asupplicant.Tothem, his abject stance not onlyrepresented the failed project of
social reform and liberal humanism but also the dangers of the politics of empa-
thyand compassion against which KPD artists promoted their cult of masculine
militancy.
The evolving artistic discourse on position, stance, and posture provedvery
importanttoahighlypoliticized bodyculturethat drew on well-established tra-
ditionsand conventions andrelied on extensive commentary (e.g., inmanuals
for agitprop troupes)to achieve the desired interpellative effects. In defining a
communist habitus, agitprop performers found rich inspiration in the visual
arts, includingthe classicalideal of the male bodyasperfected in Greek and
Roman sculpture. The bodilyregimes shared by the modernpenal system and
industrial management and appropriated by the workers’movement in the con-
text of workers’sport provided important contemporary points of reference. As
Sander Gilmanhas shown, extensive medicalresearchwas conductedduring
the ageofindustrializationto provethe importance ofgood posture.¹⁶Related
assumptions about physical exercises and psychological dispositions helped to
compel children, soldiers, as well as workers to willingly submit to the bodypo-
litic of stateauthority and class hierarchy. In light of these connections,Max
Blumtritt’sdefinition of the ultimategoal of workers’sport can easilybeapplied
to agitprop as well:“Thegoal is to befreshin struggle,/freeof prejudices and
weaknesses,/strongin faith inyourself andyour own power/and to stand
firmfor the cause of the proletariat.”In fact,the SPD politician’sappealtowork-
ers“to be healthyand physicallybeautiful, fullyrealized human beings”adds a
troublingequation of physical and mental healthto the earlier description of
proper standing byRühle(but certainlynot ofRühle). This time through pre-
scriptionsfor ahealthyclassed body, class consciousness is once again defined
as an embodied habitus basedonthe bodyofthe male industrial worker and
worker athlete.¹⁷
The difficulties of contributingto the performance of classed bodies while
avoiding theirgenderedinscriptions are on full view in the work of twocommu-
nist dancers,JeanWeidt andJo Mihaly. Descriptions, photos,and reviews of their
choreographies suggest thatWeidt and Mihalydrew uponalimited register of
motion and emotion to present the worker asadistinct social and physical
type and doing so in the registers of modern dance.The fact that Mihaly
bound her breasts to pass asamale worker,thereby signalingthe primacy of
See Sander Gilman,“‘StandUp Straight’:NotesTowardaHistory of Posture,”Journal ofMed-
ical Humanities35 (2014): 57–83.
Max Blumtritt,Arbeitersport und Arbeiterbewegung.Ein Weck-undMahnruf(Leipzig:
Arbeiter-,Turn- und Sportbund, 1926), 19 and 15.
Taking aStand: The HabitusofAgitprop 247