Jochen Hung - Böcker

Focusing on the fate of a Berlin-based newspaper during the 1920s and 1930s, Moderate Modernity: The Newspaper Tempo and the Transformation of Weimar Democracy chronicles the transformation of a vibrant and liberal society into an oppressive and authoritarian dictatorship. Tempo proclaimed itself as “Germany’s most modern newspaper” and attempted to capture the spirit of Weimar Berlin, giving a voice to a forward-looking generation that had grown up under the Weimar Republic’s new democratic order. The newspaper celebrated modern technology, spectator sports, and American consumer products, constructing an optimistic vision of Germany’s future as a liberal consumer society anchored in Western values.The newspaper’s idea of a modern, democratic Germany was undermined by the political and economic crises that hit Germany at the beginning of the 1930s. The way the newspaper described German democracy changed under these pressures. Flappers, American fridges, and modern music—the things that Tempo had once marshalled as representatives of a German future—were now rejected by the newspaper as emblems of a bygone age. The changes in Tempo’s vision of Germany’s future show that descriptions of Weimar politics as a standoff between upright democrats and rabid extremists do not do justice to the historical complexity of the period. Rather, we need to accept the Nazis as a lethal product of a German democracy itself. The history of Tempo teaches us how liberal democracies can create and nurture their own worst enemies.

This volume explores the changing field of cultural history to map out its new developments and future directions, covering major themes such as environment, (de)colonization, digitization, knowledge, heritage and embodied identity. After the rise of the ‘new cultural history’ in the 1980s, the field of cultural history is once again undergoing a time of change. This collection discusses and explains these changes, highlighting new themes from disability and race to technology and animals, and shows how the field has become increasingly entangled with other disciplines such as gender studies, science and technology studies, and critical heritage studies. Featuring an international team of experts working in cultural history today, Cultural History for a Changing World is an indispensable guide to the field.Each chapter historicizes and problematizes their topics, gives an overview of the different reactions within the field, and offers an outlook about future avenues and opportunities of research the respective topic offers. Introducing relevant case studies drawn from their own research, the authors show how these new approaches can work in practice. Also highlighting the opportunities offered by new approaches such as decolonial, environmental and digital methodologies, Cultural History for a Changing World sets out how this field has been adapting to, and sometimes instigating, shifts in society, and demonstrates how global cultural, social, political and economic changes are affecting the theories, methods and practices of cultural historians.