Cultural and Intellectual Trends
Nathan Chennault, Aby Berumen, Claudia Alaniz
Mass Culture
Marconi discovered wireless radio waves. A concert was broadcasting on July of 1920 that had a major impact on radio broadcasting. Radios and Films became popular around the same time Broadcasting did. Hitler said "Without motor-cars, sound films, and wireless, [there would be] no victory of Nazism. Nazi encouraged radio listening when Hitlers speeches were making the same impact on people just as same as in person. Joseph Goebbels (propaganda minister of Nazi Germany) created a special film division, supporting documentaries,and nonfiction films that carry the Nazi message. Some films were to show the people the power of National Socialism.
Mass Leisure
Mass Leisure offered Nazi to take over the people. The Nazi adopted a program called Kraft durch Freude ("Strength through Joy"), offering leisure activities that included concerts, operas, films, guided tours, and sporting events that were increasingly popular and affordable for the people.
Artistic and Literary Trends
Four years of war left some Europeans with a sense of despair. Many people believed that people were animals, and were incapable of creating a sane and rational world. The Great Depression and the growth of violent fascist movements added to the despair. The uncertainties were evident in the artistic and intellectual achievements of the years of the World War I.
Art: Nightmares and New Visions
The war became the focus of everyone's art.”The world does not make sense, so why should art?” was a common remark, which began the Dada movement and surrealism. Dada was where people thought life had no purpose, so they reflected that feeling into their art. A Dada artist, Hannah Hoch, began “Photomontage” to comment on women's roles in the new mass culture. Surrealism is the world of unconsciousness, portraying fantasies, dreams, and even nightmares, trying to show greater reality beyond physical appearances. A surreal artist, Salvador Dali, painted recognizable objects in unrecognizable relationships, creating a visible strange world. Hitler and Nazi though this was losing your quantities. Hitler made a speech saying this type of art was simply lacking skill, saying that this art could have came from 8 to 10 year old children. Hitler and Nazi thought to make their own art that would show the quality of strength, heroism, and health, that would be their German art. The German art, though, was based off of nineteenth-century folk art and emphasized realistic scenes of everyday life. Which the people were not interested in.
Literature: The Search for the Unconscious
Unconsciousness was found in new literary techniques. (Ex: "Stream of Unconsciousness" was a technique used by writers to to show their innermost thoughts). The most famous approach to unconsciousness is in the novel Ulysses by James Joyce in 1922, which talks about 'the flow of their innermost thoughts'. German writer, Herman Hesse, worked on unconsciousness in a different way, focusing on the spiritual loneliness. Hesse's novels made an impact on the Germans , and won a Nobel Prize for literature.
Cultural and Intellectual Photos
1920 Radio
Hannah Hoch "Photomontage"
Salvador Dali Surrealism painting
WW2 Map
Cultural and Intellectual Videos
BEHIND THE SCENES AT RADIO BROADCASTING STATION 1920s
Dada - Homage to Hannah Höch - Music : Erik Satie
Degenerate Art - 1993, The Nazis vs. Expressionism
1st Essential Question
What are the two art movements? And why did Hitler not them?
2nd Essential Question
What was the Mass Leisure?
Works cited
Spielvogel, Jackson J. Glencoe World History. New York, NY: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2005. Print.