'Trash,' Censorship, and National Identity in Early Twentieth-Century Germany

A legal and cultural history of censorship, youth protection, and national identity in early twentieth-century Germany.

Kara L. Ritzheimer (Author)

9781107132047, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 24 June 2016

326 pages
23.6 x 16 x 2.2 cm, 0.62 kg

'… this is a wellwritten and researched work that makes several important contributions to our understanding of German history in the early twentieth century.' Jason Phillips, European History Quarterly

Convinced that sexual immorality and unstable gender norms were endangering national recovery after World War One, German lawmakers drafted a constitution in 1919 legalizing the censorship of movies and pulp fiction, and prioritizing social rights over individual rights. These provisions enabled legislations to adopt two national censorship laws intended to regulate the movie industry and retail trade in pulp fiction. Both laws had their ideological origins in grass-roots anti-'trash' campaigns inspired by early encounters with commercial mass culture and Germany's federalist structure. Before the war, activists characterized censorship as a form of youth protection. Afterwards, they described it as a form of social welfare. Local activists and authorities enforcing the decisions of federal censors made censorship familiar and respectable even as these laws became a lightning rod for criticism of the young republic. Nazi leaders subsequently refashioned anti-'trash' rhetoric to justify the stringent censorship regime they imposed on Germany.

Introduction: censorship in the Rechtsstaat, censorship in the Sozialstaat
1. Buffalo Bill in Germany: regional encounters with commercial culture before WWI
2. Federalism and censorship: regulating commercial fiction and movies in Imperial Germany
3. Censorship in the Rechtsstaat: anti-'trash' rhetoric and national identity in Imperial Germany
4. Censorship and 'trash' in wartime Germany
5. Censorship in the Sozialstaat: Weimar's film and publications laws
6. Censorship, morality, and national identity in Weimar Germany
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Ethical issues: censorship [JFMD], Popular culture [JFCA], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW]