LEADER 04071ctm a2200397Ia 4500001 74492 005 20240621152708.0 008 950831t19921993xx rb 000 0 eng d 035 (OCoLC)ocm33067925 035 74492 049 LHMA 040 MHR |beng |erda |cMHR |dOCLCQ |dLHM 090 PN1995.9.W3 |bM66 1992 100 1 Montgomery, Garth Noonan. 245 10 Learning from war-films : |bthe German viewer as historical subject in theories of 'Bildung', mass communication, and propaganda, (1918-1945) / |cby Garth Noonan Montgomery, Jr. 264 0 |c1992, c1993. 300 304 pages 336 text |btxt |2rdacontent 337 unmediated |bn |2rdamedia 338 volume |bnc |2rdacarrier 502 Thesis (Ph. D.)--State University of New York at Buffalo, 1993. 504 Includes bibliographical references (pages 290-304). 520 For Walter Benjamin, Siegfried Kracauer, and other independent leftists in Weimar Germany, popular experience of 'distraction' which mass culture afforded represented a challenge to the cultural values of Germany's educated middle class (the 'Bildungsburgertum'), and a potential threat to political order of the Weimar republic. During the same period, social scientists of other political persuasions (including liberal democrats who supported the republic, and neo-conservatives who opposed it) also evaluated the 'distracted' reception of mass-media commodities; their insights were applied by schools, corporations, and government agencies. This dissertation focuses on the role of 'modern' social science in German historical education, in order to gauge the contribution, before and after 1933, of contemporary analysis of mass culture to the formulation of propaganda theory. While, for most German historians, the Weimar-period popularity of mass-media treatments of the First World War reflected their own marginal influence on the public, teachers at the Prussian 'Central Institute for Education and Instruction' were awarding lucrative tax-breaks to the commercial producers of war films which they recognized as 'artistic' or 'educational'. Based on a reformist pedagogical theory which incorporated social-scientific analysis of the reception of mass media, educational use of 'World War I' films actually weakened support for the republic, serving interchangeably as a supplement and an alternative to political lessons about the democratic state. After the Nazi 'seizure of power', the political functions of the diversion and relaxation afforded by mass culture were acknowledged in the propaganda strategies of Joseph Goebbels. At the same time, conflicts between the Education Ministry and the Nazi Party 'Propaganda Directorate' over the educational use of 'World War' films reflected the calls of social scientists and pedagogical reformers (including former supporters of the Weimar republic) for propaganda strategies which were based on, and which more fully exploited, what they identified as the 'individual' experience of mass culture. The dissertation considers how the response to 'distracted' conditions of mass-media reception as evidence of an on-going crisis in industrial, mass society facilitated the adaptation of these representatives of Germany's 'Bildungsburgertum' to the Nazi regime. 530 Electronic version(s) |bavailable internally at USHMM. 533 Photocopy. |bAnn Arbor, Mich. : |cUMI Dissertation Services, |d2002. |e23 cm. 590 Dissertations and Theses 591 Record updated by Marcive processing 21 June 2024 650 0 Mass media |zGermany |xHistory |y20th century. 650 0 War films |zGermany |xHistory |y20th century. 650 0 Propaganda, German |xHistory |y20th century. 856 41 |uhttp://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=746772081&sid=2&Fmt=6&clientId=54617&RQT=309&VName=PQD |zElectronic version from ProQuest 956 41 |uhttp://dc.ushmm.org/library/bib74492/9317345.pdf |zHosted by USHMM. 994 E0 |bLHM 852 0 |bstacks |hPN1995.9.W3 |iM66 1992 852 |bwww 852 |bebook