In the trenches of WWI, the coexistance of living and dead was a common, daily occurance. Stories of apparitions were not uncommon in soldiers’ letters.
The NSDAP (The Nazi Party) was a very small, mostly regional, not very influential party for most of the Weimar history. What really singled it out from all the other similar movements was its leader: Adolf Hitler.
In the 1920s, life in Berlin was fast and furious, but in large rural areas of the nation, life was slower and not fond of change.
The Weimar Republic Left had many qualities and many liberal aspirations, but it never found the necessary unity to make those ideals become reality.
Many different forms of modernistic arts florished in Berlin during the Weimar Republic. What they all had in common was the need to show the new reality, twarted by the experience of war and by the disillusionment for the future.
The Weimar Republic relation with Jews was contradictory at best. On the one hand, the republic was a first time of full citizenship for the German Jewish people, who became a driving force in the political and cultural life of Weimar. On the other, Anti-Semitism rose to preoccupying levels.
The concept of the European Civil War rests on the idea that the twenty years of the interwar period were not really a time of peace, but they were a continuation of the world conflict if in a different fashion.
Hyperinflation was a common recurrance after a war and all European country suffered for it after WWI. Still we particularly remember Germany hyperinflation, not only because it was crazy, but also because it’s well-documented.
It is normally quite easy to understand why a war breaks out and who is pitted against who. Not so for the Great War. And this is true to the point that it has been defined as one of the most enigmatic events in contemporary history.
The ‘Principle of the Leader’ was originally a phylosofical ideal very strong in Prussian Germany. The true Furhrer would inspire people to act, not act in their stead and would never seek dominance
German Expressionism produced art of the emotions and frankness. It sought an intensity of feeling, deeply personal and spiritual. It projected the artist’s anxious soul outside, trying to induce a strong reaction by shocking the viewer
It has often been speculated that the Weimar republic – born in messy times and always moving on rocky ground – never really had a chance for success. And still it was a becon of democracy for its short life.