Gustav Stresemann, 1878-1929.The Weimar Republic had a short, hectic, and fascinating life. It was born on November 9, 1918, when the German Empire collapsed after four years of war and Emperor Wilhelm II was preparing to flee into exile in the Netherlands; it was murdered on January 30, 1933, when President Paul von Hindenburg, no longer at the height of his powers, appointed the charismatic leader of the National Socialist party, Adolf Hitler, chancellor of the country. […] [I]t was a time of almost continuous political upheaval, of brave efforts at stability steadily undermined by economic ups and downs – mostly downs – sabotaged on the right by antidemocratic forces and on the left by Communists following orders from Moscow. At the same time, the Weimar Republic was a breathless era of cultural flowering that drew the world’s attention to German dance, German architecture, German filmmaking, German fiction, German theater, German art and music. The republic provided clusters of excitement way out of proportion to the mere fourteen years of its life.
(Introduction to the Norton Paperback Edition)
GAY, Peter. Weimar Culture – the outsider as insider. New York–London : W. W. Norton & Company, 2001.
