Introduction: From Weimar to the Cold War

As the Cold War order in Europe crystallized in the late 1940s and divided Germany into two antagonistic blocs, few periods suffered a worse reputation than the Weimar era. Across the communist-capitalist divide, politicians and thinkers looked at the republic’s violent years as the ultimate negative model for their own vision. After the National Socialist catastrophe, they viewed Weimar as a disastrous political and cultural experiment whose repetition must be avoided at all costs. In West Germany (or the Federal Republic of Germany, FRG), the catchphrase “Bonn is not Weimar” became so popular that it appeared in election campaigns.1 Yet for all the rhetorical efforts to distance the postwar era from the turmoil of the 1920s, long lines of continuities connected the two periods. Social theories, artistic modes, and political concepts that survived the Third Reich and total war left deep imprints on the Cold War imagination. The articles in this special issue explore these hidden yet crucial connections. They show how Weimar’s legacy was far richer and more complex than its use as a cautionary tale of violence, unstable politics, and turmoil would suggest. Historians have long noted that the horrific devastation wrought by World War II, the Third Reich’s brutal collapse, and the far-reaching efforts of the Allies’ occupations did not mark a caesura in German politics and culture. Even though both East and West Germans enthusiastically embraced the