Modern Times

Pictures of the 1920s.

Elisabeth Voigt, The Little Drummer, 1926

This blog should have been written long ago, but the fast-moving political events have diverted my attention.

The vernissage of the exhibition Modern Times took place on September 25 last year. I tried to photograph some interesting pictures of the objects presented, but people were standing on each other's feet, so it was in vain. 

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So I went to the Freiburg Museum of Contemporary Art later and had the exhibition rooms all to myself.

Modern times, everyone involuntarily thinks of the movie with Charlie Chaplin. A scene from it was also shown in an anteroom in an endless loop. 

Charlie runs after a woman with his wrench and tries to twist her skirt's buttons. Red Baron saw the movie as a student. The audience doubled over with laughter.

Walter Jacob, Prometheus 1220

Like another exhibition at Freiburg, Modern Times is on loan from the Altenburg Museums. They could not house their exhibition materials during the renovation of their premises and, therefore, loaned them for two exhibitions in Freiburg.

In the US, the 1920s are also known as The Roaring Twenties, in France as les années folles and in Italy as Anni ruggenti.

George Grosz, Vorm Schaufenster (Window Shopping) 1924

Käthe Kollwitz, Bread! 1924

In Germany, the social situation was anything but fun for most of the population, but during the Goldenen Zwanziger, the bear began to tap too, especially in Berlin.

Erich Haeckel, Zwei Verwundete (Two Wounded Veterans) 1914

The First World War ended with defeat, and Germany was humiliated by the Treaty of Versailles. The bloody war was a trauma that left its marks on people's souls and bodies. 

Gas and Hand Grenades

At a Lost Post

Maltreated Creature

Air Attack on Civilian Targets

Otto Dix, Die Kartenspieler (Cardplayers) 1920

Otto Dix's depictions illustrate the atrocities of the war.

Conrad Felixmüller, Soldat im Irrenhaus (Soldier in the Madhouse) 1918

War cripples were locked away or dominated the streets of Berlin and elsewhere as beggars.

Germany's post-war economic situation was catastrophic. Unemployment was high, money devaluation was galloping, society was torn apart, and the public was polarized, with a tendency towards radicalism. 

Käthe Kollwitz, Gedenkblatt (Memorial Sheet) für Karl Liebknecht 1919

Political murder was the order of the day.

Although it was forbidden, women of all ages who needed money due to hyperinflation prostituted themselves as an unavoidable sideline. Hans Baluscheck was fascinated by their faces and drew a portfolio of portraits of Unsocial Women in 1923.

Straßendirne (Steetwalker)

Vorstadtdirne (Suburban Prostitute)

Rummelnutte (Fairground Hooker)

Kokainistin (Cocaine Addict)

Kupplerin (Bawd)

The Weimar Republic tried in vain to improve the social situation of the population but fell into disrepute over the years.

Franz Xaver Fuhr, Café Kantore 1925

In Germany from 1924 onwards, in the Golden Twenties people lived out their individual freedom in cafés, brothels, and cabarets. Art, culture, and science flourished. 

Hanna Nagel Ein Akademieprofessor zeichnet die Maria
(An Academy Professor Draws Mary) 1931

While few revelled in unbridled wealth, many lived in abject poverty, and some enjoyed little happiness.

Conrad Felixmüller, Schichtwechsel auf Grube Gotteswort
(Shift change at God's Word mine) 1921

It was Germany's emergence into the modern age, with lofty dreams and boundless plans, but simultaneously a dance on a volcano. Because crises (Black Friday) followed one another, escalated immeasurably and, by the end of the 1920s, could no longer be controlled even with Notverordnungen (emergency decrees).

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The end came in 1933, the triumph of those who despised democracy. Was the slide into the dark Nazi dictatorship avoidable?

Remember Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker who highlighted the rapid dismantling of the Weimar Republic by the Nazis warning his fellow citizens, "It took the Nazis one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic."

For Red Baron, the Nazis' Machtergreifung (seizure of power) took only slightly longer. It began on  January 30, 1933, with Hitler's appointment as Reichs Chancellor and was completed on March 23, with the passing of the Ermächtigungsgesetz (Enabling Act). My German-reading friends may read the full stoy here.

Let the fall of the Weimar Republic be a lesson to us and a warning to recognize and prevent the destruction of freedom in good time. Although the Golden Twenties are long gone, they are still highly topical.

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