1991 Volume 1991 Issue 96 Pages 69-84,L10
The article seeks to demonstrate the wide range influence of the principles of cultural nation-building in Weimar Germany. Cultural nation-building is understood as a set of administrative measures designed to build a ‘nation’ in Germany, held to be ‘split and torn’ by class struggles and pressures from abroad, by means of the cultural traditions as manifested in classical literature and art. These principles were laid down in the Weimar Constitution of 1919 (dealt with in section 2); and they were supported by the professional organizations of lower middle class artisans (section 3), the Social Democrat based popular education movement (section 4), and various intellectuals (section 5).
Hence, while it has always been known that nation-building was an issue argued for by the right, it becomes clear that the issue received wide support also in the center and the moderate left. Therefore, the conclusion seems safe that the isolationist tendencies in Weimar Germany (as forming the basis for Nation Socialism) resulted from a general current in political life.
