hist 2509 a history of germany lecture 11-2 bourgeois society and culture
TRANSCRIPT
Today’s Main Themes
Authoritarianism and everyday life.
Middle-class values, respectability.
Goal: placing the novella in context.
I. The 1870s: a shift in priorities
a. a struggling economy
b. from liberal support to “rye and iron”
c. anti-clericalism and the Kulturkampf
d. Anti-Socialist Laws
II. A Special Path for Germany?
a. 1920s historiography of causes of WW I
b. post 1945, extended debate to Nazis
c. Fischer’s thesis
-German war aims and culpability
-German aggression originated in 1860s-1880s-society and politics reflected authoritarianism
d. Sonderweg: search for continuities-continuity between 1870s and 1945
II. A Special Path for Germany?
e. Blackbourn, Eley and the “revisionists”-focus on daily life
-liberal values and middle-class mores present in society -- but complicated
-not just dupes or puppets but actors
-nuance needed
II. Sites of Middle-class Power
-Bildung and Sittlichkeit
-sociability: clubs and associations
-the family, gender roles, and “morality”
-law, order, discipline: crime and police
-the new military ethos: the uniform
-masculinity and the duel
-consumption, status, and wealth
The Garden Cottage, 1853-1944-no talk of politics, religion, crime, or divorce
1) Bildung and Sittlichkeit
2) sociability: clubs and associations
*shared values
the Museum Society
lunch at the Ratskeller
professional associations
3) the family, gender, and “morality”
*the timelessness of “natural differences”
-the BGB or Civil Code 1900
-separate spheres and calmdomestic influence
-moderation but double standard -- Effi Briest
-social welfareMagdalenenheime(homes for fallen women)
4) law, order, discipline
-class justice and crime
-growth of police and institutions
-alles Verboten!
-poverty as crime -- workhouses-degeneration = preventative policing
-blind obedience to rulesHeinrich Mann, The Subject
“In England, everybody is a citizen;In Germany, everybody is a subject”
5) new military ethos
Matrosenkleidung or soldier’s suits
a) the uniform
-aping the aristocracy:Queen Victoria and Wilhelm II
-militarization of society
-not just for boys: postal workers,police, customs officers, mine officials, railwaymen and foresters
b) education system
-attendance, truancy police, drills, authoritarianism
Heinrich Mann’s,
Professor Unrat
-made into 1930 film
The Blue Angel
with Marlene Dietrich
c) respect for authority
The Captain of Köpenick (1906)
Wilhelm Voigt
-conformism,exclusion, and military virtue
-rank and privilege-reserve officer corps