Social

• Positive changes for women

  Social changes

  • equal rights, marriage=equal union, wanted independence
  • New woman- revealing clothing, androgynous
  • 1926- liberalised abortion laws

  Economic

  • Counter enter professions (1925- 2500 doctors, 1933- doubled, 36 lawyers), 1925- 36% workers-women)

  Political

  • could vote (90% voted)
  • Article 109- equal rights & equal marriage union
  • Took seats in gov (1919-32, 112 elected to Reichstag)
• Limits for women


  Social albatross

  • not expected to pursue career after marriage, expected to settle down
  • Birth rates fell (125/1000 to 80 births (1911-25)
  • Divorce increased (1920- 59/100,000)

  Economic

  • Discriminatory workplace, trade unions opposed all female workers and equal pay
  • 1925- 1/2+ poor paid in manual work
  • Women paid 33% less, hostility to 'double earners'

  Political

  • 'Kinder, Kuche, Kirsche' urged to marry and settle down
  • Politicians criticised women as immoral
  • Civil code- no change in women's legal status
• German society


  • Jazz music popular, largely influenced by American culture (importing musicians)
  • New architecture and art popular, Bauhaus allowed new innovations in architecture and furniture
  • Artwork depicting leisurely lifestyle of most Germans, all genders enjoyed partying and having a good time
  • Movies internationally popular and abstract (Metropolis 1927), Vampire movies (Nosferatu 1922)
  • Art commentated freely on societal problems, no censorship (All quiet on the western front 1928)
  • Women freer, enjoyed leisure rather than marriage and wore shorter clothing, could vote
• Changes to education- 6-10 yrs old

  Grundschule- compulsory (mixed intake & no religious education

  Set up Grundschule to stop clerical inspections of schools & remove children from religious education

  Mixed opinions on religion being taught

  When writing constitution, various parties in the Assembly couldn’t agree

  The Education Article= compromise, no clear direction

  Landers in control had to meet parents needs

  Moderate change
• Religious schools

  • 1931- 29,00 Protestant schools, 15,000 Catholic, 100 Jewish, 9000 common, 300 secular
  • Landers=guidelines to work, yet meeting needs of parents
  • Introduce federal school law (1921&5) but Reichstag couldn’t agree
  • 1927, bill proposed (confessional, common and secular schools on equal footing
  • Some vigorously opposed 1927 education (e.g. Association for Evangelical Freedom)
  • Committee revising bill couldn’t agree
  • Germany wasn’t ready for secularism advocated by socialist gov
  • Little changed in education due to deadlock in the Reichstag (proportional representation
  • Superficial change
• Beyond 10 yrs old

  Hauptschule (paid)- apprentice/trade for 5 yrs.

  Realschule- led to business/tech training after 6 yrs.

  Gymnasium- uni after 9 yrs.

  Career decided at 10 yrs.

  45% uni students= civil servants, only 2.3% working class

  Social mobility as difficult in 1928 as in 1918

  Minor change
• Minorities in Weimar Germany


  • City-based liberals were more welcoming
  • Article 133 of the Weimar constitution couldn't legally stop those using different languages/preserving their national identity
  • People seemed to have differentiated between Jews and Poles as groups, and were more accepting of people who settled and became familiar
  • Jews had a huge influence on culture, and some became politicians
  • Government banned anti-Semitic organisations
  • The Reich Federation of Jewish Front Soldiers set up to fight antisemitism (said 85,000 Jewish soldiers fought for Germany during WWI, and 12,000 died)
  • No federal legislation against Gypsies
  • Black musicians and writers were accepted in the cities
• Minorities


  • Received lower wages
  • Less likely to be hired than a 'German man'- landowners and the army were less welcoming
• Article 133 didn't control laws made by the Lander against minorities
• Rathenau assassinated (foreign minister, 1922)
• German Peoples Offensive and Defensive Alliance

  • 25,000 members (1919)
  • Around 17,00 when disbanded (1923)
• Some conservative judges were anti-Semitic
• Depression got worse after 1929


  More turned to extreme parties (many extremely anti-Semitic)
• 1926- Bavaria passed series of laws against Gypsies


  1. Control movement

  2. Get children into schools

  3. Get adults into work
• Similar laws were passed in different states
• Mixed race children from 1923 Occupation of the Ruhr (500) were denounced as 'Germany's shame'
• Jews in Weimar

  · 1% population 1918, fell to 500,000 by 1933

  · Sig number lived in cities (67%) and 1/3 lived in Berlin (many anti-Semites called ‘Jew Berlin’

  · 5 Jews help cabinet posts in the Weimar Republic

  · Antisemites said Jews has conspired with the Allies and lost Germany the war
• Gypsies in Weimar

  • Discriminated against, as they moved around and didn’t contribute to country by working, paying taxes or becoming involved in life outside own community
• Poles in Germany

  · As border with Poland was withdrawn, people from each group were on the wrong side of the border )1925- 200,000+ Polish speakers in Germany

  · Hostility as Poles fought Germany in the war, b/w 1925 and 1933- 30,000 Poles left Germany
• Black people

  • Only group met with rising hostility after 1923 due to French army occupation that took over the Ruhr in 1923 had black units from the French colonies
• Culture in Weimar

  • Art elite culture
  • Popular culture
  • Gov-subsidised culture
  • 1923- state-owned radio broadcasts, 1930- 3 mil sets
  • 1926- Law to Protect you from Pulp Fiction and Pornography
• Women in Weimar Germany

  • Work & Politics- Women encouraged to work (1932- 5000 doctors, 250 in legal profession & 118 in Reichstag)
  • Spouse- Women free to marry & ‘seek’ their desired partner
  • Eugenics- Women not medically/racially verified for production
  • Motherhood- No targets set/incentivised given for having more children. Birth-rates= 128 to 59/1000 from 1911 to 1932
  • Childcare- Childcare not orchestrated by Gov, but by private nurseries