Die Weltbuhne

   a Berlin* weekly, identified with neo-Kantian idealism, that embraced the Left's quest for a socialism stripped of mundane materialism. Established in 1907 by Siegfried Jacobsohn* as Die Schaubühne, it was among Berlin's leading theatrical publications by 1912. While its attention remained focused until World War I on the arts, it was already cultivating an interest in politics before 1914. Increasingly absorbed by public issues, Jacobsohn changed the title in April 1918. Thereafter, its writers unveiled such sensational stories as Weimar's illegal rearmament, the creation of a Black Reichswehr,* and the antirepublican bias of the judiciary. Not surprisingly, Weltbuhne was repeatedly engaged in litigation. Its circulation rose, however, from 1,200 in 1917 to 20,000 in the early 1930s.

   Jacobsohn edited Weltbuhne until his death in 1926. His place was briefly assumed by Kurt Tucholsky,* its premier author, but Carl von Ossietzky* was editor during 1927-1933 (during Ossietzky's 1932 imprisonment, Hellmut von Gerlach* edited the journal). The members of its team of contributors—for example, Max Alsberg,* Alfred Döblin,* Lion Feuchtwanger,* Kurt Hiller,* Erich Kastner,* Heinrich Mann,* Walter Mehring,* Rene Schickele,* Helene Stocker,* Ernst Toller,* and Arnold Zweig*—were largely of Jewish origin. Both editors and writers espoused sexual equality, the lifting of restraints on human rights (including homosexuality and abortion), a purge of the judiciary and bureaucracy, and pacifism. But their idealism made them poor judges of reality. For example, with Kantian enthusiasm, Weltbuhne produced a manifesto in November 1918 demanding the linking of moral ideals with Marxism and the creation of a "council of the wise" composed of an unelected elite possessed of an "ethical power of will." The Workers' and Soldiers' Councils* ignored such appeals.

   Although the Weltbuhne crowd was committed to socialist unity, it subverted that unity's achievement. Having formed a political affinity with the USPD, Weltbuhne was politically estranged when a majority of the USPD fused with the KPD at the end of 1920; it rejected the notion of a proletarian dictatorship. Simultaneously, it was contemptuous of the SPD, branding Friedrich Ebert* a traitor. Its naivete was exemplified in Ossietzky's claim that Weimar was a "state without an idea, having a permanent case of bad conscience" and Hiller's peculiar assertion that pragmatism is the substitution of fact collecting for spec-ulation. Finally, its inability to analyze critical issues was manifested when it endorsed Ernst Thalmann* in the 1932 presidential elections; until this point it had ridiculed the Marxist orthodoxy adopted by Thalmann.

   Weltbuhne discounted Hitler* until it was too late, viewing Alfred Hugen-berg*—villain of monopoly capitalism—as more dangerous to Germany's fu-ture. George Mosse maintained that its writers were critics par excellence; as such, they could only be enemies of the Republic. Rather than make constructive proposals for a new society, they focused on censuring remnants of the old Kaiserreich. On 7 March 1933 the journal's offices were seized by the SA.* At the infamous book burning of 11 May 1933, the Nazis enumerated the crimes of fifteen authors; thirteen had contributed to Weltbuhne.

   REFERENCES:Deak, Weimar Germany's Left-Wing Intellectuals; George Mosse, German Jews beyond Judaism and Germans and Jews; Wurgaft, Activists.