Photography and the Politics of Hope in the Weimar Republic: Albert Renger-Patzsch, Willy Römer, and the Contest for the Future
Date
2025
Authors
Suderman, Garrett
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Publisher
University Of Victoria
Abstract
In the Weimar Republic, hope was an important political category used by both the German left and right to organize and direct their political visions: following the constitution of the “new Germany,” the left’s hope manifested in new cultural forms, technologies, and democratic politics while the far-right placed its hope in the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. In the cases of both the German left and right, hope was a response to the First World War; specifically, hope allowed Germany to reimagine political and cultural life following its humiliation in the treaty of Versailles. This political transformation coincided with the flourishing of photography.
My project compares the work of two photographers, Albert Renger Patzsch (1897-1966) of the Neue Sachlichkeit movement and Willy Römer (1887-1979), a famous street photographer. In my analysis, I consider the different ways each photographer contributed to discourses of hope and the reimagining of Germany's cultural, political, and social future(s) during the traumatic interwar period.
Description
Keywords
photography, hope, Weimar Republic, benjamin, brecht, politics