Weimar Republic Research Articles

A Republican of Faith: Adolf von Harnack’s Public and Intellectual Activity, 1914–1930

Abstract This paper focuses on the prominent German theologian Adolf von Harnack in his capacity as a public intellectual during the Weimar Republic. The few works of scholarship that address Harnack’s Weimar years at any length are in German, and the barely extant Anglophone literature, severely outdated, largely neglects to evaluate adequately the evolution and scope of Harnack’s pedagogical and theological positions as well as of the institutional power he commanded. Drawing principally from Harnack’s writings, both personal and published, before World War I until his death in 1930, this essay seeks to chart his intellectual development during the final years of his life and to survey how he translated his liberal theological principles into loyalty to the Weimar constitution. Public intellectuals such as Harnack were able to serve the public good in multifaceted, unquantifiable ways without attaching themselves to a particular party or to an explicitly partisan cause. By examining Harnack’s public and theological activity, I intend to provide a more holistic look at intellectual life in the Weimar Republic and to advocate for both a less restrictive definition of “public intellectual” and a broader conception of “political activism.”

Legal Counterrevolution: Property and Judicial Power in the Weimar Republic

This article offers a new account of the rise of judicial power in modern Germany. Strong judicial control of the government is often associated with the constitutional ethos that emerged in postwar West Germany as a reaction to Nazi rule. This article locates the origins of German judicialization in the political struggles of the Weimar era. It shows how the assumption of a power to judicial review by Germany's highest court, the Reichsgericht, was the product of the successful cooperation of the judiciary with conservative political parties on the issue of property rights in the young republic. These were at the centre of two controversies examined in the article: the expropriation of princes of former ruling houses and the consequences of the hyperinflation of 1923. In both cases the Reichsgericht used an understanding of property as an inalienable right to radically reinterpret Germany's first democratic constitution, which had in fact granted the legislature extensive power to modify property relations. This suited the judiciary's own objective of assuming stronger controls over legislative action and bolstered the political position of conservative forces in Weimar politics. What emerged was a supra-positive constitutionalism that sought to supersede the written constitution. These political realities were an essential context for theoretical debates on the extent and limits of judicial power between theorists such as Carl Schmitt, Hans Kelsen, Hermann Heller, Franz Neumann, and Ernst Fraenkel. An examination of the complex interaction of parliamentary, judicial, and popular politics concerning the issue of property reveals that German judicial empowerment amounted to an attempt to rewrite the Weimar Constitution and limit the scope of Germany's democratic revolution.

East German-Jewish spaces in Berlin: Jewish heritage societies (Heimatvereine) and their diasporic milieu during the 1920s and 1930s

ABSTRACT Following the First World War and the loss of German territories in Posen, West Prussia and Silesia, many German Jews from those areas left their homes and settled either in Germany or moved to the USA, Latin America or Palestine. Quite a few of them came to Berlin. There and in other German cities as well they founded so called Heimatvereine, Jewish Heritage Societies. This article analyses the spaces those societies created – concrete spaces, in which people met, but also metaphorical spaces, in which a specific East-German-Jewish diasporic milieu was created and maintained that also transcended the borders of the Weimar Republic.

The socio-economic policy of the Breuning government (March 29, 1930 - May 30, 1932) in the coverage of the Soviet newspaper Pravda

The article examines the socio-economic policy in the Weimar Republic under Chancellor Heinrich Breuning from 1930 to 1932 through the prism of the Soviet newspaper Pravda, which is the main source of expression of the official position of the Soviet Union on the issue of international relations. In addition to evaluating the Chancellor's activities and the events taking place in Germany, the newspaper's materials highlight the specifics of the development of the German communist movement during this period. The authors also highlight events related to the development of the National Socialist movement in Germany during the period under review in the context of the strengthening of the political influence of the National Socialist Party of Germany and the development of government interaction with its leaders. It is concluded that the newspaper Pravda in its publications about the events in Germany during this period focused on the proletarian struggle and did not differ in an analytical approach.The following research methods were used: analysis of special sources and materials, including archival ones; method of classification and systematization; content analysis of materials of the newspaper Pravda. The main conclusion of the study is that the ambiguous and contradictory policies of the Breuning cabinet led to a new political crisis in the country. Instability and the lack of socio-economic and political prospects led to an increasing polarization of German society and its inclination towards the right-wing radical party of the National Socialists.In addition, the publications of Pravda, reflecting the events in Germany during this period, were more tendentious in the nature of the proletarian struggle and did not differ in analytics.

Women in Politics and the Public Sphere: Munich 1918/1919

Women have never been passive bystanders to the history being made around them and they have always found ways to contribute to shaping their world. Munich in 1918/1919 provides a useful site to examine women's experiences and roles due to the long-standing involvement of women in the peace movement and welfare work, as well as the foundation of the Bavarian Soviet Republic after the First World War. However, Munich in the early years of the Weimar Republic is most commonly associated with Adolf Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch in 1923, an attempt by right-wing men to seize political power. Moreover, the 1918 revolution is also often told through the lens of male political figures. As a result, politics in the early twentieth century is easy to view as a male-dominated affair with women merely experiencing the effects of male political power. This era, particularly from the perspective of Munich, also becomes viewed through the lens of the rise of fascism, which obscures and distorts the alternative political visions many women held and worked towards. This article centres on women's experiences and roles in politics and the public sphere in revolutionary Munich to ask what opportunities the revolution and its immediate aftermath presented for women and how they were able to influence political decision-making despite huge barriers. Through an understanding of how their world was gendered, their role as political agents comes to the fore.

CARL SCHMITT AND FRIEDRICH HAYEK ON DEMOCRACY: ELECTIVE AFFINITIES?

The aim of the present paper is to disclose the structural affinities between Carl Schmitt and Friedrich Hayek regarding the concept of parliamentary democracy. Identifying Hayek’s neoliberal thinking with Schmitt’s theoretical justification of fascism would apparently be an a-historical overgeneralization. While Schmitt develops a model of absolute sovereignty relying on the sovereign’s decision on the state of exception, Hayek envisages the historical realization of those conditions allowing the market competition to flourish. Schmitt’s model subjugates market to an omnipotent state whereas Hayek views the latter as an engine abetting the free market competition.   
 A closer reading, however, could discern affinities behind the seemingly opposed models of the two thinkers. 
 Schmitt’s model of an emergency dictatorship and Hayek’s nomocracy are two different responses and attacks to the Left’s attempt to construct a democratic welfare state in the Weimar Republic and postwar Europe. Schmitt advocates the concentration of political power in a totalitarian state as the sole “remedy” to the democratic contamination of liberalism induced by the politicization of civil society. Similarly, Hayek castigates any state intervention taking the form of the welfare state but endorses a powerful state entrusted with the role of securing the conditions of market competition. 

Learning from the Past: Urban Landscape Transformation Praxis on the Example of Interwar German Housing Estates

In this paper, the incorporation of formerly existing built environment and natural elements was studied in eight housing estates from the interwar period in the Weimar Republic as a part of broader research on landscape transformations. The data on the original state of land development were collected using the comparative cartographic analysis method. The analysis was supplemented by a comparison with iconography, such as aerial photographs, orthoimagery, and, in some cases, manually drafted plans. The results suggest that pre-existing conditions significantly influenced the functional dispositions and urban layout of the estates. These findings add to our understanding of the development of housing estates of the interwar period in the Weimar Republic and the posture of designers and urban planners towards the natural conditions of the respective project sites. This work can be valuable for adding to existing guidelines or principles of urban planning.

Sergei Chakhotin against the Swastika: Mass Psychology and Scientific Organization in the Iron Front's Three Arrows Campaign

Abstract This article details the influence of Russian psychologist Sergei Chakhotin on the propaganda of the Iron Front, an antifascist organization that resisted the rise of the Nazis in the dying days of the Weimar Republic. Notably the creator of the Three Arrows symbol, Chakhotin espoused theories and methods that used Ivan Pavlov's notion of the conditioned reflex and Fredrick Taylor's theory of scientific management to transform socialist propaganda to better combat the rise of fascism. By scrutinizing Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) periodicals and Iron Front propaganda, I argue that Chakhotin's ideas played a crucial role in catalyzing changes in the form and content of street campaigning throughout 1932. Chakhotin provided a scientific lens through which his allies in the SPD could view and understand the mass appeal of the Nazis, as well as the necessary changes in party tactics that were required in the age of mass media, popular spectacle, and emotional struggle.

Charlotte Meentzen – Einblicke in ein Dresdner Naturkosmetik-Unternehmen der 30er und 40er Jahre

Abstract In the early 1930s, the trained beautician Charlotte Meentzen founded a company in Dresden based on naturopathy with the three pillars of a cosmetics institute, production and school. The foundation, financed by her father Theodor Meentzen, a professional speaker and publicist as well as trade union and SPD member, took place at a time of upheaval that affected the prevailing image of women as well as economic and political conditions. Charlotte Meentzen and her sister Gertrud, who joined the company early on, belonged to a close circle of professional women who ventured into self-employment in an industry that was still controversial at the time. The essay focuses on Charlotte Meentzen as a person, the circumstances surrounding the founding of the company in terms of female entrepreneurship, the cosmetics industry in general and natural cosmetics in particular against the backdrop of the final years of the Weimar Republic and the Nazi era in the Saxon metropolis. At the time, Dresden was considered a stronghold of naturopathy and was proclaimed the «Stadt der Volksgesundheit» («City of Public Health») under the Nazi regime. Using (advertising) examples such as the guide published by Meentzen in 1941, «Heilkräfte im Dienste der Schönheit» («Healing powers in the service of beauty»), the actions of the company management between adaptation and self-assertion become clear. This applied not least to the years of reconstruction in the Soviet occupation zone and the GDR, whereby the sisters always remained true to their convictions regarding individual health and beauty on the basis of natural remedies.

[Urology in Upper Palatinate-what archeology, historical research, and historiography reveal : Part1: from Roman Antiquity to the late Middle Ages].

Since 1924, it has been possible to qualify as aspecialist in urology in Germany. The first hospital departments for the treatment of urological conditions were established as early as the end of the German Empire and the Weimar Republic. However, the beginning of specialist medical care in the Bavarian administrative district of Upper Palatinate, often known as the "poorhouse" of Germany until the second half of the last century, was much later. Nevertheless, the lineage of "urological" activity here can be traced back to much earlier eras. Of course, it must be accepted that the evidence from times long past is weak. This is especially applicable when it comes to atopic such as the treatment of the sick and the preservation of health, which is not only considered ascience but also often acentral focus of life for us today, because in history it was often only mentioned in the fight against epidemics and in anecdotal descriptions. This is acircumstance which, when looking at the history of urology, gives rise to the hope of finding one or two interesting sources. This article not only aims to trace the history of the development of urology in arural area from contemporary history to the present day, but also to explore the treatment of urological diseases in this region since late antiquity. Furthermore, we invite readers to look at other places of urological remembrance in asimilar way.

Urbanization, Bourgeois Culture, and the Institutionalization of the Frankfurt Neurological Institute by Ludwig Edinger (1855–1918)

Ludwig Edinger (1855–1918) is often perceived as a functional neuroanatomist who primarily followed traditional lines of microscopic research. That he was a rather fascinating innovator in the history of neurology at the turn from the nineteenth to the twentieth century has, however, gone quite unnoticed. Edinger’s career and his pronounced hopes for future investigative progress in neurological work mark an important shift, one away from traditional research styles connected to department-based approaches towards a multi-perspective and quite advanced form of interdisciplinary scientific work. Being conceptually influenced by the Austrian neuroanatomist Heinrich Obersteiner (1847–1922) and his foundation of the Neurological Institute in Vienna in 1882, Edinger established a multi-faceted brain research program. It was linked to an institutional setting of laboratory analysis and clinical research that paved the way for a new type of interdisciplinarity. After completion of his medical training, which brought him in working relationships with illustrious clinicians such as Friedrich von Recklinghausen (1810–1879) and Adolf Kussmaul (1822–1902), Edinger settled in 1883 as one of the first clinically working neurologists in the German city of Frankfurt/Main. Here, he began to collaborate with the neuropathologist Carl Weigert (1845–1904), who worked at the independent research institute of the Senckenbergische Anatomie. Since 1902, Edinger came to organize the anatomical collections and equipment for a new brain research laboratory in the recently constructed Senckenbergische Pathologie. It was later renamed the “Neurological Institute”, and became an early interdisciplinary working place for the study of the human nervous system in its comparative, morphological, experimental, and clinical dimensions. Even after Edinger’s death and under the austere circumstances of the Weimar Period, altogether three serviceable divisions continued with fruitful research activities in close alignment: the unit of comparative neurology, the unit of neuropsychology and neuropathology (headed by holist neurologist Kurt Goldstein, 1865–1965), and an associated unit of paleoneurology (chaired by Ludwig Edinger’s daughter Tilly, 1897–1967, who later became a pioneering neuropaleontologist at Harvard University). It was especially the close vicinity of the clinic that attracted Edinger’s attention and led him to conceive a successful model of neurological research, joining together different scientific perspectives in a unique and visibly modern form.

Hidden in plain sight: advertisements for Jewish ritual objects in Germany, 1871–1933

ABSTRACT Jewish ritual objects are rather niche products and yet, the advertisements, as well as other factors, indicate an industrial scale production during the German Second Empire (1871–1918) and the Weimar Republic (1918–1933). As I will argue, these advertisements provide us with intriguing insights into the Jewish community, and how German Jewry was perceived by the non-Jewish population. Especially when companies used methods of ethnic marketing, I surveyed how they addressed the different strata of the Jewish community. In addition, some company advertisements bear traces of an understanding of Judaism on equal footing with Christian denominations. Yet, I also find hints of industrial overproduction which, as I argue, might have been stimulated by stereotypes of Jews. Perhaps in response to the overproduction, some retailers advertised Jewish ritual objects as “decorative” rather than religious items, and therefore veiled their link to Judaism. While this might have been a protective measure against anti-Semitic slurs, it ties in well with the observation that producers and retailers might have expected higher sales. Overall, analysing advertisements for Jewish ritual objects helps us to develop a more nuanced understanding of the positioning of Jewish consumers within the market in Germany before the Shoah.

Afterlives of Anders als die Andern and of Weimar

Abstract This article uses reconstructions of the 1919 German LGBTQ+ rights film Anders als die Andern (Different from the Others) to consider the meaning of the Weimar Republic. It surveys Weimar's historiography, memorialization efforts, public commemorations, museums, and film reconstruction, drawing connections between these fields. The film as an incomplete document becomes a metaphor for incomplete histories. As such, it offers suggestions for engaging with fragmentary pasts.

Art and Politics: The Migration of Images and Ideas between Weimar Republic and Interwar Lithuania

Art and Politics: The Migration of Images and Ideas between Weimar Republic and Interwar Lithuania

Changes in the form and structure of Catholic peace-making

This contribution outlines catholic peace work in Weimar Republic and after the Second World War. It analyses how spirituality and political engagement connect and how the conviction that peace includes more than cease-fire — but requires a commitment to social justice — becomes a leitmotif.

Personal enemies, conceptual friends. Karl Loewenstein and Carl Schmitt on self-destructive legalism

ABSTRACT The paper aims to discuss the rarely acknowledged conceptual affinities between legal-political thinking of Carl Schmitt and Karl Loewenstein. It may sound surprising given their different political leanings, as well as the concept of democracy inherent in the legal and political thought of the two thinkers, especially in their constitutional theories. For Schmitt democracy signifies identity between the rulers and the ruled, while for Loewenstein it is the very will of the people that has to be checked and tamed through the institution of representation. But when it comes to the defence of the existing political regime against the assault of its enemies and the understanding of the reasons of Weimar Republic’s failure, they strongly agree. Schmitt identified and elaborated on the possibility of the Weimar Republic’s enemies entering through the gate of legality and shutting its doors behind them. Loewenstein clearly sides with Schmitt that defending the constitution means defending its core or substance. The concept of militant democracy bears striking similarities with the conceptual world of Carl Schmitt: critique of the legalistic blindness, rejection of neutrality in public life, friend-enemy distinctions, legitimacy versus legality and the state of emergency.

[The stomatological care of schoolchildren in the Soviet Russia in 1920s: Succession of ideas].

The article considers historical interaction between the Soviet Russia and the Weimar Republic related to prevention of caries in children in 1920s and the role of P. G. Dauge in it. The methodology of German Professor A. Kantorovich with minor alterations was adopted to be applied in organization of dental care of schoolchildren in the RSFSR. In the Soviet Russia, the practical implementation of planned oral cavity sanation in children started on a national scale only in second half of the 1920s. It was caused by skeptical attitude of dentists to methodology of "planned sanation" in conditions of the Soviet Russia.

Leo Strauss and Edith Stein in the Grip of the Theopolitical

Abstract What connection with institutional religion ought modern political states promote? As they developed their political thinking in the early years of the Weimar Republic, Leo Strauss and Edith Stein came up with opposite answers to this question. While Strauss discerned in Carl Schmitt’s maximalist concept of the theopolitical a possible remedy against the flaws of liberal democracy, Stein ascribed democracy’s chance of survival to a renewed distinction between the political and religious spheres. Here, Strauss can be viewed as an heir to the ancient and medieval Jewish understanding of the ideal state, whereas Stein appears rooted in the critical legacy of the German Haskalah. At a fundamental level, the contrast between the two thinkers has to do with a difference in their respective philosophical epistemé. While Strauss, walking in the footsteps of Heidegger, thinks in terms of Geschichlichkeit (“historiality”), Stein applies a phenomenological method based on the intuition of essences and very much indebted to Adolph Reinach’s philosophy of law. That Stein's essentialism succeeds where the 'historial' thinking of the young Strauss fails; that is, in diagnosing the nature of the political threat that would soon engulf European Jewry, is the main conclusion of the present paper.

Indicator analysis as a way for the Second Department of Polish General Staff to counter the risk of chemical warfare being unleashed by Germany in the 1920s

After regaining its independence in 1918, Poland faced a number of security challenges. The most important of these was survival in the face of revisionist steps taken by aggressive neighbours, including Germany and the USSR. One important aspect of this threat was to determine the risk of the Weimar Republic unleashing chemical warfare against the Second Republic. In order to cope with this intelligence task, the Second Department of Polish General Staff developed a number of instructions whose structure and internal logic is comparable to the indicator analysis technique developed only 60 years later by the American Intelligence Community. On the basis of material preserved in the State Archive in Gdańsk and contemporary textbooks on information analysis techniques, it is shown how officers of Polish military intelligence, decades before the method of indicator analysis was formalised, developed their own way, which is essentially identical to it. This demonstrates the remarkable innovation and organisational capacity of the newly forming intelligence service of the reborn state.

From Crisis to Consolidation: Hyperinflation’s Role in Hitler’s Rise and Germany’s Economic Resurgence

The economic trajectory of Germany, transitioning from the Weimar Republic to Nazi dominance, starkly highlights the intimate nexus between political events and economic paradigms. The Weimar Republic, once a beacon of post-war resurgence, grappled with a storm of hyperinflation, misguided economic choices, and the crippling Treaty of Versailles, creating an environment rife with unemployment, social discord, and dwindling trust in governance. This tumultuous backdrop paved the way for Adolf Hitler, whose ascent wasn’t solely a product of charisma but also his pledges of economic rejuvenation and nationalistic fervor. Hitler’s economic overhaul was immediate and transformative: Hjalmar Schacht’s innovative MEFO bills, designed to invigorate the economy without triggering inflation, and the Four-Year Plan, underscoring German autarky, showcased a nation intent on self-sustenance and industrial fortification. Yet, the crux of Hitler’s economic vision lay in a robust rearmament program. While ostensibly an avenue for job creation and industrial revival, this program was unmistakably a blueprint for Hitler’s expansive European ambitions. This narrative encapsulates a rollercoaster journey from the Weimar’s chaotic economic downfall, through Hitler’s opportunistic rise amidst despair, to the Nazi regime’s intricate economic strategies, culminating in a rearmament policy that, while promising prosperity, ominously heralded global conflict. Through this lens, we gain insights into the complex economic machinations that influenced one of history’s most defining epochs.