Berlin in the Weimar Republic

For a brief, brilliant, turbulent decade and a half, Berlin was the most exciting city in the world. Between 1918 and 1933, the capital of the Weimar Republic became a laboratory of modernity—a place where politics, art, and science were being radically reinvented.

Revolution and Republic

The Weimar Republic was born in the chaos following World War I. On November 9, 1918, Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated, and a new republic was proclaimed. Berlin remained the capital, but it was a city wracked by violent struggle between social democrats and revolutionary communists (such as the 1919 Spartacist uprising).

The Golden Twenties

The stabilization of the currency in 1924 ushered in the "Golden Twenties." Berlin became the cultural capital of Europe, a magnet for the avant-garde.

* **Cinema:** The UFA studios in Babelsberg produced masterpieces like Fritz Lang's *Metropolis* (1927).

* **Theater:** Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill revolutionized the stage with *The Threepenny Opera* (1928).

* **Science:** Berlin was the home of Albert Einstein and Max Planck, making it the world's center for physics.

* **Social Life:** The city was famous for its libertine nightlife and its relative tolerance for diverse identities and lifestyles.

Collapse

The Great Depression of 1929 hit Berlin harder than perhaps any other city. Mass unemployment and street battles between Nazi and Communist paramilitaries became daily occurrences. The political center could not hold, and in January 1933, the aging President Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor, ending the Weimar experiment.

For a more technical deconstruction of the cultural apparatus, see [Weimar Republic Berlin](WeimarRepublicBerlin).