Crowds and Democracy

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Crowds and Democracy Crowds and Democracy THE IDEA AND IMAGE OF THE MASSES FROM REVOLUTION TO FASCISM Stefan Jonsson Columbia University Press yf New York CONTENTS List of Illustrations xi Preface xv 1. Introducing the Masses: Vienna, 15 July 1927 1 (ELIAS CANETTI—ALFRED VIERKANDT— HANMAH ARENDT — KARL KRAUS—HEIMITO VON DODERER) 1. Shooting Psychosis 1 2. Not a Word About the Bastille 6 3. Explaining the Crowd 16 4. Representing Social Passions 23 5. A Work of Madness 28 6. Invincibles 33 7. Mirror for Princes 37 8. Workers on the Run 41 9. Lashing 47 Vlll LVJINlLiNIO 2. Authority Versus Anarchy: Allegories of the Mass in Sociology and Literature 51 (GEORG SIMMEL— WERNER SOMBART— FRITZ LANG — LEOPOLD VON WIESE— WILHELM VLEUGELS— GERHARD COLM— MAX WEBER—THEODOR GEIGER—AUGUST SAWDER- HERMANN BROCH —ERNST TOLLER— RAINER MARIA RILKE) 10. The Missing Chapter 51 11. Georg Simmel's Masses 54 12. In Metropolis 61 13. The Architecture of Society 67 14. Steak Tartare 73 15. Delta Formations 80 16. Alarm Bells of History 84 17. Sleepwalkers 92 18.1 Am Mass 105 19. Rilke in the Revolution 115 3. The Revolving Nature of the Social: Primal Hordes and Crowds Without Qualities 119 (SIGMUND FREUD —HANS KELSEN—THEODOR ADORNO — WILHELM REICH —SIEGFRIED KRACAUER —BE11TOLT HRECHT — ALFRED DOBLIN —GEORG GROSZ—ROBERT Ml SIL) 20. Sigmund Freud Between Individual and Society 119 21. Masses Inside 122 22. In Love with Many 126 23. Primal Hordes 131 24. Masses and Myths 139 25. The Destruction of the Person 142 26. The Flaneur—Medium of Modernity 146 27. Ornaments of the People 152 28. Beyond the Bourgeoisie 159 29. Shapeless Lives 166 30. Organizing the Passions 171 LUJNlfclNiS IX 4. Collective Vision: A Matrix for New Art and Politics (LASZLO MOHOLY-NAGY— MARIANNE BRANDT — WALTER BENJAMIN —ERNST JUNGER—EDMUND SCHULTZ— WILLI MUNZENBERG — DER ARBEITER-FOTOGRAF — ERWIN PISCATOR —WALTER GROPIUS) 175 31. Mass Psychosis and Photoplastics 175 32. Johanna in the Revolution 179 33. A Socialist Eye 186 34. The Secret Code of the Nineteenth Century 190 35. Speaking Commodities 196 36. Deus ex Machina 201 37. Democracy's Veil 209 38. The Face of the Masses 211 39. Learning to Hold a Camera 216 40. The Gaze of the Masses 228 41. Total Theater 238 5. Coda: Remnants of Weimar 247 Notes 257 Index 297 .
Recommended publications
  • CHAPTER 2 the Period of the Weimar Republic Is Divided Into Three
    CHAPTER 2 BERLIN DURING THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC The period of the Weimar Republic is divided into three periods, 1918 to 1923, 1924 to 1929, and 1930 to 1933, but we usually associate Weimar culture with the middle period when the post WWI revolutionary chaos had settled down and before the Nazis made their aggressive claim for power. This second period of the Weimar Republic after 1924 is considered Berlin’s most prosperous period, and is often referred to as the “Golden Twenties”. They were exciting and extremely vibrant years in the history of Berlin, as a sophisticated and innovative culture developed including architecture and design, literature, film, painting, music, criticism, philosophy, psychology, and fashion. For a short time Berlin seemed to be the center of European creativity where cinema was making huge technical and artistic strides. Like a firework display, Berlin was burning off all its energy in those five short years. A literary walk through Berlin during the Weimar period begins at the Kurfürstendamm, Berlin’s new part that came into its prime during the Weimar period. Large new movie theaters were built across from the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial church, the Capitol und Ufa-Palast, and many new cafés made the Kurfürstendamm into Berlin’s avant-garde boulevard. Max Reinhardt’s theater became a major attraction along with bars, nightclubs, wine restaurants, Russian tearooms and dance halls, providing a hangout for Weimar’s young writers. But Berlin’s Kurfürstendamm is mostly famous for its revered literary cafés, Kranzler, Schwanecke and the most renowned, the Romanische Café in the impressive looking Romanische Haus across from the Memorial church.
    [Show full text]
  • Xerox University Microfilms 300 North Zaab Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 46106 I I
    INFORMATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. Thefollowing explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or patterns which may appear on this reproduction. 1. The sign or "target" for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is "Missing Page ($)''. If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting thru an image and duplicating adjacent pages to insure you complete continuity. 2. Whan an image on the film is obliterated with a large round black mark, it is an indication that die photographer suspected that the copy may have moved during exposure and thus cause a blurred image. You w ill find a good image of the page in the adjacent frame. 3. When a map, drawing or chart, etc., was part of the material being photographed the photographer followed a definite method in "sectioning" the material. It is customary to begin photoing at the upper left hand corner of a large sheet and to continue photoing from left to right in equal sections w ith a small overlap. If necessary, sectioning is continued again — beginning below the first row and continuing on until complete. 4. The majority of users indicate that the textual content is of greatest value, however, a somewhat higher quality reproduction could be made from "photographs" if essential to the understanding of the dissertation.
    [Show full text]
  • The Performing Arts at the New School First Faculty Members It Never Entered My Mind to Teach in Any Other Place in NY Than the New School
    The Performing Arts at The New School First Faculty Members It never entered my mind to teach in any other place in NY than the New School. Nor it is likely that any other school would have accepted me, since my work + ideas are controversial. John Cage, 1962 • First Faculty: Aaron Copland, Henry Cowell, Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Harold Clurman/The Group Theater A Radical History • The performing arts on an equal footing with social in Performing sciences. • A center for presentations of experimental and Arts Education contemporary music performances, organized by Aaron Copland and Henry Cowell. • A Copland decade, while publishing two seminal works drawn from his lectures. • Erwin Piscator, Director • Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, and Herbert Berghof are lead teachers First • Paves way for the establishment of Off-Broadway Comprehensive theater • Most successful program of its kind in the US during Theater Arts its 10-year run at TNS. Curriculum in a • Belafonte wins first Emmy by an African American • Vinette Carrol becomes first African American US College woman to direct on Broadway. • Soon after studying at The New School, Marlon Brando stars in his classmate Tennessee Williams’s new play: A Streetcar Named Desire. The Group Theater at The New School leads to The Dramatic Workshop, led by Erwin Piscator, Stella Adler, Herbert Berghof, and Lee Strasberg. Alumni of Dramatic Workshop/The New School As early as 1920, Aaron Copland begins producing landmark contemporary music concerts at TNS, establishing TNS as an important presenter of new and experimental music and arts John Cage and others come to study with Cowell in the 30s.
    [Show full text]
  • Ernst Toller - Poems
    Classic Poetry Series Ernst Toller - poems - Publication Date: 2012 Publisher: Poemhunter.com - The World's Poetry Archive Ernst Toller(1 December 1893 – 22 May 1939) Ernst Toller was a left-wing German playwright, best known for his Expressionist plays and serving as President of the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic, for six days. <b>Biography</b> Ernst Toller was born in Samotschin, Poland, on 1st December 1893. His father was a successful Jewish wholesale merchant. He was schooled in Bromberg where depsite describing it as a "school of miseducation and militarization", he was able to begin his literary career with the publication of a number of articles in the local newspaper and then poetry. In 1914 Toller moved to France in order to study law at the University of Grenoble. However, within six months the onset of the First World War meant he had returned home and signed up for the German army. Within a year he was fighting on the front lines, but by 1916 he was taken ill, suffering from "physical exhaustion and a complete nervous breakdown". In January 1917, now lacking his initial enthusiasm for the war and instead shocked by the high level of carnage, he was discharged from the army. Following this, Toller moved to Munich to return to his studies at Heidelberg University. Here he became friends with sociologist Max Weber. In May 1917 the pair took part in the first "Lauensteiner conference", where they cordially disagreed about the course of the war. Whilst Weber argued for the continuation of the war, Toller favoured a negotiated peace.
    [Show full text]
  • Modernism Enlightenment Modernism
    Modernism Enlightenment Modernism • There is a singular, • Humans can accomplish universal truth anything using science • You can reach the truth through art • Even meaninglessness • Originality is possible has meaning (ar<s<c genius) • There is a difference between culture that elevates versus culture for the masses The Modernist Avant-garde • Symbolists • People need to be shocked out of their • Futurists apathy • Dadaists • Expressionists • Surrealists Symbolists • (first of the non-realis<c movements) • 1893 Théâtre de l'Oeuvre • founded by Aurélien-Marie Lugné Poë (1869-1904) Inspired by: • Edgar Allan Poe • Henrik Ibsen • Roman<c poets • The Iliad • The Bible • Believed in geng to deeper meaning under the words through mythology and spirituality Alfred Jarry (1873-1907) • Ubu Roi - staged in 1896 by Lugné-Poë • A vulgar and disgus<ng parody of classical tragedy (mostly Macbeth) • A man kills the king and his family so that he can become king • First word causes a riot Jarry's woodcut of Ubu Futurists - 1910s, Italy • Filippo Marine (1876-1944) • Belief in technology, speed, and machinery • Associated with Italian fascist ideology • Incited rio<ng in Trieste by burning Austrian flag (pro-war) • Art of Noise - use words and noises that sound like machinery and ar<llery • Movement - ges<culate geometrically Art of Noise Dada - 1916-1920, Zurich • Cabaret Voltaire , Tristan Tzara (1896-1963), Hugo Ball (1886-1927), • and Emmy Hennings (1885-1948) • Sound poems • Trying to convey the nonsense of current events • simultaneity and indeterminacy
    [Show full text]
  • Bertolt Brecht B
    Bertolt Brecht b. Feb. 10, 1898, Augsburg d. Aug. 14, 1956, East Berlin EUGEN BERTHOLD FRIEDRICH BRECHT, German poet, playwright, and theatrical reformer whose epic theatre departed from the conventions of theatrical illusion and developed the drama as a social and ideological forum for leftist causes. Brecht was, first, a superior poet, with a command of many styles and moods. As a playwright he was an intensive worker, a restless piecer-together of ideas not always his own (The Threepenny Opera is based on John Gay's Beggar's Opera, and Edward II on Marlowe), a sardonic humorist, and a man of rare musical and visual awareness; but he was often bad at creating living characters or at giving his plays tension and shape. As a producer he liked lightness, clarity, and firmly knotted narrative sequence; a perfectionist, he forced the German theatre, against its nature, to underplay. As a theoretician he made principles out of his preferences--and even out of his faults. Until 1924 Brecht lived in Bavaria, where he was born, studied medicine (Munich, 1917-21), and served in an army hospital (1918). From this period date his first play, Baal (produced 1923); his first success, Trommeln in der Nacht (Kleist Preis, 1922; Drums in the Night); the poems and songs collected as Die Hauspostille (1927; A Manual of Piety, 1966), his first professional production (Edward II, 1924); and his admiration for Wedekind, Rimbaud, Villon, and Kipling. During this period he also developed a violently antibourgeois attitude that reflected his generation's deep disappointment in the civilization that had come crashing down at the end of World War I.
    [Show full text]
  • Literary Clusters in Germany from Mid-18Th to Early-20Th Century
    A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Kuld, Lukas; O'Hagan, John Working Paper Location, migration and age: Literary clusters in Germany from mid-18th to early-20th Century TRiSS Working Paper Series, No. TRiSS-WPS-03-2019 Provided in Cooperation with: Trinity Research in Social Sciences (TRiSS), Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin Suggested Citation: Kuld, Lukas; O'Hagan, John (2019) : Location, migration and age: Literary clusters in Germany from mid-18th to early-20th Century, TRiSS Working Paper Series, No. TRiSS-WPS-03-2019, Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin, Trinity Research in Social Sciences (TRiSS), Dublin This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/226788 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle You are not to copy documents for public or commercial Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, If the documents have been made available under an Open gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence.
    [Show full text]
  • WRAP Theses Jordan 1994.Pdf
    A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick Permanent WRAP URL: http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/81099 Copyright and reuse: This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. For more information, please contact the WRAP Team at: [email protected] warwick.ac.uk/lib-publications EXPERIENCE AND ITS ARTICULATION: mE QUESTION OF FORM IN mE POETRY OF ERNST TOUER submitted by James Anthony Jordan B.A. P. G. C.E. for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Warwick Department of German Studies August 1994 Table of contents Page Acknowledgements 4 Summary 5 Abbreviations 6 Introduction 7 Chapter 1: From love to war: the early unpublished poeUy (1908-1915) 12 1.1 Early love poems from Marbach 1.2 Early love poems from Koblenz 1.3 'Zum Siegen oder Sterben': three poems by the war enthusiast Chapter 2: The early Expressionist (1915-1919) 38 2.1 Doubt and disillusionment with the war 2.2 Opposition to the war 2.2.1 Unpublished poetry 2.2.2 Published poems 2.3 Early poems related to Die Wandluna: 2.3.1 'Aufriittelung', 'Der Ringende' and 'Der Entwurze1te' 2.3.2 Poems from Koblenz related to Die Wandluna: 2.3.3 'An die Sprache' and 'Anklag ich Euch' 2.4 ToUer's development from the early poetry to Die Wandluna: Chapter 3: The sonnets: a return to form (1919-1921) 82 3.1 The 'lakeside' sonnets
    [Show full text]
  • DRAMATIC READING HINKEMANN Press Release 1 21 20
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: DRAMATIC READING- HINKEMANN by ERNST TOLLER Translated from German by PETER WORTSMAN. With Lauren Gregory, Matthew Ward & Ric Area Royer From HINKEMANN — a Tragedy by German Expressionist Playwright ERNST TOLLER WITH Q&A, BOOK SIGNING & RECEPTION: SATURDAY, JANUARY 25 from 6:30—8:30 PM Press Release: Join Lichtundfire, Peter Wortsman and the actors/readers Lauren Gregory, Matthew Ward & Ric Area Royer for a Dramatic Reading of Selections from HINKEMANN, a tragedy, by German Expressionist playwright Ernst Toller, translated from the German by Peter Wortsman with Q&A, Book Signing and Reception. Peter Wortsman's has previously read from his Award Winning Novel GHOST DANCE IN BERLIN (2013) at Lichtundfire. HINKEMANN recounts the unthinkable, the fate of a man returned home from World War I with life altering injuries. As a love offering to his wife Grete and means of support, the desperate unemployed protagonist, Eugene Hinkemann, accepts a job as a carnival strongman, biting off the heads of live mice and rats. The play was first performed on September 19, 1923 at the Altes Theater, in Leipzig. Subsequent performances in Berlin and Vienna the following year demanded police protection, after a production in Dresden was disrupted by Nazi agitators incensed at the affront to German national honor. Ernst Toller (1893-1939), as an enlisted soldier in the Kaiser’s army in World War I, witnessed the horrors of the trenches first-hand and was seriously wounded. In 1919, Toller embraced revolutionary change and joined the leadership of the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic, serving for six days as president.
    [Show full text]
  • Curriculum Vitae
    Curriculum Vitae Helen L. Cafferty William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of German and the Humanities Emerita Bowdoin College Brunswick, ME 0401 Tel:207 725-3343, FAX: 207-725-3348, E-Mail: [email protected] Education: B.A.Bowling Green State University, 1964 M.A.Syracuse University, 1966 Ph.D.The University of Michigan, 1976 Employment: Bowdoin College Instructor 1972-76 Assistant Professor 1976-83 Associate Professor 1983-89 Professor 1989- Assistant Dean of Faculty 1987-90 Chair, German Department 1996-1999, 2003,2006, 2008 2009 Selected Publications: “Pessimism, Perspectivism, and Tragedy: Hinkemann Reconsidered," in German Quarterly, 1981. Review: Ernst Toller. Gesammelte Werke, ed. John M. Spalek and Wolfgang Frühwald, in The German Quarterly, 1981. "German-Language Play Production as Cultural Mediation," in Die Unterrichtspraxis.1982. "History of German Literature: Focus on Women," in German and Women's Studies: New Directions in Literary and Interdisciplinary Course Approaches. Eds. S. Cassierer and S. Weiss. South Hadley, MA: Mount Holyoke College, 1983. Women Writers in Translation: An Annotated Bibliography from 1945-1982. Eds. I Courtivron and M. Resnick. New York: Garland, 1984. Editor and Co-annotator for German-speaking women writers. "Survival Under Fascism: Deception in Apitz's Nackt unter Wölfen, Becker's Jakob der Lügner, and Kohlhaase's Erfindung einer Sprache," in West Virginia Philological 2 Papers, Special Issue devoted to Deceit and Deception in Modern Literature, Vol. 30, 1984. “Tropes and Oral Formulae: The Metaphorical Multiplexity of hant in the Nibelungenlied," in Germanic Dialects: Linguistic and Philological Investigations. Eds. B. Brogyanyi and T. Krümmelbein. Amsterdam: John Benjamin B .B.,1986. Translation.
    [Show full text]
  • The Political Reception of Erich Maria Remarque's Im Westen Nichts Neues in the Late Weimar Republic
    Portland State University PDXScholar Dissertations and Theses Dissertations and Theses 5-7-1993 The Political Reception of Erich Maria Remarque's Im Westen Nichts Neues in the Late Weimar Republic Richard Jay Cogburn Portland State University Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds Part of the German Literature Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Cogburn, Richard Jay, "The Political Reception of Erich Maria Remarque's Im Westen Nichts Neues in the Late Weimar Republic" (1993). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 4563. https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.6447 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible: [email protected]. AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Richard Jay Cogbum for the Master of Arts in German presented May 7, 1993. Title: The Political Reception of Erich Maria Remarque's Im Westen Nichts Neues in the Late Weimar Republic APPROVED BY THE MEMBERS OF THE THESIS COMMITIEE: Timm Menke, Chair Louis Elteto Steven Fuller Franklin C. West The novel Im Westen Nichts Neues first appeared in Germany in January 1929 and became an ovemight success. Its author, Erich Maria Remarque, was a shy, quiet man who had not anticipated such 2 success. His novel was written to be a fictitious account of the lives of a few students-tumed-soldier and their comrades in the front -line trenches of World War I.
    [Show full text]
  • Viktor Ullmann „Die Weise Von Liebe Und Tod Des Cornets Christoph Rilke“ the Lay of Love and Death of Cornet Christoph Rilke
    Elysium - between two continents, New York in cooperation with the German Historical Institute London present at 6.00 pm on Monday 9th June 2008 Viktor Ullmann „Die Weise von Liebe und Tod des Cornets Christoph Rilke“ The Lay of Love and Death of Cornet Christoph Rilke. Recitation: Gregorij H. von Leitis, Winner of the New York Theatre Club Prize Piano: Dan Franklin Smith Introductory Lecture: Michael Lahr Venue: German Historical Institute London, 17 Bloomsbury Square, London WC1A 2NJ This is a concert in the series "Music from Terezin" organised by Elysium - between two continents, New York and will be given in remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust. The concert is under the auspices of Karel Schwarzenberg, Foreign Minister of the Czech Republic. Admission is free. However, due to restricted seating a reservation is required. R.S.V.P. By 1 June 2008 To: Email: [email protected] Fax: 0207 309 2073 Name: ............................................... Telephone No/Email: ....................................... I / We wish to attend the event. Number of Guests.................. (delete as appropriate) The Cornet is based on a text by Rainer Maria Rilke, from which Ullmann chose twelve pieces. Rilke tells the haunting story of a young soldier who experiences love and death in one night. Ullmann’s composition is a rare combination of recitation and piano. The music underlines the dramatic action, comments on it, illustrates it and thus intensifies the effect. The Artistic Director of Elysium – between two continents Gregorij H. von Leïtis, who premiered Ullmann’s Cornet in various cities in Europe and in New York City, will recite Rilke’s text.
    [Show full text]