Culture and Inflation in Weimar Germany FROM THE PUBLISHER
For many Germans the hyperinflation of 1914-1923 was one of the most decisive experiences of the twentieth century. In his original and authoritative study, Bernd Widdig investigates the effects of that inflation on German culture during the Weimar Republic. He argues that inflation, with its dynamics of massification, devaluation, and the rapid circulation of money, is an integral part of modern culture and intensifies and condenses the experience of modernity in a traumatic way.
Looking at how inflation was articulated in the German cultural imagination, he finds that the shattering of important values and the feelings of betrayal left permanent scars embedded more deeply than inflation's measurable economic consequences. Among the themes Widdig explores are the importance of the number zero for understanding the inflationary dynamic; gambling and inflation; the impact of inflation on the rise of anti-Semitism; the significance of work as an alternative space in the inflationary chaos; the erosion of the status of writers, artists, and professors; and the different feminine codings within visual representations of inflation. The epilogue addresses the "after-life" of German inflation: the ways it shaped National Socialist ideology and its continuing power in the collective memory of Germany's postwar society.
Widdig illuminates the effects of Germany's inflation by drawing on a wide range of canonical literature and films as well as generally unexplored cultural materials such as satirical illustrations, photographs, and pamphlets. Widdig's clear-headed ability to combine cultural analysis with popular social experience makes his book highly readable and a welcome addition to German studies, German cultural history, and discussions of modernity.
SYNOPSIS
For many Germans the hyperinflation of 1922 to 1923 was one of the most decisive experiences of the twentieth century. In his original and authoritative study, Bernd Widdig investigates the effects of that inflation on German culture during the Weimar Republic. He argues that inflation, with its dynamics of massification, devaluation, and the rapid circulation of money, is an integral part of modern culture and intensifies and condenses the experience of modernity in a traumatic way.
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