Alexander Wells profiles some of the best history books about Weimar Berlin…
The contemporary mythos of Berlin is deeply infused with the more glamorous aspects of the Weimar era—its sexual and cultural efflorescence, its innovative commercial spirit, the rollercoaster thrills associated with rapid urbanisation. But the era is also, of course, darkly inscribed with the gradual rise to power of the Nazis.
Hence the aptness of the “dancing on the volcano” metaphor, which was first used as a film title in 1938, and has been churned out ever since to describe this unique period of dynamism, disappointment and, ultimately, disaster.
From sexual liberation to cultural avant-gardism, from the emergence of “the new woman” to the rise of radio and television, from the idealistic yet fragile origins of Weimar democracy to the establishment of fascist rule, interwar Berlin is generally seen as a time and place with something relevant to say about the pressures and contradictions of our own time, and about modernity in general.
The period has long been a source of fascination for artists, tourists and Wahlberliner*innen alike; historians, too, have eagerly set about excavating Weimar Berlin to understand its various contradictions, aiming to connect seemingly disparate spheres of politics and culture while adding nuance and drama to some of the most popular local myths and legends.
The list below contains a small selection of history books intended for the general reader: some include material beyond Berlin or outside of the the interwar period, but the fascinating, short-lived puzzle that was Weimar Berlin stands at the centre of each.
Peter Gay, Weimar Culture: Outsider as Insider
“What [Bauhaus founder Walter] Gropius taught, and what most Germans did not want to learn, was the lesson of Bacon and Descartes and the Enlightenment: that one must confront the world and dominate it, that the cure for the ills of modernity is more, and the right kind of modernity.”
Perhaps the most famous account of Weimar Germany, Peter Gay’s landmark book is less a cultural history and more a personal effort to capture the essence of the “Weimar culture” that flourished in a few major cities of interwar Germany—chiefly Berlin—before being crushed by the Nazis or forced into exile. Gay, himself born in Germany in 1923, made a stellar career as an historian after fleeing to the USA; his loyalty to Weimar’s intellectual exiles is clear, and the book is informed by conversations he had with Hannah Arendt and Walter Gropius among others.
The culture he describes is deeply creative, gleefully avant-garde, typically leftwing and often Jewish—and, he argues, either naive or misguided in matters of politics. Historians have drifted away from Gay’s account for a number of reasons, including his psychoanalytical approach and narrow focus on high culture; one might also hesitate over his determination to blame a diverse group of public intellectuals (Rilke, Thomas Mann, Heidegger among them) for preparing the path to fascism through their “anti-rational tendencies”. Nonetheless, Weimar Culture is a memorable and thought-provoking account of Weimar Berlin’s intellectual life, written with great style and vim.
Eric Weitz, Weimar Germany: Promise as Tragedy
“Weimar’s glow has lasted these many decades since its demise. We are drawn to the Greek tragedy of its history—the star-crossed birth, the conflicted life, the utter disaster as the curtain falls. And like a Greek tragedy, Weimar causes us to ponder the meaning of human action—the striving for something new and wonderful encountering absolute evil, well-meaning ineptitude alongside the recklessness of those who should have known to be more careful.”
“Weimar was Berlin, Berlin Weimar,” writes the American historian Eric Weitz in his historical survey of interwar Germany. Tha…