Weimars Wirkung. Das Nachleben der ersten deutschen Republik ed. by Hanno Hochmuth, Martin Sabrow, and Tilmann Siebenreichner

Abstract

Reviewed by: Weimars Wirkung. Das Nachleben der ersten deutschen Republik ed. by Hanno Hochmuth, Martin Sabrow, and Tilmann Siebenreichner Jonathan Wipplinger Weimars Wirkung. Das Nachleben der ersten deutschen Republik. Edited by Hanno Hochmuth, Martin Sabrow, and Tilmann Siebenreichner. Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2020. Pp. 232. Cloth €24.00. ISBN 9783835337817. What remains of the Weimar Republic today? What is the political legacy of Weimar as Germany's first democracy? And what impact has Weimar had on the political history of Germany since 1933? These and other compelling questions motivate this volume of revised lectures originally delivered in 2018/2019 as part of a Ringvorlesung on the same subject. Divided into two sections, essays in the first half contain historical snapshots that radiate centrifugally from the Weimar Republic outward, while the contributions in the second half consider the afterlife of Weimar, demonstrating the centripetal impact of Weimar in the Nazi era and in divided Germany, especially the 1950s and 1960s. The primary purpose of the volume is less a direct exploration of contemporary comparisons to Weimar than an attempt to offer a historical overview of the role Weimar has played in twentieth-century German political history. The volume thus begins with Martin Sabrow's introductory sketch of the collection's core concern: Weimar's political legacy. Sabrow rereads debates about central, [End Page 583] contested political symbols of Weimar (the flag colors, constitution, national anthem and even images like the photograph of Ebert and Noske bathing) and, against their interpretation as indicative of the Weimar coalition's ineptitude in this arena, he interprets these debates as evincing, amongst other things, Weimar politicians' resistance to the pomposity of politics in Wilhelmine Germany. The next five essays, i.e. those that make up the first section, take a Weimar-era historical context and show its later impact. Tilmann Siebeneichner's opening essay discusses the multiple functions of the idea of the emergency situation (Ausnahmezustand) during Weimar and after. Here he usefully distinguishes between competing understandings of the concept as a revolutionary, destabilizing and as a conservative, stabilizing force. Claudia Weber's essay considers Soviet-German relations from the perspective of the joint airline DERULUFT and shows how continuity rather than rupture defined this relationship in the interwar period. Next, Andreas Nachama argues for conceptualizing the Nazi party as a modern big tent party (Volkspartei), in particular by dint of its horizontal organization into suborganizations for specific social groups. Michael Wildt, meanwhile, treats the history of the concept of the Volksgemeinschaft and its uses before, during and, of course, after Weimar. Though initially used by parties of the Weimar coalition to signify the overcoming of political difference, the inherent ambiguity of the word "Volk" could and did lead to racialized acts of exclusion by the Nazis and right-wing groups. Stefanie Schüler-Springorum's essay concludes the first section by building on this idea. She discusses the historical development in antisemitic ideology and political practices on the right during Weimar. She argues that Weimar's antisemitic legacy was interrupted in the post-war era not by the horrors of the Holocaust, but by a top-down change in the social elites, especially the churches. Contributions in the second section approach Weimar from the outside, exploring how different contemporary moments have understood the relevance of Weimar for "today." The first essay by Hanno Hochmuth, unique in its contemporary framework, investigates the popular television series Babylon Berlin as a moment of nostalgia that selectively appropriates motifs from the Weimar era to showcase internationally recognized myths about Berlin, e.g., its "poor but sexy" image. Annette Vowinckel's selection reveals Weimar's impact on German visual culture through the medium of photography. In it, she tracks an important set of Weimar-era innovations and innovators in photography across the twentieth century and into today. Henrik Bispinck's essay shifts from media to pedagogy and after an overview of the many, ultimately unsuccessful attempts at a reform of the education system during Weimar. Bispinck discusses the impact of the reform movement on East and West German education systems in the 1950s and 1960s. The final four essays shift back toward the more narrowly political. While rooted in...