Chapter 17: The West Between
the Wars 1919 – 1939
Section 4: Cultural and Intellectual Trends
L. Mass Culture: Radio and Movies
▪ In the late 19th century, inventions such as motion
pictures and discoveries such as wireless radio
waves changed mass communication.
▪ 1920s, radio broadcasting facilities were built in the
U.S., Europe, and Japan and the mass production of
radios began
▪ First full-length motion
pictures came out prior
to WWI but became an
important part of mass
entertainment over the
next two decades
Charlie Chaplin
▪ Radio and Movies were used for political purposes;
Nazis broadcast Hitler’s speeches over the air; the
impact was great therefore the Nazis urged
manufacturers to produce cheap radios and allow
people to buy them on installment plans; in U.S.
Roosevelt broadcast the “Fireside Chats”
Adolf Hitler listens to a radio broadcast
of the results of German parliamentary
elections. (March 5, 1933)
Franklin D. Roosevelt begins
famous "fireside chat" radio
broadcasts to the nation from
the White House.
▪ Nazis used movies to spread propaganda;
propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels used them to
influence the masses;
▪ Most famous Nazi films was directed by Leni
Riefenstahl called The Triumph of the Will – it
showed the 1934 Nazi Party rally at Nuremburg and
conveyed the power of the Nazis
Joseph Goebbels
Leni Riefenstahl
M. Mass Leisure:
▪ After WWI, the 8 hour work day became common for
many Europeans, and people had more free time.
▪ Leisure activities, such as attending professional
sports events and traveling became
popular; people used trains, buses,
and cars to reach their destinations
An old poster for travelling
by train to South Shields
during the 1920s
▪ Totalitarian states used mass leisure to help control
the people; the Nazis had a program called
“Strength through Joy” which offered cultural
activities, sporting events, and inexpensive
vacations; this program was intended to fill free
time and keep the working people happy
Advertising poster for (Kraft
durch Freude), Strength Through
Joy Trips (after 1933).
The 10,000-room holiday resort designed
to strengthen Nazi families as part of the
Nazis' sinister scheme of social engineering
N. Artistic and Literary Trends:
Many Europeans experienced profound despair
following WWI. The horror of the war left them
convinced that there was something profoundly
wrong with humans and Western values. The Great
Depression and the rise of Fascism increased this
feeling.
- Art: Nightmares and New Visions:
▪ Political and social despair after WWI led to
intellectual uncertainties. Many people felt the
world made no sense, so why should art?
▪ Dada was a style of art that expressed the insanity of
life. The Dadaists art expressed the insanity of life.
One technique they used was photomontage –
making a picture by combining photographs
Hannah Höch, Cut
with the Dada
Kitchen Knife
through the Last
Weimar Beer-Belly
Cultural Epoch in
Germany, 1919,
collage of pasted
papers
Raoul Hausmann, ABCD,
1923-1924
Dada Art - Hannah Hoch
A lot of her art comments on new roles for women in this new mass culture.
▪ Surrealism expressed a reality beyond the material
world. Surrealist artists often depicted scenes from
the unconscious. Salvador Dali famous surrealist
artist.
Salvador Dali:
Three
Sphinxes Of
Bikini
The painting consisted of one head, one tree and one nuclear mushroom. The
head might represents humanity, while the tree represents nature and
mushroom cloud represents destruction. When nuclear exploded, the tree was
the one closest to it then come to the head, which could mean that impact on
nature is far greater than impact on human.
Salvador
Dali:
Galatea of
the Spheres
He uses a repetition of
spheres to create the image
of the woman he loves, Gala.
Salvador Dali: The Persistence of Memory
▪ Many people disliked modern art, German Nazis in
particular. Hitler condemned it as degenerate
therefore the Nazis proposed a German art that
would glorify the strength and heroism of the Aryan
race.
- Literature: The Search for the Unconscious:
▪ The Irish writer James Joyce wrote Ulysses, 1922
and others in the stream of consciousness technique
to record the innermost thoughts of their characters.
▪ Herman Hesse wrote Siddharta and Steppenwolf.
He was influenced by Freud’s psychology and
Buddhism, and focused on the psychological
confusion of modern life.
James Joyce
Herman Hesse
O.The Heroic Age of Physics:
▪ During the years following WWI, the long-held
Newtonian views of physics became undermined.
New theories based on Einstein showed that all
phenomena could not be completely defined and
predicted.
▪ 1927, German physicist Werner Heisenberg
explained what he called the uncertainty principle.
According to Heisenberg, the behavior of subatomic
particles was not predictable.
This suggest that all physical
laws are based on uncertainty,
or randomness; his ideas
constituted a new world view
Werner Heisenberg