Theses and Dissertations Collection

Abstract:

The increased anxiety over blurred gender roles led to feelings of a national moral decline in Weimar Germany. Germany’s defeat in World War I was the catalyst for this revaluation and ultimate re-entrenchment of traditional gender roles. The Verwilderung der Sitten (Degeneration of Morals) debate played out in the economic, political, social and cultural realms. The majority of Germans understood their culture and values within the cultural reflectors of the time-literature, art, fashion, the press and film. These mediums offer a unique glimpse into how contemporaries understood the Verwilderung der Sitten debate. I use five tropes to demonstrate the preoccupation with changing gender roles as a symbol for moral degeneration or regeneration in Weimar Germany. The New Woman, the Weimar Prostitute and the Hysterical Veteran symbolize the degenerate, defeated, emasculated Germany because they all three transgress established gender roles. The Verwilderung der Sitten debate also included two figures of regeneration whom represented traditional gender roles. The Nietzschean Soldier and German Mother offered a cure to the changing gender roles and suspect morality through their adherence to conventional morality.