Weimar-era normative upheaval stripped Germans of cultural buffers against existential terror.

Evidence

In addition, the postwar years of the 1920s and early 1930s were marked not only by destitution but also by upheavals within the sorts of normative structures (e.g., social, moral, and political systems) that might ordinarily provide cultural buffers against terror. The Weimar Republic represented a significant and disconcerting break with traditional top-down governance (Elias, 1996); prewar social and economic arrangements were in flux; new forms of art, music, theater, and literature—considered decadent by many Germans—were flourishing; new relations were emerging between classes, age-groups, and sexes. — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide, 512

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Group violence arises from interacting cultural, situational, and motivational influences, not single causes — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 174; The same existential fear can drive either violence or rescue — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 523; Scapegoating requires large shared frustrations plus a blaming ideology. — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 794 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• The Nazi era and Cold War severed younger Germans from utopian social criticism. #complicates (0.80) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2322
• Nazi rule and restoration alienated postwar Germans from utopian-social criticism #complicates (0.80)
• Economic collapse destroyed social fabric and private life before Nazism’s rise #expands (0.75) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 253