HISTORY 322 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Spartacus League, Herd Mentality, Total War
● The End of Weimar
● Review:
● Leve on Masse - uprising of the masses, culture of defeat - main point: end of world war one -
sta i the ak → otio that Geras ould hae o ar ut did’t at to eause they
wanted to be done w the war - pop. refused to continue
● Class vs. Stand - there are differences in terms of where you come from ( educational background
etc. ) stand = associated with your identities as workers, etc. (associated with people who are
similar in terms of their social standing
○ Politics of class (MARX) suggests that there is a progression towards greater equality
based on the terms that people who have same income/do same work are more related to
each other are more in common than people who are from same village/went to same
high school
■ Feel solidarity based on their place within structure of society - irrespective of
where they came from
● Bourgeois threatened by social movements of working classes
● Three phases:
○ Revolution from above (Kaiser gives more rep. Rights to parliament, socialists play the
part to appoint political leader)
○ Revolution from below (revolt in Kiev that spreads across reich - reaches berlin Nov. 8/9
when Schneidermann reclaims republic and Kaiser abdicates/flees)
■ Mass movement from workers in way industry works - take charge
● Municipal level of government
■ Ended with proclamation of republic and interim govt. (council of deputies)
● Class from two parts of left became unbridgeable - December
● Socialists form comm. Party (spartacus)
○ Revolution of Revolution - Spartacus Uprising
■ Independent social leaders put themselves at the front
● Rev. russian style
● Change way property is distributed/manage
■ Squashed by Freikorp on Jan 12 (after december uprisings)
● Dada - revolutionary art movement
○ Art doesn’t exist and we aren’t artists
■ Provocative
■ Doing revolution on their own terms to shatter basis of how we think about art
and culture
○ Expressionism is parallel with this
○ Style changes from loud/in face to streamlined to minimalist principles, scientific,
connected to political message (precise)
● 12:15 Themes
● Promise or tragedy?
○ Enlightenment allows those in the know (with technology) to improve the quality of the
nation
■ By teaching people about hygiene / eugenics
find more resources at oneclass.com
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Document Summary
Stand - there are differences in terms of where you come from ( educational background etc. ) stand = associated with your identities as workers, etc. (associated with people who are similar in terms of their social standing. Feel solidarity based on their place within structure of society - irrespective of where they came from. Bourgeois threatened by social movements of working classes. Revolution from above (kaiser gives more rep. rights to parliament, socialists play the part to appoint political leader) Revolution from below (revolt in kiev that spreads across reich - reaches berlin nov. 8/9 when schneidermann reclaims republic and kaiser abdicates/flees) Mass movement from workers in way industry works - take charge. Ended with proclamation of republic and interim govt. (council of deputies) Class from two parts of left became unbridgeable - december. Independent social leaders put themselves at the front. Squashed by freikorp on jan 12 (after december uprisings) Art doesn"t exist and we aren"t artists.
