On top of the collapsing economy came a political crisis: the political parties represented in the Reichstag were unable to build a governing majority in the face of escalating extremism from the far right (the Nazis, NSDAP) and the far left (the Communists, KPD).
Among the most important German writers were Thomas Mann (1875-1955), Hermann Hesse (1877-1962) and Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956).