1. Who were the revolutionaries in Germany in 1918 and early 1919?

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1. Who were the revolutionaries in Germany in
1918 and early 1919?

• The text talks about two different sources. The
  Independent Socialists -- who have broken off
  from the Majority Socialists (both are branches
  of the pre-war German Social Democratic party, a
  Marxist party that claims to represent the
  industrial working-class) -- want to set up a
  system of Councils based loosely on Bolshevik
  Soviets that have sprung up in the wake of the
  February 1917 revolution in Russia. The
  Spartacists--headed by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl
  Liebknecht--rejected gradualist solutions and
  believe that a revolution--following a Bolshevik
  model that would involve seizing state power--is
  possible.

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2. Who are Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg?

• These are the leaders of the Spartacus League
  (that will become the German Communist Party or
  KPDKommunistische Partei Deutschland). In
  January 1919, the Spartacists attempt a violent
  coup in Berlin, and they are quickly defeated by
  Free Corpsparamilitary groups of demobilized
  soldierswho are working in collaboration with
  the provisional government of Friedrich Ebert.
  Ebert is head of the Majority Socialists. The
  rift between Social Democrats and Communists is
  put solidly in place and wont be patched up
  before 1933. Many of the artists well study are
  either members of the KPD or very sympathetic to
  the KPD and critical of the SPD.

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3. Who is Friedrich Ebert and what does he want?

• Ebert is the head of the pre-1914 SPD. After
  November 1919, he wants to move swiftly to
  elections to a national assembly that will draft
  a constitution. Ebert becomes the first elected
  president of the Weimar Republic.

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4. What are some of the most important provisions
of the Treaty of Versailles?

• Loss of colonies, reduction in the size of the
  army, demilitarization of boundary region with
  France, agreement to pay war reparations

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5. What is the Kapp Putsch?

• This is important as context for The Art Scab.
  In March 1920, a right-wing group of Free Corps
  adventurers led by Wolfgang Kapp and Hermann
  Ehrhardt attempted to seize control of the
  government in Berlin. A nation-wide strike and
  the willingness of Communist and Social Democrats
  to take up arms in defense of the republic led to
  its speedy defeat.

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Discuss

• 6. Why would the author of the Britannica text
  call the cultural and intellectual developments
  of the 1920s the Weimar Renaissance? What do you
  know about the Renaissance that could be used to
  describe culture and the arts in Weimar?

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7. What triggered the hyperinflation?

• The French occupation of the coal-mining region
  in western Germany, the Ruhr, which led to
  passive resistance the government paid workers
  by rolling the printing presses. Many students
  will think the inflation leads directly to
  Hitler. My point will be that its remarkable
  that the inflation doesnt lead directly to
  Hitler.

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8. What are the main characteristics of the
artistic movement called Expressionism?

• Go to Grove Art Online or maybe just Wikipedia
  for this, but the text says its depicting their
  emotional responses to reality rather than
  reality itself. This is important because of
  Dadas rejection of expressionism.

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9. What was the economic impact of the Great
Depression?

• Collapse of the German economy, triggered by
  stock market crash in the US, massive
  unemploymentdepicted in Kuhle Wampecollapse of
  domestic production and foreign trade.

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10. Why do you think President Hindenburg would
resist making Hitler chancellor in late 1932?

• Speculate

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11. What do Nazis and German Communists have in
common?

• Both are not supporters of Weimar Democracy

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12. How does the Manifesto explain the First
World War?

• Emphasis on imperialism, capitalist profit drive

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13. Why do the Spartacists not like Socialists
who are part of the Second International? What is
the Second International?

• They think Socialist have abandoned
  internationalism in favor of the nation in 1914.
  The Second International is defined in the
  glossary, so they should look there to get the
  answer.

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14. How do the Spartacists think they can achieve
a successful revolution in Germany?

• (Speculate) Emphasis here is on a global
  proletarian revolution

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15. Why do the Dadaists dislike Expressionism?

• They see it as a retreat from reality, a turn to
  inwardness, abstraction, renunciation of all
  objectivity instead of an engagement with
  political reality

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16. Speculate

• The Dadaists wanted to make a political
  revolution, but in many ways they were also
  irreverent about politics. In the list of things
  Dadaism wants (50-51), which ones do you think
  are realistic demands and which ones are meant to
  be ironic and playful?

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17. Why are Grosz and Heartfield so critical of
Kokoschka?

• Kokoschka is critical of the violence surrounding
  the Kapp Putsch because its led to the defacing
  of a painting in a Dresden art gallery. Grosz and
  Heartfield use this as an occasion to denounce
  outmoded conceptions of art and celebrate the
  revolutionary politics of the present.

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18. Speculate

• As Professor Lupton explained, Shakespeare was
  suggesting in MSND that the creative work of the
  playwright was on a higher plain than the manual
  labor of the Rude Mechanicals. What is the
  relationship between manual labor and artistic
  creativity that is outlined in the Bauhaus
  Program?

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19. Speculate

• Friedrich Wolf argues very explicitly that art
  should be used to intervene directly into
  politics. What do you think of his argument?
  Should makers be just makers? Or must a maker be
  a doer if what s/he makes is to have any
  significance or meaning?

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20. Photomontage

• Look at the Heartfield images in the outline for
  Professor Moellers second lecture. Can you find
  anywhere in print an interesting image from the
  current presidential primary campaigns? If not in
  print, on the web? Bring examples with you to
  class.

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21. According to Münzenberg, what function should
film play for a revolutionary political movement?

• See the Zetkin quotation

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22. What made it more difficult for Communists to
produce films than to produce an illustrated
press?

• Münzenberg makes much of the high costs of film
  and the capitalist control of the film industry.
  Possible to contrast this with the situation in
  the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany where the state,
  not the market, determines what gets produced by
  whom. Think about the constraints on making, and
  a next step might be to consider the
  possibilities of political film-making in the age
  of the digital revolution.

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23. Why does Young Bönike commit suicide?

• Sense of worthlessness because he cant find
  work, he is the symbol of the worker who in
  isolation cant solve her/his problems, by the
  end of the film, the answer will lie in
  organization in the Communist youth organization

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24. Why does Young Bönike take off his watch
before he leaps from the window?

• An interesting footnoteSoviet film authorities
  didnt want to distribute this movie in the
  Soviet Union because of this scene, because they
  thought it made it seem as if the German
  working-class was too affluent.