Weimar: Germany Between World War I and Hitler
S07
Steven Bach
The Weimar Republic—Germany between the end of World War I and Hitler’s seizure of power in 1933—is familiar through works like Cabaret. The arts of this period—literature, film, music, theater, and the graphic arts—enjoyed unprecedented creativity (some would say decadence) until brutally silenced by the Nazis and their book-burnings. We will examine the works of novelist Thomas Mann, Heinrich Mann, Josef Roth, and others; the plays and musicals of Brecht and Weill and others; films like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Faust, Nosferatu, and The Blue Angel; and the art of George Grosz, Oskar Kokoshka, and others. Reading will be challenging and critical and research papers will be required.