A History of Germany 1918 - 2020. Mary Fulbrook
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Название: A History of Germany 1918 - 2020

Автор: Mary Fulbrook

Издательство: John Wiley & Sons Limited

Жанр: Историческая литература

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isbn: 9781119574248

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СКАЧАТЬ which criminalized homosexual acts between men; the difficulties faced by gay men in face of the prejudices of the time were poignantly captured in the 1919 film, in which Hirschfeld played himself, Anders als die Andern (‘Different from the Others’). But in the view of conservatives, the Weimar Republic itself was held responsible for decadence, and for the penetration of Western forms of shallow, superficial ‘civilization’ into the purer German ‘culture’, defiling it in the process. And while the Left attacked capitalism, the Right attacked democracy: with the exception of a few individuals, most notably (and belatedly) Thomas Mann, few spoke out to sustain the Weimar Republic in principle.

      Nor was ‘culture’ in the wider sense to sustain the new Republic. The social institutions which had the most influence on popular attitudes were still the churches and the schools: and both religious and educational institutions by and large tended to undermine Weimar democracy. Both the Catholic and the Protestant churches propagated essentially conservative, monarchist and anti-democratic sympathies; they were moreover highly critical of the moral decadence, as they saw it, of a society in which birth control was for the first time becoming widespread. The education system was also, in general, conservative and anti-democratic in outlook. Many schoolteachers were traditional conservative nationalists. Student fraternities and university teachers were similarly preponderantly right-wing and anti-democratic in sympathy: the Left was only to dominate German student politics for the first time in the West Germany of the late 1960s. However, in the sphere of education, as in virtually every other aspect of Weimar life, quite different tendencies coexisted. Alongside the highly conservative educational establishment ran currents of reform and progressive schools. After the Second World War largely unsuccessful attempts were made to resurrect some of the more progressive elements in Weimar education.

      There was nevertheless widespread experimentation in lifestyles among some groups, with ‘reform’ movements in the areas of food and health, for example. There was an emphasis on nature, with members of youth movements indulging in long hiking trips through the German pine forests, swimming in lakes and rivers, camping and youth hostelling at every opportunity. There had been a tradition of such youth movements in Imperial Germany, such as the largely middle-class Wandervogel movement, and the comparable SPD youth organizations. Their activities continued to flourish in the Weimar Republic. Perhaps partly in reaction against the constraints and repressions, the restrictions and gloom of life in large cities, emphasis was given to escape into the countryside. But appeals to youth were similarly riven with political divides; both the far Right and the Left sought to mobilize youth for their diverse purposes. The right-wing mobilization of paramilitary groups that sought to forge a glorious future and make up for the humiliation of national defeat and the ‘shame’ of Versailles was to prove the most threatening in assisting Hitler’s rise to power, while the reformist and often pacifist youth cultures of the Left were ultimately defeated by the superior military might of the Right.

      Two rather different processes coincided in the late 1920s and early 1930s. One was the collapse of the democratic political system of the Weimar Republic. The other was the rise of Hitler’s Nazi Party, immeasurably aided by the economic depression after 1929. The collapse of democracy effectively preceded, and was an essential precondition for, the rise of Hitler; and the appointment of Adolf Hitler to the chancellorship of Germany was by no means the only possible, or inevitable, outcome of the collapse of Weimar democracy. Given the consequences of this appointment, it is scarcely surprising that the causes, the relative contribution and importance of different factors have been so hotly debated.

      The Flawed Compromise

      Yet it survived the difficulties of the early years. A general strike in 1920 served to defeat the Kapp putsch; the hyper-inflation СКАЧАТЬ