Weimar im Westen: Republik der Gegensätze by Regina Göschl (Editor), Julia Paulus (Editor)
Tax included.
ISBN: 9783402133538
Publisher : Aschendorff, 17 Jan. 2019
Paperback, 207 pages
Democracy is not something to be taken for granted. This was already clear to the citizens of the first German republic. While all Germans enjoyed democratic rights and freedoms for the first time during the Weimar Republic (1918-1933), many also became aware of the fragility and dangers of democracy during this period. In short, the Weimar Republic was a republic of contrasts: political upheavals and social progress went hand in hand with social conflicts and extreme violence. This publication, which is based on the traveling exhibition "Weimar in the West," explores these contrasts.
The project "Republic of Contrasts," a joint initiative of the regional associations of Westphalia-Lippe (LWL) and the Rhineland (LVR), explores these contradictions and disparities using the example of the two former Prussian provinces. At the regional and local levels, the problems and successes of Germany's first democracy are magnified. On the one hand, the "provinces" show traces of a new beginning in modernity, particularly evident in architecture and urban planning, but also in social reform projects and changing lifestyles. On the other hand, forms of nationalist isolation and the exclusion of dissenters, as well as violence as a component of the political culture, are already present. And last but not least, economic hardship defined the daily lives of many people in the Rhineland and Westphalia.