Degeneration and Revolution: Radical Cultural Politics and the Body in Weimar Germany

692 Pages·2015·5.137 MB·English

by  Robert Heynen

Degeneration and Revolution
Historical Materialism
Book Series
Editorial Board
Sébastien Budgen (Paris)
Steve Edwards (London)
Marcel van der Linden (Amsterdam)
Peter Thomas (London)
volume 93
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/hm
Degeneration and Revolution
Radical Cultural Politics and the Body in
Weimar Germany
By
Robert Heynen
LEIDEN | BOSTON
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For Emily
∵

Contents
Acknowledgements  ix
List of Illustrations  xi
List of Abbreviations  xiii
1 Introduction: Weimar Germany and the Cultures of Capitalist
Modernity  1
1.1 Rethinking Weimar History  1
1.2 Weimar Germany: The Crises of Capitalist Modernity  9
1.3 Degeneration, Embodiment, and the Politics of Culture: A Marxist
Perspective  30
1.4 The Structure of the Book  52
2 Degeneration: Gender, War and the Politics of the Volkskörper  58
2.1 Introduction  58
2.2 August 1914  62
2.3 Women’s Protests and Left Politics  74
2.4 Masculinity, War, and the Cultural Politics of the Weimar Radical
Right  107
3 Revolution: Aesthetics, Politics, and the Question of Totality  135
3.1 Introduction  135
3.2 Nostalgia and Shock  140
3.3 Art, Politics, and Revolution  160
3.4 Expressionism and After  205
3.5 Totality  237
4 Bodies and Minds: Art and the Politics of Degeneration  251
4.1 Introduction  251
4.2 (De)militarised Bodies: Art and Gender after War  257
4.3 The Prostitute  275
4.4 The Prosthetic Man: The Wounded or Disabled Veteran  292
4.5 Outsider Art: Asylums and the Cultural Politics of Madness  322
4.6 Primitivism, the Body, and Colonial Nostalgia  342
viii contents
5 Transforming Vision: Film, Photography, and the Politics of Social
Hygiene  386
5.1 Introduction: The Birth of Homo Cinematicus  386
5.2 The Photo-Eye: New Modes of Vision  391
5.3 The Primitive Spectator: Race, Gender, Class, and the Weimar
Audience  406
5.4 Optical Hygiene: Sanitising Vision  433
5.5 Racial Aesthetics: Photography, Film, and the Weimar Body  474
6 Revolution and the Degeneration of the Weimar Republic: Worker
Culture and the Rise of Fascism  496
6.1 Introduction  496
6.2 Towards a Worker Culture  508
6.3 ‘We Are the Eyes of Our Class!’: Workers’ Photography and
Film  518
6.4 Proletarian Theatre and the Fight for the Streets  529
6.5 Radical Cultures of the Body: The Left and the Struggle over
Abortion  547
6.6 In the Shadow of Fascism: Brecht, the Left, and the End of the
Weimar Republic  574
References  585
Index  651
Acknowledgements
This book has been under construction for many years. It began as a disser-
tation project in the graduate program in Social & Political Thought at York
University before being substantially rewritten as the book you find here. Like
any project of this duration and magnitude, the debts I have incurred in writ-
ing it are uncountable. Friends, collaborators, colleagues, students, and inter-
locutors at conferences all made significant contributions to this book. I owe
each of you, especially those that I don’t have the space to acknowledge here
by name, my deepest and most heartfelt thanks.
York University has been my academic home since 1996, beginning with
the exceptionally stimulating and critical environment provided by Social
& Political Thought. My colleagues in the Department of Communication
Studies, where I now teach, have provided a welcoming community in which
to complete this book. Funding to support my research and writing has also
come from York, including university-wide grants to Contract Faculty, and
grants provided by both the old Faculty of Arts and the new Faculty of Liberal
Arts & Professional Studies. My thanks to York and these faculties for their sup-
port. Further thanks in this respect must go to CUPE local 3903. Some of the
grants I received were part of collective agreements negotiated by the local,
which, over many years and two strikes, also provided the context for much of
my academic activism.
In its earlier stages as a dissertation, my committee, David McNally, Rob
Albritton, Himani Bannerji, and Barbara Godard, provided a constant source
of support, encouragement, and critical feedback. I especially want to thank
David, who embodies the ideal of the committed intellectual, and whose
engagement with this project from beginning to end, and even more so his
friendship, have been exceptionally important. Working with him on this and,
with others, as part of the Toronto Historical Materialism group has been a
privilege. I was also lucky enough to have Kathleen Canning as my external
adviser; her generous reading and important insights gave me the confidence
to continue the project. A special thanks and dedication goes to Barbara
Godard. You will find Barbara’s name in countless acknowledgements like
these, a testament to the incredible influence she has had on so many like me:
as a teacher, a scholar, a critic, an activist, a friend. She is sorely missed.
I would like to single out some of the many people who have, in one way
or another, inspired and influenced this project. My family (Jan, Ria, Steve,
Irene, and Amie) have been there since the beginning, providing support and
encouragement. Keith Bresnahan, Kelly Fritsch, Aaron Gordon, Fred Ho, Kate
x acknowledgements
Kaul, Kathy Kiloh, Sailaja Krishnamurti, Rabea Murtaza, Mike Palamarek, Ilya
Parkins, Julie Petruzzellis, Dennis Soron, Cynthia Wright, Centime Zeleke,
Bruno and Oliver, and so many others have helped me to develop my ideas
and arguments. My trips to Germany provided the research material, but also
stimulating conversation and friendship. Among the many people I met there,
I would like to single out Andrea Adams, Lars Breuer, Carla MacDougall, and
Alice Weinreb for special thanks. Finally, special appreciation goes to Ayesha
Hameed. She lived with this project as it was first developing and the traces of
her creativity, her endless flow of ideas, and her support can be found through-
out the book.
Writing and publishing has involved many people. I am especially thankful
for the work of all the librarians, many of whom I have never met in person,
who have been so instrumental in helping me to find the sources on which
this book is based. The interlibrary loans department at York’s Scott library has
been especially important in this respect. Juliana Edler provided much needed
help with translations that were beyond my abilities; any remaining awkward-
ness remains solely my own. This book reproduces many images, and I thank
all of those in libraries, museums, and agencies who have helped me to secure
them; Christian Carlsen was especially a lifesaver in obtaining many of these
in Germany. Despite my best efforts, it has not been possible to locate some
copyright holders and I welcome correspondence from any legitimate rights
holders.
Many other people have read, responded to, and edited the book at various
points. Among them is my mother, Ria Heynen, who had many stimulating
responses and questions deeply informed by her own activist work. Stephan
Dobson did heroic work in editing the manuscript. At Historical Materialism
I would especially like to thank David Broder, Sébastian Budgen, Joseph
Fraccia, Danny Hayward, and Chris O’Kane. The work they all put in has vastly
improved this book, and all, especially Sébastian, displayed a remarkable
patience with the time it has taken me to complete it. I owe each of them a
debt of gratitude. Finally, Rosanna Woensdregt and Debbie de Wit at Brill have
been instrumental in shepherding the book through to completion.
My last and biggest thanks goes to Emily van der Meulen. I could write
another whole book on what she has meant to me. Her own work has been an
inspiration for and influence on many of the arguments I make here, and she
is truly remarkable for the way in which she combines her academic work with
her political commitments. Without her love and support (and exhortations
to finish the damn thing already!) the book would never have been completed.
Emily, this book is for you.