After the success of Times of Wolves – Germany and the Germans (1945-1955)published in January 2024, the publishing house Actes Sud publishes the translation by Olivier Mannoni of The Intoxication of the Summits – Germany and the Germans (1918-1933)by the same author, Harald Jähner, former cultural journalist for the German daily Berliner Zeitung. THE “book tells the tense panorama of an era which in many ways gives the impression of being a copy of our own”. The Weimar Republic (1918-1933) thus appears both surprisingly modern and yet distant.
Proclaimed in 1918, after the end of the First World War, the new regime opened a “new life” for the Germans, characterized by freedom and radicalism, particularly in the field of creation – hence the title chosen by Harald Jähner of“drunkenness of the summits”. Taking a perspective close to the history of emotions, the author examines the feelings, both positive and negative, which run through the era.
Entertainment venues in large cities, which accompany new music such as jazz and the transformations of both female and male bodies, are particularly highlighted. The resentment of the inhabitants of rural areas and small towns against the large cities was not forgotten, while a taste for the countryside developed at the end of the period.
His analysis of the Weimar Republic strives to avoid any teleological reading. If we know the tragic outcome with the arrival of Adolf Hitler to power in 1933, it was not written in advance. Following the economic crisis that began in 1929, the Germans were of course torn. Above all, “around 1930, democracy lost one of its most important and most fragile resources: self-confidence”. Nazism was not inevitable; it results from democratic electoral choices, recalls the author.
The German Roaring Twenties
1918 was the time of the social democrats, led by Friedrich Ebert, first president of the Republic, rehabilitated by Harald Jähner. However, shortly after the birth of the Weimar Republic, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) sealed a pact with the army to maintain public order, while a revolutionary ferment embodied by the workers’ councils, which were mainly peaceful, developed.
Paradoxically, the Republic then entrusts its defense to its worst enemies, the Free Corps, who believe in the “stab in the back” thesis. Shortly after, dizzying inflation – due to the weight of the war debt and the reparations to be paid to the victors – had a profound impact on the population. The social consequences are multiple and lasting. Many citizens experience social downgrading, when a few get ahead and build fortunes thanks to inflation.
The years 1924-1929 embody, on the contrary, the German “Roaring Twenties”, those of rediscovered prosperity and great artistic and cultural creativity. In architecture, the promoters of Bauhaus championed functionalism and were followed by the popularity of the Art Deco style.
At the same time, to respond to urban poverty, numerous social housing units are built. Office jobs are growing at high speed and contribute to the emancipation of women by providing them with work. In 1925, after the death of Friedrich Ebert, General Paul von Hindenburg was elected president and served as “Surrogate Kaiser”initially disappointing the reactionaries by wanting to be the representative of all Germans.
The period also marks the beginning of the rise of the automobile, its democratization and its mythification. The first highways were, in fact, built at this time and not by Adolf Hitler. There “dance on the volcano”with the success of the hi-hat, became popular, as did silent and then talkie cinema. The body is featured in the media.
We are also witnessing an unprecedented expansion of sport, both as a practice and as a spectacle. The status of women changes and is reflected in clothing and hairstyles. Berlin becomes the scene of a vibrant homosexual scene. This phenomenon, however, arouses a virilist backlash among certain Germans.
From the economic crisis to Hitler’s rise to power
The stock market crash of 1929, which began across the Atlantic, had a very strong impact on the German economy, still very indebted and dependent on the United States. Unemployment is exploding as a result. In response to this crisis, President Paul von Hindenburg appointed minority governments pursuing austerity policies, the first step in a slide towards an authoritarian state. However, the unemployed did not flock en masse to the Nazi party. On the other hand, “the fear of social decline radicalized the middle classes and pushed them towards the National Socialists”who praise the Aryan race and designate Jews as those responsible for socio-economic difficulties.
Despite the crisis, the scientific (with new Nobel Prizes), technical (invention of the zeppelin) and cultural (the writer Robert Musil, the filmmaker Fritz Lang) dynamic continues. But Germany is entering a period of pessimism and socio-cultural conflicts, which Harald Jähner describes as “communication crisis”. According to him, our era would not have a monopoly on “filter bubble”certainly reinforced by digital technology.
Added to this is the lack of roots of democracy in Germany and the denigration of parties, poorly prepared to exercise power during the imperial period. “The feeling that it would not be as serious as that, that the constraint and violence would be kept within bearable limits, was also that of a large part of public opinion” concerning Adolf Hitler’s party. The National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP) brings together both “hordes”students and conservative intellectuals, in a form of “cultured barbarism” brandishing an illusory unity of Germany. The rest of the story is unfortunately all too well known.
With an undeniable sense of narrative, portraiture and meaningful iconography, Harald Jähner paints an impressionist picture of the Weimar Republic. If political and social history – in particular through the attention paid to gender – is not absent, the cultural prism dominates, as do the sources from cultural elites (press articles, memoirs), whose profile ultimately recalls that of the author.
In other words, The intoxication of the summits is not a “story from below.” There is certainly no shortage of resonances with our times, but the author does not offer a real comparative discussion. Finally, the reader will be surprised at times by certain translation choices (for example, page 360: “The idea that a large part of the economic force was in good spirits was converted in this enterprise into the conviction that it was enough to believe firmly enough in the recovery for it to start moving by itself”).
