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Weimar Germany
- Promise and Tragedy, Weimar Centennial Edition
- Narrated by: Robert G. Slade
- Length: 18 hrs and 42 mins
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Weimar Germany
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Summary
This audiobook narrated by Robert G. Slade paints a riveting portrait of the Weimar era.
Weimar Germany brings to life an era of unmatched creativity in the 20th century - one whose influence and inspiration still resonate today. Eric Weitz has written the authoritative history that this fascinating and complex period deserves, and he illuminates the uniquely progressive achievements and even greater promise of the Weimar Republic. Weitz reveals how Germans rose from the turbulence and defeat of World War I and revolution to forge democratic institutions and make Berlin a world capital of avant-garde art. He explores the period’s groundbreaking cultural creativity, from architecture and theater, to the new field of "sexology" - and presents richly detailed portraits of some of the Weimar’s greatest figures.
Weimar Germany also shows that beneath this glossy veneer lay political turmoil that ultimately led to the demise of the republic and the rise of the radical right. Yet for decades after, the Weimar period continued to powerfully influence contemporary art, urban design, and intellectual life - from Tokyo to Ankara and Brasilia to New York. Featuring a new preface, this comprehensive and compelling book demonstrates why Weimar is an example of all that is liberating and all that can go wrong in a democracy.
Critic reviews
"[Weitz] bring[s] to bear his uncommon erudition and a prose style that is at once rigorous, wonderfully animated, and distinguished by breathtaking clarity." (Noah Isenberg, Bookforum)
"Weitz effortlessly blends politics and economics, philosophy and literature, art and architecture in a gripping portrait of a culture whose pathology was exceeded only by its creativity.... This is history at its best." (Josef Joffe, publisher and editor of Die Zeit and fellow of the Hoover Institution, Stanford University)
"Excellent.... [A] superb introduction...probably the best available." (Eric Hobsbawm, London Review of Books)
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What listeners say about Weimar Germany
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Ravi Dass
- 30-01-22
Fascinating
Really interesting and thought provoking analysis. I found it very thorough and included a study of aesthetics which I did not expect
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- North Yorkshire
- 25-10-20
A solid bit of cultural history
This book is like an updated version of Peter Gay's Weimar Culture (1968), reading the political history alongside the social, cultural and artistic achievements to give the Weimar period a distinct character - Weitz even adds a 'bibliographic essay' of the kind Gay always included. As other reviewers not, the title is Weimar Germany but focus is very much on Berlin and the book really complements Jason Lutes' graphic novel Berlin (2018). There is nothing about the provinces (where I lived many years ago), but I didn't really mind this choice - it did give the book extra focus.
Weitz is a clearly a fan of the republic - it was a time of change and creative friction between all sorts of different elements: tradition and modernity, rural immigrants and a dynamic urban metropolis, and so on. He champions those who seek to see such tensions as a spur for creativity. So, he gives a lot of space to the architect Bruno Taut, whose Berlin housing estates were the kind of thing that came to define Modernism - but Taut's housing was multicoloured and engaged with traditional forms, rather than being a dull white cube (the author is harsher about Gropius). The conclusion even reports on Taut's stay in Japan and his work in Turkey after the end of the Weimar Republic (to chart the export of Weimar ideas).
The author gave each chapter to a particular theme and picked out a couple of writers/architects/artists/films to explore in depth. I think this worked well. Obviously this means a million things get left out, but he is not producing a complete survey so much as making the point that the Weimar Republic provided a culture of creative friction that the best artistic works could exploit and transform. This is a message from that time to our own time of ever widening social divisions. He wants the 'centre to hold' - and he is angry at the way the political right exacerbated the tensions to kill the republic.
it was all very accessible and the Audible narrator did a great job.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Shameem
- 14-07-23
Enlightening
Bought on a whim or rather out of curiosity, its fascinating to see how in brief period, ie Weimar, still shapes our way of life.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
- C. Brown
- 31-08-22
Superficial
What was the history of antisemitism in Germany prior to Weimar. How was it exacerbated under Weimar? Why were some communists leaders sought out and executed? What were the competing social and economic theories? What did Hitler actually say in any of his speeches?
If these questions are interesting or important to you, then this book is not for you. Instead, you get hours of the history of architecture, film making and a whole chapter on sex. The big issues. Weimar good, everything else bad, like it's Harry Potter or something.
The moral landscape is broken down into SPD and socialists good, everyone else bad. And yes, conservatives and Nazis are constantly conflated like it's 2016.
I give two stars as it's such an interesting period it's hard to throw completely.
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