Editing Weimar culture

{{Short description|Emergence of art and science in the Weimar Republic}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}}
[[File:Bauhaus08Oct09.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Bauhaus Dessau, built from 1925 to 1926 to a design by [[Walter Gropius]] who founded [[modern architecture]]]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-P062899, Berlin, Tanzkabarett im Europahaus.jpg|thumb|300px|The Europahaus, one of hundreds of cabarets in Weimar Berlin, 1931]]

'''Weimar culture''' was the emergence of the arts and sciences that happened in Germany during the [[Weimar Republic]], the latter during that part of the [[Interwar Period|interwar period]] between Germany's defeat in World War I in 1918 and Hitler's rise to power in 1933.<ref name="FinneyLecture">Finney (2008)</ref> [[1920s Berlin]] was at the hectic center of the Weimar culture.<ref name="FinneyLecture"/> Although not part of the Weimar Republic, German-speaking [[First Austrian Republic|Austria]], and particularly [[Vienna]], is also sometimes included as part of Weimar culture.<ref>Congdon, Lee (1991) [http://www.textbooksrus.com/search/BookDetail/?isbn=0691031592&kbid=1067 book Synopsis] for ''Exile and Social Thought : Hungarian Intellectuals in Germany and Austria, 1919–1933'', Princeton University Press</ref>

Germany, and Berlin in particular, was fertile ground for intellectuals, artists, and innovators from many fields during the Weimar Republic years. The social environment was chaotic, and politics were passionate. German university faculties became universally open to Jewish scholars in 1918. Leading Jewish intellectuals on university faculties included physicist [[Albert Einstein]]; sociologists [[Karl Mannheim]], [[Erich Fromm]], [[Theodor Adorno]], [[Max Horkheimer]], and [[Herbert Marcuse]]; philosophers [[Ernst Cassirer]] and [[Edmund Husserl]]; political theorists [[Arthur Rosenberg]] and [[Gustav Meyer]]; and many others. Nine German citizens were awarded [[Nobel Prize|Nobel Prizes]] during the Weimar Republic, five of whom were Jewish scientists, including two in medicine.<ref>{{cite book|last=Niewyk|first=Donald L.|title=The Jews in Weimar Germany|year=2001|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=978-0-7658-0692-5|pages=39–40}}</ref> Jewish intellectuals and creative professionals were among the prominent figures in many areas of Weimar culture.

With the rise of [[Nazism]] and the ascent to power of [[Adolf Hitler]] in 1933, many German intellectuals and cultural figures, both Jewish and non-Jewish, fled Germany for the [[United States]], the [[United Kingdom]], and other parts of the world. The intellectuals associated with the [[University of Frankfurt Institute for Social Research|Institute for Social Research]] (also known as the [[Frankfurt School]]) fled to the United States and reestablished the Institute at the [[New School for Social Research]] in [[New York City]]. In the words of Marcus Bullock, Emeritus Professor of English at [[University of Wisconsin&ndash;Milwaukee]], "Remarkable for the way it emerged from a catastrophe, more remarkable for the way it vanished into a still greater catastrophe, the world of Weimar represents [[modernism]] in its most vivid manifestation." The culture of the Weimar period was later reprised by 1960s left-wing intellectuals,<ref name="KirkusLaqueur">Kirkus Reviews, 1 December 1974. Review of Laqueur, Walter ''Weimar: A cultural history, 1918–1933''</ref> especially in [[France]]. [[Gilles Deleuze]], [[Félix Guattari]], and [[Michel Foucault]] reprised [[Wilhelm Reich]];  [[Jacques Derrida]] reprised [[Edmund Husserl]] and [[Martin Heidegger]]; [[Guy Debord]] and the [[Situationist International]] reprised the subversive-revolutionary culture.

==Social environment==
By 1919, an influx of labor had migrated to [[Berlin]] turning it into a fertile ground for the modern arts and sciences, leading to booms in trade, communications and construction. A trend that had begun before the Great War was given powerful impetus by fall of the Kaiser and royal power. In response to the shortage of pre-war accommodation and housing, [[tenements]] were built not far from the Kaiser's Stadtschloss and other majestic structures erected in honor of former nobles. Average people began using their backyards and basements to run small shops, restaurants, and workshops. Commerce expanded rapidly, and included the establishment of Berlin's first department stores, prior to World War I. An "urban petty [[bourgeoisie]]" along with a growing middle class grew and flourished in wholesale commerce, retail trade, factories and crafts.<ref>Schrader, Barbel. "The 'Golden' Twenties: Art and Literature in the Weimar Republic". Yale University Press, 1988, p.25-27.</ref>
[[File:Een rijtje danseressen uit de revue (dans-girls) uit Berlijn, Duitsland 1927, SFA001018666.jpg|thumb|Dancers in Berlin in 1927]]
Types of employment were becoming more modern, shifting gradually but noticeably towards industry and services. Before [[World War I]], in 1907, 54.9% of German workers were manual labourers. This dropped to 50.1% by 1925. Office workers, managers, and bureaucrats increased their share of the labour market from 10.3% to 17% over the same period. Germany was slowly becoming more urban and middle class. Still, by 1925, only a third of Germans lived in large cities; the other two-thirds of the population lived in the smaller towns or in rural areas.<ref>{{cite book|last=Peukert|first=Detlev|title=The Weimar Republic: the crisis of classical modernity|year=1993|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=978-0-8090-1556-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/weimarrepublic00detl/page/10 10]|url=https://archive.org/details/weimarrepublic00detl/page/10}}</ref> The total population of Germany rose from 62.4 million in 1920 to 65.2 million in 1933.<ref>{{cite book|last=Peukert|first=Detlev|title=The Weimar Republic: the crisis of classical modernity|year=1993|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=978-0-8090-1556-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/weimarrepublic00detl/page/7 7]|url=https://archive.org/details/weimarrepublic00detl/page/7}}</ref>

The [[German Empire|Wilhelminian]] values were further discredited as a consequence of [[World War I]] and the subsequent inflation, since the new youth generation saw no point in saving for marriage in such conditions, and preferred instead to spend and enjoy.<ref name="ThompsonB">Bruce Thompson, University of California, Santa Cruz, [http://media.ucsc.edu/classes/thompson/weimar.html lecture on WEIMAR CULTURE/KAFKA'S PRAGUE]</ref> According to cultural historian Bruce Thompson, the Fritz Lang movie ''[[Dr. Mabuse the Gambler]]'' (1922) captures Berlin's postwar mood:<ref name="ThompsonB"/> {{quote| The film moves from the world of the slums to the world of the stock exchange and then to the cabarets and nightclubs–and everywhere chaos reigns, authority is discredited, power is mad and uncontrollable, wealth inseparable from crime.}}

Politically and economically, the nation was struggling with the terms and reparations imposed by the [[Treaty of Versailles]] (1919) that ended [[World War I]] and endured punishing levels of inflation.
<gallery>
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R38586, Berlin, Essen für bedürftige Kinder.jpg|Children being fed by a soup kitchen, 1924
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-B0527-0001-772, Berlin, Friseur-Salon, Angebot für Arbeitslose.jpg|A man reads a sign advertising "Attention, Unemployed, Haircut 40 pfennigs, Shave 15 pfennigs", 1927
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-09249-0013, Berlin, alte Frau sammelt Abfälle.jpg|An elderly woman gathers vegetable waste tossed from a vegetable seller's wagon for her lunch, 1923
File:Lesser Ury Dame im Café.jpg|Sketch of a woman in a café by [[Lesser Ury]] for a Berlin newspaper, 1925
</gallery>

== Sociology ==

During the era of the Weimar Republic, Germany became a center of intellectual thought at its universities, and most notably [[sociology|social]] and [[political theory]] (especially [[Marxism]]) was combined with [[Sigmund Freud|Freudian]] [[psychoanalysis]] to form the highly influential discipline of [[critical theory]]&mdash;with its development at the [[University of Frankfurt Institute for Social Research|Institute for Social Research]] (also known as the [[Frankfurt School]]) founded at the [[Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main|University of Frankfurt am Main]].

The most prominent philosophers with which the so-called '[[Frankfurt School]]' is associated were [[Erich Fromm]], [[Herbert Marcuse]], [[Theodor Adorno]], [[Walter Benjamin]], [[Jürgen Habermas]] and [[Max Horkheimer]].<ref>Outhwaite, William. 1988. ''Habermas: Key Contemporary Thinkers'' 2nd Edition (2009). p5. {{ISBN|978-0-7456-4328-1}}</ref> Among the prominent philosophers not associated with the Frankfurt School were [[Martin Heidegger]] and [[Max Weber]].

The German [[philosophical anthropology]] movement also emerged at this time.<ref>Halton, Eugene (1995) [https://books.google.com/books?id=u7r9rz0x10cC&pg=PA52 ''Bereft of reason: on the decline of social thought and prospects for its renewal''] p.52</ref>

== Science ==
{{unreferenced section|date=December 2009}}
{{main|History of quantum mechanics}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-10590, Propeller-Eisenbahn auf der Versuchsstrecke.jpg|thumb|This prototype high-speed train travelled at 230 km per hour from Hamburg to Berlin, 1931. It was built by the Krukenberg engineering company.]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-12247, Berlin, Büroausstellung.jpg|thumb|An early calculator shown at an office technology exhibition, Berlin, 1931. It was promoted as costing 3500 marks.]]
Many foundational contributions to [[quantum mechanics]] were made in Weimar Germany or by German scientists during the Weimar period. While temporarily at the University of Copenhagen, German physicist [[Werner Heisenberg]] formulated his [[Uncertainty principle]], and, with [[Max Born]] and [[Pascual Jordan]], accomplished the first complete and correct definition of quantum mechanics, through the invention of [[Matrix mechanics]].<ref>''[http://www.vub.ac.be/CLEA/IQSA/history.html History of Quantum Structures and IQSA - The Birth of Quantum Mechanics]''</ref>

[[Göttingen]] was the center of research in [[aerodynamics|aero-]] and [[fluid dynamics|fluid-dynamics]] in the early 20th century. Mathematical aerodynamics was founded by [[Ludwig Prandtl]] before [[World War I]], and the work continued at Göttingen until interfered with in the 1930s and prohibited in the late 1940s. It was there that [[Compressible flow|compressibility drag]] and its reduction in aircraft was first understood. A striking example of this is the [[Messerschmitt Me 262]], which was designed in 1939, but resembles a modern jet transport more that it did other tactical aircraft of its time.

[[Albert Einstein]] rose to public prominence during his years in Berlin, being awarded the [[Nobel Prize for Physics]] in 1921. He was forced to flee Germany and the Nazi regime in 1933.

Physician [[Magnus Hirschfeld]] established the [[Institut für Sexualwissenschaft]] (Institute for [[Sexology]]) in 1919, and it remained open until 1933. Hirschfeld believed that an understanding of [[homosexuality]] could be arrived at through science. Hirschfeld was a vocal advocate for homosexual, [[Bisexuality|bisexual]], and [[transgender]] legal rights for men and women, repeatedly petitioning parliament for legal changes. His Institute also included a museum. The Institute, museum and the Institute's library and archives were all destroyed by the Nazi regime in 1933.

In German-speaking Vienna, Mathematician [[Kurt Gödel]] published his groundbreaking ''[[Gödel's incompleteness theorems|Incompleteness Theorem]]'' during the Weimar years.<ref>Selz, pp.27</ref>

==Education==
{{Further|Gymnasium (school)}}
New schools were frequently established in Weimar Germany to engage students in experimental methods of learning. Some were part of an emerging trend that combined research into physical movement and overall health, for example [[Eurythmy]] ensembles in [[Stuttgart]] that spread to other schools. Philosopher [[Rudolf Steiner]] established the first [[Waldorf education]] school in 1919, using a [[pedagogy]] also known as the Steiner method, which spread worldwide. Many Waldorf schools are in existence today.

== The arts ==
[[File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-P047336, Berlin, Mary Wigman-Studio.jpg|thumb|[[Mary Wigman]] (left)]]
The fourteen years of the Weimar era were also marked by explosive intellectual productivity. German artists made multiple cultural contributions in the fields of [[literature]], [[art]], [[architecture]], [[music]], [[dance]], [[drama]], and the new medium of the [[motion picture]]. Political theorist [[Ernst Bloch]] described Weimar culture as a ''[[Fifth-century Athens|Periclean Age]]''.

German visual art, music, and literature were all strongly influenced by [[German Expressionism]] at the start of the Weimar Republic. By 1920, a sharp turn was taken towards the {{lang|de|Neue Sachlichkeit}} [[New Objectivity]] outlook. New Objectivity was not a strict movement in the sense of having a clear manifesto or set of rules. Artists gravitating towards this aesthetic defined themselves by rejecting the themes of expressionism—romanticism, fantasy, subjectivity, raw emotion and impulse—and focused instead on precision, deliberateness, and depicting the factual and the real.

''[[Kirkus Reviews]]'' remarked upon how much Weimar art was political:<ref name="KirkusLaqueurUK">Kirkus UK review of Laqueur, Walter ''Weimar: A cultural history, 1918–1933''</ref> {{blockquote|fiercely experimental, iconoclastic and left-leaning, spiritually hostile to big business and bourgeois society and at daggers drawn with Prussian militarism and authoritarianism. Not surprisingly, the old autocratic German establishment saw it as 'decadent art', a view shared by Adolf Hitler who became Chancellor of Germany in January 1933. The public burning of 'unGerman books' by Nazi students on Unter den Linden on 10th May 1933 was but a symbolic confirmation of the catastrophe which befell not only Weimar art under Hitler but the whole tradition of enlightenment liberalism in Germany, a tradition whose origins went back to the 18th century city of Weimar, home to both Goethe and Schiller.}}

One of the first major events in the arts during the Weimar Republic was the founding of the {{lang|de|Novembergruppe}} ([[November Group (German)|November Group]]) on 3 December 1918. This organization was established in the aftermath of the November beginning of the [[German Revolution of 1918–1919]], when [[Communism|communists]], anarchists and pro-republic supporters fought in the streets for control of the government. In 1919, the Weimar Republic was established. Around 100 artists of many genres who identified themselves as avant-garde joined the November Group. They held 19 exhibitions in Berlin until the group was banned by the Nazi regime in 1933. The group also had chapters throughout Germany during its existence, and brought the German avant-garde art scene to world attention by holding exhibits in Rome, Moscow and Japan.

Its members also belonged to other art movements and groups during the Weimar Republic era, such as architect [[Walter Gropius]] (founder of [[Bauhaus]]), and [[Kurt Weill]] and [[Bertolt Brecht]] ([[agitprop]] theatre).<ref>{{cite book|last=Dempsey|first=Amy|title=Styles, Schools and Movements: The Essential Encyclopaedic Guide to Modern Art|year=2010|publisher=Thames & Hudson|isbn=978-0-500-28844-3|pages=128–9}}</ref> The artists of the November Group kept the spirit of radicalism alive in German art and culture during the Weimar Republic. Many of the painters, sculptors, music composers, architects, playwrights, and filmmakers who belonged to it, and still others associated with its members, were the same ones whose art would later be denounced as "[[degenerate art]]" by Adolf Hitler.

===Visual arts===
{{See also|German art#Weimar period}}
[[File:Hoch-Cut With the Kitchen Knife.jpg|thumb|''Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany'' (1919) by [[Hannah Höch]], a [[Dada]] pioneer of [[photomontage]] art]]
The Weimar Republic era began in the midst of several major movements in the fine arts that continued into the 1920s. [[German Expressionism]] had begun before World War I and continued to have a strong influence throughout the 1920s, although artists were increasingly likely to position themselves in opposition to expressionist tendencies as the decade went on.

[[Dada]] had begun in Zurich during World War I, and became an international phenomenon. Dada artists met and reformed groups of like-minded artists in Paris, Berlin, Cologne, and New York City. In Germany, [[Richard Huelsenbeck]] established the Berlin group, whose members included [[Jean Arp]], [[John Heartfield]], [[Wieland Hertzfelde]], [[Johannes Baader]], [[Raoul Hausmann]], [[George Grosz]] and [[Hannah Höch]]. Machines, technology, and a strong [[Cubism]] element were features of their work. Jean Arp and [[Max Ernst]] formed a Cologne Dada group, and held a Dada Exhibition there that included a work by Ernst that had an axe "placed there for the convenience of anyone who wanted to attack the work".<ref name="Dempsey118">{{cite book|last=Dempsey|first=Amy|title=Styles, Schools and Movements: The Essential Encyclopaedic Guide to Modern Art|year=2010|publisher=Thames & Hudson|isbn=978-0-500-28844-3|pages=118}}</ref> [[Kurt Schwitters]] established his own solitary one-man Dada "group" in Hanover, where he filled two stories of a house (the ''Merzbau'') with sculptures cobbled together with found objects and ephemera, each room dedicated to a notable artist friend of Schwitter's. The house was destroyed by Allied bombs in 1943.<ref name="Dempsey118"/>

The [[New Objectivity]] artists did not belong to a formal group. However, various Weimar Republic artists were oriented towards the concepts associated with it. Broadly speaking, artists linked with New Objectivity include [[Käthe Kollwitz]], [[Otto Dix]], [[Max Beckmann]], [[George Grosz]], [[John Heartfield]], [[Conrad Felixmüller]], [[Christian Schad]], and [[Rudolf Schlichter]], who all "worked in different styles, but shared many themes: the horrors of war, social hypocrisy and moral decadence, the plight of the poor and the rise of Nazism".<ref>{{cite book|last=Dempsey|first=Amy|title=Styles, Schools and Movements: The Essential Encyclopaedic Guide to Modern Art|year=2010|publisher=Thames & Hudson|isbn=978-0-500-28844-3|pages=149}}</ref>

Otto Dix and George Grosz referred to their own movement as [[Verism (Germany)|Verism]], a reference to the Roman classical [[Verism]] approach called ''verus'', meaning "truth", warts and all. While their art is recognizable as a bitter, cynical criticism of life in Weimar Germany, they were striving to portray a sense of realism that they saw missing from expressionist works.<ref>{{cite book|last=Barton|first=Brigid S.|title=Otto Dix and Die neue Sachlichkeit, 1918-1925|year=1981|publisher=UMI Research Press|isbn=978-0-8357-1151-7|pages=83}}</ref> New Objectivity became a major undercurrent in all of the arts during the Weimar Republic.

<gallery>
File:Kaethe Kollwitz - Mutter mit Zwillingen-2.jpg|''Mother with Children'' by [[Käthe Kollwitz]], 1927–37
File:Nordmarkplakat.jpg|A [[New Objectivity]]-style poster by caricaturist [[Herbert Marxen]] (1922), condemned by the press as anti-futurist.
File:Kirchner - Straßenszene bei Nacht.jpg|''Street Scene at Night'' by [[Ernst Ludwig Kirchner]], 1926-27
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-08322, Plastik von Rudolf Belling.jpg|A [[Rudolf Belling]] sculpture exhibited in 1929
<!-- Commented out: File:George grosz-the eclipse of the sun.jpg|[[The Eclipse of the Sun]] (1926) by [[George Grosz]]. -->
</gallery>

===Design===
The design field during the Weimar Republic witnessed some radical departures from styles that had come before it. [[Bauhaus]]-style designs are distinctive, and synonymous with modern design. Designers from these movements turned their energy towards a variety of objects, from furniture, to typography, to buildings. [[Dada]]'s goal of critically rethinking design was similar to [[Bauhaus]], but whereas the earlier Dada movement was an aesthetic approach, the [[Bauhaus]] was literally a school, an institution that combined a former school of industrial design with a school of arts and crafts. The founders intended to fuse the arts and crafts with the practical demands of industrial design, to create works reflecting the [[New Objectivity]] aesthetic in Weimar Germany. [[Walter Gropius]], a founder of the Bauhaus school, stated: "we want an architecture adapted to our world of machines, radios and fast cars."<ref>{{cite book|last=Curtis|first=William|title="Walter Gropius, German Expressionism, and the Bauhaus". Modern Architecture Since 1900 (2nd Ed. ed.).|year=1987|publisher=Prentice-Hall|isbn=978-0-13-586694-8|pages=309–316}}</ref> Berlin and other parts of Germany still have many surviving landmarks of the architectural style at the Bauhaus. The mass housing projects of [[Ernst May]] and [[Bruno Taut]] are evidence of markedly creative designs being incorporated as a major feature of new planned communities. [[Erich Mendelsohn]] and [[Hans Poelzig]] are other prominent Bauhaus architects, while [[Mies van der Rohe]] is noted for his architecture and his industrial and household furnishing designs.

Painter [[Paul Klee]] was a faculty member of Bauhaus. His lectures on modern art (now known as the [[Paul Klee Notebooks]]) at the Bauhaus have been compared for importance to Leonardo's ''[[Treatise on Painting]]'' and Newton's ''[[Principia Mathematica]]'', constituting the Principia Aesthetica of a new era of art;<ref>[[Guilo Carlo Argan]] "Preface", Paul Klee, The Thinking Eye, (ed. Jürg Spiller), Lund Humphries, London, 1961, p.13.</ref><ref>[[Herbert Read]] (1959) ''[https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=786516 A coincise history of modern painting]'', London, p.186</ref>

[[Bruno Taut]] and [[Adolf Behne]] founded the [[Arbeitsrat für Kunst]] (Workers' Council for Art) in 1919. Their aim was to assert pressure for political change on the Weimar Republic government, that would benefit the management of architecture and arts management, similar to Germany's large councils for workers and soldiers. This Berlin organization had around 50 members.<ref>{{cite book|last=Dempsey|first=Amy|title=Styles, Schools and Movements: The Essential Encyclopaedic Guide to Modern Art|year=2010|publisher=Thames & Hudson|isbn=978-0-500-28844-3|pages=126}}</ref>

Still another influential affiliation of architects was the group [[Der Ring]] (The Ring) established by ten architects in Berlin in 1923-24, including: [[Otto Bartning]], [[Peter Behrens]], [[Hugo Häring]], [[Erich Mendelsohn]], [[Mies van der Rohe]], [[Bruno Taut]] and [[Max Taut]]. The group promoted the progress of modernism in architecture.

<gallery>
File:Wolfsonian-FIU Museum - IMG 8232.JPG|Armchair, model MR-20, 1927, by designer [[Mies van der Rohe]], manufactured by Bamberg Metallwerkstatten, Berlin
File:Theo van Doesburg Bilanz des Bauhauses.jpg|[[Bauhaus]]-style [[typography]], [[Theo van Doesburg]] (1923)
File:Borsig AG Hochhaus Berlin-Tegel.jpg|A highrise of the German Borsig company, made in the spirit of brick expressionism by [[Eugen Schmohl]] (1922–1924). It still stands in the [[Tegel]] district of [[Berlin]].
</gallery>

===Literature===
Writers such as [[Alfred Döblin]], [[Erich Maria Remarque]] and the brothers [[Heinrich Mann|Heinrich]] and [[Thomas Mann]] presented a bleak look at the world and the failure of politics and society through literature. Foreign writers also travelled to Berlin, lured by the city's dynamic, freer culture. The [[decadent]] [[cabaret]] scene of Berlin was documented by Britain's [[Christopher Isherwood]], such as in his novel ''[[Goodbye to Berlin]]'' which was later adapted as the play ''[[I Am a Camera]]''.<ref name="ThompsonB"/>

Eastern religions such as [[Buddhism]] were becoming more accessible in Berlin during the era, as Indian and East Asian musicians, dancers, and even visiting monks came to Europe. [[Hermann Hesse]] embraced Eastern philosophies and spiritual themes in his novels.

Cultural critic [[Karl Kraus (writer)|Karl Kraus]], with his brilliantly controversial magazine ''Die Fackel'', advanced the field of satirical journalism, becoming the literary and political conscience of this era.<ref>Selz 45</ref>

Weimar Germany also saw the publication of some of the world's first openly gay literature. In 1920 [[Erwin von Busse]] published a collection of stories about sexually charged encounters between men and it was promptly censored.<ref>{{cite book | author = Granand | title= Berlin Garden of Erotic Delights |publisher = Warbler Press | date = 2022 | translator-first1= Michael | translator-last1 = Gillespie | isbn = 978-1-957240-24-4 }}</ref> Other authors of such material include [[Klaus Mann]], [[Anna Elisabet Weirauch]], [[Christa Winsloe]], [[Erich Ebermayer]], and [[Max René Hesse]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Chamberlin |first1=Rick |title=Coming out of His Father's Closet: Klaus Mann's 'Der fromme Tanz' as an Anti-'Tod in Venedig' |journal=Monatshefte |date=2005 |volume=97 |issue=4 |pages=615–627 |doi=10.3368/m.XCVII.4.615 |jstor=30154241 |s2cid=219197869 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Huneke |first1=S. C. |title=The Reception of Homosexuality in Klaus Mann's Weimar Era Works |journal=Monatshefte |date=1 March 2013 |volume=105 |issue=1 |pages=86–100 |doi=10.1353/mon.2013.0027 |s2cid=162360017 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Nenno |first1=Nancy P. |chapter=Bildung and Desire: Anna Elisabet Weirauch's Der Skorpion |title=Queering the Canon: Defying Sights in German Literature and Culture |date=1998 |pages=207–221 }}{{ISBN?}}</ref>

===Theatre===
The theatres of [[Berlin]] and [[Frankfurt am Main]] were graced with drama by [[Ernst Toller]], [[Bertolt Brecht]], [[cabaret]], and stage direction by [[Max Reinhardt]] and [[Erwin Piscator]]. Many theatre works were sympathetic towards Marxist themes, or were overt experiments in propaganda, such as the [[agitprop theatre]] by Brecht and Weill. Agitprop theatre is named through a combination of the words "agitation" and "propaganda". Its aim was to add elements of public protest (agitation) and persuasive politics (propaganda) to the theatre, in the hope of creating a more activist audience. Among other works, Brecht and [[Kurt Weill]] collaborated on the musical or opera ''[[The Threepenny Opera]]'' (1928), also filmed, which remains a popular evocation of the period.

Toller was the leading German expressionist playwright of the era. He later became one of the leading proponents of [[New Objectivity]] in the theatre. The avant-garde theater of Bertolt Brecht and Max Reinhardt in Berlin was the most advanced in Europe, being rivaled only by that of Paris.<ref name="KirkusLaqueurUK"/>

The Weimar years saw a flourishing of political and grotesque cabaret which, at least for the English-speaking world, has become iconic for the period through works such as ''[[The Berlin Stories]]'' by the English writer [[Christopher Isherwood]], who lived in Berlin from 1929-33.<ref name="Doyle 2013"/> The musical and then the film ''[[Cabaret (musical)|Cabaret]]'' were based upon Isherwood's misadventures at Nollendorfstrasse 17 in the Schöneberg district where he lived with cabaret singer [[Jean Ross]].<ref name="Doyle 2013">{{cite news | last = Doyle | first = Rachel | title = Looking for Christopher Isherwood's Berlin | newspaper = [[The New York Times]] | page = TR10 | date = 12 April 2013 | df = dmy-all | access-date = 18 June 2018 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/14/travel/looking-for-christopher-isherwoods-berlin.html}}</ref> The main center for political cabaret was Berlin, with performers like comedian [[Otto Reutter]].<ref>[[Peter Gay]] (1968) ''[[Weimar Culture: The Outsider as Insider]]'' p.131</ref> [[Karl Valentin]] was a master of grotesque cabaret.

Historian Peter Jelavich has written extensively about minstrelsy in the Weimar cabaret. In his book ''Berlin Cabaret'' he writes that in 1920s Germany "blacks became symbols of a radically new cultural sensibility" and that the reception of minstrelsy in the revue cemented in the idea in Germany that "the United States was both the most modern and the most 'primitive' of nations."<ref>Peter Jelavich: [https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674067622 Berlin Cabaret] Harvard University Press, 1996.</ref>

===Music===
Concert halls heard the [[Atonality|atonal]] and [[modernism (music)|modern music]] of [[Alban Berg]], [[Arnold Schoenberg]], and [[Kurt Weill]]. [[Hanns Eisler]] and [[Paul Dessau]] were other modernist composers of the era. [[Richard Strauss]], in his 50s at the start of the period, continued to compose, his work mostly operas including ''[[Intermezzo (opera)|Intermezzo]]'' (1924) and ''[[Die ägyptische Helena]]'' (1928).

===Modern dance===
[[Rudolf von Laban]] and [[Mary Wigman]] laid the foundations for the development of [[contemporary dance]].{{cn|date=June 2022}}

===Cinema===
[[File:Marlene Dietrich in The Blue Angel.png|thumb|''[[The Blue Angel]]'' (1930) was directed by [[Josef von Sternberg]].]]

At the beginning of the Weimar era, cinema meant silent films. [[German expressionist cinema|Expressionist films]] featured plots exploring the dark side of human nature. They had elaborate expressionist design sets, and the style was typically nightmarish in atmosphere. ''[[The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari]]'' (1919), directed by [[Robert Wiene]], is usually credited as the first German expressionist film. The sets depict distorted, warped-looking buildings in a German town, while the plot centres around a mysterious, magical cabinet that has a clear association with a casket. [[F. W. Murnau]]'s vampire horror film ''[[Nosferatu]]'' was released in 1922. [[Fritz Lang]]'s ''[[Dr. Mabuse the Gambler]]'' (1922) was described as "a sinister tale" that portrays "the corruption and social chaos so much in evidence in Berlin and more generally, according to Lang, in Weimar Germany".<ref name="Hayward171">{{cite book|last=Hayward|first=Susan|title=Cinema studies: the key concepts|year=2006|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-415-36781-3|pages=171}}</ref> [[Futurism]] is another favourite expressionist theme, shown corrupted into a force of oppression in the [[dystopia]] of ''[[Metropolis (1927 film)|Metropolis]]'' (1927). The self-deluded lead characters in many expressionist films echo [[Goethe's Faust]], and Murnau indeed retold the tale in his film ''[[Faust (1926 film)|Faust]]''.

German expressionism was not the dominant type of popular film in Weimar Germany and were outnumbered by the production of costume dramas, often about folk legends, which were enormously popular with the public.<ref name="Hayward171"/> The Weimar era's most groundbreaking film studio was the [[Universum Film AG|UFA]] studio.

Silent films continued to be made throughout the 1920s, in parallel with the early years of sound films during the final years of the Weimar Republic. Silent films had certain advantages for filmmakers, such as the ability to hire an international cast, since spoken accents were irrelevant. Thus, American and British actors were easily able to collaborate with German directors and cast-members on films made in Germany (for example, the collaborations of [[Georg Pabst]] and [[Louise Brooks]]). When sound films started being produced in Germany, some filmmakers experimented with versions in more than one language, filmed simultaneously. 
[[File:KoenerAndHirschfeld.png|thumb|left|A scene from ''[[Different from the Others]]'' (1919), a film made in Berlin, whose main character struggles with his homosexuality]]

When the musical ''[[The Threepenny Opera]]'' was filmed by director Georg Pabst, he filmed the first version with a French-speaking cast (1930), then a second version with a German-speaking cast (1931). An English version was planned but never materialized.<ref>{{cite book|last=Robertson|first=James Crighton|title=The hidden cinema: British film censorship in action, 1913–1975|year=1993|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-09034-6|pages=53}}</ref> The Nazis destroyed the original negative print of the German version in 1933, and it was reconstructed after the War ended.<ref>{{cite book|last=Robertson|first=James Crighton|title=The hidden cinema: British film censorship in action, 1913–1975|year=1993|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-09034-6|pages=54}}</ref> ''[[The Blue Angel]]'' (1930), directed by [[Josef von Sternberg]] with the leads played by [[Marlene Dietrich]] and [[Emil Jannings]], was filmed simultaneously in English and German (a different supporting cast was used for each version). Although it was based on a 1905 story written by [[Heinrich Mann]], the film is often seen as topical in that it depicts the doomed romance between a Berlin professor and a cabaret dancer. However, critics differ on this interpretation, with the absence of modern urban amenities such as automobiles being noted.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Gemünden, Gerd |author2=Mary R. Desjardins |name-list-style=amp |title=Dietrich Icon|year=2006|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=978-0-8223-3819-2|pages=147–8}}</ref>

Cinema in Weimar culture did not shy away from controversial topics, but dealt with them explicitly. ''[[Diary of a Lost Girl]]'' (1929) directed by [[Georg Wilhelm Pabst]] and starring [[Louise Brooks]], deals with a young woman who is thrown out of her home after having an illegitimate child, and is then forced to become a prostitute to survive. This trend of dealing frankly with provocative material in cinema began immediately after the end of the War. In 1919, [[Richard Oswald]] directed and released two films, that met with press controversy and action from police vice investigators and government censors. ''Prostitution'' dealt with women forced into [[Sexual slavery|white slavery]], while ''[[Different from the Others]]'' dealt with a homosexual man's conflict between his sexuality and social expectations;<ref>{{cite book|last=Gordon|first=Mel|author-link=Mel Gordon (professor)|title=The Seven Addictions and Five Professions of Anita Berber|year=2006|publisher=[[Feral House]]|location=Los Angeles|isbn=978-1-932595-12-3|pages=55–6}}</ref> and in October 1920 censors ended its release to the public.<ref>{{Cite book |url= |title=Gay Berlin: Birthplace of a Modern Identity |last=Beachy |first=Robert |year= 2014 |publisher=[[Vintage Books]] | location = New York | isbn=978-0-307-47313-4 |page=166}}</ref> By the end of the decade, similar material met with little, if any opposition when it was released in Berlin theatres. [[William Dieterle]]'s ''[[Sex in Chains]]'' (1928), and Pabst's ''[[Pandora's Box (1929 film)|Pandora's Box]]'' (1929) deal with homosexuality among men and women, respectively, and were not censored. Homosexuality was also present more tangentially in other films from the period.

==Philosophy==
{{main|Berlin Circle}}
{{further|Vienna Circle}}
Philosophy during the Weimar Republic pursued paths of enquiry into scientific fields such as mathematics and physics. Leading scientists became associated as a group that was called the [[Berlin Circle]]. Among many influential thinkers, [[Carl Hempel]] was a strong influence in the group. Born in Berlin, Hempel attended the [[University of Göttingen]] and the [[University of Heidelberg]], then returned to Berlin, where he was taught by influential physicists [[Hans Reichenbach]] and [[Max Planck]], and logistics with mathematician [[John von Neumann]]. Reichenbach introduced Hempel to the Vienna Circle, who were an existing informal association of "scientifically interested philosophers and philosophically interested scientists", as Hempel put it.<ref name="MartinBailey206">{{cite book|author1=Martin, Robert M. |author2=Andrew Bailey |name-list-style=amp |title=First Philosophy: Fundamental Problems and Readings in Philosophy, Volume 2|year=2011|publisher=Broadview Press|isbn=978-1-55111-973-1|pages=206}}</ref> Hempel was intrigued by the [[logical positivism]] ideas discussed by the Vienna Circle, and he developed a similar network, the Berlin Circle. Hempel's reputation has grown to the extent that he is now considered one of the leading scientific philosophers of the 20th century.<ref name="MartinBailey206"/> [[Richard von Mises]] was active in both groups.

Germany's most influential philosopher during the Weimar Republic years, and perhaps of the 20th century, was [[Martin Heidegger]]. Heidegger published one of the cornerstones of 20th-century philosophy during this period, ''[[Being and Time]]'' (1927). ''Being and Time'' influenced successive generations of philosophers in Europe and the United States, particularly in the areas of [[Phenomenology (architecture)|phenomenology]], [[existentialism]], [[hermeneutics]] and [[deconstruction]]. Heidegger's work built on, and responded to, the earlier explorations of phenomenology by another Weimar era philosopher, [[Edmund Husserl]].

The intersection of politics and philosophy inspired other philosophers in Weimar Germany, when radical politics included many thinkers and activists across the political spectrum. During his 20s, [[Herbert Marcuse]] was a student in Freiburg, where he went to study under [[Martin Heidegger]], one of Germany's most prominent philosophers. Marcuse himself later became a driving force in the [[New Left]] in the United States. [[Ernst Bloch]], [[Max Horkheimer]]  and [[Walter Benjamin]] all wrote about Marxism and politics in addition to other philosophical topics. From the perspective of Jewish philosophers in Germany, they also considered the problems posed by the "[[Jewish question]]".<ref>{{cite book |doi=10.5422/fordham/9780823233618.001.0001 |title=The Other Jewish Question ''Identifying'' the Jew and Making Sense of Modernity |year=2011 |last1=Geller |first1=Jay |isbn=978-0-8232-3361-8 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Marcuse|first=Herbert|title=Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, and Emancipation|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2011 |isbn=978-0-415-13784-3|at=p. 3 footnote 4|editor=Kellner, Douglas |editor2=Clayton Pierce |editor3=Tyson Lewis}}</ref> Political philosophers [[Leo Strauss]] and [[Hannah Arendt]] received their university education during the Weimar Republic and moved in Jewish intellectual circles in Berlin, and were associated with [[Norbert Elias]], [[Leo Löwenthal]], [[Karl Löwith]], [[Julius Guttmann]], [[Hans-Georg Gadamer]], [[Franz Rosenzweig]], [[Gershom Scholem]], and [[Alexander Altmann]]. Strauss and Arendt, along with Marcuse and Benjamin, were among the Jewish intellectuals who managed to flee the Nazi regime, eventually emigrating to the United States. [[Carl Schmitt]], a legal and political scholar, was also a vocal fascist supporter of both the Nazi regime and Spain's [[Francisco Franco|Franco]]; however, he published works of political philosophy that remained studied by philosophers and political scholars with radically different views, such as [[Alain Badiou]], [[Slavoj Žižek]], and his contemporaries [[Hannah Arendt]], [[Walter Benjamin]], and [[Leo Strauss]].

==Health and self-improvement==
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-11617, Hannover, Schülerinnen der Logis-Schule.jpg|thumb|Students at a boarding school in Hanover, beginning each day with 8 o'clock rhythmic dancing and jumping exercises, 1931.]]
Germany had many innovators in health treatment, some more questionable than others, in the decades leading up to World War I. As a group, they were collectively known as part of the [[Lebensreform]], or Life Reform, movement. During the Weimar years, some of these found traction with the German public, particularly in Berlin.

Some innovations had lasting influence. [[Joseph Pilates]] developed much of his [[Pilates]] system of physical training during the 1920s. [[Expressionist dance]] teachers such as [[Rudolf Laban]] had an important impact on Pilates' theories.

''Nacktkultur'', called [[naturism]] or modern nudism in English, was pioneered by [[Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach]] in Vienna in the late 1890s. Resorts for naturists were established at a rapid pace along the northern coast of Germany during the 1920s, and by 1931, Berlin itself had 40 naturists' societies and clubs. A variety of periodicals on the topic were also regularly published.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gordon|first=Mel|title=Voluptuous Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin|url=https://archive.org/details/voluptuouspanice00gord|url-access=limited|year=2006|publisher=Feral House|location=Los Angeles|isbn=978-1-932595-11-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/voluptuouspanice00gord/page/n144 132]}}</ref>

Philosopher [[Rudolf Steiner]], like Diefenbach, was a follower of [[Theosophy (Blavatskian)|Theosophy]]. Steiner had an enormous influence on the [[alternative health]] movement before his death in 1925 and far beyond. With [[Ita Wegman]], he developed [[anthroposophical medicine]]. The integration of spirituality and [[homeopathy]] is controversial and has been criticized for having no basis in science.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ernst |first1=Edzard |title=Anthroposophical medicine: A systematic review of randomised clinical trials |journal=Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift |date=February 2004 |volume=116 |issue=4 |pages=128–130 |doi=10.1007/BF03040749 |pmid=15038403 |s2cid=27965443 }}</ref>

Steiner was also an early proponent of [[organic agriculture]], in the form of a [[holistic]] concept later called [[biodynamic agriculture]]. In 1924 he delivered a series of public lectures on the topic, which were then published.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Paull|first=John|title=The Secrets of Koberwitz: The Diffusion of Rudolf Steiner's Agriculture Course and the Founding of Biodynamic Agriculture.|journal=Journal of Social Research and Policy|year=2011|volume=2 | issue = 1 |pages=19–20}}</ref>

''Aufklärungsfilme'' (enlightenment films) supported the idea of teaching the public about important social problems, such as alcohol and drug addiction, venereal disease, homosexuality, prostitution, and prison reform.<ref>{{cite book|last=Biro|first=Matthew|title=The Dada Cyborg: Visions of the New Human in Weimar Berlin|url=https://archive.org/details/dadacyborgvision00biro|url-access=limited|year=2009|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|isbn=978-0-8166-3619-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/dadacyborgvision00biro/page/n318 308]}}</ref>

== Status of homosexuality==
{{See also|First homosexual movement}}
Weimar Germany experienced an increase in the vocalization and congregation of the homosexual community, partially due to the leniency of federal censorship. The period marked an influx in lesbian and gay media as publishers took advantage of ambiguously-worded censorship laws in the [[Weimar Constitution]]. Then, in 1921, the German [[Reichsgericht]] ruled that homosexual themes in press were not necessarily obscene unless erotic in nature.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Marhoefer|first=Laurie|date=2015|title="THE BOOK WAS A REVELATION, I RECOGNIZED MYSELF IN IT": Lesbian sexuality, censorship, and the queer press in weimar-era germany|journal=Journal of Women's History|volume=27|issue=2 |pages=62–86|doi=10.1353/jowh.2015.0016 |s2cid=141798035 }}</ref>

Gay magazines disseminated meeting spots for homosexuals to gather and enabled the formation of clubs referred to as "friendship leagues." Some of these leagues would eventually integrate with the [[German League for Human Rights]].<ref name=":0" />

Weimar-era Germany also witnessed the emergence of the world’s first lesbian magazine, ''[[Die Freundin]]''. Although there were at least five lesbian magazines available at the time to more than one million readers across German-speaking countries, ''Die Freundin'' was the most popular.<ref name="Espinaco-Virseda 2004">{{cite journal |last1=Espinaco-Virseda |first1=Angeles |title='I feel that I belong to you': Subculture, Die Freundin and Lesbian Identities in Weimar Germany |journal=spacesofidentity.Net <!-- odd journal name --> |volume= 4 |issue= 1 |date=April 2004 |doi=10.25071/1496-6778.8015 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Published from 1924 to 1933, the magazine featured short stories as well as information about lesbian meetings and nightspots before it was ultimately shut down after the Nazis rose to power.<ref name="Espinaco-Virseda 2004"/>

In 1928, the first guide to the lesbian club scene was published by Ruth Roellig entitled “''Ruth Roellig’s Berlins lesbische Frauen'' (Berlin’s Lesbian Women).” This guide allowed women in Berlin to connect and learn more about the lesbian community.<ref name="Espinaco-Virseda 2004"/>

Despite the illegality of homosexuality during this time period, references to homosexual relationships in cinema grew substantially. Two well-known films from Weimar Germany that centered around homosexual relationships are ''[[Anders als die Andern]]'' (''Different from the Others''), which centered around a relationship between two men, and ''[[Mädchen in Uniform]]'' (''Girls in Uniform''), which focused on a lesbian relationship between a teacher and student. Both of these films received positive critical reviews and were commercial hits, opening in Berlin’s top theatres. Despite the positive reviews, there was still public outcry over ''Anders als die Andern'', including riots at the cinemas where it opened, and it was even banned in various theatres including in Munich, Vienna, and Stuttgart.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dyer |first1=Richard |title=Less and More than Women and Men: Lesbian and Gay Cinema in Weimar Germany |journal=New German Critique |date=1990 |issue=51 |pages=5–60 |doi=10.2307/488171 |jstor=488171 }}</ref>

==Berlin's reputation for decadence==
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-07740, Berlin, "Schnaps-Ede" der Likör-Verkäufer.jpg|thumb|A liquor-seller after closing time on the road. His activity was illegal and the liquor, which cost one mark per glass, was often of quite dubious origin. The seller constantly changed his location.]]

Prostitution rose in Berlin and elsewhere in the areas of Europe left ravaged by World War I. This means of survival for desperate women, and sometimes men, became normalized to a degree in the 1920s. During the war, venereal diseases such as [[syphilis]] and [[gonorrhea]] spread at a rate that warranted government attention.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gordon|first=Mel|title=Voluptuous Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin|url=https://archive.org/details/voluptuouspanice00gord|url-access=limited|year=2006|publisher=Feral House|location=Los Angeles|isbn=978-1-932595-11-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/voluptuouspanice00gord/page/n28 16]}}</ref> Soldiers at the front contracted these diseases from prostitutes, so the German army responded by granting approval to certain brothels that were inspected by their own medical doctors, and soldiers were rationed coupon books for sexual services at these establishments.<ref name="Gordon17">{{cite book|last=Gordon|first=Mel|title=Voluptuous Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin|url=https://archive.org/details/voluptuouspanice00gord|url-access=limited|year=2006|publisher=Feral House|location=Los Angeles|isbn=978-1-932595-11-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/voluptuouspanice00gord/page/n29 17]}}</ref> Homosexual behaviour was also documented among soldiers at the front. Soldiers returning to Berlin at the end of the War had a different attitude towards their own sexual behaviour than they had a few years previously.<ref name="Gordon17"/> Prostitution was frowned on by respectable Berliners, but it continued to the point of becoming entrenched in the city's underground economy and culture. First women with no other means of support turned to the trade, then youths of both genders.

Crime in general developed in parallel with prostitution in the city, beginning as petty thefts and other crimes linked to the need to survive in the war's aftermath. Berlin eventually acquired a reputation as a hub of drug dealing (cocaine, heroin, tranquilizers) and the black market. The police identified 62 organized criminal gangs in Berlin, called ''[[Ringvereine]]''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gordon|first=Mel|title=Voluptuous Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin|url=https://archive.org/details/voluptuouspanice00gord|url-access=limited|year=2006|publisher=Feral House|location=Los Angeles|isbn=978-1-932595-11-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/voluptuouspanice00gord/page/n254 242]}}</ref> The German public also became fascinated with reports of homicides, especially "[[lust murder]]s" or ''Lustmord''. Publishers met this demand with inexpensive criminal novels called ''Krimi'', which like the [[film noir]] of the era (such as the classic ''[[M (1931 film)|M]]''), explored methods of scientific detection and psychosexual analysis.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gordon|first=Mel|title=Voluptuous Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin|url=https://archive.org/details/voluptuouspanice00gord|url-access=limited|year=2006|publisher=Feral House|location=Los Angeles|isbn=978-1-932595-11-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/voluptuouspanice00gord/page/n241 229]}}</ref>

Apart from the new tolerance for behaviour that was technically still illegal, and viewed by a large part of society as immoral, there were other developments in Berlin culture that shocked many visitors to the city. Thrill-seekers came to the city in search of adventure, and booksellers sold many editions of guide books to Berlin's erotic night entertainment venues. There were an estimated 500 such establishments, that included a large number of homosexual venues for men and for women; sometimes transvestites of one or both genders were admitted, otherwise there were at least 5 known establishments that were exclusively for a transvestite clientele.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gordon|first=Mel|title=Voluptuous Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin|url=https://archive.org/details/voluptuouspanice00gord|url-access=limited|year=2006|publisher=Feral House|location=Los Angeles|isbn=978-1-932595-11-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/voluptuouspanice00gord/page/n268 256]}}</ref> There were also several nudist venues. Berlin also had a museum of sexuality during the Weimar period, at Dr. [[Magnus Hirschfeld]]'s [[Institut für Sexualwissenschaft|Institute of Sexology]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Gordon|first=Mel|title=Voluptuous Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin|url=https://archive.org/details/voluptuouspanice00gord|url-access=limited|year=2006|publisher=Feral House|location=Los Angeles|isbn=978-1-932595-11-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/voluptuouspanice00gord/page/n268 256]–7}}</ref> These were nearly all closed when the Nazi regime was established in 1933.

Artists in Berlin became fused with the city's [[underground culture]] as the borders between cabaret and legitimate theatre blurred. [[Anita Berber]], a dancer and actress, became notorious throughout the city and beyond for her erotic performances (as well as her cocaine addiction and erratic behaviour). She was painted by [[Otto Dix]], and socialized in the same circles as [[Klaus Mann]].

==Gallery of 1920s Berlin cultural life==
1920s Berlin was a city of many social contrasts. While a large part of the population continued to struggle with high unemployment and deprivations in the aftermath of World War I, the upper class of society, and a growing middle class, gradually rediscovered prosperity and turned Berlin into a cosmopolitan city. 
<gallery>
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-06615, Berlin, "Graf Zeppelin" über der Siegessäule.jpg|The [[LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin|Graf Zeppelin]] flies over the [[Berlin Victory Column|Victory Column]], 1928
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-02851, Berlin, Elefanten des Zoos Hagenbeck.jpg|A parade of elephants with [[India]]n trainers from the Hagenbeck show, on their way to the [[Berlin Zoological Garden]], 1926
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-06482, Berlin-Zehlendorf, Mustersiedlung.jpg|A [[Neues Bauen]] (New Building)-style housing development in [[Berlin-Zehlendorf]], 1928
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1991-1209-503, Autorennen im Grunewald, Berlin.jpg|A 1922 autorace in [[Grunewald (locality)|Grunewald]], Berlin
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-07741, Berlin, "Koks Emil" der Kokain-Verkäufer.jpg|Prostitutes buy cocaine capsules from a drug dealer in Berlin, 1930. The capsules sold for 5 marks each.
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-07933, Berlin, Internationaler Frauenkongress.jpg|International Women's Union Congress in Berlin, 1929
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-00888, Berlin, Wahlwerbung für KPD.jpg|[[Communist]] campaigners during the [[Reichstag (Weimar Republic)|Reichstag]] elections, 1924
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-00503, Berlin, Turn- und Sportwoche im Lustgarten.jpg|An exhibit of [[boxing]], [[Jujutsu|jiu jitsu]], and other sports in the [[Lustgarten]], 1925
</gallery>

==See also==
{{Div col|colwidth=30em}}
* [[Aftermath of World War I]]
* [[Cinema of Germany]]
* [[Critical theory|Critical Theory]]
* [[Cuba de ayer]]
* [[Culture of Germany]]
* [[Dada]]
* [[Degenerate art]]
* [[Expressionism]]
* [[Futurism (art)|Futurism]]
* [[Germany]]
* [[German Expressionism]]
* [[Gleichschaltung]]
* [[Glitter and Doom|Glitter and Doom - Exhibit of Art in the Weimar Republic]]
* [[Glossary of the Weimar Republic]]
* [[Golden Twenties]]
* [[History of Germany]]
* [[Kultur]]
* [[Literature of World War I]]
* [[Lost Generation]]
* [[Modernism]]
* [[Nazi Germany]]
* [[New Objectivity]]
* [[Post-World War I recession]]
* [[Post-expressionism]]
* [[Reactionary modernism]]
* [[Roaring Twenties]]
* [[Surrealism]]
* [[Weimar Timeline]]
* [[Weimaraner]]
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*Becker, Sabina. Neue Sachlichkeit. Köln: Böhlau, 2000. Print.
*[[Gail Finney]] (2008) ''[https://summer-abroad.ucdavis.edu/programs/syllabus/The%20Roaring%20Twenties%20in%20Germany-2010.pdf WEIMAR CULTURE: Defeat, the Roaring Twenties, the Rise of Nazism]'', Courses overview of program [http://summer-abroad.ucdavis.edu/programs/current-programs/program.aspx?program=1976 The Roaring Twenties in Germany]
*Gay, Peter. ''Weimar Culture: The Outsider as Insider''. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1981.
* Gordon, Peter E., and John P. McCormick, eds. ''Weimar Thought: A Contested Legacy'' (Princeton U.P. 2013) 451 pages; scholarly essays on law, culture, politics, philosophy, science, art and architecture 
*Hermand, Jost and Frank Trommler. ''Die Kultur der Weimarer Republik''. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 1989.
* {{cite book |last1=Huneke |first1=Samuel Clowes |title=States of Liberation: Gay Men between Dictatorship and Democracy in Cold War Germany |date=2022 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1-4875-4213-9 }}
*{{cite book|last=Jelavich|first=Peter|title=Berlin Alexanderplatz: Radio, Film, and the Death of Weimar Culture|year=2009|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley|isbn=978-0-520-25997-3}}
*Kaes, Anton, Martin Jay, and Edward Dimendberg. ''The Weimar Republic Sourcebook''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.
*Lethen, Helmut. ''Cool Conduct: The Culture of Distance in Weimar Germany''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.
*Lindner, Martin. ''Leben in der Krise. Zeitromane der neuen Sachlichkeit und die intellektuelle Mentalität der klassischen Moderne''. Stuttgart: Metzler, 1994.
*Martin Mauthner: ''German Writers in French Exile, 1933–1940'', London: 2007; {{ISBN|9780853035404}}.
*Peukert, Detlev. ''The Weimar Republic: the Crisis of Classical Modernity''. New York: Hill and Wang, 1992.
*Schrader, Barbel. "The 'Golden' Twenties: Art and Literature in the Weimar Republic". Yale University Press, 1988, p.&nbsp;25-27.
*Schütz, Erhard H. ''Romane Der Weimarer Republik''. München: W. Fink, 1986. Print.
*Peter Selz (2004) ''Beyond the Mainstream: Fifty years of Curating Modern and Contemporary Art.'' lectures delivered at Duke University, 10 September 2004.
*Weitz, Eric D. ''Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy''. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 2007. Print.
*Willett, John. ''Art and Politics in the Weimar Period: The New Sobriety, 1917–1933''. 1st ed. New York: Pantheon Books, 1978. Print.

==External links==
* [http://www.weimarberlin.com A site about art, literature and politics in the Weimar era]

{{German literature}}
{{Portal bar|Germany|1920s|Society}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weimar Culture}}
[[Category:Weimar culture| ]]
[[Category:Weimar Republic]]