Unquiet Peace: The Lied Between the Wars

Notes on the Program

by Steven Blier

As Europe staggered to its feet after the devastations of the First World War, Germany’s Weimar Republic sought to establish itself under the pressure of war debts and extreme political volatility. Uprisings within the country continued for several years, and skirmishes with France in the Ruhr Valley led to a work stoppage of some of Germany’s most important factories. The ensuing inflation was extreme; who can forget pictures of Germans with wheelbarrows full of money, or the turnip costing 50 million Marks in 1923? Five political parties vied for a majority, left-wing and right-wing radicalism increased, and the new parliamentary government in Germany was fatally endangered, leaving a path open for an effective oratory zealot and propagandist to unite the masses in the early 1930s.

The First World War changed the psychological climate of the world. The idea of progress and the belief in universally accepted principles of morality no longer rang true after the most efficient machinery of destruction yet seen by man had been unleashed for a period of several years. The values and patterns of the previous generation didn’t seem to apply anymore. Freud’s theories of repression and the power of the unconscious gave people quite a different sense of themselves than their forbearers of the Victorian era. The postwar years began with a belief that the world could be built anew; but economic hardship, particularly during the ‘30s Depression, reminded people that violence and ruthlessness – the forces that let loose during World War I – were the most effective way to reshape the world. Count Harry Kessler wrote in his diary for January 10, 1920: “Today the Peace Treaty was ratified at Paris; the War is over. A terrible era begins for Europe, like the gathering of clouds before a storm, and it will end in an explosion still more terrible than that of the World War.

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