Shades of Goethe--And of Hitler: a History of [The Town Of] Weimar

Michael H. Kater. Weimar: From Enlightenment to the Present. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014. Illustrations. 480 pp. $45.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-300-17056-6. Reviewed by Ulf Zimmermann Published on H-German (January, 2016) Commissioned by Nathan N. Orgill Michael H. Kater covers the terrain an‐ of the local Gymnasium, the only upper school in nounced in his subtitle in ten chapters, slicing the duchy and one that taught classical languages, Weimar’s history into periods unique to the city. and ends with the death of Johann Wolfgang von Thus he has, for example, a chapter specifically Goethe. Heintze’s appointment was immediately on the Weimar Bauhaus experiment, from 1919 to approved by Anna Amalia, who, as a niece of 1925, followed by a general one on the Weimar Frederick the Great and princess of Braun‐ Republic, from 1918 to 1933. In addition to a chap‐ schweig-Wolfenbüttel, had a taste for culture. She ter on the Third Reich, from 1933 to 1945, he in‐ was, for example, familiar with the work of cludes a separate one on the nearby concentra‐ Christoph Martin Wieland, then a professor of tion camp of Buchenwald, from 1937 to 1945. philosophy at Erfurt University who had just pub‐ In a brief prologue, Kater explains his motiva‐ lished The Golden Mirror (1772), a work whose tions for writing this book. As a child at his grand‐ pedagogical and political ideas on how a prospec‐ parents’ home in Germany he had heard much tive ruler should be brought up and rule seemed about a direct ancestor who was “a member of perfect for the more exclusive education of the fu‐ the circle of savants surrounding Dowager ture duke. Duchess Anna Amalia and her son, Duke Karl Au‐ By the time he became duke at eighteen, Karl gust,” which instilled in him a personal interest in August knew of The Sorrows of Young Werther the city (p. x). His reading of David Clay Large’s (1774), which had made its author famous across exemplary history of Berlin (Berlin, 2001) then Europe, and wanted to bring Goethe to Weimar. stimulated his scholarly interest. Accordingly, in Thus in 1775 Goethe was likewise brought in as the frst chapter, Kater begins with this “golden an administrator of the duchy. When a new super‐ age,” which was initiated with the installation in intendent (of churches and schools) was needed 1770 of Johann Michael Heintze as the new rector in 1776, Goethe suggested Johann Gottfried H-Net Reviews Herder whom he had met in Strasbourg. These to French and continued to exclude the increas‐ were the three stars in the frmament that would ingly emergent bourgeoisie, and economically be‐ eventually attract Friedrich Schiller in 1787. Lack‐ cause the new duke, Carl Alexander, was not will‐ ing the resources of a Renaissance Maecenas, ing to invest in it. Hence, the “silver age,” as Kater Anna Amalia showed great administrative acu‐ describes it in chapter 2, “Promising the Silver men, as Kater rightly points out, in hiring these Age, 1832 to 1861,” did not really begin until after “stars” for jobs in her realm but getting the cultur‐ 1848. The “silver” was mainly due to the presence al riches they offered for free on the side. They of Franz Liszt whom the grand duchess, Maria were part of an exceedingly small elite group sur‐ Pavlova, had offered an easy job in 1842. He took rounding the court (all having to sooner or later it because the three months of work it required get titles to participate fully—except for the pro- gave him time to compose—and because his new revolutionary Wieland). lover from Poland might be able to get a divorce Why did Goethe, famous across Europe, take with the help of Maria Pavlova since she was the the job and stay in Weimar? Kater hypothesizes sister of Tsar Nicholas. This is the sort of intimate that he was tired of Frankfurt and saw an oppor‐ and pivotally important detail that Kater never tunity to play a larger, more influential role than fails to provide and that makes his history a sa‐ he might have in one of the other major cities and vory reading pleasure. The Liszt household had at one of their courts, what with a young duke many illustrious visitors though none stayed. Liszt whom he could influence and a higher-level offi‐ also premiered some Richard Wagner operas cial position than he likely would have had any‐ there and Weimar could have become Bayreuth— where else (not to mention a commensurate but did not invest in building the theater that it salary). And this makes eminent sense, especially required. when we see how energetically Goethe devoted Liszt became, like Goethe before him, a himself to his administrative responsibilities. tourist attraction in the city, as Kater writes in The court was the town’s sole “industry” and chapter 3, “Failing the Silver Age, 1861 to 1901,” largest employer, apart from which Weimar was and had a hand in founding the music school that basically a village populated by peasants who let is now named after him. Carl Alexander did found their pigs and sheep out to pasture, but it did al‐ a painters’ academy in 1860 and Franz Lenbach ready have its subsequently famous inns, includ‐ and Arnold Böcklin were on the faculty for the ing the Elephant. Weimar had a population of first two years while Max Liebermann briefly around six thousand, a bit smaller than Heidel‐ studied there later. In 1889, the young Richard berg and only a ffth the size of Frankfurt. It was Strauss arrived, just as a Goethe revival was crest‐ still chiefly agricultural, still feudal and extremely ing, and he helped the city stage a brief comeback. poor, with its sheep supplying only local textile But the Goethe revival was now part of an in‐ shops and nothing for export. But by the time creasing chauvinistic—and antisemitic—trend in Goethe and Schiller fnally got together in 1794, the new German Empire. Goethe was linked to the city was becoming well known for its classic this empire and its German “heroes” through his status, with four “geniuses”—hence the “golden Dr. Faust and through other men of action, such age.” as Frederick the Great and Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. This trend was reinforced by the dis‐ Following Goethe’s death in 1832, the city be‐ torted image of Friedrich Nietzsche that his sister came something of a living museum, as Kater apt‐ Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche was now broadcasting ly describes it, and this actually kept it from mak‐ ing any progress, socially because the court stuck 2 H-Net Reviews from Weimar via her apocryphal compilation of them apprenticeship certificates even in those the Will to Power (1901). fields. Nietzsche had evidently expressed a wish to In chapter 6, “Weimar in the Weimar Repub‐ retire to Goethe’s town, as Kater observes in chap‐ lic, 1918 to 1933,” Kater judiciously reminds us of ter 4, “The Quest for a ‘New Weimar,’ 1901 to another reason the parliament convened there. 1918,” so it was here that his sister built his Apart from getting out of chaotic Berlin, many shrine. Through her acquaintance with Count members knew of the metropolis’s dubious repu‐ Harry Kessler, an admirer of both Goethe and Ni‐ tation in the South and deemed the conservative etzsche, she got the Belgian artist Henry van de Weimar, situated very much in the center of Ger‐ Velde to come to Weimar to open a seminar on many (but not too far from Berlin), more political‐ arts and crafts in 1902. Thanks to the grand duke’s ly palatable for framing a new government. support, this became the Grossherzögliche Kunst‐ Weimar would be the capital of the new state of gewerbeschule in 1907. Walter Gropius would lat‐ Thuringia and its frst government was sufficient‐ er combine this craft school with the already es‐ ly liberal to authorize the Bauhaus to begin with. tablished painters’ academy to form the Bauhaus But as the economy, getting worse across the School. By 1918, when the grand duke surren‐ country but the worst in Thuringia, declined, its dered his sovereignty, about all that was left was citizens increasingly turned to the radical right. Förster-Nietzsche’s antisemitic tarnishing of the By 1925 Weimar was happy to have Adolf Hitler city’s reputation. come speak publicly (and have the Bauhaus Kater devotes chapter 5 expressly to the leave) and by 1929 Thuringia was the frst state to Bauhaus experiment, from 1919 to 1925. Gropius have a Nazi-controlled government. was already known in Berlin when he went to The Third Reich, from 1933 to 1945, is cov‐ war in 1914, having worked for the prominent ar‐ ered in chapter 7, in which Kater reminds us of chitect Peter Behrens. Van de Velde had recom‐ the frst concentration camp being built near mended him to run the arts and crafts school (he there in Nohra. While Bayreuth became more im‐ himself had had to leave as an “enemy alien”). portant to Hitler, he enjoyed Weimar where he With this and the painters’ academy, Gropius was had been able to restart his career in 1925. He able to lay the foundations for the combination of used it to start the Reich’s reconstruction pro‐ art and technology that constituted the Bauhaus. gram, providing personal input to the rebuilding Gradually it attracted more students to the design of the Hotel Elephant. side as well as students from abroad and a goodly Separately, in chapter 8, Kater treats the con‐ number of women to whom such education had centration camp Buchenwald, beginning with its just become newly open.

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