This course examines the role of propaganda and citizenship in interwar Germany, looking at how these themes framed and even shaped the evolution of the nation through this critical time. We will discuss how an idealised notion of the ‘modern citizen’ was essential both to the rise of the Weimar Republic and its Nazi successor. For with the passing of the First World War Germany’s new leaders sought to establish a vision of a revolutionary remaking of the very concept of government. This was to be founded on the principle of popular citizenship, with people at the heart of that political process.
Yet from the outset too they did so in the face of multiple contestations of their vision, from both the radical extremes. These began with the Spartacist left, in the very earliest attempt to derail the democratic model before it could begin. Ultimately however it was the radical right of course which would deal the final blow, as Nazism too took its turn to define what it meant to be a ‘model German’. All these themes and more we will explore in this fascinating and very thought-provoking subject, beginning with a discussion of what we actually mean by the idea of the nation. Finally, we will end with a consideration of evolving attitudes to Germany from the wider international community, and of the impact of the Nazi legacy at home and abroad. Central to the course throughout will be the investigation of primary source materials.
Image: 1924 DVP election campaign for the Reichstag election of December 1924. 'Berlin, Propaganda zur Reichstagswahl', Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-00886, taken from Wikimedia Commons.