Education
Bernhard Blume
Born and raised in southern Germany at the beginning of the century, Bernhard trained to be a secondary-school teacher, but was drawn instead to the theatre. His first play, produced while he was still a student, engaged with the eighteenth-century slave trade. Living in Berlin & writing plays in the heady days of the Weimar Republic, he was hailed by one critic as one of the “five B’s” alongside Bertholt Brecht. Once the Nazis assumed power in 1933, his marriage to a “non-Aryan” led to an official boycott of his work. In preparation for emigration & a change of career, he completed a PhD on the Austrian playwright Arthur Schnitzler. Upon emigration with Carola & their two sons, Michael and Frank, to the United States, he reinvented himself as a scholar of German literature, and went on to hold positions at Mills College, Ohio State University, Harvard University (where he held the prestigious Kuno Francke Professorship of German Art and Culture), & UC San Diego. Retiring in 1971, he remained active as a scholar until his death in 1978, in La Jolla, California. His autobiography, Narziß mit Brille (“Narcissus with Glasses”), is among the few of his German-language works translated into English, as A Life in Two Worlds.
More about Bernhard
Wikipedia (EN) Wikipedia (DE) DLA catalogue (DE/EN) Narziss mit Brille (DE) A Life in Two Worlds (EN)
[photos TK]
Carola Rosenberg-Blume
Born in Neudenau to a German Jewish family with deep roots in Swabia, Carola was a pioneer in adult & women’s education. After receiving her doctorate on the “vocational trends and interests of female youth,” in 1924 she established the Volkshochschule (Adult Education Center) in Stuttgart, which became a model for similar institutions across Germany. Dismissed from her position as head of the VHS within months of the Nazis’ ascent to power, she emigrated in 1936 with Bernhard & their two sons to the United States, where she began a one-year research position at Mills College. In the US she remained active in the fields of adult education & mental health as a researcher, administrator, & lecturer. She survived Bernhard by nine years & took the lead in donating his papers to the German Literature Archive at Marbach. The papers on which this project are founded are those she decided, for unknown reasons, not to forward to Marbach.
More about Carola
Wikipedia (DE) CRB Institut (DE) Zeichen der Erinnerung (DE) “Weib, hif dir selber!” (DE) StadtPalais (DE)
[photos TK]
The Weimar Republic
From Wikipedia (abridged):
The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history. The period’s informal name is derived from the city of Weimar, which hosted the constituent assembly that established its government. In English, the republic was usually simply called “Germany,” with “Weimar Republic” (a term introduced by Adolf Hitler in 1929) not commonly used until the 1930s. The Weimar Republic had a semi-presidential system.
Toward the end of the First World War (1914–1918), Germany was exhausted and sued for peace in desperate circumstances. Awareness of imminent defeat sparked a revolution, the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the proclamation of the Weimar Republic on 9 November 1918, and formal cessation of hostilities with the Allies by the Armistice of 11 November 1918.
In its initial years, grave problems beset the Republic, such as hyperinflation and political extremism, including political murders and two attempted coups d’état by contending paramilitaries; internationally, it suffered isolation, reduced diplomatic standing and contentious relationships with the great powers. By 1924, a great deal of monetary and political stability was restored, and the republic enjoyed relative prosperity for the next five years; this period was characterized by significant cultural flourishing, social progress, and gradual improvement in foreign relations. In 1926, it joined the League of Nations, which marked its reintegration into the international community. Nevertheless, especially on the political right, there remained strong and widespread resentment against the treaty and those who had signed and supported it.
The Great Depression of October 1929 severely impacted Germany’s tenuous progress; high unemployment and subsequent social and political unrest led to the collapse of Chancellor Hermann Müller’s grand coalition and the beginning of the presidential cabinets. The Great Depression, exacerbated by Heinrich Brüning’s policy of deflation, led to a surge in unemployment. On 30 January 1933, Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor to head a coalition government; his Nazi Party held two out of ten cabinet seats. Von Papen, as Vice-Chancellor and Hindenburg’s confidant, was to keep Hitler under control; these intentions severely underestimated Hitler’s political abilities.
By the end of March 1933, the Reichstag Fire Decree and the Enabling Act of 1933 were used in the perceived state of emergency to effectively grant the new Chancellor broad power to act outside parliamentary control. Hitler promptly used these powers to thwart constitutional governance and suspend civil liberties, which brought about the swift collapse of democracy at the federal and state level, and the creation of a one-party dictatorship under his leadership.
More about Germany’s first democracy
Wikipedia (EN) Wikipedia (DE) Britannica (EN) Holocaust Encyclopedia (EN)
The Nazi ascension
From Wikipedia (abridged):
The rise to power of Adolf Hitler, dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, began in the newly established Weimar Republic in September 1919, when Hitler joined the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (German Workers’ Party). He quickly rose to a place of prominence and became one of its most popular speakers. Hitler was made the party leader in 1921 after he threatened to otherwise leave. By 1922, his control over the party was unchallenged. The Nazis were a right-wing party, but in the early years they also had anti-capitalist and anti-bourgeois elements. Some of the supporters of these ideas were killed during the Night of the Long Knives, which also served as a tool to secure power and reaffirmed the Nazi Party’s pro-business stance.
In 1923, Hitler attempted a coup in Bavaria, known as the Beer Hall Putsch. He was arrested and put on trial, which garnered him national fame. He was sentenced to five years in prison, but served only nine months. During this time, he wrote Mein Kampf, which became the handbook of his ideology of Nazism. Once released, Hitler switched tactics, opting to instead seize power through legal and democratic means. During the 1920s, he and the Nazis ran on a platform of anti-communism, antisemitism, and ultranationalism. Party leaders vociferously criticized the ruling democratic government and the Treaty of Versailles, while promising to turn Germany into a world power. Most Germans were indifferent to Hitler’s rhetoric as the German economy began to recover, in large part due to loans from the United States. The German political landscape was dramatically affected by the Wall Street crash of 1929. The Great Depression brought the German economy to a halt and further polarized German politics. During this tumultuous time, the German Communist Party also began campaigning and called for a revolution. Some business leaders, fearful of a communist takeover, began supporting the Nazi Party.
Hitler ran for the presidency in 1932 and was defeated by the incumbent Paul von Hindenburg, but achieved a strong showing of second place in both rounds. In July 1932, the Nazis became the largest party in the Reichstag, albeit short of an absolute majority. Traditionally, the leader of the party who held the most seats in the Reichstag was appointed Chancellor. However, President von Hindenburg was hesitant to appoint Hitler. Following several backroom negotiations, Hindenburg acquiesced and on 30 January 1933, he formally appointed Hitler as Germany’s new chancellor. Although he was chancellor, Hitler was not yet an absolute dictator.
The groundwork for Hitler’s dictatorship was laid when the Reichstag was set on fire in February 1933. Blaming communists for the arson, Hitler convinced von Hindenburg to pass the Reichstag Fire Decree, which severely curtailed the liberties and rights of German citizens as Hitler began eliminating his political opponents. Following its passage, he began arguing for more drastic means to curtail political opposition, and proposed the Enabling Act of 1933. This law gave the German government the power to override individual rights prescribed by the constitution, and vested the Chancellor (Hitler) with emergency powers to pass and enforce laws without parliamentary oversight. The law came into force in March, and by April, Hitler held de facto dictatorial powers and ordered the construction of the first Nazi concentration camp at Dachau for communists and other political opponents.
Hitler’s rise to power was completed in August 1934 when, after Hindenburg’s death, Hitler merged the chancellery with the presidency into the title of Führer (“leader”). His rise to power was aided by his willingness to use violence in advancing his political objectives and to recruit party members willing to do the same. In additional to electoral battles in which Hitler participated as a speaker and organizer, violent street battle took place between the Communists’ Rotfrontkämpferbund and the Nazis’ Sturmabteilung (SA). Once the Nazi dictatorship was firmly established, the Nazis themselves created a mythology surrounding their rise to power. German propaganda described this time period as either the Kampfzeit (the time of struggle) or the Kampfjahre (years of struggle).
More about Hitler’s rise to power
Wikipedia (EN) Wikipedia (DE) Britannica (EN) Holocaust Encyclopedia (EN)