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Grosz/Stolzenau Abstract
German Notgeld (1919-23): Exploring the Past to Reframe the Present
Charles R. Jansen, Ph.D. & Sonja M. Hedgepeth, Ph.D.
I. The time of the Great Inflation just after World War I was unpresidented and responses varied enormously. What some felt was desperately needed to properly treat contemporary ills was a poultice -- the assurances of the past, the comfort of distance, the knowledge that as bad as things were, they were worse elsewhere. The imagery and message on Notgeld circulated in the countryside of Stolzenau (1921) laments the avalanche of debts, but offers comfort by using the imagery and verse of cartoonist/humorist Wilhelm Busch. Even the pastoral scene which everyone using the currency would recognize seems to offer a way out. What others believed needed was a more radical cure -- a cold shower, a dose of strong medicine, a sense of how bad things could become everywhere. An image of foreclosure by George Grosz, who documented urban life during the Weimar Republic, suggests that for some there would be no comfort, no way out. These two responses represent the differing perspectives of a Stolzenauer and a Berliner, a country Burgher and a city dweller, the comic and the tragic, the public face of a crisis and its private desperation.
"Foreclosure," ca. 1928.
Pen and ink by George Grosz.
Notgeld from Stolzenau, 1921. Printed in Berlin by August Scherl, Ltd.
(translation) "I can't figure out where in the world, I should get all that gold." -- W. Busch
II. The scope of Germany's difficulties and the dramatic pace of events tax our abilities to understand the Weimar Republic and the experiences of its citizens. To obtain a better grasp, we have often turned to period images. For the Weimar period, Grosz's dissenting, modernist graphics have been the touchstone. Indeed, Günther Anders (1961) has claimed that "Grosz was not a child of the times, but that the period was Grosz's child" (in Lewis, 1971, p.9). In his perspective, the lines are so firmly drawn between the haves and have nots. The Stolzenauers' attention, however, turned to the rhymed couplets and satirical cartoons of Wlihelm Busch who in his works from the era preceding WWI had portrayed "the profound inner conflict, still unresolved today, between safe but repressive authority and the half-stifled yearning for self-assertion [. . . ]" (Arndt, 1982, p. 3). These Notgeld images convey the sense of deprivation which the German people had endured since the late years of the Great War, but in the countryside it seems still possible to lament over a glass of wine. The artist/intellectual George Grosz has become ideological; the Everyperson of Wilhelm Busch has become philosophical.
"The Toads of Capitalism," ca. 1923.
Pen and ink by George Grosz.
Notgeld from Stolzenau, 1921.
Printed in Berlin by August Scherl, Ltd.
(translation) "Abstinence is the only pleasure,
We can derive from these austere measures." -- W. Busch
German Notgeld (1919-23): Exploring the Past to Reframe the Present, (continued from page 2)
III. Differences in perspective are important and by collecting instances of them, a broader truth comes to light. In fact, we may obtain not only a more accurate view of the past, but also a more sensitive instrument to perceive tremors of the future. Was the 19th century glorification of the beer hall recycled in Stolzenau's early 20th centuryNotgeld to mitigate the effects of forced communal efforts under the militarism during and after WWI? Who could foresee that it was precisely in such a German beer hall that Hitler would attempt his overthrow of the government in 1923?
Notgeld from Stolzenau, 1921.
Printed in Berlin by August Scherl, Ltd.
(translation) "Oh! Pure enjoyment cannot be had,
By those who must pay and do not have!" -- W. Busch
"Marloh Now -- What a Knight of the Swastika Wants to become," ca. 1919-23. Pen and ink by George Grosz.
REFERENCES:
Lewis, Beth Irwin (1971). George Grosz. Art and Politics in the Weimar Republic. Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press.
Arndt, Walter (Ed. & Trans., 1982). The Genius of Wilhelm Busch: Comedy of Frustration. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.