Mass Culture

‘Mass culture’, understood as popular commercialized cultures, existed in Germany from the late nineteenth century as part of its modern, industrialized society. After 1918, the expansion of leisure time, technological innovations, the growth of new and existing audiences, and new regulatory frameworks led to an expansion and diversification of these cultures. One of the most important characteristics of Weimar-era mass cultures was the central role of the modern mass media in their dissemination: the 1920s saw the development of a tightly integrated media ensemble comprising sound film, radio, popular recorded music, the mass press, and book clubs, which remained stable until the proliferation of television in the 1960s. Many observers interpreted this as the growth of a homogeneous ‘mass culture’, produced on an industrial scale and sold like a common commodity, evoking fears of cultural erosion and mind control. This chapter uses this term in the plural to avoid such generalizations, putting a focus on the importance of gender, class, ethnicity, and location in the production and consumption of mass cultures.