VERTIGO

A vivid history of Germany after its defeat in World War I.

German journalist Jähner, author of Aftermath: Life in the Fallout of the Third Reich, reminds readers that the 1918 surrender came as a terrible shock to a people largely untouched by the war whose distant army was retreating but still in good order. Most soldiers were happy to go home, but a minority enjoyed being “proud warriors” and despised the disorderly democracy that had replaced the Kaiser only slightly less than German communists, who were anxious to join the Bolshevik revolution in progress across the border. There followed several years of murderous instability, economic upheaval, and failed coups before Germany achieved a measure of stability. Communists and extreme-right parties joined the government. Both exerted a malign influence, hated democracy, and proclaimed that a government cabal had betrayed the nation in 1918. Despite this dismal landscape, the 1920s featured a golden age of art and a revolution in lifestyles. Readers seeking an overall history of this era should consult Eric D. Weitz’s Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy. Jähner does not ignore politics, but mostly this is an outstanding cultural history. “The gender debates about LGBT+ are by no means an original development of the early twenty-first century; they had a massive prelude a hundred years ago,” writes the author, who also offers useful insights on literature, dancing, architecture and design, automobiles and city traffic, cinema, fashion, and even hairstyles. One dismal legacy of the Weimar era is hatred of the government, which, perhaps as a consequence, did not attract outstanding leaders. Jähner’s final chapters on the depression years reveal a democracy quietly dying. By 1933, the Nazis were Germany’s largest political party, and its takeover was peaceful and entirely legal.

A gripping account of a nation’s experiment in democracy.