Prof. Andrew Donson
505 Herter Hall
Tel. 545-6676
Email: adonson@german.umass.edu
Office Hours:
MWF 11:00-12:00
MW 1:30-3:00
and by appointment
Fall 2005
German 793D / History 697K
The Weimar Republic
This upper-level seminar on Germany from 1919-1933 explores the tumultuous rise and fall of the
Weimar Republic. The Republic had arguably the most progressive government in the world: Its
constitution was the first in a major country that granted women the right to vote and, in addition,
guaranteed schooling, health care, and social security for all its citizens. During the Republic, major
cities in Germany shared in the broader youth and sexual liberation movements in the world. Yet the
birth of the Weimar Republic in the twin traumas of humiliating military defeat and Socialist revolution
weakened the regime, which also faced runaway inflation, chronic unemployment, and political instability
caused by the Bolsheviks on the left and paramilitary units on the right. The survival of the Republic
testified to the nobility of its ideals: The Weimar Republic nurtured an artistic and intellectual
community that led the world in science, philosophy, painting, architecture, drama, and film. In this
seminar, we explore the political, social, and economic contexts in which the Weimar Republic had its
cultural achievements. We assess the value of that culture in its own right while asking the fundamental
question: Why did a majority of Germans vote to dissolve this progressive regime and a plurality opt to
support National Socialism? Specific units include the Constitution, Weimar Culture, sex and youth
reform, Communism and right paramilitary violence, the legacy of the First World War and the
Revolution, and the mass mobilization by the Nazi Party.
To purchase at Amherst Books (8 Main St, tel. 256-1547):
*Dimmenberg, Edward, Anton Kaes, and Martin Jay, eds. The Weimar Republic Sourcebook. Berkeley:
Univ. of California Press, 1995.
*Fallada, Hans. Little Man, What Now? Chicago: Academy Chicago Publishers, 2001.
Fischer, Conan. Rise of the Nazis. New York: Manchester Univ. Press, 2002.
*Gay, Peter. Weimar Culture: The Outsider as Insider. New York: Norton, 2001.
*Herf, Jeffrey. Reactionary Modernism: Technology, Culture, and Politics in Weimar and the Third
Reich. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1998.
*Keun, Irmgard. The Artificial Silk Girl. New York: Other Press, 2002.
*Peukert, Detlev. The Weimar Republic: The Crisis of Classical Modernity. New York: Hill and Wang,
1993.
Please feel free to purchase earlier editions.
*Available on two-hour reserve at Du Bois Library.
Recommended to purchase at Amherst Books
*Von Ankum, Katharina, ed. Women in the Metropolis: Gender and Modernity in Weimar Culture.
Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1997.
To purchase at CopyCat Print Shop (37 E. Pleasant St., tel. 549-2854):
Coursepack for German 793D / History 697K: Weimar Republic.
Recommended surveys (available at Du Bois Library or private booksellers)
1
Broszat, Martin. Hitler and the Collapse of Weimar Germany. New York: Berg, 1987. A good short
survey.
Evans, Richard. The Coming of the Third Reich. New York: Penguin, 2004. A long survey by a
historian known for his readability and scholarship.
Huber, Ernst Rudolf. Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte. Vols. 5-7. Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer, 1975.
Part of a massive eight-volume history of modern Germany, penetrating and sometimes
maddeningly analytic, on the fundamental role of the Weimar constitution and the political
process.
Kolb, Eberhard. The Weimar Republic. New York: Routledge, 2005. Good narrative and
historigraphical review of Weimar politics.
Mommsen, Hans. The Rise and Fall of Weimar Democracy. Chapel Hill, NC: Univ. of North Carolina
Press, 1996. Dense and highly analytic, by one of Germany’s greatest historians
Mommsen, Hans, Dietmar Petzina, and Bernd Weisbrod, eds. Industrielles System und politische
Entwicklung in der Weimarer Republik. Düsseldorf: Drotste, 1974. Crucial one-thousand page
survey of the voluminous 1960s and early 1970s scholarship on the social history of Weimar.
Preller, Ludwig. Sozialpolitik in der Weimarer Republik. Stuttgart: F. Mittelbach, 1947. Arguably the
first social history of Weimar, a testament to the enormous achievements of exiled scholars.
Schulze, Hagen. Weimar: Deutschland 1917-1933. Berlin: Siedler, 1982. Detailed, by an eminent
middle-of-the-road scholar.
Winkler, Heinrich August. Von der Revolution zur Stabilisierung: Arbeiter und Arbeiterbewegung in der
Weimarer Republik, 1918 bis 1924. Berlin: J.H.W. Dietz, 1984.
---------Schein der Normalität: Arbeiter und Arbeiterbewegung in der Weimarer Republik, 1924 bis 1930.
Berlin: J.H.W. Dietz, 1988.
---------Der Weg in die Katastrophe: Arbeiter und Arbeiterbewegung in der Weimarer Republik 1930 bis
1933. Berlin: J.H.W. Dietz, 1987. These three volumes are best survey on the role Social
Democracy in the Weimar Republic’s failure, by the official and controversial historian of the
current Social Democratic Party in the Federal Republic.
---------Weimar, 1918-1933: Die Geschichte der ersten deutschen Demokratie. Munich: Beck, 1993.
The most current and complete bibliography is in Kolb, Weimar Republic. See the coursepack (CP 6).
Grades: Undergraduates
Percentage of Final Grade
50
10
25
5
10
Weekly Assignments (ungraded, see below)
Draft of 10-15 page paper
Final version of 10-15 page paper
Art presentation
Attendance
Grades: Graduate students
Percentage of Final Grade
40
10
30
5
5
10
Weekly Assignments (ungraded, see below)
Draft of 10-15 page paper
Final version of 10-15 page paper
Art presentation
Book review
Attendance
2
Letter grade equivalencies: A=93-102; AB=88-92; B=83-87; BC=78-82; C=73-77; CD=68-72; D=60-67;
F=59 or below.
Weekly Assignments
In order to crystallize our knowledge from the reading and to practice writing under less stressful
conditions, we will be writing answers to questions on the weekly reading and films. These assignments
are ungraded: Students receive 100% if they submit them on time and make a good-faith effort to answer
all the questions. The assignments will be posted one week prior to the due date on WebCT. Please type
answers.
One purpose of these assignments is to ensure lively class discussion. Hence, reading assignments turned
in late without a legitimate excuse will be marked down 40 points. If students have to miss class, there is
no penalty for turning in the assignments early to my box in Herter Hall 513.
Students do not need to complete all the assignments to get an A in the class, though doing them all will
surely help in that goal. To get 100 on the weekly assignment portion of the grade, students need only to
have a weighted average of 85 percent or above on all the assignments. Students with an average over 85
percent will have bonus points added to their final grade according to the following formula: [(weighted
average on all reading assignments)-85]/10. Thus, students who complete all the reading assignments on
time will have 2 bonus points added to their final grade. Some examples:
Weekly Assignment
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Average on Weekly Assignments
Final Reading Assignment Grade
Bonus Points Added to Final Grade
Grades,
Student A
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
Grades,
Student B
100
100
60
100
60
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
Grades,
Student C
100
100
60
0
60
100
100
0
100
60
100
60
Grades,
Student D
100
100
60
0
60
0
100
0
100
60
100
0
100
100
2.0
91.9
100
1.2
72.4
85.1
0
57.5
67.7
0
Paper
Students may write one of four kinds of papers:
1) A synthesis of the course readings, with no outside research except some additional sources not
on the syllabus but in the Weimar Republic Sourcebook. The key to doing well on this kind of
paper is to formulate an original thesis or to take an original line of argumentation.
2) An analysis of a set of novels, plays, or artworks of your choice that places the creation and the
creator in the political and social context of the Weimar Republic.
3
3) A historiographical critique or an extended review of scholarly literature on some topic of your
choice, such as Bauhaus, Dada, Jewish life, political violence, the Revolution, or the rise of the
Nazis. This paper should delineate the main lines of debate and interpretation.
4) A research paper on some topic that relies more on primary sources than secondary works. This
kind of paper requires good reading knowledge of German. It is highly rewarding: Many
scholars have found that writing this kind of paper made them want to be historians.
Papers will be graded according to the following criteria: originality of analysis, synthesis of source
material, clarity of arguments, specificity and concreteness of the detail, and the consistency in writing
critically—that is, in offering falsifiable claims (interpretation, opinions) supported by evidence (primary
sources and uncontestable facts).
Art Presentation
All students will present to the class a ten-minute analysis of an artistic movement (film, architecture,
music, or visual arts) from Weimar using Powerpoint slides, a music CD, or both. For this purpose, I will
make a scanner available in the mailroom of the German department and will have a data projector and
CD-player available in class.
Book Review (graduate students only)
The book should be a scholarly monograph, preferably one the student will use in his or her paper. A
good book review is limited to 500 to 750 words and does the following:

Places the monograph in its historiographical or scholarly context, either by stating its contribution to
the field or explaining how it fits into some larger debate or interpretative framework.

Summarizes the main arguments of the monograph.

Offers criticisms of these arguments.
Attendance
Because this course is a discussion seminar, attendance is required. Students may miss one class for
personal reasons. Students will not be penalized for missed classes due to illness, death in the family, or
other legitimate reasons. To demonstrate your excuse is in good faith, please contact me before you miss
a class.
Course Web Site
All students must have an OIT account and regularly check the WebCT site for this course. The WebCT
site contains this syllabus, handouts, the weekly assignments, and some course material.
Student Responsibilities





Please retain a second copy of papers until the your graded paper is returned.
Please hold all graded assignments until you receive your final grade.
Please do not send papers or written assignments via email unless by prior arrangement and with a
legitimate excuse.
Please respect a 24-hour moratorium on discussing any individual grade.
Please write papers in your own words and with original ideas. Plagiarism on a draft or a paper will
result minimally in a zero on the entire assignment and may result in a failing grade for the entire
course or expulsion from the university.
4


Late papers: A late paper or draft without a legitimate excuse may be marked down five points for
each day it is late.
Some examples of a legitimate excuse (there are others as well) are illness, death of a friend or family
member, or severe emotional crisis. Having too much work is a legitimate excuse.
Readings and Assignments

Readings in the coursepack are marked with (CP) and their number.

The number following The Weimar Republic Sourcebook refer to source number, not page number.

The given length of the reading assignments (in parenthesis after each weekly heading) is a rough
guide. Rosenberg’s History of the German Republic, Keun’s The Artificial Silk Girl, and Fallada’s
Little Man, What Now? all have large type and small pages; The Weimar Republic Sourcebook has
small type and large pages.
Week
0
Sep 7
1
Sep 14
Introduction. No reading.
Imperial Germany and the First World War (124 pp.)
Fulbrook, History of Germany 116-154 (CP 1)
Dobson, Upheaval in Leipzig, 127-30, 158-188 (CP 4)
Rosenberg, Birth of the German Republic, 232-74 (CP 2)
Recommended:
Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front
Vejas Gabriel Lilevicius, War Land on the Eastern Front
Roger Chickering, Imperial Germany and the Great War
Jürgen Kocka, Facing Total War
Suzanne Miller, Burgfrieden und Klassenkampf
2
Sep 21
The Revolution 1918/19 (195 pp.)
Rosenberg, History of the German Republic, pp. vii-ix, 1-100 (CP 3)
Dobson, Upheaval in Leipzig, pp. 188-264 (CP 4)
Weimar Republic Sourcebook, #13-15, 17-18, 20, 33-34, 158
Recommended:
Reinhard Rürup, Arbeiter- und Soldatenräte
Sebastian Haffner, Failure of a Revolution
Friedhelm Böll, Massenbewegungen in Niedersachsen
Karl Dieterich Erdmann, “Die Geschichte der Weimarer Republik als Problem der
Wissenschaft,” Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 3 (1955): 1-19 (esp. 619).
Thesen des Zentralkomitees der SED über die November-Revolution 1918 in
Deutschland (1958).
3
Sep 28
The Culture of Defeat:
Peacemaking, Constitution Writing, and Political Violence (180 pp.)
Peukert, Weimar Republic, pp. 3-51
Gay, Weimar Culture, pp. 1-23
Schivelbusch, Culture of Defeat, pp. 189-214 (CP 5)
Rosenberg, German Republic, pp. 100-24 (CP 3)
Kolb, Weimar Republic, pp. 160-74, 189-95 (CP 6)
Weimar Republic Sourcebook, #1-12, 16, 19, 36-37, 39-43
5
Recommended:
Bernd Weisbrod, “Ernst Jünger’s Contribution to the Conservative Revolution,”
History Workshop Journal 49 (2000): 69-94.
Klaus Theweleit, Male Fantasies
Petra-Maria Schulz, Ästhetisierung von Gewalt in der Weimarer Republik
Maria Tartar, Lustmord: Sexual Murder in Weimar Germany
Bernadette Kester, Film Front Weimar: Representations of the First World War
Sontheimer, “Anti-Democratic Thought in the Weimar Republic” (CP 7)
Peter Caldwell, Popular Sovereignty and the Crisis of German Constitutional Law
Arno Mayer, Politics and Diplomacy of Peacemaking: Containment and
Counterrevolution at Versailles
4
Oct 5
The Crisis Years 1919-1923 (150 pp.)
Peukert, Weimar Republic, pp. 52-77
Holtfrerich, German Inflation (CP 8)
Rosenberg, German Republic, pp. 125-222 (CP 3)
McMeekin, Red Millionaire, pp. 1-4, 144-61 (CP 9)
Weimar Republic Sourcebook, #21-23, 29-32, 37, 128, 131
Recommended:
Hagen Schulze, Frei korps und Republik
James Diehl, Paramilitary Politics in Weimar Germany
Gerald Feldman, The German Inflation
Bernd Widdig, Culture and Inflation in Weimar Germanyö
Oct 12
No class. Follow your Monday schedule.
Screening of film: Berlin, Sinfonie einer Großstadt, dir. Walter Ruttmann
(1927). Time and place to be announced. Film will be on reserve at Du Bois
Library after the screening.
Book review due (graduate students only)
5
Oct 19
Americanization, Rationalizations, Social Milieus, and Mass Culture (185 pp.)
Peukert, Weimar Republic, pp. 79-95, 106-190
McMeekin, Red Millionaire, pp. 204-251 (CP 9)
Weimar Republic Sourcebook, #25-26, 65-69 85, 87, 88, 90, 94, 97 150-156, 183,
228, 232-236, 283.
Recommended:
David Crew, Germans on Welfare: From Weimar to Hitler.
Elizabeth Harvey, Youth and the Welfare State
Mary Nolan, Visions of Modernity: American Business and the Modernization of
Germany
Janet Ward, Weimar Surfaces: Urban Visual Culture in 1920s Germany
Siegfried Kracauer, Mass Ornament: Weimar Essays
6
Oct 26
Women and Sexuality (240 pp.)
Peukert, The Weimar Republic, pp. 95-106
Keun, The Artificial Silk Girl
6
Choose two essays from von Ankum, ed. Women in the Metropolis
Weimar Republic Sourcebook, #72-80, 83, 124, 177-78, 381 292, 294, 304-312.
Recommended:
Magnus Hirschfeld,. Sittengeschichte der Nachkriegszeit. Leipzig: Schneider,
1932.
Julia Sneeringer, Winning Women's Votes: Propaganda and Politics in Weimar
Germany
Richard W. McCormick, Gender and Sexuality in Weimar Modernity:
Film,Literature,and "New Objectivity
Karl Eric Toepfer, Empire of Ecstasy: Nudity and Movement in German Body
Culture, 1910-1935
Mel Gordon, Voluptuous Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin
Screening of film: Metropolis, dir. Fritz Lang (1927). Time and place to be
announced.
7
Nov 2
Reactionary Modernism (150 pp.)
Herf, Reactionary Modernism, pp. 1-151, 217-35
Student art presentations
Recommended:
R.L. Rutsky, “The Mediation of Technology and Gender: Metropolis, Nazism,
and Modernism,” New German Critique 60 (1993): 3-32. Available on
JStor and WebCT
8
Nov 9
High Culture (150 pp.)
Gay, Weimar Culture, pp. 23-45, 70-146
Rosenberg, German Republic, pp. 222-270 (CP 3)
Student art presentations
9
10
Nov 16
Weimar Culture: Students’ Choice
Readings from The Weimar Republic Sourcebook : To be announced.
Nov 23
No class. Thanksgiving
Nov 30
The Great Depression and the Fall of the Republic I (200 pp.)
Peukert, The Weimar Republic, pp. 191-282
Rosenberg, German Republic, pp. 271-319 (CP 3)
Novick, That Noble Dream (CP 13)
Bracher, German Dilemma (CP 14)
History 697K students:
Borchardt, German Economic History (CP 10)
Holtfrerich, “Economic Policy Options” (CP 11)
German 793D students (handout):
Werner Conze, “Die Krise des Parteienstaates in Deutschland 1929/30,”
Historische Zeitschrift 178 (1954): 47-83.
7
Recommended:
Abraham, David. “State and Classes” (35) (CP 12)
Turner, Henry. Big Business and the Rise of Hitler.
Film: Kuhle Wampe, dir. Slatan Dudow (1931). Time and place to be
announced.
11
Dec 7
The Great Depression and the Fall of the Republic II (400 pp.)
Fallada, Little Man, What Now?
Weimar Republic Sourcebook, #27, 32, 126, 128-137.
Recommended:
Fritzsche, Peter. Rehearsals for Fascism.
Rosenhaft, Eve. Beating the Fascists? The German Communists and Political
Violence 1929-1933.
Weber, Hermann. Die Wandlung des deutschen Kommunismus: Die
Staliniserung der KPD in der Weimarer Republik.
Fri
Dec 9
Draft of paper due
12
Dec 14
The Rise of the Nazis (200 pp.)
Fischer, Rise of the Nazis
Weimar Republic Sourcebook, #45-64
Recommended:
Allen, William Sheridan. The Nazi Seizure of Power.
Baranowski, Shelley. Sanctity of Rural Life: Nobility, Protestantism, and Nazism
in Weimar Prussia.
Childers, Thomas. The Nazi Voter.
Hamilton, Richard. Who Voted for Hitler?
Niewyk, Donald L. The Jews in Weimar Germany
Noakes, Jeremy. The Nazi Party in Lower Saxony 1921-1933
Wed Dec 21
Final paper due
8