mistreatment and abandonment of ex-soldier amputees and portrayed working-class deprivation. Dix’s painting shows that his focus was clearly not to create aesthetically pleasing artworks, but instead generate works that upended bourgeois sensibilities and made lower-middle-class Germans question their deteriorating society. German Dada author Hugo Ball states 'What we call Dada is foolery, foolery extracted from the emptiness in which all higher problems are wrapped '. Dada was seen as an anarchic stance against conservatism but sparked strong controversies of treason and disgust among upper-class Germans. Weimar Germany at this time was experiencing a ‘monsoon’ of technological, social, and cultural changes which promoted ideas of freedom and equality among sexes and classes due to the experimentation of liberalism and as a consequence, this is the reason why Dada is so momentous.

The economy of the Weimar Republic was founded in the shadow of WWI. The Ally's strong and punitive shadow over Germany acted as a constant reminder to all social classes of Germany’s losses from the war. Due to the lack of a stable economy and government, the Republic could not win the loyalty of the majority of the public. With war reparations as a constant economic drain, the government sought the option of printing more money, therefore leading to the German mark falling lower than pre-war levels. By November 1923, the government had produced a 100 trillion Mark note. Eric Weitz argues that ‘hyperinflation destroyed any kind of economic or even personal predictability’. The overall effect of the hyperinflation had disastrous effects on the general living standards of the Mittelstand (middle class) of Germany, as seen in the image, the German Mark was worth so little that Mittlestand women used it to burn a fire to keep warm. This not only affected living standards but also caused severe disruption between social groups. The loss of status of the upper-middle class was diminished and Weimar Chancellor, Gustav Stresemann commented that the ‘intellectual and commercial middle class which was traditionally the pillar of loyalty to the state had become proletarianized and completely uprooted’. This uprooting would sear into the political consciousness of Germans, and polarize the electorate to far-Left and far-Right.

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The role and significance of women in the workforce ‘beyond the kitchen’ had evolved tremendously since the end of the war and during the liberal experiment. The New Woman emerged from this awakening and the characteristics of her compared to another average ‘working woman’ was her focus on self and new independence rejecting current systems of power and influence. In 1929 German feminist writer Elsa Herrmann described the features and worldview of the New Woman describing how she “refuses to lead the life of a lady and a housewife” and instead of hoping to go her own way in life. The Weimar Republic represented modernity, cultural expression, and social and political changes of that time which thrived in major urban centers. Historian Paul Johnson suggests that ‘this sudden outpouring of cultural expression had been building up since the nineteenth century (KJ Mason). As seen in Dix’s dreary painting, Sylvia Von Harden was depicted with little traditional feminine features and in an androgynous light whilst smoking and drinking in public. Historian Ute Frevert suggests that ‘this representation of a masculine New Woman were used by conservative parts of society as a scapegoat for the many problems the Weimar Republic were facing, which overall added to the stress and division of the German society. The image of Herrmann undoubtedly captions the social and liberalistic change of Weimar Germany but also illuminates social division.

In a time of public expression and economic and political distrust, it wasn’t uncommon for Germans to turn to political fringes that offered the stability that the Weimar’s government lacked. This triggered the use of political propaganda to either encourage or steer people away from joining left or right-winged political groups. Such right-winged propagandist newspapers included Dr. Joseph Goebbels Berlin-based newspaper Der Agriff (The Attack). It was used by the NSDAP as a manipulative instrument to arouse and grow support for Nazi ideology. Goebbels used the newspaper to criticize the ‘Diktat of Versailles’, “The German people are enslaved people. Under international law, it is lower than the worst Negro colony in the Congo. Have we deserved it? No, and no again!”. Political groups like the NSDAP targeted different socio-economic groups and addressed different problems and circumstances to attract members. Historian Hagan Schulze states that “the unwillingness of most intellectuals to lend their support to the republic became evident in the press” amongst many of the highly literate bourgeois, written publications such as Der Agriff with their nationalist and racial views gained traction. The ideas of nationalism propagated in newspapers such as Der Agriff through new technologies of radio and film during the liberal experiment would become ingrained in the minds of the German, especially when acute financial distress would occur once again.