This is a richly illustrated history of art, politics and “Zeitgeist” generally of the endlessly fascinating Weimar period in Europe from 1918-1933. Germany, the author explains, is at the heart of this story. He wants to explain a particular constructive vision:

“ . . . a new realism that sought methods of dealing both with real subjects and with real human needs, a sharply critical view of existing society and individuals, and a determination to master new media and discover new collective approaches to the communication of artistic concepts.”

He labels it “a new development of that mighty European renaissance in the arts that can be said to have begun with the French Fauves in 1905.”

But the productivity of the Weimar period, he argues, can be attributed mostly to the younger generation, those born no earlier than 1893. They were also the group most affected when the world war broke out. It was not only the shocks of the war experience that shaped them, but the Russian and German revolutions, all of which contributed to the transformation of art. For the few years of the Weimar period, the author argues, the arts of the European avant-garde began to have “an audience, a function, a unity, a vital core.”

That is, the “hateful pressures, largely unique to Germany” gave these young artists an uncompromising sense of urgency which was “often electrifying.”

He then describes in detail what made this period so unique, and the lessons we might take away from it in our polarized world today. ( )