Neue Sachlichkeit’s cool tone was politically committed, not neutral

Evidence

Neue Sachlichkeit art adopted a cool, impersonal tone. This did not imply the adoption of a neutral stance. Brecht wrote in 1927: ‘It strikes me that those plays of this period that are of any use spring from their authors’ astonishment at the things that happen in life. Our wish to put them straight, to create precedents and found a tradition of overcoming difficulties, gives rise to the plays of a period that will be filled with the rush of humanity to the big cities.’ — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 251

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies Neue Sachlichkeit — a cool impersonal artistic tone that still served revolutionary politics, contradicting the usual reading of impersonality as detachment.
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 251