Overview

(Re)Centring the Weimar Republic explores how centrist German politicians and intellectuals sought to foster stability and cooperation during the interwar period. In contrast to the persistent image of a democracy ""hollowed out"" by divisiveness and political extremism, this book offers a new perspective on the Republic's efforts to define and hold an ambitious and productive middle ground. Leading scholars and cultural practitioners from the fields of history, German studies, philosophy, literary studies, and music document the progressive activities of the Weimar Republic's ""centre"" to answer the question: how can political centrism employ social, cultural, and democratic institutions to resist polarization and extremism? This book's three sections reveal how key thinkers worked to balance pluralism and national identity, how politicians struggled to hold centrist positions across right-leaning, centrist, and left-leaning parties, and how contemporary culture today interprets those efforts for audiences in the press, the museum, and the concert hall. offers a historical touchstone for evaluating liberal democracy pushed to its limits and the multipartisan efforts to reinforce its principles.

Full Product Details

Author:   Katharina Clausius ,  Claudia Clausius
Publisher:   University of Toronto Press
Imprint:   University of Toronto Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.90cm , Height: 2.20cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.540kg
ISBN:  

9781487560089

ISBN 10:   1487560087
Pages:   304
Publication Date:   03 March 2026
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Not yet available, will be POD  
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Table of Contents

Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: Weimar’s Political Centrisms Katharina Clausius Part I – Individual and Collective Positioning 1. Helmuth Plessner and the Ex-Centric Culture of the Weimar Republic Howard Pollack-Milgate 2. Weimar: The Reading Republic Kerstin Barndt 3. Minefield in the Centre: Berlin Politics and the Sklarek Affair (1929) Tom Saunders Part II – Party Centrists and Extremists 4. Hollowing Out the Political Centre: Purging Parliamentarians and the Waning of the Weimar Republic James McSpadden 5. When the Centre Gives: The Balance of a Core Weltanschauung and Outside Pressure to Sustain the German Centre Party, 1925–1930 Martin Menke 6. (Re)Centring the Proletariat in Weimar Communist Politics: Karl Korsch’s Struggle in the Ultra-Left Marie-Josée Lavallée Part III – (Re)Centring Weimar Today 7. Analyzing German Mainstream Media Coverage: Weimar in the News (2007–2019) Jill Suzanne Smith, Fernando Nascimento, Barbara Levergood 8. Exhibiting Democracy: On Putting the Weimar Republic into a Museum Peter C. Caldwell 9. Resounding Weimar’s Cultural Legacy Commentary and Interview with Ian Wekwerth and Johannes Ernst List of Contributors Index

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Author Information

Katharina Clausius is an associate professor of comparative literature and intermedial studies at the Université de Montréal. Claudia Clausius is an associate professor of English at King’s University College/Western University.

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