HIST 2509 A History of Germany

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HIST 2509 A History of Germany

• Lecture 11-2
• Bourgeois Society and Culture

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Todays Main Themes

• Authoritarianism and everyday life.
• Middle-class values, respectability.
• Goal placing the novella in context.

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I. The 1870s a shift in priorities

1. a struggling economy
2. from liberal support to rye and iron
3. anti-clericalism and the Kulturkampf
4. Anti-Socialist Laws

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II. A Special Path for Germany?

• 1920s historiography of causes of WW I
• post 1945, extended debate to Nazis
• Fischers 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

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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

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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

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1) Bildung and Sittlichkeit
The Garden Cottage, 1853-1944 -no talk of
politics, religion, crime, or divorce
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2) sociability clubs and associations
shared values the Museum Society lunch at the
Ratskeller professional associations
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3) the family, gender, and morality
the timelessness of natural differences
-the BGB or Civil Code 1900 -separate spheres
and calm domestic influence -moderation but
double standard -- Effi Briest -social
welfare Magdalenenheime (homes for fallen women)
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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 rules Heinrich
Mann, The Subject In England, everybody is a
citizen In Germany, everybody is a subject

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5) new military ethos
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
Matrosenkleidung or soldiers suits
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b) education system -attendance, truancy police,
drills, authoritarianism Heinrich
Manns, Professor Unrat -made into 1930 film The
Blue Angel with Marlene Dietrich
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c) respect for authority The Captain of
Köpenick (1906) Wilhelm Voigt -conformism, excl
usion, and military virtue -rank and
privilege -reserve officer corps
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6) masculinity and the duel satisfaction
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satisfaction
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7) consumption, status, wealth
-bummeln to promenade Kurfürstendamm in
Berlin -the predilection for titles and
ennoblement -- von -from spartan to
overstuffed homes