one of the things that brought up this question was a nephew was studying Germany for a history class and the rise of the Nazis was discussed and one of the major points was after they lost and the empire fell there was a loss of morality among the younger germans and they flocked to the “strong” morality he represented
and then there was things like “cabaret” … and a documentary I have forgotten the name of I seen on pbs that basically makes post war Germany sound like it would fo gave Bangkok a run for its money and won
One example given was that one could go to junior/high schools during pe when the kids ran around in skimpy outfits and pick one and a official would collect a note with a few bills and later would come a note to the boy/or girl and they’d be excused … there were others…
So was it mostly true exaggerated … or just propaganda?
That sounds like a pretty sketchy approach to history…!
There was economic and political turmoil as a result of the war, with a substantial part of the population not actually accepting the principles, let alone the specific set-up, of the Weimar constitution, whether from a conservative/nationalist/royalist point of view or from a left-to-Communist point of view.
There was social and intellectual ferment, and an emerging “free love” culture in certain circles. Whether there was organised sexual abuse in schools in the way you describe, I have no idea, but if there was it would hardly have been common, nor officially tolerated.
It really wasn’t all that different from culture in the US in the time. New York City had the same sort of culture and people at the time were tsk tsking about the degeneration of youth. You can see some of the same type of “degenerate” culture in speakeasies and clubs of the time. And, of course, people were scandalized at the sexual freedom of American youth, whose access to automobiles gave them unprecedented freedom.
The 1920s was a time of economic boom, as well as one of younger people breaking away from the constraints of the past.
Amateur student of Weimar culture and politics here. I recommend Peter Jelavich’s Berlin Cabaret on this topic - he connects the cabaret to larger trends in the arts, sexuality, and politics. And has cool pictures.
Some of Weimar’s “den of iniquity” reputation may be due to the Nazis’ demonization of Weimar’s liberal attitudes on sexuality, aesthetic innovation - and, of course, race. The contrast with the ultra-hygienic, rules-bound Nazi culture may exaggerate our perception of how “out-there” things were in the Weimar period.
As RealityChuck noted, the 1920s were a revolutionary time all over Europe and the US. Sexuality was no exception. Think Josephine Baker/Folies Bergere, androgynous fashion for women, or Mae West.
A lot of Weimar art was intensely satirical (think Brecht/Weill, George Grosz, but also pop culture like cabaret songs/performances). Thus, it exaggerated lots of things, including its own libertinism, and definitely set out to shock the prudes.
The specific claim of sexual abuse in a school doesn’t seem implausible as something that happened, perhaps even fairly often (I mean, once is often enough) - sexual abuse of children in school and other institutional settings still happens, sometimes even in an organized way. But I’m sure wouldn’t have been tolerated by society at large; they weren’t that different from us, or the people who came before them. As a shameful secret, even if relatively widely held? Sure, it’s plausible, but not uniquely so because it happened in Weimar Germany. (There’s an Orwell essay on his boarding school experiences that deals with the weird sexual dynamics you saw in those places, but I can’t remember the title.)
Since the OP brought up Cabaret, may I suggest reading its source material, Isherwood’s Goodbye to Berlin? Isherwood is an interesting source because he’s an outsider who nonetheless feels quite at home. Also, over all the freedom and excitement hangs an atmosphere of repression, and that’s not just the Nazis - it’s the same widely held traditional attitudes we haven’t shed today.
