This study interprets debates within the Weimar literary Left over the relation of literature
to politics. The historical key to these debates was the German revolution of 1918-1919 and the
idea of Bolshevism i.e. a symbolic allegiance to the only successful revolutionary movement of
1917-1920. In covering the arguments of figures like G. Grosz W. Herzfelde E. Piscator J.
Becher A. Döblin B. Brecht and W. Benjamin it demonstrates the great ambivalence and
historical specificity of the stances writers adopted in the Twenties over the issue of
political allegiance to Marxism. Thus the work contributes to a historical appreciation of the
mentality of the Weimar Republic and especially of Weimar Culture. But its concerns extend
beyond Weimar to the larger question of the relation of intellectuals to politics in the
twentieth century.
