ABSTRACT
If modernity, as represented by the industrial city, threatened the nation's demographie existence and connections to nature, then modern culture seemed to threaten the historical roots of the nation. Against this backdrop, the Weimar government and its supporters embraced modernity but failed utterly to provide a new republican iconography.2 As opposed to established icons of the Wihlemine period, modern art and architecture, like Dadaism and the Bauhaus, remained controversial and politically charged. These new cultural forms, as weil as the emergence of modern advertising, commercialism, and rationalization of society, threatened to push time-honored traditions and norms aside. The word 'Weimar' came to symbolize modernity for both supporters and opponents. Indeed, scholars have often labeled this period the 'crisis years of cIassical modernity.'3 Within this context of political, economic, and cultural uncertainty, Rudy Koshar detected a broad societal 'longing for a mythic sense of national history and historical totality,' especially among conservatives and nationalists.4 This chapter charts the evolution ofRothenburg's image and how residents met these new challenges.
