Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany in the 1920s

Work

University before factory

The town had little industry² and lived heavily from the university, retired officials, shops and services. The university’s scientific world was unusually important: Göttingen was an international centre of the natural sciences¹.

Faith

Mostly Protestant

In 1925 the city counted 36,869 Protestants, 3,473 Catholics and 535 Jews⁵. That made Göttingen about 89 percent Protestant^4,5, with Catholic and Jewish communities present but much smaller.

Law & power

Republic, town hall, professors

Women entered the decade as new voters after the 1918–1919 franchise change². Local power still lay with the municipality, university elites and organized parties, and in November 1929 the NSDAP won eight city-council seats⁶.

In the air

Science and nationalism

Göttingen’s reputation rested on mathematics, physics and chemistry, with Nobel prizes connected to Göttingen work in 1925 and 1928¹. But university politics were not liberal as a whole: most professors were German-national conservative³.

What people feared

Afterwar strain

The war was over, but local life still carried hunger, unemployment, illness and inflation². The worst money shock came with the national hyperinflation crisis of 1923.

Home & table

Students among retirees

Göttingen was jokingly called “Pensionopolis”² because retired officials were so conspicuous. At the same time the streets and lodgings had to absorb more than 4,000 university students in summer 1920².

Money

Inflation without local prices

Household budgets were hit by inflation² and then by the national 1923 currency collapse. A precise Göttingen price list for ordinary goods is not available in the sources opened here: bread, rent and coal prices remain unquoted.

Roads & news

Railway and cinema

Since 1854 the railway had tied Göttingen to wider Germany and made it a modern medium-sized town¹. New mass culture arrived through film: the Central held 450 seats^2,6 and the Capitol opened in 1929 with 500 seats^2,6.

Year by year

1. 1919The Stadttheater reopened after the wartime pause and gave the city a renewed public stage for plays, concerts and later opera. here²
2. 1920Handel’s Rodelinda was performed at the Stadttheater on 26 June, launching the Göttingen Handel revival. here¹
3. 1920The university enrolled 3,847 men and 325 women in the summer semester. here²
4. 1923Hyperinflation destroyed the value of the mark across Germany and made everyday prices change wildly. the country
5. 1925James Franck and Richard Zsigmondy received Nobel prizes for work associated with Göttingen. here¹
6. 1925Ludwig Prandtl became first director of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute for Fluid Mechanics. here¹
7. 1928Adolf Windaus received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work done in Göttingen. here¹
8. 1929The NSDAP entered Göttingen city politics with 22.0 percent and eight council seats. here⁶

Pictures from the time

What the sources say

• In 1920 Göttingen had just under 40,000 inhabitants. inferred²
• In 1920 the town advertised itself as a Garten- und Universitätsstadt, a garden and university town. inferred²
• The railway connection of 1854 had begun Göttingen’s growth from a small farming citizens’ town into a modern medium-sized town beyond its medieval limits. from the sources¹
• In the summer semester of 1920 the University of Göttingen enrolled 3,847 male students and 325 female students. inferred²
• Göttingen was nicknamed “Pensionopolis” in the 1920s because it had unusually many retired civil servants and little industry. inferred²
• By the early 1930s Göttingen University had about 238 academic staff and roughly 3,000 students, so it was a mid-sized university rather than a mass institution. from the sources³
• The 1925 figures for the city list 41,514 inhabitants, including 36,869 Protestants, 3,473 Catholics and 535 Jews. from the sources⁵
• The city remained overwhelmingly Protestant in this decade, with Protestants making up about 89 percent of the 1925 population. from the sources^4,5
• The Jewish community in Göttingen numbered a little over 400 people in 1933, after being about 535 in the city in 1925. from the sources^1,5
• The Stadttheater reopened in 1919, and from 1920 it added opera and operetta to its offerings. inferred²
• Göttingen’s cinemas expanded in the 1920s: the Central eventually held 450 seats, and the Capitol opened in Prinzenstraße in 1929 with 500 seats. from the sources^2,6
• On 26 June 1920 Handel’s Rodelinda was performed at the Stadttheater, the first performance of a Handel opera since the eighteenth century and the beginning of the Göttingen Handel Festival tradition. from the sources¹
• Weender Straße was the main shopping street of Göttingen’s inner city. from the sources⁷
• Göttingen became an international centre of the natural sciences in these decades, and Nobel prizes were awarded for Göttingen work to James Franck and Richard Zsigmondy in 1925 and Adolf Windaus in 1928. from the sources¹
• Ludwig Prandtl became the first director of the new Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute for Fluid Mechanics in Göttingen in 1925. from the sources¹
• In the municipal election of 17 November 1929 the NSDAP won 22.0 percent and eight seats in Göttingen’s city council, just behind the SPD’s 25.5 percent and nine seats. from the sources⁶
• By the Reichstag election of 1930, just outside the decade, the NSDAP received more than 37 percent in Göttingen and became the strongest party there. from the sources⁶
• In the 1920s most Göttingen professors were German-national conservative, and the student right grew stronger toward the end of the Weimar Republic. from the sources³
• After the First World War, people in Göttingen still faced hunger, unemployment, illness and inflation, even while cultural life revived. inferred²
• Women in Germany had gained the vote in 1918–1919, so adult women in Göttingen entered the 1920s as voters for the first time. inferred²
• The mark’s hyperinflation crisis peaked nationally in 1923, making savings, wages and prices unstable for ordinary households across Germany, including Göttingen. inferred
• No online source opened here gives a street-by-street description of ordinary Göttingen housing interiors in the 1920s. not known
• No local price list opened here gives Göttingen shop prices for bread, rent or coal across the decade. not known

Sources

1. History of the University – an overview. Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
2. Händel Göttingen 1920. Händel Göttingen 1920
3. Wissenschaft – Ausbildung – Politik. Universitätsverlag Göttingen, 2022
4. Deutsche Verwaltungsgeschichte: Provinz Hannover, Kreis Göttingen. Rolf Jehke / Territoriale Veränderungen in Deutschland und deutsch verwalteten Gebieten
5. Verbrannte Orte: Göttingen. Verbrannte Orte
6. Stationen der Stadtgeschichte. Stadtarchiv Göttingen
7. Weender Straße. Wikipedia

Göttingen in other decades