Die Weimarer Republik: German Culture & Society 1918-1933

This course analyzes how violence, economic and political volatility, technology, and changing moral codes affected German society and culture (literature, visual arts, film and music) from the onset of the First World War to the rise of Nazism. Germany's first experiment in democracy, the Weimar Republic, can be viewed both as a prelude to Fascism (and therefore a failure) and as a period of radical socio-cultural change, experimentation, and even progress. This course is taught primarily in German, but occasionally we discuss particular texts in English.