Paris and Berlin in the 1920s – Essay 2 (Fall 2007)

Answer one of the questions below

1) "Modernity exists in the form of a desire to wipe out whatever came earlier, in the hope of reaching at least a point that could be called a true present, a point of origin that marks a new departure." -- Paul de Man

To what extent, if any, can German culture in the years between the outbreak of World War I and the coming to power of Hitler be seen as a radical example of the kind of modernity described by de Man? What historical conditions shape the reactions of Germans to modernity in this period? How did different groups of Germans react to modernity?

In your answer be sure to construct a concise, clear thesis addressing these questions.

In your answer be sure to make specific reference to particular works to support your thesis. Provide evidence from the readings, lectures, and website.

Make sure to clearly cite your sources, providing page numbers and other necessary information that will enable us to locate your evidence in the readings. Simply providing the name of the author does not suffice.

 

2) “We, the people of Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Haydn, and Handel, cannot and will not any longer allow one of the noblest blooms of cultural life to fall increasingly victim to degeneration and to ultimate degradation to satisfy the demands of big-city night clubs and international bordellos.... this music quite simply represents the outbreak of the nihilism of the postwar period, and accordingly no longer expression, revelation, but a shriek, an unbridled discharge of its raw material. ‘Contemporary music' quite clearly presents both types of every phenomenon of decay.

Alongside this ideological and general human degeneration there emerged the doctrine of the so-called international character of art and its independence from the Volk spirit and temporal events. The organic relationship between the creative artist and the people was denied. Denied also was the fact that Volk and race constitute the roots of every artistic creation, that, above all, music also is subject to the conditions and uniformities of biological data, that the energies of the people contribute to creativity, just as in a tree the sap rises from the root to the blossom. In this way the artist became incapable of shaping the elements of art, and thus the primordial symbol of his people, into significant form. He borrowed the art forms of alien peoples and races . . . “

These excerpts are from “Does the Five O'Clock Tea Suit Our Time?,” a 1937 article from a Nazi publication that is available on the course web site. They express reactions to the modernist culture of the 1920s that the Nazis used as part of their appeal to the public.

Compose an essay in which you discuss why Nazi attacks on these aspects of German culture in the 1920s would have been convincing to some Germans. What claims are the Nazis making about the modernist culture of the 1920s? What historical experiences predisposed part of the German population to view modernist culture from this perspective? What aspects of the culture of the period would have set off these kinds of responses?

In your answer be sure to develop a clear and concise thesis and to discuss specific works from at least four different aspects of German culture that might have evoked this kind of response. Be sure to make regular references back to the quotation above, but do not include the entire passage in your essay.

Make sure to clearly cite your sources, providing page numbers and other necessary information that will enable us to locate your evidence in the readings. Simply providing the name of the author does not suffice.