Abstract

During the high days of modernization fever, among the many disorienting changes Germans experienced in the Weimar Republic was an unprecedented mingling of consumption and identity: increasingly, what one bought signaled who one was. Exemplary of this volatile dynamic was the era’s burgeoning motorcycle culture. With automobiles largely a luxury of the upper classes, motorcycles complexly symbolized masculinity and freedom, embodying a widespread desire to embrace progress as well as profound anxieties over the course of social transformation. Through its richly textured account of the motorcycle as both icon and commodity, The Devil’s Wheels teases out the intricacies of gender and class in the Weimar years.

“All in all, Disko offers a pronounced multi-perspective analysis of the motor-cycle as ‘cultural commodity’ in Weimar Germany, demonstrating impressively what a modern mobility study can achieve… Disko’s study is innovative and highly readable…[it] makes an important contribution to the cultural history of motorcycling and even opens up a new perspective on the cultural history of the Weimar Republic.” • Journal of Transport History

“Sasha Disko’s study provides a treasure trove of exciting themes for those interested in leisure time activities, gender, consumption but also interactions between the state, through the police, and the motorcyclists on the streets in Weimar Germany.” • German History

“Disko offers a new and exciting interpretation that challenges our understandings of gendered consumption, modernity, and the role that motorcycles played in defining and defending masculinity, femininity, and the nation during the interwar years.” • Jennifer Lynn, Montana State University

“This is a fascinating, engagingly written, and illuminating book that resonates well beyond its immediate national and historical context. Its exploration of the anxieties and opportunities surrounding identity in the Weimar Republic will be greeted enthusiastically by scholars in cultural history, mobility studies, gender studies, and a host of other interdisciplinary fields.” • Cotten Seiler, Dickinson College

Sasha Disko is a historian and independent scholar. She received her PhD in History from New York University, and she has been associated with the Center for Metropolitan Studies, Berlin, since 2008. Her research interests include motorization, industrialization, and leisure.