Eric D. Weitz (1953–2021) was Distinguished Professor of History at City College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. He was also the author of A World Divided: The Global Struggle for Human Rights in the Age of Nation-States; A Century of Genocide: Utopias of Race and Nation; and Creating German Communism, 1890–1990: From Popular Protests to Socialist State (all Princeton).
The definitive history of Weimar politics, culture, and society
A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice
A Financial Times Best Book of the Year
Thoroughly up-to-date, skillfully written, and strikingly illustrated, Weimar Germany brings to life an era of unmatched creativity in the twentieth century-one whose influence and inspiration still resonate today. Eric Weitz has written the authoritative history that this fascinating and complex period deserves, and he illuminates the uniquely progressive achievements and even greater promise of the Weimar Republic. Weitz reveals how Germans rose from the turbulence and defeat of World War I and revolution to forge democratic institutions and make Berlin a world capital of avant-garde art. He explores the period's groundbreaking cultural creativity, from architecture and theater, to the new field of "sexology"-and presents richly detailed portraits of some of the Weimar's greatest figures. Weimar Germany also shows that beneath this glossy veneer lay political turmoil that ultimately led to the demise of the republic and the rise of the radical Right. Yet for decades after, the Weimar period continued to powerfully influence contemporary art, urban design, and intellectual life-from Tokyo to Ankara, and Brasilia to New York. Featuring a new preface, this comprehensive and compelling book demonstrates why Weimar is an example of all that is liberating and all that can go wrong in a democracy. "Weitz captures Weimar's contradictions very well, its modernity and the adversaries of that modernity."---Robert Gerwarth, Five Books "Weitz effortlessly blends politics and economics, philosophy and literature, art and architecture in a gripping portrait of a culture whose pathology was exceeded only by its creativity. . . . This is history at its best." -Josef Joffe, publisher and editor of Die Zeit and fellow of the Hoover Institution, Stanford University "Excellent and splendidly illustrated. . . . [A] superb introduction. . . . probably the best available." -Eric Hobsbawm, London Review of Books "Weimar Germany is elegantly written, generously illustrated and never less than informative. It is also history with attitude." -Peter Graves, Times Literary Supplement "[Weitz] bring[s] to bear his uncommon erudition and a prose style that is at once rigorous, wonderfully animated, and distinguished by breathtaking clarity." -Noah Isenberg, Bookforum
