I guess they don’t have time to teach us everything. Where I live, we do have history classes from first grade to the last year of secondary school (when we turn 17 years old), but never have I ever heard of Germany’s situation between the two World Wars. I never thought about it until a few week ago (and yes, I am slightly ashamed of it) when I discovered the German TV series Babylon Berlin which takes place in 1929 Germany, aka the Weimar Republic.
I initially started watching the show to practice my novice German, but in the end, I only learned a bit of slang. What I ended up learning was much more interesting. Though I’m not a huge fan of studying history, I’m the kind of guy who falls in a Wikipedia rabbit hole way more often than he’d like to admit. Babylon Berlin was (and still is) a very strong fuel for my obsession. From the Roaring Twenties to the beginning of Hitler’s tyranny, there was a lot to be seen by my grossly uneducated eyes and a lot to process for my tiny brain. After all, in secondary school, I inadvertently assembled a puzzle only to find out a year and a half later that a piece was missing.
But I can’t be the only one, so I won’t feel too bad.
So what did I learn from this show ? Well, counter to my beliefs, there was life in Germany between the two World Wars. There was dancing, singing and partying. There was crime. There were tensions between Russian Stalinists, Russian anti-Stalinists, German Socialists and German Monarchists. There was political dishonest scheming. Overall, there was action. This period is called the Golden Era of Germany, in which the economy prospered and people did their best to stay happy, pursuing their dreams in the capital and, at night, living the city life, legally or not.
Of course, Babylon Berlin shouldn’t be my one and only source to learn about history. It is very romanced and the characters are mostly invented, but history is still respected. Hitler is mentioned once, but at that time, Nazis didn’t really exist yet (even though we do see the swastika at some point) and the soon-to-be tyrant was only known for a bit of politics and his failed Beer Hall Putsch (Hitlerputsch). We wouldn’t expect things to escalate to anything in particular, especially as the first season (8 episodes) revolves around a crime seemingly unrelated to politics. People are having fun and the city is flourishing…
But the rest is history.
– Jérémy Lefebvre
References:
“Weimar Republic”, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weimar_Republic
“Babylon Berlin”, series by Tom Tykwer, Achim von Borries and Hendrik Handloegten (2017)
Featured Image from http://vintagegal.co.uk/tv-movies/babylon-berlin-sky-atlantic/
Peas and Jelly 