Weimar Republic and Art of the Left

The Weimar Republic

(SPD Poster, 1920)

            The Weimar Republic is the term applied to the period from 1918-1933 in Germany. The parliamentary system of Weimar, similar to that of Britain, was the first true democracy in Germany and the ruling party — the Social Democratic Party, a center-left party — sought to unite the masses for democratic means. Despite their goals of unity, loyalty, and duty, the Social Democratic Party inherited complex and dire circumstances, which, along with their unpopular actions and efforts to mend the broken country, made the SPD an easy target for both the more Leftist (Socialism, Communism) and the Right (Nationalism, Authoritarianism) parties. These issues include:

            • Extreme terms of the Versailles Treaty (Occupation of Rhineland,                   limitations on German armed and naval forces, prohibition of                           weapons, loss of colonies and European territories, reparation of 226               billion Marks)

            • German Revolution (November 1918-January 1919)

            • Industrialization/modernization

            • Economic crisis (hyperinflation, severe drop in living standard,                         Great Depression)

            • Frequent political changes (splitting parties uprising and challenging                the SPD)

            • Social-cultural changes (national healthcare, mobilization of                           workers, veteran disability program, etc.)

            • Public disappointment with Capitalism

By the time the SPD controlled the government in 1918, there were multiple individual parties on both the Right and Left. While every party recognized the crises facing the Weimar Republic and the German people, each one had its own solution incongruous with the others.

The Right

            The political right (including the DVNP) propagated the Stab-in-the-Back Myth to fight against the center-left Weimar Republic and SPD. The Right parties argued that Germany’s first military defeat (WWI) came at the hands of the socialists and their 1918 revolution, thus, the crippled status of Germany was directly caused by the ideology of the left. Because of this, the Right groups cited, all leftist politics, economics, and even art, was unacceptable and abominable.

See Socialism and Dystopia: Nazi Art

The Left

(USPD Poster 1919)

              Though the SPD was a leftist party, groups unhappy with the SPD’s class collaboration and support of WWI split from the party in 1917 to for new and more extreme left groups (primarily, the USPD and KPD). These groups, though varying in liberalism from democracy to Marxism, all opposed the government's handling of WWI (counter groups began to form within the SPD prior to 1917 for this reason), supported the working class (proletariat) and felt further alienated by their parent party when the SPD used the right-wing paramilitary forces to suppress any revolutionary uprisings.

The Left: Art

            Artists from various schools (Dada, Expressionism, Neue Sachlichkeit) sided with the left groups and used their art as public outcry and commentary against the state of German society and government. Though many artists within the Bauhaus were left-leaning, its founder Walter Gropius declared it apolitical. It is not included here because its pieces were not created as social/political commentary or criticism.

            

Cut with the Kitchen Knife...
Dada

            • Dada: A group protesting the bourgeois, nationalism, rationality, and all other institutions and beliefs developed from the Enlightenment as the cause for the horror and depravity of modern humanity. Because of this rejection of the traditional and rational, the Dadaists were opposed to the figuration of its contemporary — Expressionism

           

            • Expressionism: With the reprehensible results of WWI, both economically and in lives lost, Expressionists moved from a search for an inward, spiritual enlightenment to an anational socialism, criticizing the bourgeoisie, capitalism and democratic means while lauding the resurgence of a “spiritual attitude […] which has existed for millennia in the history of humanity.” This spiritual attitude is the Expressionists response and solution to the Dadaists view of the Enlightenment and also explains why, unlike the Dadaists, the Expressionists did not reject traditional forms such as the figure.

• Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity): see Socialism and Dystopia: Neue Sachlichkeit

Images Used
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1. SPD political poster

2. USPD political poster

3. Dawn From in the Shadows, George Grosz, 1920-21

4. Prague Street, Otto Dix, 1920

5. The Orator, Magnus Zeller, c1920

6. Cut With the Kitchen Knife..., Hannah Höch, 1919-20

7. The Widow II, Kathe Kollwitz, 1922

Works Cited

Berger, Stephen. "Germany." The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest: 1500 to the Present. Guntram H. Herb and David H. Kaplan ed. Vol. 2: 1880-1945. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 2008. 609-22. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 22 Nov. 2012.

Lewer, Debbie. "Revolution and the Weimar Avant-Garde: Contesting the Politics of Art, 1919-1924."Weimar Culture Revisited. New Yok: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. 1-21. Print.

Peters, Olaf. "Aesthetic Solipsism: The Artist and Politics in Max Beckmann 1927-1938." Totalitarian Art and Modernity. Aarhus: Aarhus UP, 2010. 325-45. Print.

Schmidt, Ingo. "Communist Party, Germany." The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest: 1500 to the Present. Immanuel Ness ed. Vol. 2. Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell, 2009. 826-29.Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 27 Nov. 2012.

Williams, John A. Foreword. Weimar Culture Revisited. New Yok: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. N. pag. Print.

Article by Catherine Estrada