Weimar Germany’s Left-Wing Intellectuals : A Political History of the Weltbühne and Its Circle / Istvan Deak.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Deák, István, 1926-2023, Author.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (376 p.)

Edition:

Reprint 2020

Place of Publication:

Berkeley, CA : University of California Press, [2020]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

The Germany between the two world wars, which produced some of the greatest literary lights of the century, also produced a forum worthy of them: the brilliantly edited, crusading, lef-oriented (but not party-affiliated) Weltbühne. The present book tells the history of this weekly Berlin journal, discusses the men that ran it and wrote it, and outlines the causes for which it fought. The Weltbühne had three editors--the uncompromising style-conscious Siegfried Jacobsohn, the sharp-tongued, satirical Kurt Tucholsky, and the enigmatic, aristocratic Carl von Ossietzky, martyred by the Nazis. The radical, intellectual elite of Germany (and to come extent outside Germany) contributed to the journal -- Heinrich Mann, Alfred Polgar, Erich Kästner, Alfred Doblin, Bertolt Brecht, Leonhard Frank, Theodor Plievier, Rene Schickele, Lion Feuchtwanger, Ernst Toller, Arnold Zweig; also Arthur Koestler, Romain Rolland, Henry Barbusse, and Leon Trotsky. These men stood for the demilitarization of Germany, the purge of the reactionary administration and judiciary, the end of all restraints on human rights (including the restraints on abortion and homosexuality), complete equality of women, pacifist educational policies, the intellectualization of politics and politicization of the intellectuals, unity of the working-class parties, and socialism. When, on May 11, 1933, on Opera Square in Berlin, the stormtroopers burned books of fifteen authors sinning against the German Volk, thirteen of them had made contribution to the Weltbühne; and since many of them were Jews, the auto-da-fé gave special pleasure to the mob. Mr. Deak recreates with unusual empathy the atmosphere of the era, characterized by terrific social and political issues, which eventually lead to the disaster of the Thirties. The campaigns of the Weltbühne failed, and the contributors were killed or

went into exile, with the journal itself moving from Berlin to Vienna to Prague to Paris before it died. Mr. Deak makes a lasting contribution to history by opening to a broader public the records preserved in the pages of this important but largely ignored journal, by selecting and interpreting the issues, and by brining to life the personalities that gave the era its intellectual profile. And understanding of the Weltbühne campaigns is indispensable for an appraisal of Central European politics in the first half of our century. Mr. Deak, in this readable book written with the passionate interest of a person who seems to have been a participant rather than a chronicler, makes this understanding possible by a lucid exposition and a searching analysis of the events. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1968.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Part One. THE "OTHER GERMANS"

Chapter I . THE WRITERS OF THE WELTBüHNE

Chapter II. DIE WELTBüHNE AND ITS EDITORS

Part Two. CAUSES AND CAMPAIGNS

Chapter III. FOR UNIVERSAL FRATERNITY DURING THE WAR

Chapter IV. FOR AN INTELLECTUALIZED SOCIALIST REPUBLIC DURING THE REVOLUTION 1918-1919

Chapter V. FOR FRIENDSHIP WITH FRANCE AND A EUROPEAN FEDERATION

Chapter VI. FOR PEACE WITH POLAND AND AGAINST SOVIET-GERMAN COLLABORATION

Chapter VII. FOR A MILITANT REPUBLIC AFTER THE KAPP PUTSCH AND THE RATHENAU MURDER

Chapter VIII. AGAINST THE REGULAR AND THE SECRET REICHSWEHR

Chapter IX. FOR A HUMANE SOCIETY

Part Three. A CRUSADE FOR SOCIALIST UNITY

Chapter X. UNITY ON A SOCIAL-DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM, 1918-1923

Chapter XI. A NEW GERMAN LEFT, 1924-1927

Chapter XII. REVOLUTION AGAINST FASCISM, 1928-1932

Chapter XIII. THE WELTBÜHNE TRIAL

Chapter XIV. "WALKING A TIGHTROPE"

Epilogue. PRISON AND EXILE

CONCLUSION

APPENDIXES

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 06. Jan 2021)

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9780520310285

0520310284

OCLC:

1229161125