On our first full day in Berlin, we took the metro from the Ku’damm shopping district to Nollendorfplatz, which during the interwar Weimar Republic was a hub for countless cabaret bars. Outside of the elevated U-Bahn station we met our tour guide Brendan Nash, an expert on Weimar Berlin with three published novels on the era. Today the architecture of Nollendorfplatz is a mélange between 19th century Baroque style apartments and plain Soviet-style apartment blocks. Before the destruction of Berlin during the Second World War, the Baroque-style apartments were everywhere in the city. Brendan led us to a twin set of double doors to one of these pre-war apartments on Nollendorstraβe. In the 1920s Margareta Thurau lived here—a landlord who rented rooms in her home to Sally Bowles and Christopher Isherwood, the author who inspired the 1972 film Cabaret. Through his brilliant and vivid storytelling, Brendan evoked the raunch and electric energy that pulsed through the neighborhood every single night during the interwar period. The Weimar Republic replaced the German monarchy after World War One, and to this day it is seen as one of the most liberal and progressive governments of its time. Germany faced extreme inflation after the War; the government began printing one million dollar marks which were practically worthless. It became cheaper to burn money than to use firewood. During the day Berliners suffered, but by nightfall they basked in the Cabaret forgetting their countless problems. A cabaret is a form of musical entertainment which combines song, dance and comedy; they are performed in small venues in which guests sit at small tables and drink as they enjoy the show. In the 19 20s Paris was out and Berlin was in. People from all over the world yearned to come to Berlin for the party scene; Sally Bowles, a successful journalist in the UK, left her job in hopes of becoming a singer at the Eldorado cabaret club. Brendan explained that a great number of people in Weimar Berlin completely ignored the messy and turbulent political scene of the country. During the Weimar Republic there was a new government nearly every eight months. Thus, when the Nazis began to gain power, the people of Berlin thought they posed little threat like every other party, and they continued to indulge. However, they were incredibly wrong. Within a few months of becoming Chancellor, Hitler banned same-sex dancing in public, and Nazis began repeatedly storming Cabaret clubs. Soon after, the Nazis permanently shut down the Eldorado club, and replaced it with a new institution, a Nazi propaganda station. Within only a few months the hyper-progressive Nollendorplatz neighborhood transformed into a place of hatred and terror. As Brendan delivered his tour, I thought about the attitudes of indifference I see people take on towards politics in my own social circles. In the introduction to one of his novels Brendan writes, “When people don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, they don’t care how they behave today”.
