1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910462819803321

Autore

Föllmer Moritz

Titolo

Individuality and modernity in Berlin : self and society from Weimar to the Wall / / Moritz Föllmer [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2013

ISBN

1-139-61108-9

1-107-23764-5

1-139-61294-8

1-139-62224-2

1-283-94324-7

1-139-62596-9

1-139-60928-9

1-139-38097-4

1-139-61666-8

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (ix, 312 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Collana

New studies in European history

Disciplina

943/.155087

Soggetti

Individuality - Germany - Berlin - History - 20th century

Self - Social aspects - Germany - Berlin - History - 20th century

Risk - Social aspects - Germany - Berlin - History - 20th century

Agent (Philosophy) - Social aspects - Germany - Berlin - History - 20th century

Social isolation - Germany - Berlin - History - 20th century

City and town life - Germany - Berlin - History - 20th century

Social change - Germany - Berlin - History - 20th century

Politics and culture - Germany - Berlin - History - 20th century

Berlin (Germany) Social life and customs 20th century

Berlin (Germany) Social conditions 20th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction -- Part I. Weimar Berlin: 1. Risk, isolation and unstable selfhood; 2. Flexibility, authenticity and consumption; 3. Reform, scandal and extremism -- Part II. Nazi Berlin: 4. Redefining legitimate



individuality; 5. Jewish Berliners' ambiguous quest for agency; 6. Heroism, withdrawal and privatist loyalty -- Part III. Post-War and Cold-War Berlin: 7. Defeat, self-help and the dissociation from Nazism; 8. Socialist ambitions and individualist expectations; 9. Anti-totalitarianism, domesticity and ambivalent modernity -- Conclusion.

Sommario/riassunto

Moritz Föllmer traces the history of individuality in Berlin from the late 1920s to the construction of the Berlin Wall in August 1961. The demand to be recognised as an individual was central to metropolitan society, as were the spectres of risk, isolation and loss of agency. This was true under all five regimes of the period, through economic depression, war, occupation and reconstruction. The quest for individuality could put democracy under pressure, as in the Weimar years, and could be satisfied by a dictatorship, as was the case in the Third Reich. It was only in the course of the 1950s, when liberal democracy was able to offer superior opportunities for consumerism, that individuality finally claimed the mantle. Individuality and Modernity in Berlin proposes a fresh perspective on twentieth-century Berlin that will engage readers with an interest in the German metropolis as well as European urban history more broadly.