Social And Political Structures In West Germany: From Authoritarianism To Postindustrial Democracy

History

Jelavich, Peter

Rickards, Robert

Edinger, Lewis J

Hoffmann-lange, Ursula

Europe

Routledge

This fascinating exploration of a work that was the epitome of German literary modernism illuminates in chilling detail the death of the Weimar Republic's left-leaning culture of innovation and experimentation. Peter Jelavich examines Alfred Döblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929), a novel that questioned the autonomy and coherence of the human personality in the modern metropolis, and traces the radical discrepancies that came with its adaptation into a radio play (1930) and a film (1931). Jelavich explains these discrepancies by examining not only the varying demands of genre and technology but also the political and economic contexts of the media—in particular, the censorship practices in German radio and film. His analysis culminates in a richly textured discussion of the complex factors that led to the demise of Weimar culture, as Nazi intimidation and the economic strains of the Depression induced producers to depoliticize their works. Jelavich's book becomes a cautionary tale about how fear of outspoken right-wing politicians can curtail and eliminate the arts as a critical counterforce to politics—all in the name of entertainment.

Berlin Alexanderplatz: Radio, Film, and the Death of Weimar Culture

Humor & Entertainment

Movies

University of California Press

This fascinating exploration of a work that was the epitome of German literary modernism illuminates in chilling detail the death of the Weimar Republic's left-leaning culture of innovation and experimentation. Peter Jelavich examines Alfred Döblin's Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929), a novel that questioned the autonomy and coherence of the human personality in the modern metropolis, and traces the radical discrepancies that came with its adaptation into a radio play (1930) and a film (1931). Jelavich explains these discrepancies by examining not only the varying demands of genre and technology but also the political and economic contexts of the media―in particular, the censorship practices in German radio and film. His analysis culminates in a richly textured discussion of the complex factors that led to the demise of Weimar culture, as Nazi intimidation and the economic strains of the Depression induced producers to depoliticize their works. Jelavich's book becomes a cautionary tale about how fear of outspoken right-wing politicians can curtail and eliminate the arts as a critical counterforce to politics―all in the name of entertainment.

Berlin Alexanderplatz: Radio, Film, and the Death of Weimar Culture (Volume 37)

Step into Ernst Wolzogen's Motley Theater, Max Reinhardt's Sound and Smoke, Rudolf Nelson's Chat noir, and Friedrich Hollaender's Tingel-Tangel. Enjoy Claire Waldoff's rendering of a lower-class Berliner, Kurt Tucholsky's satirical songs, and Walter Mehring's Dadaist experiments, as Peter Jelavich spotlights Berlin's cabarets from the day the curtain first went up, in 1901, until the Nazi regime brought it down.  Fads and fashions, sexual mores and political ideologies--all were subject to satire and parody on the cabaret stage. This book follows the changing treatment of these themes, and the fate of cabaret itself, through the most turbulent decades of modern German history: the prosperous and optimistic Imperial age, the unstable yet culturally inventive Weimar era, and the repressive years of National Socialism. By situating cabaret within Berlin's rich landscape of popular culture and distinguishing it from vaudeville and variety theaters, spectacular revues, prurient "nude dancing," and Communist agitprop, Jelavich revises the prevailing image of this form of entertainment.  Neither highly politicized, like postwar German Kabarett, nor sleazy in the way that some American and European films suggest, Berlin cabaret occupied a middle ground that let it cast an ironic eye on the goings-on of Berliners and other Germans. However, it was just this satirical attitude toward serious themes, such as politics and racism, that blinded cabaret to the strength of the radical right-wing forces that ultimately destroyed it. Jelavich concludes with the Berlin cabaret artists' final performances--as prisoners in the concentration camps at Westerbork and Theresienstadt.  This book gives us a sense of what the world looked like within the cabarets of Berlin and at the same time lets us see, from a historical distance, these lost performers enacting the political, sexual, and artistic issues that made their city one of the most dynamic in Europe.

Berlin Cabaret (Studies in Cultural History)

Literature & Fiction

Humor & Satire

Harvard University Press

Step into Ernst Wolzogen's Motley Theater, Max Reinhardt's Sound and Smoke, Rudolf Nelson's Chat noir, and Friedrich Hollaender's Tingel-Tangel. Enjoy Claire Waldoff's rendering of a lower-class Berliner, Kurt Tucholsky's satirical songs, and Walter Mehring's Dadaist experiments, as Peter Jelavich spotlights Berlin's cabarets from the day the curtain first went up, in 1901, until the Nazi regime brought it down.
Fads and fashions, sexual mores and political ideologies--all were subject to satire and parody on the cabaret stage. This book follows the changing treatment of these themes, and the fate of cabaret itself, through the most turbulent decades of modern German history: the prosperous and optimistic Imperial age, the unstable yet culturally inventive Weimar era, and the repressive years of National Socialism. By situating cabaret within Berlin's rich landscape of popular culture and distinguishing it from vaudeville and variety theaters, spectacular revues, prurient "nude dancing," and Communist agitprop, Jelavich revises the prevailing image of this form of entertainment.
Neither highly politicized, like postwar German Kabarett, nor sleazy in the way that some American and European films suggest, Berlin cabaret occupied a middle ground that let it cast an ironic eye on the goings-on of Berliners and other Germans. However, it was just this satirical attitude toward serious themes, such as politics and racism, that blinded cabaret to the strength of the radical right-wing forces that ultimately destroyed it. Jelavich concludes with the Berlin cabaret artists' final performances--as prisoners in the concentration camps at Westerbork and Theresienstadt.
This book gives us a sense of what the world looked like within the cabarets of Berlin and at the same time lets us see, from a historical distance, these lost performers enacting the political, sexual, and artistic issues that made their city one of the most dynamic in Europe.

Humor

This is the first cultural exploration of playwriting, directing, acting, and theater architecture in fin-de-siècle Munich. Peter Jelavich examines the commercial, political, and cultural tensions that fostered modernism’s artistic revolt against the classical and realistic modes of nineteenth-century drama.

Munich and Theatrical Modernism: Politics, Playwriting, and Performance, 1890–1914

Americas

This is the first cultural exploration of playwriting, directing, acting, and theater architecture in fin-de-siècle Munich. Peter Jelavich examines the commercial, political, and cultural tensions that fostered modernism's artistic revolt against the classical and realistic modes of nineteenth-century drama.

Munich and Theatrical Modernism: Politics, Playwriting, and Performance, 1890-1914

This book offers a view of West German social structure and political culture from a multidisciplinary perspective. Focusing on the remarkable changes that have taken place in West Germany since World War II, it provides a basis for judging what direction a united Germany is likely to take.

Social And Political Structures In West Germany: From Authoritarianism To Postindustrial Democracy (WESTVIEW SPECIAL STUDIES IN WEST EUROPEAN POLITICS AND SOCIETY)

Dalton, Russell J.

Westview Press

The artists associated with German Expressionism in the early decades of the twentieth century took up printmaking with a dedication and fervor virtually unparalleled in the history of the genre. The woodcut, with its coarse gouges and jagged lines, is the preeminent Expressionist medium, but the movement also revolutionized etching and lithography, to alternately vibrant and stark effect. This graphic impulse can be traced from the formation of the artist group Die Brücke in 1905 through the war years of the 1910s and into the early 1930s, when individual artists continued to produce compelling work even as the movement was winding down. This volume, published in conjunction with an exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, showcases the Museum's outstanding holdings of Expressionist prints, enhanced by a selection of drawings, paintings, and sculptures from the collection. Featuring approximately 260 works by some 30 artists, the book presents a diverse array of individuals, including Max Beckmann, Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Emil Nolde, Vasily Kandinsky and Oskar Kokoschka. Essays by Starr Figura, Associate Curator of Prints and Illustrated Books at MoMA, and Peter Jelavich, Professor of History, Johns Hopkins University, discuss the centrality of printmaking in German Expressionism and provide a sociocultural backdrop for the movement.

German Expressionism: The Graphic Impulse

Figura, Starr

Hess, Heather

Schmeisser, Iris

Reference

The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Kandinsky und München: Begegnungen und Wandlungen, 1896-1914 (German Edition)

KANDINSKY, WASSILY

Zweite, Armin

Stadtische Galerie Im Lenbachhaus Munchen

Prestel-Verlag

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