About this episode
The episode explores the cultural and historical implications of German art and music during the twentieth century, focusing on the Weimar Republic and Nazi policies.
What can an art exhibition, a concert hall and Classical town tell us about twentieth century German history? On Radio 4's weekly discussion programme, setting the cultural agenda every Monday, Samira Ahmed leads a conversation exploring what inter-war Weimar, the Nazi's obsession with so-called 'degenerate art' and the programming of German music at the Wigmore Hall in London reveal about the course of German history and our responses to it. Katja Hoyer's last book, Beyond the Wall was a history of East Germany which concentrated on the consequences the Nazi rule and the Second World War. Now the Anglo-German Historian has turned her attention to Weimar, the town that gave its name to the ambitious republic whose failure paved the way to Nazism. Looking at the stories of a series of varied individuals, she asks how a nation that prided itself on its culture and civility enabled Nazism and why it haunts us to this day because we fear a repeat. Weimar: Life on the Edge of Catastrophe is BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week for a fortnight. Art historian John-Paul Stonard's new book is The Worst Exhibition in the World: Degenerate Art, 1937. The exhibition of Entartete Kunst ('degenerate…
People in this episode
Host: Samira Ahmed
Guest: Katja Hoyer
Topics covered
- German history
- Weimar Republic
- Nazi art policies
- cultural responses
- degenerate art
- historical consequences
Keywords
- German history
- Weimar Republic
- Nazi art
- degenerate art
- cultural history
- Katja Hoyer
- Samira Ahmed
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: Beyond the Wall, Weimar: Life on the Edge of Catastrophe, The Worst Exhibition in the World: Degenerate Art, 1937
Places: Germany, East Germany, Wigmore Hall, Munich
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