SOURCE: Hanser, Richard. “Paradoxes of Weimar.” New Leader, no. 3 (17 February 1969): 24–26.

In the following excerpt, Hanser argues that Gay neglects important elements of his subject in Weimar Culture and fails to effectively probe the heart of Weimar society.

There was something terribly wrong with Weimar right from the start. Ben Hecht, then a foreign correspondent, observed the birth trauma of the Republic and cabled his managing editor: “Germany is having a nervous breakdown. There is nothing sane to report.” Leo Lania, another eyewitness chronicler of the period, wrote: “Days of madness had come to Germany.” Over and over, observers noted this psychotic strain in the new Republic. “There Is Something Frightful In Our Midst,” read a key subtitle in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, which appeared early in 1920, before anyone had ever heard of Adolf Hitler. And, looking back, George Grosz wrote: “Those were fantastic times. … The period seems...