Mediating Worlds: The Occult as Projection of the New Woman in Weimar Culture1

Weimar women were experiencing unprecedented advances in political and social life, yet this was also met with a backlash of traditionalism resulting in their ambiguous status. The "New Woman" was still expected to perform her duties as wife and mother despite her new responsibilities in the world of the work force. Unable to completely fulfill either of these roles in this transitional period, the New Woman assumes what anthropologist Mary Douglas identifies as an ambiguous position. Incapable of fully integrating into the social system, individuals in an ambiguous status are often treated by their community as possessing both desirable qualities, as well as dangerous powers that are to be feared. In what follows, I read the various ways in which the occult woman is treated as both prophet and demon as a marker of the New Woman's similar predicament. I provide a study of mediumism during this period and of various Weimar cultural works (Mary Wigman's expressive dance and Richard Oswald's 1919 film, Unheimliche Geschichten) as a way of demonstrating the transitional status of the New Woman. The Ambiguity of the New Woman The fluidity of social roles in modern society allows women to assume new identities, and yet there remains a dominant discourse that maintains a rigid demarcation of gender. In this regard, one must be sensitive to both the differences and similarities between tight-knit communities and modern society. Insofar as societies construct social roles, they may be compared to the cultural norms exhibited in communities. We may consider how Douglas's theory of marginalization, which was developed primarily through her research of small scale indigenous communities, operates in a similar fashion in modern European societies. Douglas, who covers such varied themes as Central African cosmology, Joan of Arc, and the Cold War, notes that when a social system assigns an ambiguous role to an individual or group, the community often attributes spiritual powers to the disenfranchised (99). According to Douglas, "To have been in the margins is to have been in contact with danger, to have been ata source of power" (97) . The feminine is of ten positioned at the margins, with woman possessing the power of the other, which is dangerous and must be held in check. The term "New Woman" (die neue Frau), found in the popular media, referred to the independent woman who was participating in the work force. By 1925, nearly 36 percent of the German work force consisted of women, with a significant percentage of these (12.6) employed in white collar positions (Grossmann, "Girlkultur" 65; Frevert 177). 2 Other significant signs of women's emancipation during this period include the rise of the average marital age, decrease in birth rate and, perhaps most notably, women's suffrage.3 While women were enjoying significant advances, there remained a strong social expectation that their participation in the working world was only something they did prior to marriage (Frevert 1 79, 1 83) . Unlike the training of young men as future workers and professionals, girls were socialized to be housewives (1 79) . Most women, in fact, quit their jobs when they got married so as to devote themselves to their husbands and families (183). While they made great strides in the economic and political spheres, gender inequality inside the family remained relatively unchanged. Both the popular media and academic discourse noted the transitional state between tradition and emancipation.4 It was feared that the New Woman, with her perceived self-interested orientation toward career advancement, had the potential to undermine the social fabric. According to Weimar critic Heinrich Eduard Jacob, women who tried to attain the economic rights of men were responsible for taking part in the "downfall of culture" (1 14-15). 5 The press in general asserted that woman must not play "ape" to the male intellectual world, but must be content to be loved as a true woman and mother (Thiess 138). …