Reading Germany: Literature and Consumer Culture in Germany before 1933

By closely examining the interaction between intellectual and material culture in the period before the Nazis came to power in Germany, the author comes to the conclusion that, contrary to widely held assumptions, consumer culture in the Weimar period, far from undermining reading, used reading culture to enhance its goods and values. Reading material was marked as a consumer good, while reading as an activity, raising expectations as it did, influenced consumer culture. Consequently, consumption contributed to the diffusion of reading culture, while at the same time a popular reading culture strengthened consumption and its values.

Gideon Reuveni studied philosophy, political science, and history in Jerusalem, Freiburg, Cologne and Leipzig. He was a Research Fellow at the Richard Koebner Institute for German History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Institute for Jewish History and Culture at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich. Recently, he served as the George L. Mosse Visiting Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has held the prestigious Yad Hanadiv, Beracha Foundation Fellowship and is currently a lecturer for Jewish and European History at the University of Melbourne.