UGA Bulletin

Course Description

Marked by a variety of political, economic, and social changes, Berlin was the political capital and cultural center of the Weimar Republic. This course explores Germany's dynamic post-WWI period that allowed for thematic and stylistic experimentation and innovation in German art and culture amidst various crises.

Athena Title

Creativity vs Crisis 1920s

Prerequisite

GRMN 3010

Grading System

A - F (Traditional)

Student learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, students should be able to identify German cultural/political/social developments (including changing gender roles, changing art movements/aesthetics, increasing political tensions) in the Weimar Republic.
By the end of this course, students should be able to analyze and contextualize the changing representations and discourses of German cultural/political/social developments via selected German film, literature, and art.
By the end of this course, students should be able to comprehensively evaluate materials (Weimar Germany and its art and artistic movements amidst economic, political, and social crises) before establishing a conclusion on the meaning of individual works.
By the end of this course, students should be able to engage and analyze multiple opposing viewpoints or arguments.
By the end of this course, students should be able to support their own conclusion about a particular (art)work and its critical interpretation with sound reasoning and judgment.
By the end of this course, generally, students should be able to interpret materials and develop nuances of a particular discourses through their engagement with various critical texts.
By the end of this course, students should be able to express concepts and thoughts in verbal forms.
By the end of this course, students should be able to identify and apply appropriate theoretical frameworks or methodologies as discussed in our course (such as cultural studies approaches) to their inquiries in class.
By the end of this course, students should be able to organize and synthesize theoretical and artistic materials to develop and create their own research projects/inquiries.
By the end of this course, students should be able to effectively develop, express, and exchange ideas in written, oral, and/or visual form.
By the end of this course, students should develop, support, and effectively express ideas in written and oral form using German language with clarity and precision.
By the end of this course, students should be able to tailor their communication style appropriately for our academic setting.
By the end of this course, students should be able to analyze the impact of human behaviors on the physical and/or social environment of people.
By the end of this course, students should be able to reflect upon how one’s social identities and roles shape one’s worldview and interactions.
By the end of this course, students should have developed an awareness, appreciation, and knowledge of cultures and communities beyond one’s own.
By the end of this course, students should be able to creatively synthesize and/or transform ideas that they learned in the German context.
By the end of this course, students should be able to consider various—at times contradictory—viewpoints on social or artistic works when designing their research projects/critical inquiries.
By the end of this course, students’ final research projects should reflect their creative and original response to a research question.
By the end of this course, students should plan, initiate, manage, and complete a research project in small groups, all in consultation with the faculty member.
By the end of this course, students should be able to address a problem or issue related to the course topic in their research projects.
By the end of this course, students should be ready to consider and incorporate peer feedback and faculty comments into their final project.

Topical Outline

The Weimar Republic (1919-1933) is known for its world-famous cinema, architecture and design, vibrant art and cabaret scene, and artists, as much as for being a time of political upheaval in a new and unstable democracy. Marked by a variety of political, economic, and social changes caused by the lost war, a flourishing art scene, a new urban culture, changing gender roles, two inflations, and much more, Berlin was the political capital and cultural center of the Weimar Republic. In this course, we will explore this dynamic time for German cultural productions, which allowed for thematic and stylistic experimentation and innovation. The main aim of this course is to introduce undergraduate students to German literature, culture, and media of the Weimar Republic. While engaging with cultural products, we will address aspects of the various changes and shifts in Germany’s first democracy. In the first half of the semester, the material to be discussed ranges primarily from 1918/19 (the end of WWI and the beginning of the Weimar Republic) to 1933 (the end of the Weimar Republic and the beginning of the Third Reich). We will discuss these materials (advertisements, films, literary works, and other texts) as case studies to make further inquiries into the period. Selected films and textual works will be viewed/read in excerpts or in their entirety. The course will be accompanied with selected readings about the individual cultural products and Weimar movements such as Bauhaus, Expressionism, New Objectivity, etc. In the later sections of the semester, we will watch and analyze some episodes of the contemporary Netflix show “Babylon Berlin” and create evaluations and criticisms of the show with our newly gained expertise in this period.
Historical background: - The end of WWI - The beginning (and end) of the Weimar Republic - Challenges to everyday life in the beginning of the Weimar Republic
The city: technology, modernization, and life in the metropolis Berlin - Art: Otto Dix, George Grosz (selected art works) - Poetry: Erich Kästner - Architecture & design: Bauhaus, the “Frankfurt Kitchen” - Film: Walter Ruttmann, Berlin: Symphonie einer Großstadt (1927) (excerpts)
New gender roles & “the crisis of masculinity” - Film: Robert Wiene, Das Cabinet des Dr Caligari (1920), Richard Oswald, Anders als die anderen (1919), Ernst Lubitsch, Ich möchte kein Mann sein (1918) & Die Austernprinzessin (1919) (excerpts) - Texts: magazines and other print media - Advertisement - Art: Hannah Höch, Otto Dix - Literature: Irmgard Keun and Vicky Baum (The Artificial Silk Girl (1932) and Grand Hotel (1929)) (excerpts)
„Freizeit“ (free time/hobbies) and body culture (All texts are from the Weimar Sourcebook) - Sports/athletics - The movies - Nature - Urban flânerie and Georg Simmel (excerpts)
Americanization - Louise Brooks - „Girl culture“
Art: dada, expressionism, new objectivity - Texts and art (various examples)
The end of the Weimarer Republik, beginning of the Third Reich in film - Film: Fritz Lang, M (1931), Hans Steinhoff, Hitler Youth Quex (1933)
Youth Literature, main text: - Erich Kästner, Emil and the Detectives (1929)
The afterlife of Weimar Berlin in various media today - Music, Musicals, Other media (various examples)
Streaming Weimar Berlin: Netflix’s Babylon Berlin (2017-today) - TV-Series/Netflix Serie: Babylon Berlin (1. season, 2017) excerpts - Scholarly literature on Babylon Berlin - Journalistic texts on Babylon Berlin

Institutional Competencies Learning Outcomes

Communication

The ability to effectively develop, express, and exchange ideas in written, oral, interpersonal, or visual form.

Critical Thinking

The ability to pursue and comprehensively evaluate information before accepting or establishing a conclusion, decision, or action.

Syllabus

Public CV

publish

Creativity vs. Crisis: 1920s Berlin in Literature, Film, and Art