Customer Reviews

Culture and Inflation in Weimar Germany (Weimar and Now: German Cultural Criticism)

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i have read lots of books on the topic of inflation and it's causes but this is the first book i've seen which addresses the impact of inflation on the people themselves. the author peers into the various ways Germans coped with rapidly rising prices, how rapid inflation distorts self worth and the feelings of guilt that mothers and fathers felt as their standard of living collapsed.
if you want to see hyper-inflation from the perspective of average people trying to cope with something utterly beyond their control this book will help a lot.

My objectives in reading this book were rather simple. I hoped to learn something about the fundamental causes of the hyper-inflation in Germany's Weimar Republic; to gain some insight into its impact on the people who experienced it; and to learn what those people did to survive and protect themselves in such trying circumstances. This book touches briefly upon these topics but goes far beyond my level of interest.

The book reads more like a doctorial thesis aimed at exploring the Weimar inflation in all its manifestations -- including its effect on Germany's culture, industry, arts, society, labor, and women -- rather than as a book intended for general public consumption. Rather than simply telling his tale AS HE SEES IT, in easy to understand language, the author devotes the bulk of his book to reviewing and analyzing the works of other intellectuals, authors, essayists, and film makers based on his study of their novels, books, essays, films, and editorial cartoons. As a consequence, readers such as I, not having seen, read, or even having heard of any of these works, must pick their way through a maze of abstract and unfamiliar information much of which seems only tangentially related to the inflation.

Clearly, this is a well researched and well documented book, but, in my view, it is not intended for the casual reader or for those who have only a superficial knowledge of and interest in 1923's hyper-inflation. Others may disagree. By my estimate, however, the few pages which addressed the topics of interest to me would have filled only a small pamphlet.