HI136 The History of Germany Lecture 4

1. HI136 The History of GermanyLecture 4 Culture and Society in Imperial Germany

2. The Captain of Köpenick • On 16 October 1906 an unemployed shoemaker named Wilhelm Voigt dressed as a captain in the German Army. • Collecting together a small group of soldiers off the streets he went to the small town of Köpenick outside Berlin, occupied the town hall, arrested mayor and demanded 4000 marks. • Such was the authority that his uniform gave him, all of Voigt’s orders were obeyed without question. • He absconded with the money, only to be picked up by the police and sentenced to four years in prison.

3. Frederick William of Brandenburg, ‘The Great Elector’ (1640-88)

4. Frederick William I (1713-40) Frederick II, ‘The Great’ (1740-86) ‘The Soldier King’

5. “Prussia is not a country with an army, but an army with a country” Friedrich von Schrötter(1743-1815)

6. Gerhard von Scharnhorst August von Gneisenau Carl von Clausewitz (1755-1813) (1760-1831) (1780-1831)

7. A Bavarian light cavalryman rescues a fallen Prussian Hussar during the Franco-Prussian War

8. The Army and German Society • The garrison was the centre of social life in Imperial Germany. • The German Army was made up of conscripts – every male between the ages of 17 and 45 was eligible for military service. • The Army therefore touched the lives of the majority of the German population. • The Army an important unifying institution and focus for patriotic feeling. • A uniform entitled the wearer to the respect of his fellow Germans.

9. The Officer Corps • The higher ranks still dominated by the aristocracy. • Freedom from parliamentary oversight gave the military virtual political autonomy. • Direct access to the Kaiser.

10. “We belong to each other, the army and I – we were born born for each other.” Wilhelm II

11. The Officer Corps • The higher ranks still dominated by the aristocracy. • Freedom from parliamentary oversight gave the military virtual political autonomy. • Direct access to the Kaiser. • Contempt for civilians and politicians. • David Stone: the lack of a war to fight after 1871 led the officer corps to focus its energies on preserving the social status and political influence of the Army.

12. A Military Society? • Social make-up of the officer corps – in 1913, 70% of officers and 50% of colonels and generals were from non-noble families. • Contemporary critics of the German Army • Criticism in the left-wing press • Satirical novels criticising the behaviour of the officer corps • The Zabern Affair (1913) – public outcry over military behaviour • This more of a Prussian than a German phenomenon – the Bavarians routinely mocked Prussian militarism. • Germany not the only nation in Europe where the army and navy were held in high esteem.

14. The Kaiser and his Court • The power of the Kaiser made the court an important place in Imperial politics and society. • The court provided access to the monarch and opportunities to gain political/social influence. • John Röhl – Wilhelm II presided over a political system in which the imperial court successfully established a primacy over other sources of power. • However, Wilhelm II more of a playboy than an omnipotent autocrat – he lacked the self-discipline necessary for effective government and administration.

15. ‘Structuralist’ Historians • An attempt to explain developments through a detailed examination of social, political and economic factors. • Argue that after Bismarck there was a power vacuum that created “a permanent crisis of the state behind its façade of high-handed leadership.” • This power vacuum allowed traditional Prussian elites – the Junkers, the officer corps, the judiciary and senior bureaucrats – to dominate the nation’s affairs. • Faced by the social and economic changes wrought by industrialization, these elites banded together to preserve their power and influence.

16. ‘Structuralist’ Historians • Sammlungspolitik (‘policy of concentration’) = the banding together of social elites to protect their position from ‘threats’ from below. • ‘Social Imperialism’ = “an attempt to buttress the position of the elites at the top of Germany’s class system by diverting the masses away from social and political reform and towards a populist acceptance of the Kaiser and the Kaiserreich.” (Geoff Layton) This done by using foreign policy and colonialism to whip up patriotic feeling.

17. Self portrait (1885) by Anton von Werner Self portrait (1871) by Franz von Lenbach

18. Otto von Bismarck (1879) by Franz von Lenbach Bismarck (1890) by Franz von Lenbach

19. The Congress of Berlin (1881) by Anton von Werner

20. German Headquarters at Versailles (1900) by Anton von Werner

21. Paul Wallot’s Reichstag Building (1884-94)

22. Berlin Cathedral (1894-1904), designed by Julius Raschdorff

23. Cultural Pessimism • Richard Wagner (1813-83) • Gesamtkunstwerk (‘total work of art’) • Anti-Industrialism • Anti-Semitism • Teutonic myth • Paul Anton de Langarde (1827-91) • Critical of liberalism & materialism • Anti-Semitism • Volk culture • Stefan George (1868-1933) • Aesthete and Symbolist • Poetry stresses aristocracy and self-sacrifice • Cultural and social renewal through a strong leader

24. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) • Born in Saxony, the son of a Lutheran pastor. • Studied theology and classics at Bonn and Leipzig. • 1869: Appointed Chair in Classical Philology at the University of Basle aged only 24. • 1879: Resigned due to ill-health and became an ‘independent philosopher’. • 1889: Suffered a mental breakdown in Turin and was mentally ill for the rest of his life.

25. Youth • Many of the generation born after 1870 felt alienated by the social and economic upheavals of the industrial age. • Desire to rebel against the values of values and lifestyles of their parents. • 1895: Wandervögel movement founded. • Bohemian experiments in living and back to the land movement.

26. Education • Education a political battleground. • Volksschule provided primary education for a literate, mobile, industrial society. • Realgymnasian and Oberrealschulen begin to replace the old Gymnasian. • New emphasis on the natural sciences and technical subjects instead of Latin and Greek. • Expansion of Higher Education • 28,000 students in 1890; over 60,000 in 1914. • Technische Hochschulen (‘Technical Colleges’) focus on vocational subjects such as engineering.

27. The ‘New Woman’? • Traditionally women seen as fundamentally unsuited to public life and politics, being naturally predisposed towards a domestic and caring role. • 1865: The Allgemeiner Deutsche Frauenverein (General Association of German Women) founded. • 1894: The ADF replaced by the Bund Deutscher Frauenverbände (Federation of German Women’s Associations). • Increasing demand from the middle classes for more educational and employment opportunities for single women. • 1880s: Secondary Education extended to middle class girls. • New Civil Legal Code (1900) allows women to hold wealth and property independent of their husbands. • 1900-1909: Women permitted to attend German universities.

28. Sexuality • A ‘Crisis of Masculinity’ in Fin-de-Siècle Europe?

29. Sin (1893) by Franz von Stuck Judith I (1901) by Gustav Klimt

30. Sexuality • A ‘Crisis of Masculinity’ in Fin-de-Siècle Europe? • Anxiety over ‘dangerous’ female sexuality and the lax morals of young people. • Increased scientific interest in sexuality – Freud, Richard von Krafft-Ebing, Magnus Hirschfeld.

31. Richard, Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935) (1840-1902)

32. Sexuality • A ‘Crisis of Masculinity’ in Fin-de-Siècle Europe? • Anxiety over ‘dangerous’ female sexuality and the lax morals of young people. • Increased scientific interest in sexuality – Freud, Richard von Krafft-Ebing, Magnus Hirschfeld. • The world’s first homosexual magazine, Der Eigene, published in Berlin between 1896 and 1932. • Although homosexuality remained illegal, in 1914 the Berlin police permitted 40 homosexual brothels and between 1,000 and 2,000 homosexual prostitutes to operate. • Homosexual scandals • The Leibenberg Scandal

33. Cultural Change • Thomas Mann (1875-1955), Buddenbrocks (1901). • Heinrich Mann (1871-1950), Professor Unrat (1905), Der Untertan (1918). • Freie Volksbühne (free people’s theatre) – established 1889 and staged plays with a social message such as Gerhard Hauptmann’s Die Weber. • Scientific Discoveries • X-rays (1895) • Radioactivity (1896) • The electron (1897) • Quantum theory (1900) • Special theory of relativity (1905) • Munich Secession (1892). • Berlin Secession (1898).

34. Artistic Movements • Expressionism • Blau Reiter (1911-1914) • Die Brücke (1905-1913) • Deutscher Werkbund (1907-1934) – a national association of artists, designers and architects founded in Munich. Inspired by the English Arts and Crafts Movement, the Werkbund wanted to apply individual expression and high aesthetic standards to mass produced machine-made goods.

35. Der Blaue Reiter (1903) by Wassily Kandinsky

36. Die großen blauen Pferde (1911) by Franz Marc

37. Mass Culture/Entertainment • Publishing explosion after 1880 to service the new literate mass market for printed matter. • Popular literary, arts and satirical magazines such as Pan (1895-1900), Jugend (founded 1896) and Simplicissimus (1896-1967) had wide circulations.

38. Front covers of Pan, Jugend and Simplicissimus

39. The Kiss (1898) by Peter BehrensJugendstil lamp, Berlin (c. 1900)

40. Mass Culture/Entertainment • Publishing explosion after 1880 to service the new literate mass market for printed matter. • Popular literary, arts and satirical magazines such as Pan (1895-1900), Jugend (founded 1896) and Simplicissimus (1896-1967) had wide circulations. • Electric lighting led to the proliferation of dance halls and cabarets. • The first ‘moving pictures’ shown in Berlin in 1895 – by 1914 there were 300 cinemas in Berlin and over 3,000 throughout Germany. • Sport – riding, golf and tennis for the upper and middle classes, cycling and boxing for the working classes. • Sport was encouraged by the SPD and was an important feature of many working-men’s clubs and associations.