Cultural Achievements of Weimar Germany

Paul Klee is considered both a German and a Swiss painter. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism and surrealism.

He taught at the German Bauhaus school of art, design and architecture from 1921 to 1931. Klee welcomed that there were many conflicting theories within Bauhaus.

Otto Dix was a German painter and printmaker, noted for his ruthless and harshly realistic depictions of Weimar society and the brutaility of war. He was part of the German army and was profondly affected by the sights of the war. He described a recurring nightmare in which he crawled through destroyed houses.

Bauhaus was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933.

The Bauhaus school was founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar. The intention of Bauhaus was to develop creative minds for architecture and industry.

The institute included workshops for making models of type houses and all kinds of utensils and departments of advertising art, stage planning, photography, and typography.

The Bauhaus style became one of the most influencial in Modernist architecture and modern design and had a great influence over developments in art, architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design, and tyopgraphy.

The school existed in 3 German cities - Weimar (1919-1925), Dessau (1925-1932), and Berlin (1932-1933).

The school was closed by its own leadership under pressure by the Nazi regime.

'Fritz' Lang was an Australian-American film maker, from Germany's school of Expressionism.

One of his most famous films was the groundbreaking 'Metropolis'. It was made in 1927 and was the most expensive silent film ever made. It cost about 5 million Reichmark or $15 million.

Metropolis is set in a futuristic urban dystopia and explores the social crisis between workers and owners inherent in Capitalism.

Erich Maria Remarque (or Erich Paul Remark) was born on 22 June 1898 in a German working-class family. His most famous work was 'All Quiet on the Western Front' and was written in 1927.

It described experiences of German soldiers during WW1. Turned into a film by the Ameerican Studio Universal in 1930. Remarque's books were baned in Germany by the Nazi government in the 1930s.

Marlene Dietrich was a German-born American actress and singer.

She acted on stage in Shakespeare's 'The Taming of the Shrew' and 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'.

She attracted most attention in musicals on Broadway, she played many parts in silent films such as Cafe Elektric in 1927.

In 1929 she landed a breakthrough role of Lola-Lola, a cabaret singer. This brought her to international fame and provided her with a contract with Paramount Pictures in the US.

She became one of the highest paid actresses of her era.

After WW1, cabaret enjoyed popularity all across Europe especially Germany. The Nazis effectively supressed all hints of cabaret subculture in Germany.