Gemeinschaft 2020: Community in a time of uncertainty – Sara Karim

As a second year student of Comparative Literature, I launched myself into a series of online conferences. German is my chosen language of study as part of my Comparative Literature degree and so during the Summer of 2020, I seized the much awaited opportunity to attend the online student conference webinar: Gemeinschaft 2020. The English translation of Gemeinschaft is community. Four key speakers engaged in a series of talks, representing several universities and their current research topics. One of the first key speakers, Abby Ralston from King’s College London gave a talk on her research paper on the Evolution of German Women throughout the Weimar Republic. I was captivated to learn from this talk that before the First World War, women were predominantly domesticised and only a select few had jobs as seamstresses. The SPD advocated women’s rights to vote through advertisement in newspapers and publications that sparked the 1895 Movement of Women. In 1914, women would be expected to maintain the home and sustain Germany on the Homefront, as they were often employed in munitions factories and many sought employment as nurses and administrative staff. Despite the strong competence of women in these roles, the female civic duty was ultimately rejected by the Reich which instead felt that women and especially working women, should be assigned to more traditional roles to help promote the traditional family unit. Even though women had their own independent careers, Kaiser Wilhelm made no mention to grant women the right to vote. As a result of this decision, many women felt deceived and therefore developed a growing mistrust of the Reich. Hence, a vast majority of women made petitions and signs; they engaged in protests which included rallies and riots. By 1918, there were riots which spanned across the whole of Germany, from Berlin to Hamburg and even across to Munich.

Indeed, as Abby stated, what was most prominent was in fact the common theme of turbulence: the turbulence of losing the war, the turbulence of loss and destruction and the turbulence of the women’s movement. Finally, on 12^th November, women gained the right to vote in the Weimar Republic. This was following 9^th November 1918, when women could vote which enabled both active and passive engagement in politics. Strikingly, the Nationalversammlung had 37 women members which was a change nevertheless, in comparison to before. However, with that said, male affairs were granted to the male members which were primarily concerned with economics and interaction in the public sphere of society. Yet, female members were restricted to domestic roles that were related to the private sphere and the private sphere only. From 1922, female lawyers and judges emerged and in 1924, women were finally granted the minimum working wage and even in 1927, more support was offered for working mothers. In spite of the ‘Turbulent Era’, through these series of laws, women had access to increased stability more now, ever than before.

Although these measures were helpful to some women, other women faced a difficulty to go back to work as their health had deteriorated through hours of arduous manual labour in factories. Therefore, women gained prominence, but they were also left behind despite their contributions. Progress was limited since on 8^th November 1918, restrictions were placed on where women were allowed to work. These new restrictions included the decree that women who had to work could go to work, yet only when there were shortages of workers and where they were not competing against men. Thus, the Reichsregierung halted the progression of women on the whole. It was fascinating to learn that in contradiction to the progressive measures that granted women the right to vote, in 1918, employers engaged in enforced demobilisation which meant that employers could dismiss women. There was indeed polarisation since women in administrative jobs were more likely to keep their jobs. Most notably, Bosch dismissed 70% of their women workers in factories but also decided to keep their administrative staff. Furthermore, childcare facilities were restricted compared to the increased childcare provisions in divided Germany. Inevitably, I learnt that a distinction was created. Women had a severe lack of representation in the public sphere of politics and government. It is interesting to consider that because women had a greater understanding of female domestic affairs, they were able to impart a greater level of knowledge on domestic affairs to other women and they were able to raise the awareness of women’s rights too. Undeniably though, progression for women stagnated in the Weimar Republic but what is unquestionable is the strength and resilience that women showed.

The next talk was by Dieuwe Beersma from the University of Amsterdam, whose topic was focused on Walter Rathenau. From this talk, I reflected on the fact that Walter Rathenau is regarded as one of the most important industrialists of the Weimar Republic. His father was also an industrialist as well. At the time, there were many large influential industrial families in the Weimar Republic such as Siemens. During Rathenau’s university student years, he set up a neo-conservative journal called Zukunft (‘future’) that went against the Kaiser-Reich. For Rathenau was concerned that Germany would be destroyed by industrialism and materialism and had an aversion towards the English and Russian economic models at the time. Most crucially, Rathenau remained a cultural pessimist and he also remained loyal to Germany and to the German Geist (‘spirit’). Rathenau, however, railed against the notion to allow women to work and become independent. On the other hand, Walter Rathenau strongly believed in democracy and became the Foreign Minister of Germany. He even emphasised the model of collectivisation. His position as Foreign Minister enabled him to promote his aim of an independent Germany following the Apollo Treaty. This was aided by the fact that he had good relations with the Chancellor during that time period. To my delight, there was an opportunity for the audience to ask questions. I asked a question to Dieuwe Beersma. The question I asked Dieuwe Beersma was ‘What in your opinion was Walter Rathenau’s greatest achievement?’ In response to my question, Dieuwe Beersma answered that in his opinion, Rathenau’s greatest achievement was his influence as a cultural pessimist and as a collectivist, as he is said to have influenced Lenin’s collectivisation.

The most crucial aspect that I learnt from this conference was that ‘eine Gemeinschaft ist eine Gruppe von Personen, die sich miteinander verbunden fühlen’ from a speaker from the University of Benin. In essence, a community is a group of people that feel connected with each other.

Finally, the other two talks featured the common theme of community during divided Germany. Renske de Vries from the University of Amsterdam, spoke about the journeys undertaken by the Akademie der Künste Berlin, Academy of Arts, Berlin, previously referred to as two separate institutions, the Akademie der Künste West, Academy of Arts, West Germany and the Akademie der Künste Ost, Academy of Arts, East Germany. These two art institutions were highly renowned and had the goal to create a successful and active community of artists which was not disturbed by the encroaching political interference. To the two art academies, the prospect of a united Germany was initially unfavourable as both institutions felt that their distinctiveness from each other was what made them innovative. Yet, eventually, with the growing urge of a united Germany, the Akademie der Künste Ost was dissolved and only a selected few artists from the Academy of Arts, East Germany, were permitted to join the already established Academy of Arts, West Germany. It was tragic to hear that many artists who shifted from East Germany to West Germany faced barriers of stereotypes imposed upon them as being regarded as ‘dissident artists’ and some were ostracised in the communities in which they lived. However, with the constant desire to innovate, the Akademie der Künste West adopted artists from East Germany into local West German communities and more importantly, the Akademie der Künste West gained an increased understanding of East German art, voices and perspectives. I was amazed upon having discovered from Renske that on 20^th December 1993, both academic art institutions were reunited and their freedom to promote their own image of community is still preserved even today.

Following on from this thought-provoking talk, the last speaker I listened to was Carolina Gironés-Fraile, a Masters Student of German Studies from Durham University. Carolina’s presentation was entirely spoken in German and hence it was great for me to learn more German vocabulary! Two classes of citizens during Germany’s division were mentioned which involved those who had moved to West Germany, who were engaged in the inescapable ‘Nostalgie’ of their communities in East Germany. German citizens in East Germany faced a larger degree of unemployment and some even found it difficult to adapt to West German Culture, as they still may have had the desire to maintain the GDR image. Yet, with reference to the film ‘Goodbye Lenin!’, Carolina significantly mentioned that out of this Nostalgie (nostalgia), a ‘neue Identität’ (a new identity) was formed as the protagonist Alex ‘geschafft eine neue Realität’ (created a new reality) as he recreates Western German products into Eastern German products for his mother. Hence, the protagonist in this film transforms even his vision of a reunited German community, which takes note of the generational divide in opinion at the time.

Overall, on reflection, it became clear to me that Gemeinschaft, community, is still vital for the unity of Germany and its neighbouring countries too. Gemeinschaft, applies not only to Art and History, Gemeinschaft also applies to understanding the literatures, films and the cultures of communities too. Even though these conferences were online and virtual during the unpredictable coronavirus pandemic, I felt all the more included in an active community alive with research projects that shared a passion for German Language, Literature, History and Culture!