Age of Anxiety: Post-WWI Disillusionment

• Age of Anxiety is also known as the Age of Uncertainty.

Post-WWI Disillusionment (Paul Valery, 1919)

• The post-WWI era remains restless and uneasy, with affairs in terrible uncertainty.
• People dwell on the destruction and fear the unknown future.
• Fears are more precise than hopes, and doubt and disorder prevail.
• No one can dominate this anxiety or measure its duration.
• It is said that humanity's vital relations are deeply disturbed
• The generation experienced great and terrifying events, which resonate throughout their lives.
• The war affected the fundamentals of the world, wearing away something deeper, and the general economic situation was disturbed
• The polity of states and individual life also were disturbed.
• Universal discomfort, hesitation, and apprehension were prominent.
• Cruelty injured the intellectual man, and now the mind mourns itself profoundly.

Decline of Democracy in the Weimar Republic

• The central question is how a liberal, progressive society fell to intolerance, discrimination, and hatred.
• The Weimar Republic was characterized by contrasts and conflicts after Kaiser Wilhelm fled in 1918.
• The government granted new rights and freedoms, initiating creativity and experimentation.
• The republic struggled to gain the trust of Germans accustomed to monarchy.
• The people's trust was damaged by economic crises and anti-democracy political parties.
• Weimar politics and society had two moods: excitement/creativity and anxiety/fear.
• Freedom of expression flourished in arts, music, dance, and architecture.
• Women took on new roles, comprising a third of the German workforce and holding political office.
• The rapid pace of change made many Germans uneasy, sparking backlash.
• Many feared communism spreading from Russia and the abolition of private wealth/property.
• Hyperinflation and the Great Depression tested the Weimar government's leadership.
• Violent clashes on the streets left citizens on edge.
• Ultraconservative forces, including the National Socialist Party, gained support with messages of racial hatred and a return to autocratic government.
• Artist George Grosz recalled these moods shaping life in Germany during the 1920s.
• Berlin resembled a bubbling cauldron with hatred everywhere; various groups were targets of hatred (Jews, capitalists, etc.).
• Studying the Weimar Republic provides a foundation to understand the Nazi era.
• The Weimar Republic serves as a warning and guide for democracies.
• The history of the Weimar Republic illuminates a creative and crucial period in the twentieth century.
• There are questions about the Weimar Republic are relevant to problems in the twenty-first century.
• The hallmark of the Weimar period was uncertainty, according to historian Detlev Peukert.
• Similar crises and dilemmas faced Germans in the 1920s globally during times of transition.
• Dozens of political parties competed for support during the Weimar Republic.
• Some elections listed over 30 parties on the ballot.
• Political disagreements turned violent due to support from paramilitary groups.
• Clashes between rival paramilitaries were constant.
• Even in stable years (1924–1929), Nazi activists and communist workers were killed in clashes.

The Great Depression's Impact

• In 1933, the U.S. unemployment rate was significant, with worse conditions in parts of Europe.
• From 1929 to 1932, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined dramatically.
• John Maynard Keynes' and Milton Friedman's assessments of the causes of the Great Depression are explored.
• The U.S. raised tariffs, but this policy's effectiveness is questionable.
• Economic problems in Europe were influenced by American bank errors and monetary policy.
• The Great Depression notably impacted the Weimar Republic in Germany.
• The U.S. Gross Domestic Product decreased from $103.6 billion in 1929 to $56.4 billion in 1933 (current dollars).
• The average U.S. unemployment rate rose from 3.2% in 1929 to 24.9% in 1933.
• The highest recorded annual unemployment rate after 1940 was 9.7% in 1982.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average peaked in September 1929 at 381.17 and reached a trough of 41.22 in July 1932.
• The Dow lost nearly 90% of its value between 1929 and 1932 and did not reach its 1929 peak until November 23, 1954.
• There were rampant bank failures; two out of every five banks in America collapsed between 1929 and 1933.
• Bank deposits were uninsured, causing people to lose their savings as banks failed.
• Surviving banks stopped creating new loans because of their own concern for survival.
• The economy suffered because of less expendatures.
• In 1936, John Maynard Keynes suggested the Great Depression resulted from a broad failure of aggregate demand.
• Keynes argued for increased government spending to increase aggregate demand, even with budget deficits.
• While initially skeptical, the New Deal took on Keynesian qualities.
• In 1963, Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz argued the Great Depression was caused by a sharp constriction in the nation's money supply.
• Due to a fear of bank failures, the Federal Reserve decisions had people hoard cash, causing the stock of money in the economy to fall by a third
• The "Great Contraction" had a choking effect on employment, incomes, and prices, prolonging the Great Depression.
• A savvier monetary policy from the Federal Reserve would have provided better medicine for economic sickness during the Great Depression.

More on Tariffs and Debt

• The United States raised tariffs by up to 50% on imported goods in 1930 to increase demand for domestic goods.
• This created unemployment abroad with factories shutting down, causing other counties to raise tariffs.
• International trade plummeted to 33% of its 1929 level by March 1933.
• The Smoot-Hawley Tariff in 1930 charged a high tax for imports to help protect American companies.
• Less trade occurred between America and foreign countries.
• After World War One, most European countries owed a lot of money to American banks.
• The American government refused to lower or forgive the debts, so the countries borrowed more to pay off their debts.
• As the American economy slowed, it became difficult for European countries to borrow money.
• The United States had high tariffs so that the Europeans could not make money selling their products in the United States markets.

The Global Great Depression

• Government monetary policy increased interest rates in 1929 and some believe that this caused the August recession.
• The government failed to stabilize or increase the money supply during The Great Depression
• The money supply fell by 30% between 1929 and 1933.
• The U.S. economic disaster spread across the globe because the United States was a central part of the international economic system.
• Europe was hit hard where multiple nations were indebted to the United States.
• The Allies (Britain and France) bought weapons and products using loans from the United States during WWI.
• When the United States called for loan repayment, it threw foreign economies into depression.
• In Germany, The Weimar Republic weathered inflation in the 1920s due to reparations required by the Versailles Treaty.
• Germany borrowed millions of dollars from the United States instead of tax their citizens to pay the reparations, going further into debt.
• When American demanded loan repayment, the German economy (already fragile) faced disaster with bank failures and rising unemployment.
• Much like the United States, The Weimar Republic decided to cut spending, exacerbating the situation.

Rise of the Nazis

• The Great Depression played a role in the emergence of Adolf Hitler as a viable political leader in Germany.
• Deteriorating economic conditions in Germany created an angry, frightened, and financially struggling populace open to more extreme political systems, including fascism and communism.
• Hitler gained an audience for his antisemitic and anticommunist rhetoric that depicted Jews as causing the Depression.
• Germans searched for stability so the public provided Hitler an audience with promises of future stability.
• They helped create an environment in which he gained support.
• Mussolini in Italy was the first to create Fascism.

Perspectives on Fascism (Mussolini)

• Fascism considers the future and development of humanity which means it does not believe in perpetual peace.
• Fascism repudiates Pacifism because it comes from a belief of renouncing the struggle.
• The fascists believe war alone brings up the nobility in people.

Fascism (Dr. Lawrence Britt)

• Fascist regimes use patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia.
• Flags are seen everywhere, including on clothing and in public displays.
• Because of the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need.”
• The people tend to 'look the other way' or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
• The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe (minorities; liberals, communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.).
• Even domestic problems don't stop the military being the sole recipient of funding. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.
• The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. There is high opposition to abortion, as is homophobia.
• The media is often directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled. Censorship is very common.
• Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government.
• Governments in fascist nations use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric is common from government leaders.
• The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a relationship and power elite.
• Labor unions are eliminated entirely or are severely suppressed because they threaten to the fascist government.
• Fascist nations promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia.
• Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.
• Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws.
• The people forego civil liberties, in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power.
• Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions.
• It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.
• Elections are frequently rigged and smear campaigns are present.

Degenerate Art

• Slogans painted on the walls of the Degenerate Exhibit were the product of the Nazi party disparaging forms of art like the "Revelation of the Jewish racial soul"
• Nazis saw the art as not able to elevate humanity. It instead lowered it.
• They believed that any society could end up being corrupted by that type of art.
• German Expression (Die Brucke), for its distorted characters and intense emotions and colors, was also labeled as degenerate art.
• Today, degenerate art is seen as some of the best, most valuable art (selling for millions).

Weimar Republic art

• Political, social, and economic instability
• Challenged traditional values
• Reflected the feelings of anxiety and alienation
• The Nazis outlawed and burned those works
• They promoted art of strength and heroism

Artists to study

• Max Beckmann
• Emile Nolde
• Ernst Kirchner
• Otto Dix
• Will Kupper
• Erich Heckel
• Oskar Kokoschka
• Marc Chagall

Paul Klee – Angelus Novus (1920) and Degenerate Art

• Klee's work was classified as “degenerate” by the Nazi regime and rejected the Nazi ideal of realistic, heroic, and nationalist art.
• Labeled as having “Jewish artistic sensibilities."
• The historical meaning depicts a "angel of history” with wide eyes and outstretched wings.
• The angel, caught between past and future, reflects the instability of interwar Germany
• Klee's work reflects individual anxiety, uncertainty, and the collapse of civilization, which directly opposed the Nazi vision of a glorious, structured, and powerful Third Reich.

Emile Nolde's Masks Still Life

• The distorted forms, bold color contrasts, and intense energy sought to express emotional experience rather than physical reality.
• The exaggerated colors represented cultural decline on the part of German conservatives.
• Expressionist art explores themes of isolation, anxiety, and alienation.

Hannah Hoch's The Beautiful Girl

• The work uses photomontage in an unconventional, abstract way.
• The "The Beautiful Girl" presents an androgynous figure reflecting the fluidity of gender identity in the Weimar Republic.
• This kind of gender ambiguity would have been seen as degenerate by the Nazis
• Challenges conventional portrayals of women and explores gender ambiguity through photomontage.

George Grosz's The Pillars of Society

• The painting is a sharp and satirical portrayal of the social elites and power structures of Weimar Germany.
• The elites are depicted as morally corrupt, driven by greed, power, and self-interest.
• The caricatures symbolize the decay of moral values in the power structures of the time.
• Grosz's focus is on the selfish elites who were benefiting from the turmoil and exploitation of the working class.
• The Nazis viewed such art as destructive to the nation's unity and a corruption of traditional values.
• The grotesque figures reflect the alienation felt by many Germans during the unstable Weimar period.
• Exemplifies Grosz's use of Expressionism to convey a deep disillusionment with the social and political systems of the time.

Picasso's Guernica (1937)

• It is Picasso's most powerful political statement.
• The Nazi's devastating casual bombing practice on Guernica is the inspiration for the work.
• There are widely various and contradictory interpretations.

Artistic Movements in the Age of Anxiety

Dada

• Civilization does not deserve art.
• Reason and progress is ridiculous
• Causes people to feel the world is increasingly more incomprehensible and uncertain.

Surrealism

• Reveals the unconscious mind
• Causes people uneasiness and anxiety
• Shows conflicting images and unconscious motives

Expressionism

• Expresses intense upheaval, psychic breakdown, and chaos/conflict
• Expresses feelings of anxiety
• Reflects an individual's fragile identity and insecurity.

Cubism

• Breaks down a scene into basic shapes and then reassembles them into an abstract reality
• Reflect complex forms that are nearly incomprehensible

Fascism

• It argued that states could solve all problems and people felt anxious about the rising political force

Lost Generation

• Wrote about loss and meaninglessness after WWI and the difficulty returning to middle class values after feeling damaged by the war.
• Through their writings, the authors made people aware of the uncertainty and declining hope of the future.

Great Depression

• Unemployment and inflation
• Caused people to feel anxious and uncertain about job market and basic survival

Hitler Ascent 1889-1939, By Volker Ullrich

• The goal of these books, and thousands of others, is — in the words of the title of Ron Rosenbaum's fascinating study – “explaining Hitler.” Hitler cries out for explanation

Hitler's Charisma Leading Millions Into the Abyss

• Fueled by hate, incapable of forming normal human relationships, unwilling to listen to dissenting voices, Adolf Hitler seemed an unlikely leader
• He commanded enormous support

Nazi Architecture

• Albert Speer mirrored Hitler's Chief architect for intimidating people
• Nazi architecture:
  • Monumentality
  • Permanence
• Nazi architecture was to create the illusion of a timeless Reich.

Propaganda Definitions

• Induce act together
• Panders to insecurities and anxieties
• Invite a response emotionally, immediately

Propaganda Manipulation Techniques

• Black and White Fallacy
• Cherry Picking Information
• Framing Bias
• Catastrophizing
• Bandwagon -Glittering Generalities

Repetition

• Continuously exposes people to the same message, slogan, or idea until it becomes familiar and accepted as truth.

Stalin's Totalitarianism

• Collectivization, Five Year Plan, and Purges were all characteristics of the rule.
• The gradual accession of Stalin to power in the 1920s brought an end to the liberation of society and the economy.
• Purges eliminated thousands of individuals deemed dangerous to the Soviet state by Stalin's operatives.
• Collectivization entailed compounding the peasants' lands and restrict their movement from farms.
• Peasants slaughtered livestock rather than turn them over to the collective farms.
• Millions of Soviet leaders, officials, and other citizens had been executed, imprisoned, or exiled after the purge.
• Mobilization of society included that collective enterprises replaced individualistic efforts, abolishment of private farms
• Social policy was used as an instrument of the modernization effort in the USSR.

Age of Anxiety: Existentialism and Freud

• Existentialism: says that humans have no fixed nature; no meaning
• Existentalism says that you are often estranged by an indifferent society and are a stranger in the world
• Sartre also says: essence not destiny. you are not a fixed nature

Freud's Main Ideas:

• People were not in control of their decisions
• Freud states that there is an ID
• There is also an Ego and Super Ego
• There is also the concept of the unconscious mind.
• Emphasis on symbolism, which would impact art and literature.
• Focus on conflict with society -Use of symbolism, vague, opaque and complex, perhaps ambivalent, like a dream