Introduction: Communication in the Weimar Republic

Abstract

Abstract Communication has always featured prominently in Weimar research. Disputes about how the war was lost, the disdain in which the republic was held by its foes, the scepticism with which it was regarded by many of its citizens, and the manifold ways its various crises were interpreted—the history of the republic offered many angles from which to assess how communication was used to process events. Taking their cue from more recent trends in Weimar scholarship, however, the essays in this issue set new emphases. Not only have their authors chosen innovative topics, but they have approached them with an acute sensitivity to situations, settings, discourses and practices. They pose questions about the specific conditions, channels and practices of communication in the Weimar Republic and consider the complex mixture of interconnected communicative actions between different groups at different levels of society, nationally and internationally. By so doing they address the issue of communication as one of the most vibrant aspects of a society that was marked by rapid technological developments as well as political change.