„Kult der Zerstreuung“. Kulturkritik im Essay der Weimarer Republik
“A cult of distraction”. Critique of culture in the Weimar Republic Essay

Summary/Abstract: The present paper deals with the concept of distraction („Zerstreuung“) as expressed in several essays of cultural criticism written during the epoch of the Weimar Republic in Germany. Authors like Siegfried Kracauer, Walter Benjamin and Ernst Bloch analyse in these essays the philosophical, aesthetical, sociological, and cultural dimensions of this concept of distraction which helps to understand the historical era of the Weimar Republic better with respect to both culture and society. Distraction in this specific sense not only means entertainment and amusement but also the sociological dispersion of the individual person in an upcoming mass society and culture. In an aesthetical sense distraction refers to artistic means like the emerging medium of the film which constitutes both a symptom of and a remedy for contemporary problems in society and culture. Side glances at the social class of the employees, at books of fiction during the Weimar Republic and at Georg Simmel’s cultural sociology round out these observations concerning the concept of distraction.

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