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Weimar Culture and the Rise of National Socialism: The Kampfbund für deutsche Kultur

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2008

Alan E. Steinweis
Affiliation:
Florida State UniversityTallahassee

Extract

Between 1928 and 1932, the National Socialist movement transformed itself from an insurgent fringe party into Germany's most potent political force. The most important factor in this dramatic turnabout in political fortunes was the rapid deterioration of the German economy beginning in 1929. It does not, however, logically follow that the German people simply fell into the lap of the party and its charismatic leader. To the contrary, the party aggressively employed sophisticated propagandistic and organizational strategies for attracting and mobilizing diverse segments of German society. With the onset of the economic crisis, and the consequent social and political turmoil, the party stood ready to receive, organize, and mobilize Germans from all social strata.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association 1991

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References

For their Comments on earlier drafts of this paper, the author would like to thank Geoffrey Giles, Wolfgang Natter, William S. Allen, and the participants in the faculty-graduate student colloquium of the Department of History, Florida State University.

1. For background on the mobilization of various German constituencies, I have relied on the following works: Kater, Michael H., The Nazi Party: A social Profile of Members and Leaders, 1919–1945 (Cambridge, MA, 1983);Google ScholarChilders, Thomas, The Nazi Voter: The Social Foundations of Fascism in Germany, 1919–1933 (Chapel Hill, 1983);Google ScholarMühlberger, Detlef, Hitler' Followers: Studies in the Sociology of the Movement (London, 1991);Google Scholar and Falter, Jürgen W., Hitlers Wähler (Munich, 1991).Google Scholar An insightful treatment of the importance of propaganda to mobilization strategies is Kershaw, Ian, “Ideology, Propaganda, and the Rise of the Party”, in Stachura, Peter D., ed., The Machtergreifung (London, 1983), 162–81.Google Scholar

2. For a discussion of this epiode in the context of political strategy, see Broszat, Martin, Hitler and the Collapse of Weimar Germany, trans. Berghahn, V. R. (Leamington Spa, 1984), 3236.Google Scholar

3. For a recent example see Guttsman, W. L., Worker's Culture in Weimar Germany: Between Tradition and Commitment (New York, 1990).Google Scholar

4. Bollmus, Reinhard, Das Amt Rosenberg und seine Gegner: Studien zum Machtkampf im nationalsozialistischen Herrschaftssystem (Stuttgart, 1970), 2754.Google Scholar An earlier study still valuable for its detalied treatment of organizational and financial questions is Rothfeder, Herbert P., “A Study of Alfred Rosenberg's Organization for National Socialist Ideology” (Ph. D. diss., University of Michigan, 1963), 2954.Google Scholar The classic study by Brenner, Hildegard, Die Kunstpolitik des Nationalsozialismus (Reinbek, 1963)Google Scholar is useful for context, but on issues related to the Kampfbund has been supplanted by Bollmus. Particularly insightful on the Kampfbund's activities in the sphere of architecture is Lane, Barbara Miller, Architecture and Politics in Germany, 1918–1945 (Cambridge, MA, 1968), 148–60.Google ScholarPrieberg, Fred K., Musik im NS-Staat (Frankfurt, 1982), 3640Google Scholar, provides a useful sketch of Kampfbund activities in the music field.

5. See Eksteins, Modris, The Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age (Boston, 1989);Google ScholarDetlev, , Peukert, J. K., “The Weimar Republic—Old and new Perspectives”, German History 6 (1988): 133–44;Google ScholarChilders, Thomas, “The Social Language of Politics in Germany: The Sociology of Political Discourse in the Weimar Republic”, American Historical Review 95 (04 1990): 331–58;CrossRefGoogle ScholarJones, Larry Eugene, “Culture and Politics in the Weimar Republic”, in Martel, Gordon, ed., Modern Germany Reconsidered (London, 1991).Google Scholar

6. Koshar, Rudy, Social Life, Local Politics, and Nazism: Marburg 1880–1935 (Chapel Hill, 1986);Google ScholarFritzsche, Peter, Rehearsals for Fascism: Populism and Political Mobilization in Weimar Germany (New York, 1990).Google Scholar

7. Surveys on artistic and cultural trends in Weimar Germany include Gay, Peter, Weimar Culture: The Outsider as Insider (New York, 1968);Google ScholarLaqueur, Walter, Weimar: A Cultural History (New York, 1974);Google ScholarHermand, Jost and Trommler, Frank, Die Kultur der Weimarer Republik (Munich, 1978).Google ScholarStark, Gary, Entrepreneurs of Ideolog: Neoconservative Publishers in Weimar Germany (Chapel Hill, 1981)Google Scholar also contains much useful material on cultural issues.

8. I have attempted elsewhere to compare and contrast the Nazi artistic and cultural critique with those of other parties of the Weimar Right. See Steinweis, Alan E., “Conservatism, National Socialism, and the Cultural Crisis of the Weimar Republic”, in Jones, Larry Eugene and Retallack, James, eds., Between Reform, Reaction and Resistance: Studies in the History of German Conservatism from 1789 to 1945 (New York, 1992).Google Scholar

9. See Dr. Stang spricht”, Deutsche Kultur–Wacht 3 (hereafter cited as DKW), (1932)Google Scholar. Many of the DKW issues are not dated.

10. The categories used by the Statistisches Reichsamt make it very difficult to reconstruct unemployment rates for artists. The categories found in the Statistisches Jahrbuch's breakdown of the occupational structure of German society do not correspond to those used to analyze unemployment. This is further complicated by the statistical invisibility nebenberuflicher artists who had entirely different official occupations. For the year 1932. the Reichsamt recorded a quarterly average, of 33,118 unemployed in the category “Theater, Music, and Performance of All Types”, representing 6 percent of all unemployed. A comparison with occupational census figures yiedls a rough estimate of 33 percent unemployment among artists.

11. “Die Geisteswende”, Mitteilungen des Kampfbundes für Deutsche Kultur (hereafter cited as Mitteilungen), January 1929.

12. Kater, Nazi Party, 47–48.

13. The question of National Socialist appeals to specific elite groups in German society has generated a substantial literature. Three notable examples are Giles, Geoffrey, Students and National Socialism in Germany (Princeton, 1985);CrossRefGoogle ScholarKater, Michael H., Doctors under Hitler (Chapel Hill, 1989);Google Scholar and Jarausch, Konrad H., The Unfree Professions: German Lawyers, Teachers, and Engineers, 1900–1950 (Oxford, 1990).Google Scholar

14. Bollmus, Amt Rosenberg, 30–31; Seventh Army Interrogation Report, SAIC Report28, “Hans Heinrich Hinkel”, 27 May 1945, National Archives, Record Group 238.

15. “Arbeitsgrundsätze und Gliederung des Kampfbundes für Deutsche Kultur”, Mitteilungen, January 1929.

16. On apoliticism as a phenomenon of the Weimar right wing see Sontheimer, Kurt, Antidemokratisches Denken in der Weimarer Republik: Die Politischen Ideen des deutschen Nationalismus Zwischen 1918 und 1933 (Munich, 1962),Google Scholar and Mohelr, Armin, Die konservative Revolution in Deutschland 1918–1932 (Stuttgart, 1950)Google Scholar. On grass-roots apoliticism among the German middle classes see Koshar, Social Life.

17. “Arbeitsgrundsätze,” as in note 15.

18. In the spring of 1930, when Diemer Willroda the leader of the NSDAP's “Group Visual Artists” in Dresden, published a piece on “Art, Culture, and Nation” in the newsletter, the author was clearly identified as a guest contributor. “Kunst, Kultur und Nation,” Mitteilungen, May–June, 1930.

19. “Arbeitsgundsätze,” as in note 15.

20. “An die Arbeit,” Mitteilungen, May 1929.

21. “Aufforderung,” Mitteilungen, January 1929.

22. “Die Kulturkrise der Gengenwart,” Mitteilungen, March 1939. In the speech, Spann also made a point of praising the Kampfubd's “non-partisnaship” (Überparteilichkeit).

23. Ellis, Donald W., “Music in the Third Reich: National Socialist Aesthetic Theory as Governmental Policy” (Ph. D. diss., University of Kansas, 1970), 3335.Google Scholar

24. “An unsere Mitglieder und Freunde,” Mitteilungen, May 1929.

25. “Wider die Negerkultur—fü deutsches Volkstum,” Mitteilungen, May–June 1930. On an earlier Kampfbund attack on Reinhardt see Reinhardt, Der Fall,” Mitteilungen, 04 1929.Google Scholar On German prejudices toward blacks and “coloreds” during the Weimer era see Pommerin, Reiner, “Sterilisierung der Rheinlandbastarde”: Das Schicksal einer farbigen deutschen Minderheit 1918–1937 (Düsseldorf, 1979);Google ScholarLebzelter, Gisela, “Die ‘Schwarze Schmach’: Vorurteile—Propaganda—Mythos,” Geschichte une Gesellschaft 11 (1985): 3758;Google Scholar and Marks, Sally, “Black Watch on the Rhine: A Study in Propaganda, Prejudice, and Pruience, European Studies Review 13 (1883): 297334.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

26. In his anti-Americanism, Klein-Wintermann was picking up on a theme developed more fully in Halfeld's, A. book America and Americanism (Jena, 1927).Google Scholar Stark, Entrepreneurs of Ideology, 177.

27. “Dollarismus und Feminismus,” Mitteilungen, September–October 1929.

28. “An unsere Mitglieder und Frenude,” Mitteilungen, November–December, 1929.

29. On the creation and exploitation of the Schlageter myth, see Baird, Jay, To Die for Germany: Heroes in the Nazi Pantheon (Bloomington, 1990)Google Scholar. chapter 2.

30. “An unsere Mitglieder und Freunde,” Mitteilungen, January–March, 1930.

31. “An unsere Mitglieder und Freunde,” Mitteilungen, June–August, 1930.

32. Bollmus, Amt Rosenberg, 29.

33. Kater, Nazi Party, 241.

34. An additional twenty-one held the title of von.

35. Kater, Nazi Party, 254.

36. For lucid discussions of the phenomenon of right-wing women in the Weimar Republic see Stephenson, Jill, The Nazi Organisation of Women (London, 1981), chapter 1;Google ScholarFrevert, Ute, Women in German History: From Bourgeois Emancipation to Sexual Liberation, trans. McKinnon-Evans, Stuart (New York, 1989), chapter 15; andGoogle ScholarBridenthal, Renate et al. , When Biology Became Destiny: Women in Weimar and Nazi Germany (New York, 1984).Google Scholar

37. Information from the sections “An unsere Mitglieder und Freunde,” Mitteilungen, November–December 1929–June–August 1930.

38. This conclusion supports the findings of Koshar, Social Life, on the social roots of National Socialism in Marburg. There is no record of pre–1933 Kampfbund activity in that university town.

39. “Das erste Jahr,” Mitteilungen, November–December 1929.

40. “Wider die Negerkultur,” Mitteilungen, as in note 25.

41. For example, Hinz, Berthold, Art in the Third Reich (New York, 1979), 25Google Scholar, describes makes no mention of his earlier progressive tendencies.

42. Lane, Architecture, 150–60.

43. “Weimar,” Mitteilungen, June–August 1930.

44. NSDAP für Deutsche Kultur,” DKW 3 (1932).Google Scholar

45. “Abmachungen zwischen der Abtl. Volksbildung und dem Kampfbund für deutsche Kultur,” 24 September 1932, Berlin Document Center (hereafter cited as BDC), Research Files, Binder 211.

46. Tätigkeit des KfDK—Gruppe Berlin,” DKW 3 (1932).Google Scholar

47. Statement by Thiele, 30 April 1936, BDC, Reichskulturkammer collection, file of Günther Thiele.

48. Bollmus, Amt Rosenberg, 29.

49. For example, “Was ich vom Kampfbund für deutsche Kultur für die Musik erwarte,” DKW, special issue (1932). For biographical background see Wulf, Joseph, Musik im Dritten Reich: Eine Dokumentation (Gütersloh, 1963; Frankfurt, 1983), 20.Google Scholar

50. For biographical data see Wulf, Musik, 15 (Graener), 204 (Trapp), and Drewniak, Boguslaw, Das Theater im NS-Staat: Szenarium deutscher Zeitgeschichte (Düsseldorf, 1983), 399 (Krauss).Google Scholar For their offices in the Kampfubd, see DKW 3 (1932): 1819.Google Scholar

51. The Kampfbund Reich leadership had been planning to issue its own publication, but decided not to after the Gruppe Berlin seized the initiative to publish its own journal. Die ‘kultur-Wacht’—Reichsorgan des KfDK,” DKW 3 (1932).Google Scholar

52. Wir gehen in Front,” DKW 1 (1932).Google Scholar

53. Deutsche Hochschullehrer bekennen sich für den Führer der nationalsozialistischen Bewegung,” DKW 2 (1932).Google Scholar

54. Biographical data in Kürschners Deutscher Gelehrten-Kalender (Berlin, 1928/1929).Google Scholar Mühlhausen's edited edition of Die Vier Zweige des Mabinogi (Pedeir ceinc y Mabinogi), originally published in 1925, has been recently republished (Tübingen, 1988). Other notable publications by these scholars are as follows: Jirku, Anton, Juden Ägyptens in ptolemäischer und römisher Zeit (Vienna, 1924);Google ScholarFehrle, Eugen, Deutsche Feste und Volksbräuche (Leipzig, 1927);Google ScholarEndemann, Karl, ed., Wörterbuch der Sotho-Sprache (Hamburg, 1911);CrossRefGoogle ScholarBornhausen, Karl, Die Ethik Pascals (Giessen, 1907);Google ScholarBanse, Ewals, Die Türkei: Eine Moderne Geographie (Braunschweig, 1919);Google ScholarMatthaei, Karl, Ausgewählte Orgelwerke, 5 vols. (Kassel, 19281936).Google Scholar

55. Steinweis, Alan E., “The Economic, Social, and Professional Dimensions of Nazi Cultural Policy: The Case of the Reich Theater Chamber,” German Studies Review 13 (10 1990): 441–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

56. Allgemeine Richtlinien des ‘Kampfbundes für deutsche Kultur,” im Hinblick auf seine musikalischen Aufgaben,” DKW 2 (1932).Google Scholar

57. DKW 4 (1932): 1314.Google Scholar

58. Biographical data in Kürschners Deutscher Gelehrten-Kalender (Berlin, 1928/1929).Google Scholar

59. For an explanation see Guttsman, Workers' Culture, 208.

60. On the success of KdF entertainment programs see Marrenbach, Otto, ed., Fundamente des Sieges: Die Gesamtarbeit der Deutschen Arbeitsfront von 1933 bis 1940 (Berlin, 1940), 334–35.Google Scholar

61. Comité des Délégations Juives, Das Schwarzbuch: Tatsachen und Dokumente. Die Lage der Juden in Deutschland 1933 (Paris, 1943), 423.Google Scholar

62. Documents in BDC, Reichskulturkammer collection, file of Gustav Havemann, and Bundesarchive Koblenz, Reichskulturkammer-Zentrale (R561), file 66.

63. Bollmus, Amt Rosenberg, 29.

64. see Dahm, Volker, “Die Reichskulturkammer als Instrument kulturpolitischer Steuerung und sozialer Reglementierung,” Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 34 (01 1986): 5384.Google Scholar

65. Hinkel to Johst, 20 February 1940, BDC, Reichskulturkammer collection, file of Hans Friedrich Blunck.

66. Childers, Nazi Voter, 243; Kater, Nazi Party, 62; Falter, Hitlers Wähler, 277–85; Giles, Students, 62–100; Jarausch, Unfree Professions, 92–107; Mühlberger, Hitler's Followers, 206. Also see the essays in two excellent anthologies: Childers, Thomas, ed., The Formation of the Nazi Constituency 1919–1933 (London, 1986);Google Scholar and Stachura, Peter D., ed., The Nazi Machtergrifung (London 1983).Google Scholar