The Weimar Republic Sourcebook

Preface

A NEW DEMOCRACY IN CRISIS

1. The Legacy of the War
I. Ernst Simmel, War Neuroses and "Psychic Trauma" (1918)
2. The Treaty of Versailles: The Reparations Clauses (1919)
3· Count Ulrich von Brockdorff-Rantzau, Speech of the German
Delegation, Versailles (1919)
4· Ernst Troeltsch, The Dogma of Guilt (1919)
5· Paul von Hindenburg, The Stab in the Back (1919)
6. Social Democratic Party (SPD), Appeal for a General Strike (1920)
7· Willi Wolfradt, The Stab-in-the-Back Legend? (1922)
8. Ernst Junger, Fire (1922)
9· Kurt Tucholsky, The Spirit of 1914 (1924)
10. Carl Zuckmayer, Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the
Western Front (1929)
II. Ernst von Salomon, The Outlawed (1929)
12. Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud, Why War? (1933)

2. Revolution and the Birth of the Republic
13. Spartacus Manifesto (1918)
14. Heinrich Mann, The Meaning and Idea of the Revolution (1918)
15. Rosa Luxemburg, Founding Manifesto of the Communist Party
of Germany (KPD) (1918)
16. The Constitution of the German Republic (1919)
17. Count Harry Kessler, On Ebert and the Revolution (1919)
18. Wilhelm Hausenstein, Remembering Eisner (1919-1920)
19. Theodor Heuss, Democracy and Parliamentarism: Their History,
Their Enemies, and Their Future (1928)
20. Bernhard Prince von Bulow, Revolution in Berlin (1931)

3. Economic Upheaval: Rationalization, Inflation, and Depression
21. Das Tagebuch, Editorial on the Occupation of the Ruhr (1923)
22. Friedrich Kroner, Overwrought Nerves (1923)
23. The Dawes Committee Report (1924)
24. Ernst Neckarsulmer, Hugo Stinnes (1925)
25. Rudolf Hilferding, The Organized Economy (1927)
26. Erich Schairer, Alfred Hugenberg (1929)
27. B. Traven, Bank Failures (1929)
28. Erwin Kupzyk, Postwar Concentration in the German Iron
Industry (1930)
29. Hans Ostwald, A Moral History of the Inflation (1931)
30. Rolf Wagenfiihr, The Inflation Boom (1932)
31. Franz von Papen, Speech to the Lausanne Conference (1932)
32. Heinrich Hauser, The Unemployed (1933)

4. Coming to Terms with Democracy
33· Friedrich Meinecke, The Old and the New Germany (1918)
34· Ernst Troeltsch, The German Democracy (1918)
35· Max Weber, Politics as a Vocation (1918)
36. Kurt Tucholsky, We Nay-Sayers (1919)
37· Emil Julius Gumbel, Four Years of Political Murder (1922)
38. German Center Party Program (I 922)
39· Thomas Mann, The German Republic (1922)
40. Das Tagebuch, Editorial on the Anniversary of the Death
of Walther Rathenau (1923)
41. Carl von Ossietzky, Defending the Republic:
The Great Fashion (1924)
42. Social Democratic Party (SPD) Program (1925)
43· German People's Party (DVP) Program (1931) .
44· Kurt Tucholsky, For Carl von Ossietzky (1932)

5. The Rise of Nazism
45· Alfred Rosenberg, The Russian Jewish Revolution (1919)
46. Adolf Bartels, The Struggle of the Age (1920)
47· German Workers' Party (DAP), The Twenty-Five Points
(1920)
48. Joseph Goebbels, National Socialism or Bolshevism? (1925)
49· Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (1927)
50. R.W. Darre, Marriage Laws and the Principles of Breeding (1930)
51. Joseph Goebbels, Why Are We Enemies of the Jews? (1930)
52. Adolf Hitler, Address to the Industry Club (1932)
53· German Farmer You Belong to Hitler! Why? (1932)
54· Joseph Goebbels, Fighting League for German Culture (1932)
55· Count Harry Kessler, On the Nietzsche Archive and the
German Elections (1932)

6. The Struggle against Fascism
56. Ernst Bloch, Hitler's Force (1924)
57· Thomas Mann, An Appeal to Reason (1930)
s8. Walter Benjamin, Theories of German Fascism (1930)
59· Heinrich Mann, The German Decision (1931)
60. Lion Feuchtwanger, How Do We Struggle against
a Third Reich? (1931)
61. Communist Party of Germany, Open Letter (1931)
62. Joseph Roth, Cultural Bolshevism (1932)
Paul Tillich, Ten Theses (1932)
64. Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin, National Socialism: A Menace (1932)

PRESSURE POINTS OF SOCIAL LIFE

7. White-Collar Workers: Mittelstancl or Middle Class?
65. Hans Georg, Our Stand at the Abyss ( 1921)
66. Margot Starke, The Bank Clerk ( 1923)
67. Fritz Schroder, The Labor Market for White-Collar
Workers (1924)
68. Wilhelm Kalveram, Rationalization in Business
Management (1929)
69. Hilde Walter, The Misery of the "New Mittelstand" (1929)
70. Siegfried Kracauer, Shelter for the Homeless (1930)
71. Theodor Geiger, The Old and New Middle Classes (1932)

8. The Rise of the New Woman
72. Marianne Weber, The Special Cultural Mission of Women (1919)
73· Die Kommunistin, Manifesto for International Women's Day (1921)
74. Manfred Georg, The Right to Abortion (1922)
75· Gabriele Tergit, Paragraph 218: A Modern Gretchen Tragedy (1926)
Alfred Polgar, The Defenseless: A Conversation between Men (1928)
77· Max Brod, Women and the New Objectivity ( 1929)
78. Elsa Herrmann, This is the 1\'ew Woman (1929)
79· Textile Workers, My Workday, My Weekend (1930)
80. Hilde Walter, Twilight for Women? (1931)
81. Women's Work and the Economic Crisis (1931)
82. Else Kienle, The Kienle Case (1931)
83. Siegfried Kracauer, Working Women (1932)
84. Alice Ruhle-Gerstel, Back to the Good Old Days? (1933)

9. Forging a Proletarian Culture
85. A. R., On Proletarian Culture (1920)
86. Otto Ruhle, The Psyche of the Proletarian Child (1925)
87. Larissa Reissner, Schiffbek (1925)
88. Willi Munzenberg, Conquer Film! ( 1925)
89. Friedrich Wolf, Art is a Weapon! (1928)
90. Walter Benjamin, Program for a Proletarian Children's
Theater (1928)
91. Johannes R. Becher, Our Front (1928)
92. A Survey on Proletarian Writing (1929)
93· Otto Biha, The Proletarian Mass Novel (1930)
94· Hanns Eisler, Progress in the Workers' Music Movement (1931)
95· Georg Lukacs, Willi Bredel's Novels (1931)
96. League of Proletarian-Revolutionary Writers, To All
Proletarian-Revolutionary Writers, To All Workers'
Correspondents (1931)
97· Giinther D. Dehm, Berlin Workers' District (n. d.)

10. The Jewish Community: Renewal, Redefinition, Resistance
98. Martin Buber, Nationalism (1921)
99· Efraim Frisch, Jewish Sketches (1921-1922)
100. Arnold Zweig, The Countenance of Eastern European
Jews (1922)
101. S. Steinberg, What We Strive For (1922)
102. Das Tagebuch, Editorial, The German Spirit (1924)
103. Franz Rosenzweig, The New Thinking (1925)
I04. Edgar Marx, Ideological Self-determination of Bar Kochba:
The New Year of the Jewish Gymnastics and Sports Association
Bar Kochba ( 1927)
105. Joseph Roth, Wandering Jews (1927)
106. Theodor Lessing, Jewish Self-Hatred (1930)
107. Gershom Scholem, On the 1930 Edition of Rosenzweig's Star of
Redemption (1931)
108. Central Association of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith,
Flyer (1932)
109. Carl von Ossietzky, Anti-Semites (1932)

INTELLECTUALS AND THE IDEOLOGIES OF THE AGE

11. Redefining the Role of the Intellectuals
110. Gertrud Baumer, The "Intellectuals" (1919)
111. Alfred Dahlin, The Writer and the State (1921)
112. Franz W. Seiwert and Franz Pfemfert, The Function of Intellectuals in
Society and Their Task in the Proletarian Revolution (1923)
113. Alfred Weber, The Predicament of Intellectual Workers (1923)
114. Hans Zehrer, The Revolution of the Intelligentsia (1929)
115. Karl Mannheim, Ideology and Utopia (1929)
116. Hannah Arendt, Philosophy and Sociology: On Karl Mannheim's
Ideology and Utopia (1930)
117. Ernst von Salomon, We and the Intellectuals (1930)
118. Walter Benjamin, Left-Wing Melancholy (1931)
119· Siegfried Kracauer, On the Writer (1931)

12. Critical Theory and the Search for a New Left
120. Karl Radek, Leo Schlageter: The Wanderer in the Void (1923)
121. Karl Korsch, Marxism and Philosophy (1923)
122. Max Horkheimer, The Impotence of the German Working
Class (1927)
123· Max Horkheimer, The State ·of Contemporary Social Philosophy
and the Tasks of an Institute for Social Research (1931)
124. Wilhelm Reich, Politicizing the Sexual Problems of Youth (1932)
125. Leo Lowenthal, On the Sociology of Literature (1932)
126. Ernst Thalmann, The SPD and NSDAP are Twins (1932)
127. Social Democratic Party (SPD), The Iron Front for a United
Front! (1932)

13. Revolution from the Right
128. Arthur Moeller van den Bruck, The Third Empire (1923)
129. Carl Schmitt, On the Contradiction between Parliamentarism
and Democracy (1926)
130. Ernst Niekisch, Where We Stand (1926)
131. Berlin Stahlhelm Manifesto (1927)
132. Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Literature as the Spiritual Space
of the Nation (1927)
133· Carl Schmitt, The Concept of the Political (1927)
134· A molt Bronnen, German Nationalism, German Theater (1931)
135· Hans Freyer, Revolution from the Right (1931)
136. German National People's Party (DNVP) Program (1931)
137· Edgar J. Jung, Germany and the Conservative Revolution (1932)

14. Cultural Pessimism: Diagnoses of Decline
138. Oswald Spengler, The Decline of the West (1918)
139· Count Hermann Keyserling, The Culture of Making It Easy
for Oneself (1920)
140. Willy Hellpach, The Catholic Cultural Offensive and Political
Catholicism (1924-1925)
141. Hermann Hesse, The Longing of Our Time for a Worldview (1926)
142. Martin Heidegger, Being and Time (1927)
143· Ernst Junger, On Danger (1931)
144· Karl Jaspers, The Spiritual Situation of the Age (1931)
145· Ernst Junger, The Worker: Domination and Form (1932)
146. Franz von Papen, German Cultural Policy (1932)
147. Gottfried Benn, After Nihilism (1932)
148. Ludwig Bauer, The Middle Ages, 1932 (1932)
149. Alfred Doblin, May the Individual Not Be Stunted by the
Masses (1932)

THE CHALLENGE OF MODERNITY

15. Imagining America: Fordism and Technology
150. Rudolf Kayser, Americanism (1925)
151. Stefan Zweig, The Monotonization of the World (1925)
152. Friedrich von Gottl-Ottlilienfeld, Fordism (1926)
153. Friedrich Sieburg, Worshipping Elevators (1926)
154· Siegfried Kracauer, The Mass Ornament (1927)
155· Adolf Halfeld, America and the New Objectivity (1928)
156. Fdix Stossinger, The Anglicization of Germany (1929)
157. Otto Bauer, Rationalization and the Social Order (1931)

16. Berlin and the Countryside
158. Ludwig Finckh, The Spirit of Berlin (1919)
159· Math eo Quinz, The Romanic Cafe (1926)
160. Kurt Tucholsky, Berlin and the Provinces (1928)
161. Franz Hessel, The Suspicious Character (1929)
162. Egan Erwin Kisch, We Go to a Cafe Because ... (1930)
163. Wilhelm Stapel, The Intellectual and His People (1930)
164. Harold Nicolson, The Charm of Berlin (1932)
165. Martin Heidegger, Creative Landscape: Why Do We Stay in the
Provinces? (1933)

17. Designing the New World: Modern Architecture and the Bauhaus
166. Bruno Taut, A Program for Architecture (1918)
167. Walter Gropius, Program of the Staatliches Bauhaus in
Weimar (1919)
168. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Architecture and the Will of the
Age (1924)
169. Walter Gropius and Paul Schultze-Naumburg, Who is Right?
Traditional Architecture or Building in New Forms (1926)
170. Hannes Meyer, The New World (1926)
171. Adolf Behne and Paul Westheim, The Aesthetics of the Flat Roof
(1926-1927)
172. Rudolf Arnheim, The Bauhaus in Dessau (1927)
173· Erich Mendelsohn, Why This Architecture? (1928)
174. Marcel Breuer, Metal Furniture and Modern Spatiality (1928)

18. Housing for the Masses
175. Bruno Taut, The Earth is a Good Dwelling (1919)
176. Martin Wagner, Path and Goal (1920)
177. Bruno Taut, The New Dwelling: The Woman as Creator (1924)
178. Grete Lihotzky, Rationalization in the Household (1926-1927)
179· Dr. N., A Contemporary Garden City (1927)
180. Edgar Wedepohl, The Weissenhof Settlement (1927)
181. Marie-Elisabeth Luders, A Construction, Not a Dwelling (1927)
182. The Stuttgart W erkbund Houses (1929)
183. Otto Steinicke, A Visit to a New Apartment (1929)

19. From Dada to the New Obiectivity: Art and Politics
184. November Group Circular (1918)
185. November Group Manifesto (1918)
186. Work Council for Art Manifesto (1919)
187. Wilhelm Hausenstein, Art at this Moment (1919-1920)
188. Raoul Hausmann, The German Philistine Gets Upset (1919)
189. John Heartfield and George Grosz, The Art Scab (1920)
190. Richard H uelsenbeck, Dada Tours (1920)
191. Max Beckmann, Creative Credo (1920)
192. Adolf Behne, On the 1922 Russian Art Exhibition
in Berlin (1922)
193· Carl Einstein, Otto Dix (1923)
194· Gustav Hartlaub, Introduction to "New Objectivity":
German Painting since Expressionism (1925)
195· Franz Roh, Post-Expressionist Schema (1925)
196. Misch Orend, Magical Realism (1928)
197. Paul Schultze-Naumburg, Art and Race (1928)
198. George Grosz, Among Other Things, a Word for German
Tradition (1931)

CHANGING CONFIGURATIONS OF CULTURE

20. Literature: High and Low
199· Max Brod, Franz Kafka's Posthumous Writings (1924)
200. Hermann von Wedderkop, Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain (1925)
201. Egon Erwin Kisch, Preface to The Racing Reporter (1925)
202. Walter Benjamin, Filling Station (1928)
203. Alfred Doblin, Ulysses by Joyce (1928)
204. Erich Knauf, Book Clubs (1929)
205. Gina Kaus, The Woman in Modern Literature (1929)
206. Erich Kastner, Prosaic Digression (1929)
207. Kurt Pinthus, Masculine Literature (1929)
208. Heinrich Mann, Detective Novels (1929)
209. Arnold Zweig, Is There a Newspaper Novel? (1929)
210. Gottfried Benn, The New Literary Season (1931)
211. Friedrich Sieburg, Champagne: Notes on the Literature
of High Society (1931)
212. Lion Feuchtwanger, The Novel of Today Is
International (1932)
213. Gunter Eich, Remarks on Lyric Poetry (1932)

21. Theater, Politics, and the Public Sphere
214. Leopold Jessner, To the Directors of the German
Theater (1918)
215. Siegfried Jacobsohn, Theater-and Revolution? (1919)
216. Siegfried Jacobsohn, Wilhelm Tell (1919)
217. Herbert Jhering, The Dramatist Bert Brecht (1922)
218. Hanns Johst, The Drama and the National Idea (1922)
219. Bertolt Brecht, More Good Sports (1926)
220. Leopold Jessner, Bertolt Brecht, and Fritz Kortner,
Is the Drama Dying? (1926)
221. Bertolt Brecht, Difficulties of the Epic Theater (1927)
222. Lion Feuchtwanger, Bertolt Brecht Presented to the
British (1928)
223. Friedrich Wolf, The Stage and Life (1929)
224. Erwin Piscator, The Documentary Play (1929)
225. Max Reinhardt, On Actors (1930)
226. Das rote Sprachrohr, How Does One Use Agitprop
Theater? (1930)
227. Alfred Kemenyi, Measures Taken at the GroBes
Schauspielhaus (1931)

22. The Roaring Twenties: Cabaret and Urban Entertainment
228. Alice Gerstel, Jazz Band (1922)
229. Frank Warschauer, Berlin Revues (1924)
230. Maximilian Sladek, Our Show (1924)
231. Ferdinand Hager, The Flight of the "Blue Bird" (1924)
232. Katharina Rathaus, Charleston: Every Age Has the Dance
It Deserves (1926)
233. Ivan Goll, The Negroes Are Conquering Europe (1926)
234. Joseph Goebbels, Around the Gedachtniskirche (1928)
235. Erich Kastner, The Cabaret of the Nameless (1929)
236. Curt Moreck, We Will Show You Berlin (1930)
237. Siegfried Kracauer, Girls and Crisis (1931)
238. Friedrich Hollaender, Cabaret (1932)

23. Music for Use: Gebrauchsmusik and Opera
239· Frank Warschauer, Jazz: On Whiteman's Berlin
Concerts (1926)
240. Kurt Weill, Zeitoper (1928)
241. H. H. Stuckenschmidt, Short Operas (1928)
242. Kurt Weill, Correspondence about The Threepenny Opera (1929)
243· Paul Hindemith and Walter Gropius, For the Renewal
of Opera (1929)
244· Hanns Gutman, Music for Use (1929)
245. Alban Berg, On My Wozzeck (1929)
246. Arnold Schoenberg, My Public (1930)
247. Ernst Krenek, New Humanity and Old Objectivity (1931)
248. Theodor W. Adorno, Mahagonny (1932)

24. New Mass Media: Radio and Gramophone
249. Kurt Weill, Dance Music (1926)
250. H. H. Stuckenschmidt, Mechanical Music (1926)
251. Otto Alfred Palitzsch, Broadcast Literature (1927)
252. Kurt Tucholsky, Radio Censorship (1928)
253. Theodor W. Adorno, The Curves of the Needle (1928)
254· Frank Warschauer, The Future of Opera on the Radio (1929)
255· Arno Schirokauer, Art and Politics in Radio (1929)
256. Arnolt Brannen, Radio Play or Literature? (1929)
257. W. The Writer Speaks and Sings on Gramophone
Records (1929)
258. M. M. Gehrke and Rudolf Arnheim, The End of the
Private Sphere (1930)
259. Bertolt Brecht, The Radio as an Apparatus of
Communication (1932)

25. Cinema from Expressionism to Social Realism
260. Herbert Jhering, An Expressionist Film (1920)
261. Curt Rosenberg, Fridericus Rex (1923)
262. Fritz Lang, The Future of the Feature Film in
Germany (1926)
263. Willy Haas, Metropolis (1927)
264. Walter Benjamin, A Discussion of Russian Filmic Art and
Collectivist Art in General (1927)
265. Bela Balazs, Writers and Film (1929)
266. Emil Jannings, Romanticizing the Criminal in Film (1929)
267. Siegfried Kracauer, The Blue Angel (1930)
268. Erich Pommer, Writers and the Sound Film (1931)
269. Gabriele Tergit, Fritz Lang's M: Filmed Sadism (1931)
270. Siegfried Kracauer, The Task of the Film Critic (1932)

THE TRANSFORMATION OF EVERYDAY LIFE

26. Visual Culture: Illustrated Press and Photography .
271. Edlef Koppen, The Magazine as a Sign of the Times (1925)
272. August Sander, Remarks on My Exhibition at the
Cologne Art Union (1927)
273. Kurt Korff, The Illustrated Magazine (1927)
274. Albert Renger-Patzsch, Joy before the Object (1928)
275. Johannes Molzahn, Stop Reading! Look! (1928)
276. Werner Graff, Foreword to Here Comes the New
Photographer/ (1929)
277. Willi Warstat, Photography in Advertising (1930)
278. Raoul Hausmann, Photomontage (1931)
279. Alfred Kemenyi, Photomontage as a Weapon in Class
Struggle (1932)

27. Visions of Plenty: Mass Consumption, Fashion, and Advertising
280. Boycott of French Fashion Goods (1923)
281. Enough is Enough! Against the Masculinization of
Woman (1925)
282. Hanns Kropff, Women as Shoppers (1926)
283. Ernst Lorsy, The Hour of Chewing Gum (1926)
284. Hans Siemsen, The Literature of Nonreaders (1926)
285. Vicki Baum, People of Today (1927)
286. Auto-Magazin, Editorial Statement (1928)
287. Anita, Sex Appeal: A New Catchword for an Old Thing (1928)
288. Wolf Zucker, Art and Advertising (1929)
289. Franz Hessel, On Fashion (1929)
290. Stephanie Kaul, Whose Fault Is the Long Dress? (1931)
291. Liselotte de Booy [Miss Germany 1932], Wasted Evenings (1932)

28. The Cult of the Body: Lebensreform, Sports, and Dance
292. Adolf Koch, The Truth about the Berlin Nudist
Groups (1924)
293. Felix Hollaender, Ways to Strength and Beauty (1924)
294. Hans Suren, Man and Sunlight (1925)
295· Artur Michel, Flying Man (1926)
296. Fritz Wildung, Sport is the Will to Culture (1926)
297· Ernst Preiss, Physical Fitness-A National Necessity (1926)
298. Wolfgang Graeser, Body Sense: Gymnastics, Dance,
Sport (1927)
299· Mary Wigman, Dance and Gymnastics (1927)
300. Herbert Jhering, Boxing (1927)
301. Marieluise Fleisser, The Athletic Spirit and Contemporary
Art: An Essay on the Modern Type (1929)
302. Valeska Gert, Dancing (1931)
303. Carl Diem, The German Academy for Gymnastics (1932)

29. Sexuality: Private Rights versus Social Norms
304. Kurt Hiller, The Law and Sexual Minorities (1921)
305. Guidelines of the German Association for the Protection
of Mothers (1922)
306. Hugo Bettauer, The Erotic Revolution (1924)
307. Magnus Hirschfeld, Sexual Catastrophes (1926)
308. Lola Landau, The Companionate Marriage (1929)
309. League for Human Rights, Appeal to All Homosexual
Women (1929)
310. Helene Stocker, Marriage as a Psychological Problem (1929)
311. Magnus Hirschfeld, The Development and Scope
of Sexology (1929)
3I2. Grete Ujhely, A Call for Sexual Tolerance (1930)
313· Alfred Doblin, Sexuality as Sport (1931)
314. Kurt Tucholsky, Rohm (1932)
315. Walter von Hollander, Birth Control-A Man's
Business! (1932)
30. On the Margins of the Law: Vice, Crime, and the Social Order
316. Thomas Wehrling, Berlin Is Becoming a Whore (1920)
317. Carl Ludwig Schleich, Cocaineism (1921)
318. Ernst Engelbrecht and Leo Heller, Night Figures
of the City (1926)
319. Ernst Engelbrecht and Leo Heller, Opium Dens (1926)
320. Margot Klages-Stange, Prostitution (1926)
321. E. M. Mungenast, The Murderer and the State (1928)
322. Artur Landsberger, The Berlin Underworld (1929)
323. Franz Alexander and Hugo Staub, The Criminal and
His Judges (1929)
324. Willi Proger, Sites of Berlin Prostitution (1930)
325. Georg Fuchs, We Prisoners: Memories of Inmate No. 2911 (1931)
326. Sigmund Freud and Oswald Spengler, Responses to Fuchs,
We Prisoners (1931)
327. Siegfried Kracauer, Murder Trials and Society (1931)

Biographies
Political Chronology
Selected Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index