HIST 2509 A History of Germany

Lecture 11-2

Bourgeois Society and Culture

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

6) masculinity and the duel: satisfaction

satisfaction

7) consumption, status, wealth

-bummeln == to promenadeKurfürstendamm in Berlin

-the predilection for titles and ennoblement -- “von”

-from spartan to overstuffed homes