Berlin bei Nacht. Die 20er.

ONLINE 12/06/21 - 01/17/22

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Berlin bei Nacht. Die 20er. | online exhibition

‚Es dämmert … Dämmerstunde. Da schaltet das Berliner Leben sich auf ein anders Tempo um.‘
(Curt Moreck)

And Berlin has a LOT to offer: dancing in one of the exclusive hotels such as the Esplanade, a visit to the variety show in the world-famous winter garden, a stroll through the streets under glaring light advertising, cinema (Kientopp), swing music, a schwoof in one of the countless ballrooms in the city...

The people, freed from the burden of the war and post-war years, crowd back into cafes and the new dance bars. They practice tango and the current "wild" dances from America such as Charleston, Shimmy and Black Bottom. A wave of jazz and swing swept over from the USA and the German Schlager announced the new moral concepts of the time.

The venal love strolls along the Weidendammer Bridge and in front of the KaDeWe at Tauentzien. Contemporaries christened the nude bathing establishments "Hooker Aquarium". In the Luna Park in Halensee, people romped around in The Eva costume until the morning hours. Cocaine and morphine are used excessively.

The Kurfürstendamm in the new west becomes a boulevard and the center of pleasure-seeking masses. In the eastern part around Alexanderplatz in the shadow of the police headquarters, the Berlin half-world drinks caraway schnapps and beer with its professional criminals and prostitutes in shady cellar restaurants and Kaschemmen.

In the midst of the extreme tension between social antagonisms and the doomed young Weimar Republic, Berlin becomes a metropolis of enormous appeal – a cosmopolitan city with all its facets and abysses. Large parts of the midst of the extreme tension between social antagonisms and the doomed young Weimar Republic, Berlin becomes a metropolis of enormous appeal – a cosmopolitan city with all its facets and abysses. Large parts of the population live in abject poverty and seek to escape everyday life in the evening. The number of alcohol and drug addicts, illegal prostitutes and suicides is rising dramatically.

Curt Moreck (1888–1957) describes the pleasure-seeking city in 1931 in his "Führer durch das lasterhafte Berlin" and impressively describes all imaginable amusements between Friedrichstraße and Kurfürstendamm. Berlin has never been as vicious as it was in the twenties of the last century; a cosmopolitan city with 4.2 million inhabitants in a frenzy.