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AQA A-level History Weimar Culture Notes
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Some notes I made about the Golden Age of the Weimar Republic.
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Weimar Culture Berlin and the Weimar Republic was a magnet for the most creative people in the world
Berlin in 1920s – homosexuality decriminalised, attracted young people
Explosion of experimentation of all kind
Drugs were decriminalised
Lots of Russians migrated to Berlin
Kandinsky (Artist) – He was Russian painter and art theorist. He is credited as one of the pioneers of
abstraction in western art, possibly after Hilma af Klint. Kandinsky began painting studies such as life-
drawing, sketching and anatomy at the age of 30. He exploited the evocative interrelation between
colour and form to create an aesthetic experience that engaged the sight, sound and emotions of
the public. He believed that total abstraction offered the possibility for profound, transcendental
expression and that copying from nature only interfered with this process. He innovated a pictorial
language that only loosely related to the outside world, but expressed volumes about the artist’s
inner experience. His visual vocabulary developed through three phases. Shifting from his early,
representational works and their divine symbolism to his rapturous and operatic compositions, to his
late, geometric and biomorphic flat planes of colour.
Brecht (Theatre Director) – German poet, playwright and theatrical reformer whose epic theatre
departed from the conventions of theatrical illusion and developed the drama as a social and
ideological forum for leftist causes. Additionally, he developed a violently antibourgeois attitude that
reflected his generation’s disappointment in the civilisation that had been destroyed after World
War One. Furthermore, he was a member of the Dadaist group who aimed at destroying what they
condemned as the false standards of bourgeois art through derision and iconoclastic satire. Brecht
was a Marxist and made his performances highly political and he encouraged his audiences to be
critical of society. Hi work was often provocative and ironic. Brecht wanted his audiences to remain
objective and unemotional during his plays so that they could make rational judgements about the
political aspects of his work. He invented a range of theatrical devices known as epic theatre. This
type of theatre addressed contemporary issues and later, Brecht referred to this theatre as dialectal
theatre. Brecht also believed classical approaches to theatre were escapist, and he seemed to be
more interested in facts and reality rather than escapism.
Fritz Lang’s ‘Metropolis’ - The message of the film comments on the uprising of the workers which
conveys a significant and important political message about inequality in society and the future of
modern capitalism. Metropolis exposes the very mechanics of capitalism – from labouring masses at
the bottom, to the powerful elite at the top. This influential German science-fiction film presents a
highly stylised futuristic city where a beautiful and cultured utopia exists above a bleak underworld
populated by mistreated workers. When the privileged youth Freder discovers the grim scene under
the city, he becomes intent on helping the workers. He befriends the rebellious teacher Maria, but
this puts him at odds with his authoritative father, leading to greater conflict.
The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari – The first film to utilise surrealistic production design in a major way.
‘The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari’ is a key work of the Expressionist movement in post-World War One
Germany. The bizarre set pieces created a quasi-surrealistic world that received critical praise.
Shadows shroud much of the action, giving a nightmarish quality to the story. Caligari gave a giant
boost to German cinema in the wake of devastating consequences of World War One. The film’s
morbid evocation of horror and the dramatic, shadowy lighting and bizarre sets became a stylistic
model for later Expressionist films by several major German Directors e.g Paul Wegener’s second
version of Dee Golem.
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