The focus of this study will be the impact of Neue Sachlichkeit on Zeitoper, specifically its influence upon Hindemith's operatic output. The purpose of this paper is not to.subject these works to detailed musical analysis, but rather to place Hindemith's Zeitopern in historical perspective, examining how they were influenced by and mirrored the aesthetic atmosphere of the Weimar Republic.

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Viktor Ullmann’s opera Der Kaiser von Atlantis, composed in the Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1943-44, has received regular performances since its belated first performance in 1975. Research on this opera has largely been restricted to the confines of Theresienstadt, with limited connections made to the outside world. Nevertheless, when Ullmann’s work is viewed within the artistically evolving context of the interwar period – a formative era in Ullmann’s life – new light is shed on his artistic achievements. This era of change between 1919 and 1930 gave rise to new artistic movements such as Neue Sachlichkeit and produced the genres of Zeitoper, Brechtian Epic Theatre,” and Kabarett. Artists of staged works used their artistic freedom to challenge audiences, most obviously with techniques such as Bertolt Brecht’s “Verfremdungseffekt.” In the freedom of the newly established Republics, political commentary and the representation of contemporary life became the source material for libretti. It is within this era that we find the inspiration and source of Ullmann’s representation of Theresienstadt within Der Kaiser von Atlantis. Indeed, examining the opera within the context of the interwar period expands many elements beyond the representation of Theresienstadt. By investigating the inherent symbolisms within the opera to the spirit of the new Republics, we can re-contextualize the modest but growing place Der Kaiser von Atlantis holds in the operatic repertoire. For it is only by combining these two radically contrasting worlds – the freedoms associated with the artistic experiments in liberal democracy typical of the interwar period and the restrictions of detention in Theresienstadt at the hands of the National Socialists – that a robust understanding of the mastery of defiance and irony that is Der Kaiser von Atlantis becomes possible. / Graduate / 0413 / mbuckton@hotmail.com

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 444-468).

George Grosz's paintings and drawings of Berlin during the Weimar period demonstrate a complex matrix of tensions between nature and the urban experience. In his work, mechanization, sexuality, gender and animality are recurring themes that cue the viewer to the profound anxiety that modernity had unleashed a chaotic force into the city. Using an ecofeminist analysis, I show how the disorder of the city was imagined as a primordial human condition in which a previously disavowed connection to nature was suddenly foregrounded. Though Grosz's renditions of Berlin scenes are ironic, they also revel in the demise of social order. In this thesis, I argue that Grosz's art deploys the conceptual force of unmastered nature as a critical tool, at the same time showing how nature was integrated into the cultural fabric of urban life.

The subject of this thesis is to examine gender roles in the novels Gilgi – eine von uns and Das kunstseidende Mädchen by Irmgard Keun. She was a successful female writer before the Nazi Party took control of Germany in 1933. The findings of this study indicate that Keun novels show a realistic picture of Germany’s men-dominated society in the early 1930s.

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TITLE: The Representation of the "New Woman" on the works of the authors in the Weimarer Republic SUMMARY: The following thesis will give an overview about the political, social and cultural Situation on the time of the Weimarer Republic. The main emphasis gives a report on the concept of "New Woman"; the new social and literary woman type. The analysis on selected works of Irmgard Keun and Vicki Baum will throw light on the figure of this "New Woman". KEYWORDS: Weimarer Republic, "Neue Sachlichkeit", "New Woman", Irmgard Keun: Gilgi - eine von uns (1931), Vicki Baum: Stud. chem. Helene Willfüer (1928)