GCSE-ready- Home
- Lessons
- GCSE & IGCSE History
- Changes in Weimar society, 1924 to 29
Changes in Weimar society, 1924 to 29
🎬 The doodle video for this lesson is coming soon. Subscribe on YouTube to see it first.
The 'Golden Years' were not just about money. Living standards, the lives of women and German culture all changed in the later 1920s.
Standard of living
Wages rose for many workers in the later 1920s, and working hours were shorter.
Housing: the government funded large building programmes of new homes.
Unemployment insurance (1927) helped workers who lost their jobs.
But the middle classes who had lost savings in 1923 often still felt worse off.
Housing: the government funded large building programmes of new homes.
Unemployment insurance (1927) helped workers who lost their jobs.
But the middle classes who had lost savings in 1923 often still felt worse off.
Women
The 1919 constitution gave women the vote at 20 and equal rights in principle.
Women were elected to the Reichstag, and more worked in offices, shops and professions.
The "new woman": short hair, make-up, smoking, going out alone. Conservatives disapproved, and many women still left work when they married.
Women were elected to the Reichstag, and more worked in offices, shops and professions.
The "new woman": short hair, make-up, smoking, going out alone. Conservatives disapproved, and many women still left work when they married.
Culture
Architecture: the Bauhaus school (Walter Gropius) designed simple, functional buildings and furniture.
Art: artists such as Otto Dix and George Grosz painted harsh, realistic scenes of society (New Objectivity).
Cinema: a golden age, with films such as Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927). Berlin's cabaret and nightlife became famous.
Many conservatives saw this new culture as shocking and un-German.
Art: artists such as Otto Dix and George Grosz painted harsh, realistic scenes of society (New Objectivity).
Cinema: a golden age, with films such as Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927). Berlin's cabaret and nightlife became famous.
Many conservatives saw this new culture as shocking and un-German.
Explain why not all Germans welcomed the cultural changes of 1924 to 29.
- Some new art and cabaret openly mocked traditional values.
- Conservatives and many in rural areas thought it immoral and un-German.
- This added to their dislike of the Weimar Republic.
Answer: Many conservative Germans saw the new culture as immoral and blamed the Republic for it.
1924 to 29: higher wages, new housing and unemployment insurance (1927). Women had the vote and new freedoms (the 'new woman'). Culture flourished: the Bauhaus, New Objectivity art, and cinema such as Metropolis, though conservatives disliked it.
Check you have got it
Answer 6 quick questions with instant marking. If you get one wrong, GCSE-ready shows you why and gives you another go. It is free, and you do not need an account.