Weimar Culture

Weimar Culture

1. Art

   • Some popular artists of the period focussed their work on the dark side of life in Germany such as poverty and violence.
     • The Nazi's thought that their work was 'degenerate'
   • Photomontage was another technique that was popular in Germany in that period. You would layer parts of different photographs onto another to create a new image.
     • John Heartfield was a political artist and often made fun of the Nazi's in his work and was an anti-fascist.

2. Film

   • In the 1920s Germany had one of the world's largest film industry
     • Some of the most popular films of the 1920s were expressionist films. These include Nosferatu, Metropolis and The Cabinet of Dr Caligari
   • Some of the most famous names in film originally worked in Germany before fleeing to Hollywood when Hitler came to power
     • Those who originally worked in Germany include Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder and Marlene Dietrich
   • When the Nazi's came to power they arrested and even killed some actors and artists
     • After 1933 all films were controlled by the Nazi's and contained propaganda and anti-sematic behaviour.

3. Theatre

   • Experimental Theatre was very popular and influential in the 1920s. It was the theatre of coming up with something new.
   • Many theatres were sympathetic to Marxist themes and experiments in propaganda.
   • The beginning of contemporary dance started in 1920s Germany.

4. Architechture

   • Bauhaus
     • An art and design school that combined industrial design with arts, arts, craft and practical demands.
     • They worked from furniture to typography, to buildings.

5. Music

   • Nightclubs were very popular in the 1920s and had a controversial reputation.
     • They played jazz and it became much more open to drug use and homosexuality
     • The Nazi's did not approve of these clubs and shut them down when they got into power.
   • Concerts of modernist composers were also popular in the 1920s

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