Our times are marked by crisis. Looking back a hundred years, we realise 1923 was no better.
By Holger Moos
Since Florian Illies' success with his book 1913. Der Sommer des Jahrhunderts (1913. The Summer of the Century, 2012) books about specific selected years have been in fashion. With so much going on in Germany in 1923, many writers felt they had to write about it. The Ruhr occupation, hyperinflation, the Communist uprising and Hitler’s putsch are the most common catchwords on that historic year.
Peter Süß approaches his theme in an impressionist manner. In 1923. Endstation. Alles einsteigen! (1923. Terminus. All aboard!) he presents a varied panorama. Süß works chronologically, giving each month its own chapter, in which scenes in which scenes from very different social spheres are deftly cross-cut. Besides political events, they feature Kurt Tucholsky as a bank apprentice, a jealous Käthe Kollwitz, Thomas Mann’s fascination with occultism, the world’s greatest shoplifter and an earthquake in Japan. And Otto Dix and George Grosz are dragged into court.
Süß’s entertainingly cinematic approach is surely due to his decades-long work as writer and producer of a number of daily soaps and telenovelas. In keeping with this, the book’s introduction is headed “Fade in”.
Another pot-pourri of historical events, enriched with diverse anecdotes, is provided by journalist Jutta Hoffritz inTotentanz. 1923 und seine Folgen. (Dance of Death – The Year 1923 and Its Aftermath). She tells in particular of the effects of hyperinflation on a diverse range of personalities. The featured characters include dancer Anita Berber, who was surrounded by scandal; Hugo Sinnes, a Ruhr magnate who profited from inflation, Reichsbank president Rudolf Havenstein, and once again, the artist Käthe Kollwitz.
Deutschland 1923 (Germany 1923) by Volker Ullrich, historian and editor of the weekly newspaper Die Zeit for many years, is recommended for anyone looking for a structured presentation of the politics and economics of that time. He sees Germany “on the edge of the abyss“ and begins his book with a diary entry by Thomas Mann‘s mother-in-law Hedwig Pringsheim on New Year’s Eve 1922: “May 1923 be better than 1922, which was dire in every respect. Amen!“ As we all know, that wish was not fulfilled. On the contrary, things became more dire. The Weimar Republic faced threats from various quarters. While the currency reform at the end of 1923 did initially stabilize the country somewhat, it did not last, as we know. Ullrich’s readable book has eight thematic sections, with a final outlook in which he thinks about history not just from the end, i.e. from the Nazis’ assumption of power in 1933. Rather, he also shows alternative development paths. He sees the year 1923 in particular as evidence of the resilience – if only short-lived – of the first German democracy: “The fact that the Weimar Republic asserted itself even under the extreme pressures of that year is in any case a strong argument against the assumption that it was doomed to failure from the outset.“
In Außer Kontrolle. Deutschland 1923 (Out of Control. Germany 1923), Peter Longerich, acclaimed historian on the Nazi period, provides “an elementary and systematic presentation, almost like a textbook with its bullet-point summaries, and illustrated with numerous maps, graphics and photographs“, writes Erhard Schütz in the weekly newspaper der Freitag. The historian’s arguments are clear and incisive. One of his main theses is that Hitler’s putsch prevented General Hans von Seeckt from establishing a military dictatorship. As Commander of the Reichswehr, Seeckt, who was in fact an opponent of the Weimar Republic, was given supreme executive powers to protect the Reich by Reich President Ebert. In standing by the Republic, Seeckt involuntarily became its saviour.
