Cultural and Intellectual Trends
ENTERTAINMENT: Propaganda’s best friend
• 1920’s – mass production of radios begin and countries build broadcasting facilities
– Presidents and leaders use it to broadcast speeches and messages
• Full length motion pictures (silent and talkies) began appearing
– By the beginning of WWII, almost half of the people in any country go at last once a week
– Propaganda films are used to support the government
Joseph Goebbels – Hitler’s propaganda minister
-Created a specific film division
-Created both documentaries and popular films
• “Triumph of the Will” – a documentary of the a Nuremberg Rally
– Depicted national socialism
LEISURE (or, what I did during my Summer Vacation)
• The new 8 hour work day left people with free time
• Professional sports gain popularity
• People start taking vacations to beaches and holiday resorts
• Totalitarian states offer activities that help instill their beliefs
– (ex: Strength through Joy): concerts, tours, films, sporting events, and cheap vacations
Art began to reflect people’s beliefs that life didn’t make any sense…so their art didn’t either
Dadaism – life has no purpose
Surrealism – used fantasy, dreams, and nightmares to show the reality beyond reality
German art – folk art that showed the Germans as a strong, healthy, heroic people
OTHER STUFF
• New architecture: modernism
– Clean look, horizontal lines
• New literary style: stream of consciousness
– Shows the innermost thoughts of people
• Hermann Hesse – used Freud and Buddhist ideas in his work
– Admired by German youth
• New physics: uncertainty principal
– Atoms are made of unstable, unpredictable particles
