Often overlooked in German history due to the tumult of the 20th century from 1933 onwards, the 1920s were a terrifically important time for the country. Learning about the era is crucial for understanding modern German and world history. The city of Berlin at this time was one of the largest and most cosmopolitan in the world, and garnered a reputation for extreme decadence. The metropolis was certainly a dramatic place, bursting with artistic and technological innovation, with famous figures gracing its stages and plagued by political turmoil. The state of this city has a lot of important lessons for our world 100 years later.  Here’s some parallels that might teach us something. 

Consumerist Culture

Humongous department stores such as KaDeWe (which still exists today) offered goods from all over the world and were the beating heart of new and innovative fashion trends. If there was something to be bought, it was here that you could find it. 

One department store, Karstadt, was so economically influential that they were able to get an U-Bahn station that opened right into the store. Shoppers could step straight off the train and into a happy afternoon emptying their wallets. It shows the amount of power this consumerist culture had over the city—everyone was swept up in a blur of new dresses, new hats, new shoes, new experiences, new everything. Of course, when Wall Street crashed, this party ended as people struggled with employment. Paying for necessities was difficult, let alone luxuries. And not all of Berlin was rich; only the upper and perhaps middle classes could afford to shop here. Nonetheless, the department stores remain a symbol of Berlin in this era. 

But in 1933, the Nazi Party started taking over any businesses that were Jewish-owned, installing “Aryan” owners instead. The warning this holds? Consumption has a political dimension. Though this political dimension might not look the same today as in Germany at this time, we see today people gaining an awareness of what or who their purchases are supporting, speaking to this political aspect. On social media, boycotts of companies are promoted, often over poor work practices for employees or negative environmental impacts. This reflects the online nature of today’s consumer environment. We have something far more convenient than an U-Bahn station that spits us out into the hands of a department store—we have the internet, delivering any item imaginable to our doors with just a few buttons. But this culture of convenience might be our undoing. Landfills are filling up with junk, people are being forced to work in terrible conditions purely for the cheapness of online purchasing. Consumption always has a political dimension and always affects somebody, even if that may look a bit different between the 1920s and 2020s. 

LGBTQIA+ Rights

Though in the Weimar Republic, (male) homosexuality was still illegal, it was not always strongly enforced and queer subculture flourished. Centred in the district of Schöneberg, gay, lesbian and transgender establishments could be found aplenty. Most famous was the Eldorado—which later got repurposed as a Nazi headquarters. Queerness, during the Golden Twenties, was mostly tolerated in Berlin, but what followed was brutal crackdown and murder. 

Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute of Sexology had a vast library dedicated to queer topics, and some of the first gender-affirming surgeries were performed in Berlin. Hirschfeld was able to negotiate with police to allow transgender people to obtain the so-called “transvestite passes”, exempting them from anti-cross-dressing laws. Legal name changes were even allowed, even if it was restricted. But Hirschfeld’s library was also the first to be burnt in the infamous Nazi book burnings—a tremendous erasure of queer history, research and stories. 

There were also a myriad of queer magazines that flourished during the 1920s under freer press laws in the Weimar Republic as opposed to the imperial era. There were, however, laws pushed by conservative and right-wing groups such as the Harmful Publications Act of 1926, which saw these magazines as a source of moral corruption and aimed to limit their reach. In German, this law was called the “Gesetz zur Bewahrung der Jugend vor Schund- und Schmutzschriften”—literally “Law to Protect Youth from Trashy and Dirty Writings” and rings eerily similar to the narrative of “protecting children” that LGBTQIA+ censorship hides under the guise of today. This pushback in the 1920s eventually became a full crackdown when the Nazis came to power. What can we learn? Censorship starts small—and in 1920s Berlin, it worsened. The warning this holds is that today’s world is not immune from a similar fate.

Perhaps this sounds paranoid, especially in an age where marriage equality seems to be expanding, starting with the Netherlands in 2001 and most recently with Thailand just this year. Being queer—depending on where in the world you live—isn’t nearly as taboo as it used to be. Yet still we see the repression of LGBTQIA+ rights throughout the world. We still have a long way to go—and a long, long way to fall. 1920s Berlin teaches us that just because these rights seem secure now, it doesn’t mean it will stay that way. Vigilance is a must, because things can fall apart very quickly. 

Technology and Media

Though 1920s Berlin saw a period of prosperity, it was still an incredibly difficult time. Germany was in the shadow of a war loss, the revolution of 1919 and the hyperinflation of 1923, events which impacted all areas of society. This trauma and confusion was reflected in the Expressionist movement, which was especially influential in film, an industry centred in Berlin that in its heyday rivalled Hollywood. Expressionist films of the time, such as Nosferatu, Metropolis and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari explored dark themes and the negative side of human nature and their contemporary time. They are often analysed as reflecting problems in German society at the time such as corruption and the confusion resulting from years of war and instability. These films are regarded even today as masterpieces, showing that from turmoil comes remarkable works of art. In our time, we have no shortage of turmoil either—a climate crisis, COVID and political instability in various places throughout the globe to name just a few. It remains to be seen what works of art from our time will become classic masterpieces, but in the meantime, maybe we should consider giving the arts ample funding so that we can actually get these masterpieces that help us come to terms with the realities of our time. 

Other forms of media also took off during the 1920s, radio especially. The number of radio subscribers went from only 467 in 1923 to four million by 1932. Although many intellectuals turned up their noses at this new form of mass entertainment, it was embraced by German society. But this had a downside—due to its widespread use and ability to quickly disseminate information—or misinformation—the radio was favoured by the Nazis and harnessed into a propaganda tool. This is eerily similar to what we see today, with far-right political forces making use of social media, with its billions of users, to spread their political narratives, often with a great deal of success. Artificial intelligence, as well, an emerging form of technology, is ultimately in the hands of a few powerful companies. 1920s Berlin holds this warning for us: we should be aware of who is speaking to us and who is in control of the media we consume. 

Political Polarisation

The Weimar Republic had one of the most progressive constitutions in the world—so how on Earth did it manage to pivot to exactly the opposite in the span of only fifteen years? 

It was fraught with political polarisation from the very beginning. 1918-19 saw a revolution, with workers rebelling and beginning to gain military and civil power in various cities, spreading throughout the country. This mirrored what had happened in Russia two years earlier and conservatives feared Germany was on the verge of communist takeover. It was eventually quashed, with the leaders Rosa Luxembourg and Karl Liebknecht being brutally executed. Berlin was seen as a left-wing stronghold, but far-right forces nonetheless sought to turn the tide. Left-wing forces often clashed, both literally and verbally, with monarchists who wished to restore the former empire and newer right-wing forces such as the Nazis. The Government from early days faced criticism from both the far-right and far-left, for different reasons. There were also various political assassinations during the 1920s, usually perpetrated by right-wing extremists. When economic instability struck once again in 1929 with the Great Depression, voters started shifting to the extremes of the political spectrum, with both the Nazis and Communist parties gaining seats in parliament, and due to flaws in the constitution it made it almost impossible to pass laws without the enactment of emergency powers. The lesson it holds for today’s world where many countries are drifting to political extremes? Extreme polarisation can cause instability, which can become dangerous. Solving the issue might feel impossible, but we certainly need to try. 

Examining the parallels between 1920s Berlin and 2020s world might look grim. Everything we read about the time is overshadowed by the knowledge of what came next. What will come next for us, given all these parallels between our societies? But if we can learn from the past, we might be okay. Look further into the time—heed the warning signs, notice the alarming parallels. Figure out what we could do better or differently. Perhaps everything will work out okay, after all.