Republican Nationalism: The Rhineland Celebration in 1930

Abstract

Inspired by the success of the state-organised mass spectacle in 1929, a second one was planned for the republic’s Constitution Day festivities in 1930. With successful mobilisation and popular participation, the republic could claim it mirrored the crucial importance of its people for the democratic system within its state representation. Thus, for the republic’s creation of a sense of community, visible mass participation in state-organised festivities was an important aspect. State officials in charge envisaged a mass spectacle linked to every annual Constitution Day celebration from 1929 onwards. In practice, the republic staged only two plays, the other to commemorate the tenth anniversary of its constitution and one to celebrate the ‘liberation’ of the Rhineland, as the withdrawal of troops from the area in August 1930 was called. Advanced plans for a mass spectacle focusing on the nineteenth-century Prussian reformer Freiherr vom Stein for republican festivities in 1931 were jeopardised by financial cuts.¹