Editing Weimar culture (section)

==Social environment==
By 1919, an influx of labor had migrated to [[Berlin]] turning it into a fertile ground for the modern arts and sciences, leading to booms in trade, communications and construction. A trend that had begun before the Great War was given powerful impetus by fall of the Kaiser and royal power. In response to the shortage of pre-war accommodation and housing, [[tenements]] were built not far from the Kaiser's Stadtschloss and other majestic structures erected in honor of former nobles. Average people began using their backyards and basements to run small shops, restaurants, and workshops. Commerce expanded rapidly, and included the establishment of Berlin's first department stores, prior to World War I. An "urban petty [[bourgeoisie]]" along with a growing middle class grew and flourished in wholesale commerce, retail trade, factories and crafts.<ref>Schrader, Barbel. "The 'Golden' Twenties: Art and Literature in the Weimar Republic". Yale University Press, 1988, p.25-27.</ref>
[[File:Een rijtje danseressen uit de revue (dans-girls) uit Berlijn, Duitsland 1927, SFA001018666.jpg|thumb|Dancers in Berlin in 1927]]
Types of employment were becoming more modern, shifting gradually but noticeably towards industry and services. Before [[World War I]], in 1907, 54.9% of German workers were manual labourers. This dropped to 50.1% by 1925. Office workers, managers, and bureaucrats increased their share of the labour market from 10.3% to 17% over the same period. Germany was slowly becoming more urban and middle class. Still, by 1925, only a third of Germans lived in large cities; the other two-thirds of the population lived in the smaller towns or in rural areas.<ref>{{cite book|last=Peukert|first=Detlev|title=The Weimar Republic: the crisis of classical modernity|year=1993|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=978-0-8090-1556-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/weimarrepublic00detl/page/10 10]|url=https://archive.org/details/weimarrepublic00detl/page/10}}</ref> The total population of Germany rose from 62.4 million in 1920 to 65.2 million in 1933.<ref>{{cite book|last=Peukert|first=Detlev|title=The Weimar Republic: the crisis of classical modernity|year=1993|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=978-0-8090-1556-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/weimarrepublic00detl/page/7 7]|url=https://archive.org/details/weimarrepublic00detl/page/7}}</ref>

The [[German Empire|Wilhelminian]] values were further discredited as a consequence of [[World War I]] and the subsequent inflation, since the new youth generation saw no point in saving for marriage in such conditions, and preferred instead to spend and enjoy.<ref name="ThompsonB">Bruce Thompson, University of California, Santa Cruz, [http://media.ucsc.edu/classes/thompson/weimar.html lecture on WEIMAR CULTURE/KAFKA'S PRAGUE]</ref> According to cultural historian Bruce Thompson, the Fritz Lang movie ''[[Dr. Mabuse the Gambler]]'' (1922) captures Berlin's postwar mood:<ref name="ThompsonB"/> {{quote| The film moves from the world of the slums to the world of the stock exchange and then to the cabarets and nightclubs–and everywhere chaos reigns, authority is discredited, power is mad and uncontrollable, wealth inseparable from crime.}}

Politically and economically, the nation was struggling with the terms and reparations imposed by the [[Treaty of Versailles]] (1919) that ended [[World War I]] and endured punishing levels of inflation.
<gallery>
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R38586, Berlin, Essen für bedürftige Kinder.jpg|Children being fed by a soup kitchen, 1924
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-B0527-0001-772, Berlin, Friseur-Salon, Angebot für Arbeitslose.jpg|A man reads a sign advertising "Attention, Unemployed, Haircut 40 pfennigs, Shave 15 pfennigs", 1927
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-09249-0013, Berlin, alte Frau sammelt Abfälle.jpg|An elderly woman gathers vegetable waste tossed from a vegetable seller's wagon for her lunch, 1923
File:Lesser Ury Dame im Café.jpg|Sketch of a woman in a café by [[Lesser Ury]] for a Berlin newspaper, 1925
</gallery>