‘Vertigo’ by Harald Jähner
The Weimar Republic was born out of a social revolution in 1918. By 1933 it had been replaced by an anti democratic totalitarian regime. Jähner traces this rise and fall from the point of view of the many social, economic and cultural changes and how these directly affected the citizens of this new modern state. As he aptly puts it, Vertigo ‘deals in the feelings, moods and sensations produced by the political attitudes and conflicts of the age’.
All the important events are covered such as the clashes between the extreme left and right, from the first days of the Republic to it’s demise. For example he relates the effect that hyperinflation in the early 1920’s had on women. When money is worth nothing it creates an independence and uncertainty that enables the young to take risks that their parents were adverse to. When money had no value, young women could enter marriages that did not require dowries. On the other hand it had its perils, many women looking to prostitution as a means of survival.
The Bauhaus Art School is a centre for radical new design. A reaction to the older over embellished gothic styles of the past, a flat roofed building is seen as progressive, representing the left. Whereas pitched roof buildings are linked with conservative ideals. Architects from both sides of the political spectrum compete with one another to create urban spaces reflecting these political and emotional values.
A whole chapter is given over to the automobile. They are seen as an expression of freedom and independence. Urban planning is dedicated to the reshaping of towns and cities. Young women are presented in glossy magazines with bob haircuts, eight cylinder cars and the accompanying hound. ‘We stopped being sweet little darlings a long time ago, now we are brave independent lads’. The book has many examples like this, from the point of view of those living in the times.
He concludes with the idea that the lack of personal responsibility helped lead to the demise of the Republic. ‘People had a choice, each for themselves including in the polling booth’. Vertigo is a truly masterful work that I’m in no doubt we can take lessons from today.
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