The Weimar Republic sourcebook 9780520067745, 0520067746, 9780520067752, 0520067754

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A CENTENNIAL BOOK One hundred books published between 1990and 1995 bear this special imprint of the University of California Press. We have chosen each Centennial Book as an example of the Press's finest publishing and bookma,king traditions as we celebrate the beginning of our second century.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Founded in 1893

WEIMAR AND NOW. GERMAN CULTURAL CRITICISM

Martin Jay and Anton Kaes, General Editors Heritage of Our Times, by Ernst Bloch 2

The Nietzsche Legacy in Germany, 1890-1990, by Steven Aschheim

3

The Weimar Republic Sourcebook, edited by Anton Kees, Martin Jay, and Edward Dimendberg

4

Batteries of Life: On the History of Things and Their Perception in Modernity, by Christoph Asendorf

5

Profane Illumination: Walter Beniamin and the Paris of Surrealist Revolution, by Margaret Cohen

6

Hollywood in Berlin: American Cinema and Weimar Germany, by Thomas J. Saunders

7

Walter Beniamin: An Aesthetic of Redemption, by Richard Wolin

8

The New Typography, by Jan Tschichold (translated by Ruari Mclean)

SOU RC EDITED BY

ANTON KAES MARTIN JAY EDWARD DIMENDBERG

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

BERKELEY

LOS ANGELES

LONDON

Published with the assistance of the Getty Grant Program. The Press would also like to acknowledge support of grants from the National Endowment of the Humanities, an independent federal agency, the Siemens Corporation, the Associates of the University of California Press, the Center for German and European Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and Henry J. Bruman. Acknowledgments to reprint previously published material can be found on page 789. Front endsheet: German soldiers returning home from WWI.

(Landesbildstelle Berlin)

Back endsheet: Hitler marches at Braunschweig Parteitag rally, October 1931. (Landesbildstelle Berlin)

University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England Copyright © 1994 by The Regents of the University of California First Paperback Printing 1995 Printed in the United States of America

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The Weimar Republic sourcebook I edited by Anton Kaes, Martin Jay, Edward Dimendberg. p. cm. -(Weimar and now; 3) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-520-06775-4 1. Germany-Politcs and government-1918-1933-Sources. 2. Germany-Social conditions-1918-1933-Sources. 3. GermanySocial life and customs-20th century-Sources. 4. National socialismGermany-Sources. 5. Government, Resistance to-Germany-History20th century-Sources. I. Kaes, Anton. II. Jay, Martin, 1944III. Dimendberg, Edward. IV. Series. DD240.W3927 1994 93-42108 943.085-dcZO The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. @l

Contents Preface . . . . .

XVII

A NEW DEMOCRACY IN CRISIS 1. The Legacy of the War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1. Ernst Simmel, War Neuroses and "Psychic Trauma" (1918) 2. The Treaty of Versailles: The Reparations Clauses (1919) . . . 3. Count Ulrich von Brockdorff-Rantzau, Speech of the German Delegation, Versailles (1919) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5

4. Ernst Troeltsch, The Dogma of Guilt (1919) . . . . . . . .

12

5. Paul von Hindenburg, The Stab in the Back (1919) . . . . .

15

6. Social Democratic Party (SPD), Appeal for a General Strike (1920) . . .

16

7 8 9

7. Willi Wolfradt, The Stab-in-the-Back Legend? (1922) .

16

8. Ernst Jiinger, Fire (1922) . . . . . . . . . . . . .

18

9. Kurt Tucholsky, The Spirit of 1914 (1924) . . . . . .

20

10.

Carl Zuckmayer, Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front (1929) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

23

11. Ernst von Salomon, The Outlawed (1929) . . . . . .

24

12. Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud, Why War? (1933)

25

2. Revolution and the Birth of the Republic . . . . . .

35

13. Spartacus Manifesto (1918) . . . . . . . . . . . .

37

14. Heinrich Mann, The Meaning and Idea of the Revolution (1918)

38

15. Rosa Luxemburg, Founding Manifesto of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) (1918) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

40

16. The Constitution of the German Republic (1919) . . . .

46

17. Count Harry Kessler, On Ebert and the Revolution (1919)

51

18. Wilhelm Hausenstein, Remembering Eisner (1919-1920) .

52

19. Theodor Heuss, Democracy and Parliamentarism: Their History, Their Enemies, and Their Future (1928) . . . . . . . . .

53

20. Bernhard Prince von Billow, Revolution in Berlin (1931) . . .

56

3. Economic Upheaval: Rationalization, Inflation, and Depression

60

21. Das Tagebuch, Editorial on the Occupation of the Ruhr (1923) . .

62

22. Friedrich Kroner, Overwrought Nerves (1923)

63

23. The Dawes Committee Report (1924) . . . . . . .

64

24. Ernst Neckarsulmer, Hugo Stinnes (1925) . . . . .

67

25. Rudolf Hilferding, The Organized Economy (1927) .

68

26. Erich Schairer, Alfred Hugenberg (1929) . . . . . .

72

27. B. Traven, Bank Failures (1929) . . . 28. Erwin Kupzyk, Postwar Concentration Industry (1930) . . . . . . . . . . 29. Hans Ostwald, A Moral History of the

. . . . . . . . . in the German Iron . . . . . . . . . Inflation (1931) . . . . .

30. Rolf Wagenfuhr, The Inflation Boom (1932) . . . . . . . 31. Franz von Papen, Speech to the Lausanne Conference (1932) 32. Heinrich Hauser, The Unemployed (1933) . . . . . . . . 4. Coming to Terms with Democracy . . . . . . . . . .

74 75 77 78 80 84 86

33. Friedrich Meinecke, The Old and the New Germany (1918) . 34. Ernst Troeltsch, The German Democracy (1918) . 35. Max Weber, Politics as a Vocation (1918) . . . . . . .

88 89 92

36. Kurt Tucholsky, We Nay-Sayers (1919) . . . . . . . .

96

37. 38. 39. 40.

Emil Julius Gumbel, Four Years of Political Murder (1922) . . German Center Party Program (1922) . . . . . . . . Thomas Mann, The German Republic (1922) . . . . . Das Tagebuch, Editorial on the Anniversary of the Death of Walther Rathenau (1923) . . . . . . . . . . . .

41. Carl von Ossietzky, Defending the Republic: The Great Fashion (1924) . . . . . . . .

100 104 105 109

42. Social Democratic Party (SPD) Program (1925)

110 112

43. German People's Party (DVP) Program (1931) .

115

44. Kurt Tucholsky, For Carl von Ossietzky (1932)

117

S. The Rise of Nazism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45. Alfred Rosenberg, The Russian Jewish Revolution (1919) . . . . 46. Adolf Bartels, The Struggle of the Age (1920) . . . . .

119

121 123

47. German Workers' Party (OAP), The Twenty-Five Points (1920) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

124

48. Joseph Goebbels, National Socialism or Bolshevism? (1925) . . .

127

49. 50. 51. 52.

130 133 137 138

Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (1927) . . . . . . . . . . . . . R.W. Darre, Marriage Laws and the Principles of Breeding (1930) . . . Joseph Goebbels, Why Are We Enemies of the Jews? (1930) Adolf Hitler, Address to the Industry Club (1932) . . . . .

53. German Farmer You Belong to Hitler! Why? (1932) . . . .

142

54. Joseph Goebbels, Fighting League for German Culture (1932)

143

55. Count Harry Kessler, On the Nietzsche Archive and the German Elections (1932) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

144

6. The Struggle against Fascism . . . . . . .

145

56. Ernst Bloch, Hitler's Force (1924) . . . . .

147

57. Thomas Mann, An Appeal to Reason (1930) . .

150

58. Walter Benjamin, Theories of German Fascism (1930) . . . . . 59. Heinrich Mann, The German Decision (1931) . . . 60. Lion Feuchtwanger, How Do We Struggle against a Third Reich? (1931) . . . . . . . . . . . . 61. Communist Party of Germany, Open Letter (1931) . 62. Joseph Roth, Cultural Bolshevism (1932) . . . . . 63. Paul Tillich, Ten Theses (1932) . . . . . . . . . 64. Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin, National Socialism: A Menace (1932)

159 164 167 167 169 171 172

PRESSURE POINTS OF SOCIAL LIFE 7. White-Collar Workers: Mittelstancl or Middle Class? . . . .

181

65. Hans Georg, Our Stand at the Abyss (1921) . . . .

182

66. Margot Starke, The Bank Clerk (1923) . . . . . .

183

67. Fritz Schroder, The Labor Market for White-Collar Workers (1924) . . . . . . . . . . . . .

184

68. Wilhelm Kalveram, Rationalization in Business Management (1929) . . . . . . . . . . . 69. Hilde Walter, The Misery of the "New Mittelstand" (1929)

185 187

70. Siegfried Kracauer, Shelter for the Homeless (1930) . . . 71. Theodor Geiger, The Old and New Middle Classes (1932)

189 191

8. The Rise of the New Woman . . . . . . . . . . . . .

72. Marianne Weber, The Special Cultural Mission of Women (1919) . 73. Die Kommunistin, Manifesto for International Women's Day (1921) . . . 74- Manfred Georg, The Right to Abortion (1922) . . . . . . . . . . . 75. Gabriele Tergit, Paragraph 218: A Modern Gretchen Tragedy (1926) . 76. Alfred Polgar, The Defenseless: A Conversation between Men (1928) . . 77. Max Brod, Women and the New Objectivity (1929) . 78. Elsa Herrmann, This is the New Woman (1929) . . 79. Textile Workers, My Workday, My Weekend (1930) 80. Hilde Walter, Twilight for Women? (1931) . . 81. Women's Work and the Economic Crisis (1931) 82. Else Kienle, The Kienle Case (1931) . . . . . 83. Siegfried Kracauer, Working Women (1932) . . . . . . 8+ Alice Riihle-Gerstel, Back to the Good Old Days? (1933)

195 197 198 200 202 204 205 206 208 210 212 213 216 218

9. Forging a Proletarian Culture . . . . . . . . . . .

220

85. A. R., On Proletarian Culture (1920) . . . . . . . .

222

86. Otto Ruhle, The Psyche of the Proletarian Child (1925)

223

87. Larissa Reissner, Schiffbek (1925) . . . . .

224

88. Willi Miinzenberg, Conquer Film! (1925) . . . . . . .

228

89. Friedrich Wolf, Art is a Weapon! (1928)

230

90. Walter Benjamin, Program for a Proletarian Children's Theater (1928) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

232

91. Johannes R. Becher, Our Front (1928) . . . .

234

92. A Survey on Proletarian Writing (1929) . . . .

237

93. Otto Biha, The Proletarian Mass Novel (1930)

239

94. Hanns Eisler, Progress in the Workers' Music Movement (1931)

240

95. Georg Lukacs, Willi Bredel's Novels (1931) . . . . . . . . .

242

96. League of Proletarian-Revolutionary Writers, To All

Proletarian-Revolutionary Writers, To All Workers' Correspondents (1931) . . . . . . . . . . . .

244

97. Gunther D. Dehm, Berlin Workers' District (n. d.) .

245

10. The Jewish Community: Renewal, Redefinition, Resistance

248

98. Martin Buber, Nationalism (1921) . . . . . . . . .

250

99. Efraim Frisch, Jewish Sketches (1921-1922) . . . . .

253

100. Arnold Zweig, The Countenance of Eastern European Jews (1922) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

255

101. S. Steinberg, What We Strive For (1922) . . . . .

257

102. Das Tagebuch, Editorial, The German Spirit (1924) . . . .

258

103. Franz Rosenzweig, The New Thinking (1925) . . . . . .

259

104. Edgar Marx, Ideological Self-determination of Bar Kochba:

The New Year of the Jewish Gymnastics and Sports Association Bar Kochba (1927) . . . . . . . . . . . . .

262

105. Joseph Roth, Wandering Jews (1927) . . . . . . . . . . . .

263

106. Theodor Lessing, Jewish Self-Hatred (1930) . . . . . . . . .

268

107. Gershom Scholem, On the 1930 Edition of Rosenzweig's Star of Redemption (1931) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

271

108. Central Association of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith, Flyer (1932) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

272

109. Carl von Ossietzky, Anti-Semites (1932) . . . . . . . . .

276

INTELLECTUALS AND THE IDEOLOGIES OF THE AGE 11. Redefining the Role of the Intellectuals . . . .

285

110. Gertrud Baumer, The "Intellectuals" (1919) . . . . . . . .

287

111. Alfred Doblin, The Writer and the State (1921) . . . . . .

288

112. Franz W. Seiwert and Franz Pfemfert, The Function of Intellectuals in Society and Their Task in the Proletarian Revolution (1923) . . .

291

113. Alfred Weber, The Predicament of Intellectual Workers (1923)

294

11+ Hans Zehrer, The Revolution of the Intelligentsia (1929) . . .

295

115. Karl Mannheim, Ideology and Utopia (1929) . . . . . . . .

297

116. Hannah Arendt, Philosophy and Sociology: On Karl Mannheim's Ideology and Utopia (1930) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

301

117. Ernst von Salomon, We and the Intellectuals (1930) . . .

302

118. Walter Benjamin, Left-Wing Melancholy (1931)

304

119. Siegfried Kracauer, On the Writer (1931) . . .

307

12. Critical Theory and the Search for a New Left . . . . . .

309

120. Karl Radek, Leo Schlageter: The Wanderer in the Void (1923) . . .

312

121. Karl Korsch, Marxism and Philosophy (1923) . . . . . .

314

122. Max Horkheimer, The Impotence of the German Working Class ( 1927) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

316

123. Max Horkheimer, The State of Contemporary Social Philosophy and the Tasks of an Institute for Social Research (1931) . . . . .

318

124. Wilhelm Reich, Politicizing the Sexual Problems of Youth (1932) .

322

125. Leo Lowenthal, On the Sociology of Literature (1932) . . . .

325

126. Ernst Thalmann, The SPD and NSDAP are Twins (1932) .

327

127. Social Democratic Party (SPD), The Iron Front for a United Front! (1932) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

329

13. Revolution from the Right .

330

128. Arthur Moeller van den Bruck, The Third Empire (1923) . .

332

129. Carl Schmitt, On the Contradiction between Parliamentarism and Democracy (1926) . . . . . . . . . .

334

130. Ernst Niekisch, Where We Stand (1926) . . . . . . . .

338

131. Berlin Stahlhelm Manifesto (1927) . . . . . . . . . . .

339

132. Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Literature as the Spiritual Space of the Nation (1927). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

341

133. Carl Schmitt, The Concept of the Political (1927) . . . .

342

134. Arnolt Bronnen, German Nationalism, German Theater (1931) . . .

345

135. Hans Freyer, Revolution from the Right (1931) . . . . . . . .

347

136. German National People's Party (DNVP) Program (1931) . . .

348

J. Jung, Germany and the Conservative Revolution (1932)

352

137. Edgar

14. Cultural Pessimism: Diagnoses of Decline . . . . . . . .

355

138. Oswald Spengler, The Decline of the West (1918) . . . . .

358

139. Count Hermann Keyserling, The Culture of Making It Easy for Oneself (1920) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

360

140. Willy Hellpach, The Catholic Cultural Offensive and Political Catholicism (1924-1925) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

362

141. Hermann Hesse, The Longing of Our Time for a Worldview (1926)

365

142. Martin Heidegger, Being and Time (1927) . . . . . .

368

143. Ernst Jiinger, On Danger (1931) . . . . . . . . . . .

369

14+ Karl Jaspers, The Spiritual Situation of the Age (1931) . .

373

145. Ernst Jiinger, The Worker: Domination and Form (1932) . .

375

146. Franz von Papen, German Cultural Policy (1932) . . . . .

377

147· Gottfried Benn, After Nihilism (1932) . . . . . . . . . 148. Ludwig Bauer, The Middle Ages, 1932 (1932) . . . . . .

380 384

149· Alfred Doblin, May the Individual Not Be Stunted by the . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Masses (1932) .

386

THE CHALLENGE OF MODERNITY 15. 150. l5I. 152. 153· 154· 155· 156. 157·

Imagining America: Fordism and Technology . . . . . Rudolf Kayser, Americanism (1925) . . . . . . . . . Stefan Zweig, The Monotonization of the World (1925) Friedrich von Gottl-Ottlilienfeld, Fordism (1926) . Friedrich Sieburg, Worshipping Elevators (1926) . . . . Siegfried Kracauer, The Mass Ornament (1927) . . . . . . . Adolf Halfeld, America and the New Objectivity (1928) . . . . . Felix Stossinger, The Anglicization of Germany (1929) . . . . Otto Bauer, Rationalization and the Social Order (1931)

393 395 397 400 402

16. 158. 159· 160. l6r. 162. 163. 164. 165.

Berlin and the Countryside . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ludwig Finckh, The Spirit of Berlin (1919) . . . Matheo Quinz, The Romanic Cafe (1926) . . . . Kurt Tucholsky, Berlin and the Provinces (1928) . Franz Hessel, The Suspicious Character (1929) . . . . Egon Erwin Kisch, We Go to a Cafe Because ... (1930) . Wilhelm Stapel, The Intellectual and His People (1930) . . . . . Harold Nicolson, The Charm of Berlin (1932) . . . . . . . . . Martin Heidegger, Creative Landscape: Why Do We Stay in the Provinces? (1933) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

412

17. Designing the New World: Modern Architecture and the Bauhaus 166. Bruno Taut, A Program for Architecture (1918) . . . . 167. Walter Gropius, Program of the Staatliches Bauhaus in Weimar (1919) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Architecture and the Will of the Age (1924) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169. Walter Gropius and Paul Schultze-Naumburg, Who is Right? Traditional Architecture or Building in New Forms (1926) . . . . . . 170. Hannes Meyer, The New World (1926) . . . . . . . . . . . I?I. Adolf Behne and Paul Westheim, The Aesthetics of the Flat Roof (1926-1927). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172. Rudolf Arnheim, The Bauhaus in Dessau (1927) . . . . . . 173· Erich Mendelsohn, Why This Architecture? (1928) . . . . . . . 174· Marcel Breuer, Metal Furniture and Modern Spatiality (1928) . . . . .

429 432

404 407 408 410

414 415 418 420 423 423 425 426

435 438 439 445 449 450 451 453

18. Housing for the Masses . . . . . . . . . . . .

454

175. Bruno Taut, The Earth is a Good Dwelling (1919) .

456

176. Martin Wagner, Path and Goal (1920) . . . . . .

460

177. Bruno Taut, The New Dwelling: The Woman as Creator (1924) .

461

178. Grete Lihotzky, Rationalization in the Household (1926-1927) .

462

179. Dr. N., A Contemporary Garden City (1927) . . . . . . . .

465

180. Edgar Wedepohl, The Weissenhof Settlement (1927) . . . . .

466

181. Marie-Elisabeth Lilders, A Construction, Not a Dwelling (1927)

468

182. The Stuttgart Werkbund Houses (1929) . . . . .

469

183. Otto Steinicke, A Visit to a New Apartment (1929) .

471

19. From Dada to the New Objectivity: Art and Politics

474

184. November Group Circular (1918) . . .

477

185. November Group Manifesto (1918) . . . . . . . .

477

186. Work Council for Art Manifesto (1919) . . . . . .

478

187. Wilhelm Hausenstein, Art at this Moment (1919-1920) .

479

188. Raoul Hausmann, The German Philistine Gets Upset (1919)

482

189. John Heartfield and George Grosz, The Art Scab (1920) . . . .

483

190. Richard Huelsenbeck, Dada Tours (1920) . . . .

486

191. Max Beckmann, Creative Credo (1920) . . . . .

487

192. Adolf Behne, On the 1922 Russian Art Exhibition in Berlin (1922) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

489

193. Carl Einstein, Otto Dix (1923) . . . . . . . . . .

490

194. Gustav Hartlaub, Introduction to "New Objectivity": German Painting since Expressionism (1925) .

491

195. Franz Roh, Post-Expressionist Schema (1925) .

493

196. Misch Orend, Magical Realism (1928) . . . .

494

197. Paul Schultze-Naumburg, Art and Race (1928)

496

198. George Grosz, Among Other Things, a Word for German Tradition (1931) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

499

CHANGING CONFIGURATIONS OF CULTURE 20. Literature: High and Low . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

507

199. Max Brod, Franz Kafka's Posthumous Writings (1924) . . . . .

510

200. Hermann von Wedderkop, Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain (1925) .

512

201. Egon Erwin Kisch, Preface to The Racing Reporter (1925) .

512

202. Walter Benjamin, Filling Station (1928)

513

203. Alfred Doblin, Ulysses by Joyce (1928) . . . . . . .

514

204. Erich Knauf, Book Clubs (1929) . . . . . . . . .

514

205. Gina Kaus, The Woman in Modern Literature (1929) . . . . .

515

206. Erich Kastner, Prosaic Digression ( 1929) . . . . . . . . . .

517

207. Kurt Pinthus, Masculine Literature (1929) . . . . .

518

208. Heinrich Mann, Detective Novels (1929) . . . . . .

521

209. Arnold Zweig, Is There a Newspaper Novel? (1929) .

522

210. Gottfried Benn, The New Literary Season (1931) . . .

522

211. Friedrich Sieburg, Champagne: Notes on the Literature of High Society (1931) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

525

212. Lion Feuchtwanger, The Novel of Today Is International (1932) . . . . . . . . . . .

526

213. Gunter Eich, Remarks on Lyric Poetry (l 932)

528

21. Theater, Politics, and the Public Sphere . . . .

530

214. Leopold Jessner, To the Directors of the German Theater (1918) .

533

215. Siegfried Jacobsohn, Theater-and Revolution? (1919) 216. Siegfried Jacobsohn, Wilhelm Tell (1919) .

533 534

217. Herbert Jhering, The Dramatist Bert Brecht (1922) . 218. Hanns Johst, The Drama and the National Idea (1922)

534

219. Bertolt Brecht, More Good Sports (1926) . 220. Leopold Jessner, Bertolt Brecht, and Fritz Kortner, Is the Drama Dying? (1926) .

536

221. Bertolt Brecht, Difficulties of the Epic Theater (1927)

539

222. Lion Feuchtwanger, Bertolt Brecht Presented to the British (1928) .

540

535

538

223. Friedrich Wolf, The Stage and Life (1929) . 224. Erwin Piscator, The Documentary Play (1929) .

542

225. Max Reinhardt, On Actors (1930) . 226. Das rote Sprachrohr, How Does One Use Agitprop Theater? (1930) .

546

227. Alfred Kemenyi, Measures Taken at the GroBes Schauspielhaus (1931) . . . . . . . . . . .

22. The Roaring Twenties: Cabaret and Urban Entertainment .

543

548 549

551

228. Alice Gerstel, Jazz Band (1922) .

554

229. Frank Warschauer, Berlin Revues (1924) 230. Maximilian Sladek, Our Show (1924) .

556

555

231. Ferdinand Hager, The Flight of the "Blue Bird" (1924) . 232. Katharina Rathaus, Charleston: Every Age Has the Dance It Deserves (1926) .

557

233· Ivan Goll, The Negroes Are Conquering Europe (1926) 234· Joseph Goebbels, Around the Gedachtniskirche (1928) . 235· Erich Kastner, The Cabaret of the Nameless (1929) .

559

236. Curt Moreck, We Will Show You Berlin (1930) .

563

558 560 562

237. Siegfried Kracauer, Girls and Crisis (1931) .

565

238. Friedrich Hollaender, Cabaret (1932) . . .

566

23. Music for Use: Gebrauchsmusik and Opera

568

239. Frank Warschauer, Jazz: On Whiteman's Berlin Concerts (1926) . . . . . . . . . . . .

571

240. Kurt Weill, Zeitoper (1928) . . . . . . . . .

572

241. H. H. Stuckenschmidt, Short Operas (1928) . . . . . .

574

242. Kurt Weill, Correspondence about The Threepenny Opera (1929)

576

243. Paul Hindemith and Walter Gropius, For the Renewal of Opera (1929) . . . . . . . . . .

578

244. Hanns Gutman, Music for Use (1929)

579

245. Alban Berg, On My Wozzeck (1929) . .

583

246. Arnold Schoenberg, My Public (1930) .

584

247. Ernst Krenek, New Humanity and Old Objectivity (1931) . . . .

586

248. Theodor W. Adorno, Mahagonny (1932) . . . . . . . . . . .

588

24. New Mass Media: Radio and Gramophone

594

249. Kurt Weill, Dance Music (1926) . . . . .

597

250. H. H. Stuckenschmidt, Mechanical Music (1926) . . . .

597

251. Otto Alfred Palitzsch, Broadcast Literature (1927) . . .

600

252. Kurt Tucholsky, Radio Censorship (1928) . . . . . .

603

253. Theodor W. Adorno, The Curves of the Needle (1928) . . .

605

25+ Frank Warschauer, The Future of Opera on the Radio (1929)

607

255. Arno Schirokauer, Art and Politics in Radio (1929) . . . . .

609

256. Arnolt Bronnen, Radio Play or Literature? (1929) . .

610

257. W. E., The Writer Speaks and Sings on Gramophone Records (1929) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

612

258. M. M. Gehrke and Rudolf Arnheim, The End of the Private Sphere (1930) . . . . . . . . . . .

613

259. Bertolt Brecht, The Radio as an Apparatus of Communication (1932) . . . . . . . . . .

615

25. Cinema from Expressionism to Social Realism 260. Herbert Jhering, An Expressionist Film (1920)

617

261. Curt Rosenberg, Fridericus Rex (1923) . . . .

621

262. Fritz Lang, The Future of the Feature Film in Germany (1926) . . . . . . . . . . . . .

622

620

263. Willy Haas, Metropolis (1927) . . . . . . . . . . . .

623

264. Walter Benjamin, A Discussion of Russian Filmic Art and Collectivist Art in General (1927) . . . . .

626

265. Bela Balazs, Writers and Film (1929) . . . . . . . . .

628

266. Emil Jannings, Romanticizing the Criminal in Film (1929)

629

267. 268. 269. 270.

630 632 632 634

Siegfried Kracauer, The Blue Angel (1930) . . . . . . Erich Pommer, Writers and the Sound Film (1931) . . . . Gabriele Tergit, Fritz Lang's M: Filmed Sadism (1931) . Siegfried Kracauer, The Task of the Film Critic (1932) . .

THE TRANSFORMATION OF EVERYDAY LIFE 26. Visual Culture: Illustrated Press and Photography . . . . . 271. Edlef Koppen, The Magazine as a Sign of the Times (1925) 272. August Sander, Remarks on My Exhibition at the Cologne Art Union (1927) . . . . . . . . . . . 273. 274. 275. 276.

Kurt Korff, The Illustrated Magazine (1927) . . . Albert Renger-Patzsch, Joy before the Object (1928) Johannes Molzahn, Stop Reading! Look! (1928) . Werner Graff, Foreword to Here Comes the New Photographer! (1929) . . . . . . . . . . . .

277. Willi Warstat, Photography in Advertising (1930) . 278. Raoul Hausmann, Photomontage (1931) . . . . . 279. Alfred Kemenyi, Photomontage as a Weapon in Class Struggle (1932) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

641 644 645 646 647 648 649 650 651 653

27. Visions of Plenty: Mass Consumption, Fashion, and Advertising 280. Boycott of French Fashion Goods (1923) . . . . . 281. Enough is Enough! Against the Masculinization of Woman (1925) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

655 658

282. Hanns Kropff, Women as Shoppers (1926) . . . .

660

283. Ernst Lorsy, The Hour of Chewing Gum (1926) . . . . . . .

662

284. Hans Siemsen, The Literature of Nonreaders (1926) . 285. Vicki Baum, People of Today (1927) . . . . . . . . . . . 286. Auto-Magazin, Editorial Statement (1928) . . . . . . . . . .

663 664

287. Anita, Sex Appeal: A New Catchword for an Old Thing (1928) 288. Wolf Zucker, Art and Advertising (1929) . . . . . . .

659

667 667

289. Franz Hessel, On Fashion (1929) . . . . . . . . . . . . .

668 670

290. Stephanie Kaul, Whose Fault Is the Long Dress? (1931) . . . .

671

291. Liselotte de Booy [Miss Germany 1932], Wasted Evenings (1932)

672

28. The Cult of the Body: Lebensrelorm, Sports, and Dance . . . . 292. Adolf Koch, The Truth about the Berlin Nudist Groups (1924) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

673

293. Felix Hollaender, Ways to Strength and Beauty (1924) 294. Hans Suren, Man and Sunlight (1925) . . . . . . .

676 677 678

295. Artur Michel, Flying Man (1926) . . . . . . . . . . . 296. Fritz Wildung, Sport is the Will to Culture (1926) . . . .

679

297. Ernst Preiss, Physical Fitness-A National Necessity (1926)

683

298. Wolfgang Graeser, Body Sense: Gymnastics, Dance, Sport (1927) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

683

681

299. Mary Wigman, Dance and Gymnastics (1927) . . . . . .

685

300. Herbert Jhering, Boxing (1927) . . . . . . . . . . . .

687

3oi. Marieluise Fleisser, The Athletic Spirit and Contemporary Art: An Essay on the Modern Type (1929) . . . . . . .

688

302. Valeska Gert, Dancing (1931) . . . . . . . . . . . .

690

303. Carl Diem, The German Academy for Gymnastics (1932)

691

29. Sexuality: Private Rights versus Social Norms . . . . .

693

30+ Kurt Hiller, The Law and Sexual Minorities (1921) . .

696

305. Guidelines of the German Association for the Protection of Mothers (1922) . . . . . . . . . . . .

697

306. Hugo Bettauer, The Erotic Revolution (1924) . . .

698

307. Magnus Hirschfeld, Sexual Catastrophes (1926) . .

700

308. Lola Landau, The Companionate Marriage (1929) .

702

309. League for Human Rights, Appeal to All Homosexual Women (1929) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

704

310. Helene Stocker, Marriage as a Psychological Problem (1929)

705

31 I. Magnus Hirschfeld, The Development and Scope of Sexology (1929) . . . . . . . . . . . . .

708

312. Grete Ujhely, A Call for Sexual Tolerance (1930)

710

313. Alfred Doblin, Sexuality as Sport (1931) . . . .

712

314. Kurt Tucholsky, Rohm (1932) . . . . . . . .

714

315. Walter von Hollander, Birth Control-A Man's Business! (1932) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

715

30. On the Margins of the Law: Vice, Crime, and the Social Order .....

718

316. Thomas Wehrling, Berlin Is Becoming a Whore (1920)

721

317. Carl Ludwig Schleich, Cocaineism (1921) . . . .

723

318. Ernst Engelbrecht and Leo Heller, Night Figures of the City (1926) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

724

319. Ernst Engelbrecht and Leo Heller, Opium Dens (1926) .

726

320. Margot Klages-Stange, Prostitution (1926) . . . . .

728

32i. E. M. Mungenast, The Murderer and the State (1928) .

729

322. Artur Landsberger, The Berlin Underworld (1929) . .

732

323. Franz Alexander and Hugo Staub, The Criminal and His Judges (1929) . . . . . . . . . . . . .

734

324. Willi Proger, Sites of Berlin Prostitution (1930) . . .

736

325. Georg Fuchs, We Prisoners: Memories of Inmate No. 2911 (1931)

.....

737

326. Sigmund Freud and Oswald Spengler, Responses to Fuchs, We Prisoners (1931) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

738

327. Siegfried Kracauer, Murder Trials and Society (1931)

740

Biographies . . . . .

743

Political Chronology .

765

Selected Bibliography .

773

Acknowledgments .

789

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . .

795

Preface TRADITIONAL NARRATIVES of German history typically describe the Weimar Republic as a troubled interlude between two eras of greater and more sinister importance: the Wilhelmine Kaiserreich, which created a unified Germany, and the Third Reich, which destroyed it. In these accounts, Weimar is seen as a desperate and grudging experiment in democracy whose decisive failure had consequences not only for Germany but the world. Its cultural innovations, varied and controversial, are said to have matured only in the cruel exile forced by the Nazi regime. Its political legacy has been understood almost entirely in negative terms; as the advocates of the Federal Republic, founded after World War II, were fond of saying: "Bonn is not Weimar!" In recent years, however, many historians have become skeptical about straightforward, univocal narratives that assign events and eras a simple place in a coherent story. They have returned to an insight articulated by two of Weimar's most insightful intellectuals, Ernst Bloch and Siegfried Kracauer: history is composed of many threads that can be interwoven only with difficulty, if at all, into a single tapestry. What Bloch called "non-synchronicity" or "non-contemporaneity" (Ungleichzeitigkeit) and Kracauer the "heterogeneity of the historical universe" acknowledges the multiple temporal strands that rarely, if ever, cohere in any historical period. Some are residues of past eras, others are anticipations of future ones; the significance depends on the larger narrative in which they figure. The turbulent fourteen years of the Weimar Republic confound any attempt to fashion one wholly integrated story. Instead, the historian must recognize the variety of radically different stories that can be wrested from the debris of Weimar. What appeared to some who lived at the time as the birth of modernity and the dawn of a modern technological age, seemed to others the epitome of alienation and decadence. If a master narrative of Weimar history with collapse and horror as its telos is no longer viable, the principle of montage suggests itself as a more appropriate strategy for comprehending the fragments of an untotalizable whole. Indeed, the multiperspectivism of montage was often praised during the period itself as a technique that challenges synthesis and closure. The legacy of Weimar continues to haunt the political and cultural imagery of the twentieth century. As a reunited Germany struggles to master demons long thought dead, the lessons of Weimar-however they are drawn-appear uncannily relevant. A laboratory for modernity, the Weimar period offered

xvii

xviii

Preface

a panoply of political, economic, social, and cultural models, some of which blended imperceptibly into the Nazi ideology while others survived in exile after 1933. Political blueprints, practical and utopian; cultural experiments, elitist and popular; social initiatives, progressive and reactionary-all circulated among a populace still in shock from the loss of a four-year war and a nearly fifty-year-old imperial identity. The result was a frantic kaleidoscopic shuffling of the fragments of a nascent modernity and the remnants of a persistent past. Odd combinations of progressive traditionalism and reactionary modernism vied with the seemingly more appropriate alliances of avant-garde or conservative political, social, and cultural ideology. Innocent expressions of radical hope struggled against a mood of resigned world-weariness. What one Weimar survivor, Theodor W. Adorno, dubbed the "jargon of authenticity" competed with what a later German commentator, Peter Sloterdijk, called the corrosive triumph of "cynical reason." The categories of "high" and "low," whether applied to politics, culture or social relations, no longer seemed relevant. We have sought to make the rich legacy of Weimar come alive by assembling a wide variety of original documents and presenting them in thirty chapters that juxtapose politics with culture, philosophy, social thought, and anecdotal material from everyday life. Even though hierarchical determinations of importance and influence unavoidably affect any process of selection and arrangement, we have endeavored to question these assumptions as frequently as possible. Although the documents are chronologically organized and contextualized in chapter introductions (for the benefit of those unfamiliar with the general contours of the period), the texts themselves will no doubt interact for every reader in ways that undermine any predetermined order or pattern. Along with the obvious figures and dominant themes, we have included many pieces that will be unfamiliar to even the most learned of Weimar scholars. Our major selection criteria were the specificity of a document to the Weimar era and its relevance and resonance for us today. We are painfully aware of the many texts that could not be included because of restrictions of space. We also regret that we needed to shorten a number of texts for the same reason. At the same time we are heartened by the hope that it may well be these gaps and omissions that will stimulate further forays into one of the most creative and troubling periods of the twentieth century. A few words are in order about the editorial principles of the book. All documents were selected from writings originally published during the Weimar period. These include government records and reports; political fliers, speeches, and manifestoes; party programs; daily newspapers and popular magazines; cultural and political journals; trade publications; literary and film reviews; artists' statements; exhibition catalogs; pamphlets and books. Since we focused on texts that publicly circulated between 9 November 1918 and

Preface 30 January 1933, we omitted, with a few exceptions, unpublished materials and

correspondence as well as retrospective interviews and autobiographies. In some cases we included documents composed before the end of the Weimar Republic but published shortly after its demise. We favored texts that ignited debates, spawned controversy, or articulated an issue particularly well. Predominantly fictional works-poems, plays, short stories, and novels-were excluded. We strongly believe, however, that literary works, as well as other cultural productions of the period, will resonate more dynamically once positioned in the contexts reconstructed here. In the tradition of the "history of everyday life" (the Alltagsgeschichte only recently discovered by German historians), we have incorporated writings that lend a voice to the private fears and anxieties, wishes and aspirations of the period. Material that might strike some readers as "cultural plankton" is meant to convey a sense of daily life that is so often missing in purely political and (high-)cultural histories of the Weimar Republic. Generally, document headings translate the original title of articles or books. In the rare case of texts published without a title or taken from larger works, we have provided our own titles within square brackets. We also have supplied annotations in footnotes when they seemed helpful. All of our own editorial interventions--explanatory information and omissions-are indicated by square brackets. Most of the texts presented here are translated for the first time. Those that appeared previously in English, some dating as far back as the Weimar Republic, are reprinted in their original wording. Variations in style and expression among the different translations are therefore inevitable. As a matter of principle, we sought to preserve the documents' historical patina and phrasing, even at the cost of retaining an occasional opaque passage and instances of offensive racist and sexist language. Publication of this book would not have been possible without the assistance and support of many individuals and organizations. To the large number of friends, colleagues, and donors, who provided encouragement and concrete help, we offer our sincere gratitude. Sander L. Gilman, Andreas Huyssen, and Helmut Kreuzer were early advocates of the project. Charles W. Haxthausen suggested selections for the art section and provided assistance with translations. lain Boyd Whyte was equally helpful with the chapters on architecture. Margaret Anderson, Ulrike Baureithel, Bruce Campbell, Albrecht Diimling, Gerald Feldman, Peter Jela vi ch, Barbara Kos ta, Helmut Lethen, Thomas Levin, Cornelia Levine, Hans Mommsen, Sigrid Millier, Eric Rentschler, Wolfgang Theis, Karl Toepfer, and John Willett shared their expertise and recommended texts which found their way into the book. Participants in NEH summer seminars conducted by Anton Kaes in Berkeley and Berlin, which dealt with Weimar culture and modernity, offered challenging feedback about the analytical dimension of the project and propelled it forward by their sheer enthusiasm.

xix

Preface

Nancy P. Nenno, the principal research assistant in the last phase of the book, unsparingly gave her time and provided invaluable editorial help. We are especially grateful for her expert work on the political chronology and biographies, as well as her careful reading of the manuscript. Leslie A. Pahl also helped with research and editing. We thank Don Reneau, who translated the majority of the documents. We also were fortunate to enjoy the assistance of Benedikt Burkard, Fred Dewey, Enno Hoppe, Noah Isenberg, Bettina Lemke, David Levin, Felix Najer, Karen Nissen, and Millie Zinck. For financial support of this project, we are indebted to the Getty Grant Program, the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Siemens Corporation, the Associates of the University of California Press, Henry J. Bruman, and the Center for German and European Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Richard Buxbaum, director of this Center, was especially supportive and generous, as were Deborah Marrow of the Getty Grant Program, and Hans Decker of the Siemens Corporation. Kurt Forster, Thomas Reese, and Herbert Hymans of the Getty Center for the History of Art and the Humanities provided a stimulating environment for exploring the multidisciplinary nature of Weimar culture. The good will of an untold number of librarians was put to the test at the University of California at Berkeley and Los Angeles, Columbia University, the Leo Baeck Institute in New York, the New York Public Library, the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin, and the Deutsches Literaturarchiv in Marbach. Within the University of California Press, William J. McClung was an early and forceful advocate. We are grateful to James H. Clark, the director of the Press, for his unflagging enthusiasm. Dan Dixon, Stephanie Emerson, Diana Feinberg, Rebecca Frazier, Stanley Holwitz, Deborah Kirshman, and Lynne Withey provided invaluable help while the book was being produced. For its original design, we are indebted to Sandy Drooker. Finally, we wish to thank the many publishers and copyright holders for their permission to reprint material. Far longer in preparation than its editors anticipated, The Weimar Republic Sourcebook tried the patience of all those connected with it, none more than

that of our families and friends. We therefore owe a special debt of thanks to Christine Kaes, Catherine Gallagher, and Ardath Grant. Although he did not live to see its publication, Leo Lowenthal, embodiment par excellence of the Weimar spirit, was an invaluable source of inspiration. His friendship and counsel will be sorely missed. We dedicate the book to his memory. Berkeley, October 16, 1993 Anton Kaes Martin Jay Edward Dimendberg

·-

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4~ Jdl)rt

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en tuge, l)umml>ei( unb Seigl)elt

Damages ta the Kaiser Wilhelm I Memorial after the Revolution in Berlin, December 24, 1918. (Landesbildstelle Berlin.) Inset: Clara Zetkin speaking at KPD political demonstration against the murder of Matthias Erzberger, August 31, 1921. (Landesbi/dstelle Berlin.) First announcement of Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler, 1924. {Landesbildstelle Berlin.)

1 The Legacy of the War FROM

THE BEGINNING,

the Weimar Republic was burdened by its unexpected

and, in many quarters, unwelcome birth in the bitter aftermath of a lost war. When the armistice ending World War I was signed on November II, 1918, some two million German soldiers were dead-more than those of any other combatant--over four million more were disabled, physically and psychologically, and the German economy was in shambles. The Allied blockade remained in effect until the peace treaty was signed at Versailles on June 28, I919, and the clamor for punitive reparations continued among the victors for years to come. The harsh legacy of defeat was especially hard to bear for some because the German armies surrendered while still occupying foreign soil. Complete demobilization was hindered by the need to fight internal battles over Germany's political future, as well as by the reluctance of some who had fought to unlearn the brutal lessons they had learned in the trenches. In its short and tumultuous existence, the Weimar Republic never had the opportunity to work through the legacy of the war and come to terms with its defeat. The physical wounds of those who survived may have healed, but their psychological traumas, whose severity was recognized by psychoanalysts like Ernst Simmel as early as 19I8, continued to fester for years to come. The treaty ending the war, signed reluctantly and under pressure, was quickly dubbed the Diktat of Versailles. Political figures blamed for accepting the "Carthaginian Peace" it imposed on Germany were discredited or worse, as demonstrated by the assassination of the Catholic Center Party's Matthias Erzberger in I92I. Among the more controversial clauses were those attributing war guilt to Germany and demanding extensive compensation, which had been vigorously, but vainly resisted by the German delegation to the conference. Even more devastating were the significant losses of territory to France, Poland, Denmark, Lithuania, and Belgium, suffered either outright or after plebiscites, and the radical reduction of the armed forces and demilitarization of the Rhineland. Hostility to the peace treaty was often accompanied by a search for scapegoats for the defeat, leading to the "stab in the back legend" promulgated by unrepentant military leaders like General Paul von Hindenburg in his testimony to the constitutional assembly's investigative committee on the war in November I9I9. Even more moderate defenders of the new republic, such as

5

II ill

I

6

The Legacy of the War

the philosopher and theologian Ernst Troeltsch, resisted accepting Germany's responsibility for its plight, however much they may have also faulted the aggressive war policies of the general staff. Voices such as that of Willi Wolfradt, who claimed in Die Weltbiihne in 1922 that the army should have been stabbed in the back, were a distinct minority. Indeed, it might be argued that not until the debate unleashed by the revisionist historian Fritz Fischer's Germany's Aims in the First World War in 196! did the Germans attain a more even-handed, if still often contested, assessment of the war's origins. During the Weimar Republic, feelings about the war ran too deep to allow any such dispassionate analysis. Not only was the justice of the war's goals still widely maintained, but also the devastating experience of trench warfare could be given a romantic gloss in the writings of veterans such as Ernst Jiinger. The postwar exploits of the Freikorps, the still-mobilized veterans used by the government to crush leftist revolts, were subject to even greater glorification in the memoirs of participants, such as Ernst von Salomon's The Outlaws. Here the celebration of violence, a yearning for charismatic leadership, and communal fantasies of male bonding that were to have so sinister an outcome in post-Weimar German politics can be easily discerned. Yet at least once the republic was successfully defended against these forces of reaction, as the failure of the Kapp Putsch, a rightist coup attempt led by Wolfgang Kapp, an East Prussian politician, and Hermann Ehrhardt, leader of the most notorious Freikorps brigade, demonstrates. Calling for a general strike on March 13, 1920, the German left, in a rare display of unity, mobilized nearly

100,000

workers and civil servants.

There were, to be sure, some German voices opposed to the glorification of war and the politics of belligerent resentment to which it led. A decade after hostilities began, Kurt Tucholsky, the independent leftist journalist associated with Die Weltbiihne, mocked the current nostalgia for the chauvinist "spirit of 1914." But as the storm generated in 1929 by Erich Maria Remarque's novel All Quiet on the Western Front and the film made from it demonstrates, the wounds of the war festered until they helped bring about the death of the republic itself. As for the prospects of another war, even pacifist intellectuals like Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud could offer little hope that it might be averted, as evinced in the grim letters they exchanged in 1932.

The legacy of lhe War

7

1

ERNST SIMMEL War Neuroses and "Psychic Trauma" First published in Kriegs-Neurosen und "Psychisches Trauma" (Munich and Leipzig: Otto Nemnich, 1918), 5-6, 82-84.

When I speak about the war as an event, as the cause of illness, I anticipate something which has revealed itself in my experiences-namely that it is not only the bloody war which leaves such devastating traces in those who took part in it. Rather, it is also the difficult conflict in which the individual finds himself in his fight against a world transformed by war. It is a fight in which the victim of war neurosis succumbs in silent, often unrecognized, torment. He can leave the war without physical illness, his physical wounds, if any, already healed. Nevertheless he departs from the arena of war as one branded with a so-called "functional" illness, namely war neurosis. The damage which the war neurotic suffers as a result of his participation in the war either in the trenches or at home can befall a single organ, or it may encompass the entire person. [ ... ] Wherever the neurosis is the result of a single debilitation of the personality complex that occurred in a particular war experience, we are able, by means of suggestion, temporarily to interpolate our own healthy ego as a catalyst and thereby reestablish the unity of the fractured personality. These are the cases in which a single s~ssion is usually enough to bring about a cure. If, however, we are unable to cure a war neurosis by means of suggestive hypnosis, we must not abandon the patient to his fate and send him home untreated (for instance, permanently paralyzed), because today we know the particular psychic cause. Instead we must tell ourselves that we have not yet touched upon the real reason, the non-physical cause of his suffering. We must do everything that psychoanalytical work offers today to find a cure which reduces any further increase of the already unnecessarily large number of men who were crippled by the war. However, in my opinion we must be very careful in our application of suggestive hypnosis to those forms of neurosis that manifest themselves in serious motor hypersensitivity-from spasticity to convulsions. If we keep in mind that this physical sensitivity is merely the external symptom of an internal, strongly repressed affect, it then becomes clear that any forceful attempt to suggest away such a symptom does nothing more than close a safety valve which the organism had created to compensate for any inordinate amount of internal psychic pressure. If such a cure lasts, which in my experience is frequently not the case, it obviously implies certain dangers for the patient. Namely, the release may violently take a different tack; I have often observed unmotivated outbursts of rage or other forms of "hysterical attacks" as a result of suggestion-cures. Consideration of the possibility of strongly repressed affects is essential as well for assessing the meaning of these patients' disciplinary infractions. However, as the reader will realize at the end of this discussion, the self-assertion of the organism as it articulates itself in neurosis ultimately signifies self-protection in the face of the threat of psychosis.

The Legacy of the War

8

Whatever in a person's experience is too powerful or horrible for his conscious mind to grasp and work through, filters down to the unconscious levels of his psyche. There it lies like a mine, waiting to explode the entire psychic structure. And only the self-protective mechanism, with its release of waves of affect, and its attachment to an individual organ, to external symptoms, and to symptomatic actions prevents a permanent disturbance of the psychic balance. In this way, following the work of Freud and his school, another medical border that seemed fixed has become mutable. We recognize that functional psychoses are merely gradual intensifications of functional neuroses. We gladly abstain from diagnoses out of desperation, by which we previously accorded a psychosis the status "hysterical" in order to believe it curable; instead, we hope that, through a corresponding elaboration of psychoanalytic-hypnotic methodology, we are on the way to healing all emotional illnesses that are not organic in origin. Today we may already look forward to the time in which mental institutions become depopulated. Thus we are able to make a contribution to the rebuilding of the human economy-a necessary task for the preservation of all nations because of the waste of human life during the years of war.

2 The Treaty of Versailles: The Reparations Clauses First published in The Treaty of Peace Between the Allied and Associated Powers and Germany (London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1919).

PART VIII: REPARATION Section I: General Provisions

Article 23 I. The Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies.

Article 232. The Allied and Associated Governments recognize that the resources of Germany are not adequate, after taking into account permanent diminutions of such resources which will result from other provisions of the present Treaty, to make complete reparation for all such loss and damage. The Allied and Associated Governments, however, require, and Germany undertakes, that she will make compensation for all damage done to the civilian population of the Allied and Associated Powers and to their property during the period of the belligerency of each as an Allied or Associated Power against Germany by such aggression by land, by sea and from the air, and in general all damage as defined in Annex I hereto. In accordance with Germany's pledges, already given, as to complete restoration for Belgium, Germany undertakes, in addition to the compensation for damage elsewhere in this Part provided for, as a consequence of the violation of the Treaty of I839,' to make reimbursement of all sums which Belgium has borrowed from the Allied and Associated Governments up to November I I, I9I8, together with interest at the rate of five percent 1.

The general European treaty that guaranteed Belgian independence and neutrality.

The Legacy of the War

9

(5%) per annum on such sums. This amount shall be determined by the Reparation Commission, and the German Government undertakes thereupon forthwith to make a special issue of bearer bonds to an equivalent amount payable in marks gold, on May l, 1926, or, at the option of the German Government, on May 1 in any year up to 1926. Subject to the foregoing, the form of such bonds shall be determined by the Reparation Commission. [ ... ]

Article 233. The amount of the above damage for which compensation is to be made by Germany shall be determined by an Inter-Allied Commission, to be called the Reparation Commission and constituted in the form and with the powers set forth hereunder and in Annexes 2 to 7 inclusive hereto. This Commission shall consider the claims and give to the German Government a just opportunity to be heard. The findings of the Commission as to the amount of damage defined as above shall be concluded and notified to the German Government on or before May l, 1921, as representing the extent of that Government's obligations. [ ... ] Article 235. In order to enable the Allied and Associated Powers to proceed at once in the restoration of their industrial and economic life, pending the full determination of their claims, Germany shall pay in such installments and in such manner (whether in gold, commodities, ships, securities or otherwise) as the Reparation Commission may fix, during 1919, 1920 and the first four months of 1921, the equivalent of 20,000,000,000 gold marks. Out of this sum the expenses of the armies of occupation subsequent to the Armistice of November l l, 1918, shall first be met, and such supplies of food and raw materials as may be judged by the Governments of the Principal Allied and Associated Powers to be essential to enable Germany to meet her obligations for reparation may also, with the approval of the said Governments, be paid for out of the above sum. The balance shall be reckoned towards liquidation of the amounts due for reparation. [ ... ] Article 236. Germany further agrees to the direct application of her economic resources to reparation as specified in Annexes 3, 4, 5, and 6 relating respectively to merchant shipping, to physical restoration, to coal and derivatives of coal, and to dye-stuffs and other chemical products; provided always that the value of the property transferred and any services rendered by her under these Annexes, assessed in the manner therein prescribed, shall be credited to her towards liquidation of her obligations under the above Articles.

3 COUNT ULRICH VON BROCKDORFF-RANTZAU Speech of the German Delegation, Versailles, May 7, 1919 First published as "Ansprache des ReichsauBenministers Grafen Brockdorff-Rantzau bei Oberreichung des Friedensvertrags-Entwurfs