This lack of sentiment and national identity correlated to the atmosphere within Berlin once the war ended. Due to Berlin’s steep reparations from the war, living conditions in Berlin were very poor in the 1920s. A lack of jobs led to high unemployment rates and poor conditions for the majority of the population. Many women turned to prostitution to earn money, propositioning men in bars and beckoning to them on the streets. Polizei, the German police, specifically patrolled those districts that struggled economically. Abraham Plotkin, an American who lived in Berlin from 1932-1933, described one of these districts in his diary as “the district of the stockyard workers’ homes, the small Jewish secondhand shops, pawnbrokers, and brothels” (Plotkin 153). In this district, named Alexanderplatz, two friends approached Plotkin attempting to convince him to purchase fake Russian coins by pulling a con. This instance is an example of both the crime in the city and the economic desperation of the people living there.

The people in Berlin became so fear-driven that they were content to stay where they were, and employers took advantage of every opportunity to exploit those fears. A good example of the poverty in Berlin at this time was the inability to bathe. At the time, bathing was a privilege for people who had the money to pay and would go to considerable lengths in order to bathe. In his diary, Plotkin’s mentions asking his landlady where he could bathe, and she was incredulous and simply turned away. She conferred with two other people before handing him the address to the nearest public bathing house (Plotkin 50). The cost for bathing was one sign of the crippling economy, which also meant the American dollar carried a lot of purchasing power. Clothing was amazingly cheap. The highest priced shoes sold for under five dollars and a full suit of clothes cost ten dollars (Plotkin 75). However, laundry was expensive as was food for these commodities were rare. In order to save money, restaurants would not serve water unless specifically requested and would also refrain from serving butter with bread. Additionally, the bread itself was very expensive. These cost-cutting measures (such as not serving water) show the dire state of the German economy.

People in Berlin believed that a revolution might be possible for “anyone who promised [Berliners] bread,” as people were becoming desperate and the last of the money was running out. Conditions worsened and eighty people would reside in one building. Generally, only a few people out of the eighty living there would have jobs. The people living in these conditions were poor and struggled to pay for food and other basic needs. Therefore, the anger at high unemployment rates and the lack of economic stability led to a desire for change (Plotkin 104).

Throughout the end of the 1920s and into the 1930s, there was an increase in societal hostility towards people of the Jewish faith as Hitler and the Nazi party gained power. (Plotkin 123) Members of the Polizei and the Nazi party appeared in increasing numbers on the streets. The Hitlerites, as they were called, held collection boxes on all corners of the streets. Towards the end of the 1920s and into the beginning of the 1930s, there was a large increase in political deaths. These deaths were either assassinations or resulted from riots and protests against the opposition parties. At the end of 1932, newspapers would print articles about people killed by political parties every day. These articles further fueled the conflict that already existed leading up to Hitler’s regime.

Due to rapid transformations after World War I, an influx in the “invention of tradition” occurred. As a new modern society emerged, new traditions (or adjusted traditions) were needed to match the new attitude of the world. As Jelavich noted, “Modern society is held together by ‘the external compulsions of the economy, technology, bureaucratic state organization, political decisions, and other forces which neither rely on nor develop ‘tradition’ in any sense’” (53) The new invented traditions masked the real forces controlling modern society. Around the same time, thousands of people rushed to Berlin due to the growing culture, resulting in the city population being a mix of people from different backgrounds, traditions, opinions, classes, and more. To appeal to the audiences of popular and mass entertainment, vaudeville, cabaret, and revues became popular and responded to the need for a new urban identity (Jelavich 47).

The massive influx of people to Berlin in the 1920s and early 1930s allowed the culture of Weimar Germany to experience an exploration of remarkable artistic energy (Dickson). No longer faced with the immediate threat of death, survivors of World War I embraced non-essential activities, which resulted in a sudden surge of art, music, theatre, design, dance, and film. This emphasis on the creation of artistic pursuits was, in some ways, a rejection of the nineteenth century ideals that prioritized scientific advancement over personal exploration. In the words of Peter Gay, being in Germany during this time period was like “a dance on the edge of a volcano” due to the unstable democracy of the government which teetered on the verge of collapse because of the liberal atmosphere and economic slump that the creation of the Weimar Republic manifested (Seelig and Gay 18). The aspirations of the Weimar Republic, which was founded in 1919, were very ambitions given the climate of the time period. The newly formed republic emphasized openness and tolerance. The new constitution guaranteed each German citizen the right to “express his opinion freely in word, writing, print, picture or in any other manner” (Ward 36). German artists, who were inspired by the modernist movement, rushed to discover new, intriguing art forms that reflected the new liberal atmosphere of Germany.

After the creation of the Weimar Republic, Berlin became a cosmopolitan mecca, where artists could push their creative boundaries in a bold manner. During the 1920s, theatre was still very much a social event in Berlin. In 1928, one of the most notable theatrical events of the Weimar period occurred in Berlin when Der Dreigroschenopera (The Threepenny Opera), an adaption of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera, premiered. Its co-creators, Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, deemed the spectacle as a play with music. The play was about a man named Macheath, a crime lord, who wanted to turn his illegal practices into a legitimate business all while trying to escape being hanged by his father in law who despised him. While the musical was set in London, it satirized the entire capitalist system of Germany. The piece served a defining example of what Brecht had recently christened Epic Theatre since actors broke the fourth wall and forced the audience to question the intentions of the performance. In describing Epic Theatre, Brecht stated that “the absurdity of opera lies in the fact that rational elements are used and three-dimensional reality is aimed at while at the same time everything is neutralized by the music” (Brecht, and Shapiro 174). It was Brecht who evolved the theory for Epic Theatre through his intention to demonstrate moral problems to the audience that reflected on social realities, then causing the audience to think objectively about the work they were viewing. Brecht often collaborated with Weill, who was a disciplined composer also working in Germany at that time. Together Weill and Brecht created provocative and politically charged pieces of theatre. (Hensher).

Some artists found inspiration from the bleak state of Germany. Films produced in Germany during the time period showed this bleak outlook. Exemplars were Robert Wiene’s Das Cabinet des Dr Caligari (1920) and Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) which highlighted the “realm of nightmare” (Dickson). The plot focuses on a local carnival in a small German town, where hypnotist Dr. Caligari presents Cesare to the audience attending the carnival. Cesare can purportedly predict the future of curious fairgoers. But at night, the doctor wakes Cesare from his sleep to enact his evil bidding. Caligari highlights sexual violence through the relationship between Dr. Caligari and Cesare. Meanwhile, Metropolis emphasizes a dystopian vision of the future, set in a city segregated between wealthy industrialists and a numberless army of drones who toil in underground factories with a father and son fighting to save the soul of the city from the drones (Rother). The two works both aimed to reflect the schisms that divided German society in different forms. These films greatly juxtaposed the films being produced in the West, a period that historians designate as the golden age of the film industry.

Cabaret performances began to feature shorter segments and vignettes as average patrons had shorter attention spans. Cabaret owners, in an effort to compete with each other, began to advertise entertainers with increasingly ambitious titles, such as “the world’s best” or “the sensation of Europe” (Jelavich 25). Claire Waldoff was one of the most popular Cabaret performers and would portray characters that showed how even the lower class found sexual freedom and mass-cultural entertainment in Berlin. She appealed to all class levels and gave the impression that life was a ball for all classes after hours (26). There were relatively few performances dealing with the culture of Berlin and Germany, which helped lead to the loss of traditional music. This loss was partially due to the Americanization of popular entertainment, namely the “kick-line” of girls, which appeared often in cabarets. After the war, there was an abolition of censorship which led to nearly all cabarets having public displays of nearly nude women. Shows were devoid of personal characteristics and national identity; they often symbolized an impersonal, supranational, and modern phenomenon of the masses (45).

1. Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari. Eureka Entertainment. 2016.
2. Dickson, Andrew. Culture in Weimar Germany: on the Edge of the Volcano. The British Library, The British Library, 11 May 2016.
3. Hensher, Philip. “When Brecht Met Weill: A Dazzling but Doomed Partnership.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 3 Mar. 2015
4. Jelavich, Peter. "Modernity, Civic Identity, and Metropolitan Entertainment: Vaudeville, Cabaret, and Revue in Berlin, 1900-1930." Berlin: Culture and Metropolis. Ed. Heidrun Suhr Charles W. Haxthausen. University of Minnesota Press, 1990. 95-110.
5. Plotkin, Abraham. An American In Hitler's Berlin: Abraham Plotkin's Diary, 1932-1933. Ed. Catherine Collomp and Bruno Groppo. Ilinois: Board of Trutees of the University of Illinois, 2009.
6. Rohter, Larry. “Footage Restored to Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis'.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 4 May 2010
7. Seelig, Rachel and Gay, Peter. Strangers in Berlin: Modern Jewish Literature between East and West, 1919-1933. University of Michigan Press, 2016.
8. Shapiro, Nat. An Encyclopedia of Quotations about Music. Da Capo, 1985.

Ward, Ken. Mass Communications and the Modern World. Macmillan, 2006.

At the time of its conclusion, World War I was one of the most devastating wars in world history. The war involved many nations of Europe and the United States. The key players consisted of the Allied Powers and the Central Powers. Britain, France, Russia, Italy, and the United States made up the Allied Powers. The Central Powers included Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria. Prior to World War I, many countries including Germany experienced long periods of peace and increasing prosperity. The war resulted in approximately 40 million casualties, the end of many imperial dynasties, the destabilization of Europe, and ultimately laid the foundations for World War II.

Signed on 28 June 1919, the Treaty of Versailles was an agreement between the Allied powers and Germany that formally ended World War I. After the Allied powers defeated Germany in 1919, they forced Germany to sign the agreement by threatening to continue the war. This document represented an attempt to reach peace after five years of fighting a devastating war in the trenches. The treaty required Germany to take responsibility for all of the damage and casualties that resulted from the war. The treaty also instructed Germany to fully disarm, give up some of their territories, and to pay reparations worth billions of dollars to countries who were on the Allied Powers side. In The Economic Consequences of Peace, John Manard Keynes writes that the reparations on Germany were too high and caused a financial collapse that lead to the next World War (184).

The majority of Germany refused to accept the conditions of the agreement. The anxiety and resentment the German public felt towards the postwar settlements set high expectations for the new governing body. German citizens demanded immediate improvements to their living standards such as work opportunities for returning soldiers and restoring family life back to normal (Bessel 33). The new governing body that would attempt to revive the saddened state of Germany and combat the emerging fascist ideology was the Weimar Republic.

Following the forced abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II on 9 November 1918, Germany was in need of a new government structure to replace its traditional monarchy (McKenzie 64). Despite progress having been made toward the end of the Kaiser’s reign, as parliament held most power by then, the Majority Socialists had an even more ambitious aim: the creation of a German Republic The Majority Socialists established a provisional government first, led by their leader, Friedrich Ebert (72). Their first task was to organize elections for the first German National Assembly. Despite the Spartacists’ call for a dictatorship by the proletariat, or the working class, parliamentary democracy won out due in large part to the first German elections on 19 January 1919 (74).

The newly formed National Assembly had two main goals upon its creation: create a constitution and negotiate a peace treaty with the Allies. Neither goal was easily accomplished. Despite obtaining the most seats in the National Assembly, the Majority Socialists did not reach a true majority, even when allied with the Independent Socialists. As a result, the Socialists created a majority coalition alongside the moderately conservative Democratic Party as well as the religion-focused Centre Party. The extreme parties of the right and left, such as the Spartacists and the Nationalists, were unwilling to work alongside the Socialists at all due to their firm beliefs and voted against nearly all laws and treaties proposed by the majority coalition. This lack of compromise and cooperation proved a significant challenge to Ebert, who the German people elected as President (McKenzie 84).

The National Assembly’s constitution ultimately took inspiration from the French, Swiss, and American constitutions. The provisional government renamed the National Assembly as the Reichstag, a parliament “composed by the representatives elected by the German people” which decided legislature and presided over the entire government, including the President. The Reichsrat was created alongside the Reichstag in order to represent the concerns of individual German states, but had no legislative power of its own. The constitution also established the executive branch of the government, which included the President, Chancellor, and Cabinet. The German people elected the President by majority vote, and he himself chose the Chancellor and members of the cabinet. The constitution also emphasized individual rights, as “All Germans [were] equal in front of the law” and “The rights of the individual [were] inviolable.” The writers included gender equality and the freedoms of assembly, speech, religion, and the press as well. (The Constitution).

While the constitution intended for political power to remain firmly within the Reichstag, the President held unlimited power through Article 48 of the constitution. This article affirmed that in times of (undefined) emergency, the President “may take the measures necessary to reestablish law and order, if necessary using armed force” and “suspend the civil rights described [previously], partially or entirely” in order to do so (The Constitution). However, as McKenzie notes, “By granting extremists the right to undermine democratic government, the Constitution formally contributed to the downfall of the Republic” (46). This loophole in the Constitution granted Hitler the means to seize power and begin the atrocities committed by the Nazi party. According to the constitution, “Nobody [was] obliged to profess his religious confession publicly;” however, life under the Third Reich had very different rules than during the Weimar Republic (The Constitution).

The many disastrous effects of the Treaty of Versailles manifested within German society rapidly. The new Weimar Republic was unable to pay its annual war reparations on time due to the enormous costs forced upon them by the Allies. Growing tired of the country’s inability to pay, French and Belgian troops invaded the Ruhr region, the center of industrial production in Germany, on 11 January 1923 (McKenzie 138). The Weimar government encouraged passive resistance against the invasion, so all workers went on strike. Due to the policy of passive resistance, German industry came to a standstill, as did the economy. The German mark quickly fell in value (139). In an attempt to counteract the already troubling inflation, the Weimar government decided to solve the issue by simply printing more money (140). Needless to say, this strategy did not work.

The German economy was already weakened by World War I at the beginning of the 1920s. The exchange rate at the very beginning of the decade was 82 marks to one U.S. dollar. By August 1922, this exchange rate had fallen to 1,240 marks to the dollar (McKenzie 140). Following the French and Belgian invasion of the Ruhr, the exchange rate plummeted even quicker. By the end of May 1923, the exchange rate hit 73,000 marks to the dollar. The speed at which the mark was devaluing was disastrous to all of Germany. In 1923, the exchange rate was announced twice per day. Following the midday announcement, storeowners marked up their prices for all goods and services according to the new exchange rate. People received their wages daily and spent them immediately in “a never-ending frenetic race to unload currency as quickly as possible,” as they preferred to purchase useless and inessential items than to wait and be left with any amount of suddenly worthless marks. Many people gave up on currency altogether and reverted to bartering in order to survive, while other people insisted on using foreign currency instead (141). Hyperinflation especially harmed the middle class as their savings became worthless nearly overnight. Additionally, salaries were slow to adjust to the hyperinflation, further casting the middle class into economic despair. As McKenzie notes, “The huge proletariat created by inflation was easy prey for the anti-democratic forces in the Reich,” as disillusionment with the Weimar government increased and people turned to extremist alternative ideologies (142).

The Weimar government only began to solve the hyperinflation crisis following the appointment of Gustav Stresemann, another Majority Socialist, as Chancellor. The crisis reached its peak during Stresemann’s first months in office. By early November 1923, the exchange rate had dropped to 190 billion marks for every U.S. dollar. Despite outrage from the far right, Stresemann ended the policy of passive resistance in the Ruhr and decided that all products and taxes from the region would be given to the French (McKenzie 144). Stresemann also decided that the mark was a lost cause and created a new German currency with the help of Hans Luther, the Finance Minister of the Weimar Republic. This new currency was named the Rentenmark. Instead of being backed by gold like its predecessor, the Rentenmark was backed by a mortgage of Germany’s land and industry. In reality, this backing was unimportant. All the Rentenmark needed was public faith in order to succeed. The success of the Rentenmark was miraculous, as goods reappeared in shops almost immediately and economic normalcy returned to the Weimar Republic (150). The German people exchanged their marks for Rentenmarks at an exchange rate of one trillion marks per Rentenmark. The Rentenmark enjoyed stability, as the exchange rate by 15 November 1923 was 4.2 Rentenmarks to the U.S. dollar (151). Despite his success at alleviating the hyperinflation crisis, the extreme left soon forced Stresemann out of office and right-wing parties in their continued pattern of disagreement with the Majority Socialists (152).

Despite the Weimar Republic’s recovery from the hyperinflation crisis, the government still faced another significant problem: war reparations. In 1923, the Reparations Commission adopted the Dawes Committee, a neutral committee of economic experts who would examine and establish Germany’s “capacity to pay.” The Committee created a report which recommended a reduction in Germany’s annual reparations payments and the surrender of certain German industries, such as its railroad, to foreign governments in order to pay the reparations successfully. The report also advised French and Belgian troops to withdraw from the Ruhr. The adoption of the recommendations in the report occurred at the London Conference on the Dawes Plan on 16 July 1924 (McKenzie 160). Despite some opposition, unsurprisingly from the far left and right parties, the Weimar government adopted the Dawes Plan due to Socialist support (161). The plan had many benefits for Germany, though it did not alter the full amount of reparations that Germany would pay. However, it did encourage the return of foreign investors into the German economy, especially from the U.S., and the standard of living rose for the majority of the German people (162).

Germany adopted the Young Plan in 1929 to further alleviate the burden of reparations. Due to this plan, reparations decreased from a total of 132 billion gold marks to 112 billion gold marks (McKenzie 199). However, there was a strong opposition to the Young Plan as well, once again from the Nationalists and National Socialists. Their main argument asserted that reparation payments were expected to continue until 1988, fifty-eight years in their future (201). In reality, Germany’s reparation payments continued until 3 October 2010 (Blakemore).

Through both the Dawes and Young Plans, Germany became tied to the U.S. economy due to American foreign investments in the country. While these ties strengthened the German economy at first, the New York Wall Street Crash on 24 October 1929 caused further economic disaster in the country. American loaners destroyed the entire structure of both the Dawes and Young Plans as they quickly withdrew their loans from Germany. The German people immediately felt the effects. Industry failed and many firms went bankrupt while unemployment rose to 3.5 million people by 1930 (McKenzie 205). The government attempted to respond effectively to the economic crash by cutting government expenditures and raising income tax, which was extremely unpopular with the German people. These conditions proved essential to Hitler’s rise to power. The Nazis specifically targeted the people most affected by the crash and gained popularity with the unemployed, the impoverished middle class, and struggling farmers. Despite the many struggles that Germany experienced in the 1920s, the economic crash of 1929 marked the end of the golden years of the Weimar Republic and the beginning of Germany’s descent into fascism (206).

Bessel, Richard. Germany after the First World War. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000.

Blakemore, Erin. “Germany's World War I Debt Was So Crushing It Took 92 Years to Pay Off.” History.com, 27 June 2019, https://www.history.com/news/germany-world-war-i-debt-treaty-versailles.

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McKenzie, John R. P. Weimar Germany: 1918-1933. Rowman and Littlefield, 1971.

“The Reich Constitution of August 11th 1919 (Weimar Constitution) with Modifications (1).” PSM-DATA Geschichte, https://www.zum.de/psm/weimar/weimar_vve.php.