Dance in the 20th and 21st Centuries

21st Century

Throughout all of Germany, there is a wide variety of dancing happening.  There are many styles of dances from all genres.  Dance is rooted deep within German Culture.  Modern dance is widely embraced in Germany, but also traditional.  Some of the main types of traditional dance in Germany are polka and waltz.  There are many different dance styles, and usually depending on the age group of who dances to that style.  Younger age groups usually dance to modern dance style like Techno and Hip Hop, while the older generations stick with more traditional dance styles like Folk.  Ballet is another important dance in the German Culture. There are many ballet companies located in Germany.   

Famous German Dancers/Companies

Philippina “Pina” Bausch is a famous German dancer, choreographer, dance teacher and ballet director.   She also created the company Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch that performs internationally.

 Susanna Linke is another famous German dancer and choreographer.  She started dancing at the age of 20.  She started taking dance lessons at the Mary Wigman Studio in Berlin.  She also worked Pina Bausch. 

Popstars Dance Company is a dance team.  It consists of five members, and all the members achieved success as an individual dancer before joining together.   Some of the genres they preform to are pop and hip hop.   The members of the group are, Aziz Kruezi, Raik Preetz, Vika Ljascenko, Darren Drake Baldric, and Armin Nezirevic. 

20th Century

German dance took a very different turn in the twentieth century. It is now looked highly upon by the world as a good example of modern art form. People even look at it as a good expression or World War II. German dance has also incorporated politics and their modern ways of living into their dance styles.
              The dance started to change in the 1920's and 1930's. It was not just an experiment anymore, it was now becoming very independent and its own way of living. However, during the World War II it completely disappeared. Even after the second World War it took awhile for German music to return to its independence, or even to come back into existence. The dance did not return until about the 1970's and 1980's. When dance returned to the German culture it was now taking place in dance theater.
              There was a very big significance between the art of dance before World War II and after World War II. Mary Wigman and Pina Bausch were two of Germany's main choreographers who helped change the way of dance in the late twentieth century. They focused on the difference between movement and concepts and had their dancers do the same as them.
               Dance has come a very long way in Germany and is looked on as an excellent art for not just by the country of Germany, but by the entire world.


















Sources:
http://bezalel.secured.co.il/zope/home/en/1275256707/1275784948

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pina_Bausch

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popstars_Dance_Company

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susanne_Linke

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/231186/Germany/58070/Music-and-dance

Theater in the 20th and 21st Centuries

20^th Century Theater in Germany

In the early decades of the 20^th century, Expressionism developed in Europe.  Most of it originally came from Germany.  Expressionism Theater often dramatizes the suffering of the protagonists.  Also the main trait that people know about Expressionism that the way it can radically distort the emotional effect on the audience.  It did this to change the moods or ideas.  They are also referred to as station dramas.  The most famous playwrights are from Georg Kaiser and Ernst Toller. Expressionism stayed popular throughout the Weimar Republic. 

Today there are hundreds theaters throughout Germany, in big and small towns.  Peter Stein, is a special figure in German theater, and he is world-class director. German theater puts on spectacular shows and small ones.  There are many genres to German theater.  Some of them are comedy, puppet shows, magic shows, chansons, and cabaret.  Also, Epic theater is popular. This is where the performance stops and the actors address the audience directly.  

 Bertolt Brecht .  He is a very famous theater contribution from the 20th century.  There is a statue in Berlin of him.  

21st Century Theater Germany

Theatre is conceived as a ritual rather than theater in the modern sense.

It is a distinct theater world, a well-established network of state, municipal, traveling, and private theaters. In Germany a lot goes into this system: in terms of stimulus, attention and money.

Box-office sales cover only 15% of an average public theater’s expenses which is why many German theaters receive financial support from the government.  Every taxpayer in Germany does their part to preserve this cultural pillar.

There are over 180 public theaters, and 190 private, independent theaters in Germany as well as 30 festival stages.

Over 35 million visitors, theatre in Germany has almost three times more viewers than do concerts or football games

Types and Genres

Opera
Cabaret
Passion Plays
Ballet Suites
Comedy
Musical Productions
Kabarett or Kleinkunst which is a form of stand-up comedy-driven by children and teens.
Drama;

• Emotional - Classics, Family, and Relationships
• Suburban - The excesses of global capitalism, Social problems and life under global capitalism
• Female Playwrights - plays written by women. 

Festivals

Take place all over Germany; 73 drama festivals, 143 state, municipal and regional theatres and 218 private theatres.

 Theatertreffen in Berlin awards the best annual theatrical performances from the entire country.

 

 

 

Open-air theater is especially popular in summer.  

• Stage performances; children's stories and fairy tales.
• Medieval
• Experimental Theater
• Contemporary Dance

Meandering of Wonderland, one of the oldest Open-Air Theatres.

Foreign-Language Performances

Foreign languages are being spoken on the German stage.
The theatre is becoming more European.(Michalzik).

 

Sourceshttp://www.internations.org/germany-expats/guide/16030-culture-shopping-recreation/german-theater-16029?ah01_enabled
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_Germany#Cinema
http://www.goethe.de/kue/the/tst/en10229547.htm
http://www.tatsachen-ueber-deutschland.de/en/culture-and-media/main-content-09/theater.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expressionism_(theatre)

http://www.tatsachen-ueber-deutschland.de/en/culture-and-media/main-content-09/theater.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expressionism

http://www.research-in-germany.de/dachportal/en/Discover-Germany/Culture-and-the-Arts/Theatre-in-Germany.html

Music in the 20th and 21st Centuries

Music

In the beginning of the 20th century, music in Germany was divided between German and Austrian music.  Berlin composers took a populist route with a cabaret-like socialist operas of Kurt Weill and the Gebrauchsmusik of Paul Hindemith.  Munich had the music of Carl Orff whose opera Carmen Burana remains popular today.  Germany played one of the key roles that would have a completely different turn to the music world. Germany played such a key role in the arts, such as music, that even after World War I Germany's music was still looked at very highly in the continent of Europe. However, things took a complete turn when the Nazi's came into power for twelve years. Many composers fled Germany during the Nazi years.  The Nazis wanted to get rid of "so-called degenerate art."  This was any music associated with Jews, Communists, and jazz.

  When new music came around in the early 20th century, it was Germany who played a huge role in the new change that would impact the music world. Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian Jew who created a new style of music where there was no repetition or melody, but it was mainly timbre. Schoenberg also invented a new kind of music where the singer would talk during the song instead of listening. Because of his nationality the Nazi's and Hitler hated him, but other musicians had different opinions of Schoenberg. In fact, after Hitler took over Germany, many of Germany's musicians that were Jewish fled to the United States. Hitler demolished the uprising of music in Germany. Richard Wagner was the leader of music according to Hitler. 

                              

In the second half of the 20th century, composers in West Germany focused on avant-garde, which was music that was thought to be ahead of its time that is challenges social and artistic values by provoking its audience.  Composers in East Germany were encouraged to keep more with Socialist Realism and to avoid avant-garde.  Music in the style was supposed to further political parties and be more accessible to all.

After World War II Germany was no longer one of the lead music countries. The NAZI's did something to make it fall, it is still questioned as to how they made it fall. It is to peoples opinions that musicians who were trained before World War II were better musicians than musicians that came after the first era of music in the 20th century. Pop music was also greatly influenced by the United States and Great Britain. The English pop music was more looked at by Western Germany than by Eastern Germany. Rock also became important in Western Germany as well. 

Folk music was also very popular in the 20th century.  Folk songs were taught to young children, but had little relation to authentic German traditions.  New songs featuring political activism and realistic joy, passion, and sadness were composed and performed after 1968 in West Germany and the mid 1970s in East Germany.

Other popular music in Germany in the 20th and 21st centuries include Neue Deustche Welle, Metal/Rock, Punk, Pop Rock, Indie and Hip-hop.  Germany hosts many rock festivals annually, including Rock am Ring festival, which is the largest music festival in Germany, and among the largest in the world.  It also holds some of the largest goth festivals in the world, with some easily attracting 30,000 people.  Wacken Open Air festival is also the biggest open air heavy metal festival in the world.  80,000 people attended this festival in 2011, and all 75,000 tickets were sold 8 months before the festival was to take place in 2012.  137 bands performed on 7 different stages.

        
          
          During the 1990's German music was still out there, but very few artists were played on the radio. In 2002 that changed because of the success of Wir sind Helden. They had a new level of confidence and after their confidence, several bands followed in success. Hip hop also came into play in the 1990's and hit a high peak in the early 2000's.

              Jazz also became very big in the 20th century in Germany as well as folk music.

                                   
                                The Scorpions, a heavy metal band that originated in Germany.


References
http://www.amazon.com/German-Bands-During-World-Recordings/dp/B003KXW1L0
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Germany
http://histclo.com/country/ger/act/music/hist/gamhc20.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avant-garde_music 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Germany

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wacken_Open_Air

Role of the German Military in the 20th and 21st Century

World War I

• Germany's plan to deal with Franco-Russian alliance was called the Schlieffen plan.
• Planned to take out the French army before moving on the Russian army.
• Germany attacked France through Belgium to avoid defenses.

• Germans were defeated.
• 3 years of trench warfare
• Lead to the deaths of millions (about 1/3 of soldiers)

• Germany's navy was mostly bottled up by the more powerful British navy
• Germany starts using U-boats to sink merchant ships
• As a result America declares war in 1917

• Spring of 1918 brought the Spring Offensive
• Germans had four offensives code-named Michael, Georgette, Gneisenau, and Bluecher-Yorck

• Allies push backed against Germans
• Reinvigorated by additional American troops, supplies, and money
• Germany signs armistice in November 1918

1918-1939

• Treaty of Versilles restricted Germany's military
• 150,000 men (50,000 in Navy)
• 24 ships
• Tanks and heavy artillery were forbidden and the air force was disbanded 
• Followed treaty but were training soldiers secretly in the Soviet Union

• In 1933 the Nazi party came to power
• Immediately began strengthening the military
• Heavy military spending strengthened the economy
• The Army was encouraged to experiment with tanks and motorized artillery units
• Hitler established the Luftwaffe, a new air force
• No force used except for Spanish Civil War

WWII

• Germany begins with blitzkrieg invasions of Poland in 1939 and Norway and Denmark in 1940
• Stunningly quick invasion and conquering of France in 1940
• Germany invades Soviet Union in 1941
• Hilter tried to maintain living standards, put off full mobilization of economy until 1942
• Great Britain, United States, and Russia were already fully mobilized by this time

• Luftwaffe raged air war against Britain from August-September in 1940
• Last day time air raid was on Sept. 30
• Germans lost 1733 planes, while Britain lost only 915
• 1942 proved to be turning point
• 1943 brought a loss to Germany at Stalingrad
• North Africa, Sicily, and southern Italy were taken by Allies 
• Hitler refused to surrender as both Allied forces and Russians pushed into Germany
• He committed suicide as the last of his forces were defeated

Cold War (1945-1989)

• Nuremberg Trials of 1945-1949
• During the cold war Germany is split into occupation zones
• Allies in the West, Soviet Union in the East
• Allied zones of Berlin joined the Federal Republic of Germany, creating a special situation
• Lasted until the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 and reunification in 1990
• Bundeswehr established in 1955 and grew to a strength of 495,000 military and 170,000 civilians
• Cooperation between each military resulted in new tactics and technology for both sides
• East Germany saw the introduction of the Nationale Volksarmee in 1956
• Was volunteer army until 1962 
• At its peak in 1987 it had 175,300 troops
• 1989 the NVA rejected communism and led to the Collapse of East Germany

 Current Military

• The "Treaty on the final settlement with respect to Germany led to reducing forces to 370,000
• Bundeswehr took on parts of the NVA after reunification 
• First offensive conflict since WWII came in 1999, the war on Yugoslavia in Kosovo
• In 2000 women were allowed to join the Bundeswehr
• Mostly involved in peace keeping missions
• Deployed around 2250 troops to Afghanistan
• In 2011/12 a reform of the military was announced, as of 2012 personal was down to 192,000

Sources :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_Germany#Naval_race

Robert Cowley, Geoffrey Parker, eds Reader's Companion to Military History (1996) 
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica 
"Military History Resources" topics links ed. by Thomas Pilsch