Weimar Culture: Defeat, the Roaring Twenties, the Rise of Nazism

Weimar Culture: The Roaring Twenties and the Rise of Nazism
Germany - Berlin
August 1 - 30, 2008

Check In: August 1
On Site Orientation: TBA
First Day of Class: August 4
Last Day of Class: August 28
Check Out: August 30* (Students who want to, may check-out August 31)

Class Size: 18-24

Instructor

Gail Finney, Ph.D.
Professor of Comparative Literature and German
Distinguished Graduate/Professional Teaching Award, 2007
gefinney@ucdavis.edu
Gail Finney received her A.B. in German summa cum laude from Princeton University and her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from UC Berkeley.
She taught for eight years at Harvard University before coming to UC Davis in 1988. She has published five books and numerous articles on 19th- and 20th-century German and comparative literature and culture.

Link to: Photo Gallery of Weimar Culture

"We hope in this show to have captured something of the intimate pulse of our red-hot times”—this statement concerning a Berlin cabaret performance in 1924 reflects the vitality and cultural richness of the period between Germany’s defeat at the end of World War I (1918) and Hitler’s rise to power (1933). Named for the small town of Weimar in which its constitution was drafted, the Weimar Republic experiences a rapid succession of regimes, as well as intense economic turmoil, keen tension between social classes, an unprecedented level of sexual emancipation, the birth of the New Woman, the emergence of the mass as a political entity, burgeoning anti-Semitism, and the rise of fascism.

This course will investigate Weimar culture through representative examples from painting, drama, film, architecture, and short fiction, some of which will be illustrated through excursions to cultural sites in Berlin. We will also take trips to Weimar, Dresden, and Potsdam.