report no.: 097
informant: Richie 1998 (358)
source:
location:
date: 1933

It also assumes that no aspects of Weimar were carried on into the Nazi period and that 1933 represents a radical break with all aspects of the past, whereas in reality many elements of the 1920s found their way into Nazi Germany, albeit in altered forms. Those Berliners who were able to glide comfortably from the Weimar period into the new regime still have difficulty separating the 1920s from their own memories of what was for many the 'Golden Thirties'. The uncomfortable fact was that while the avant-garde was destroyed after 1933 much of the popular culture and the seedy glamour of the nightclubs and films and revues and restaurants carried on well into the Nazi period with little obvious change; one still meets Berliners who warmly reminisce about the delights of the Wintergarten or the Haus Vaterland or the Funkturm or the cabaret which were as much a part of 1930s Nazi Berlin as they had been to Weimar Berlin. As such the myth ignores the uncomfortable fact that even when avant-garde culture was at its height the majority of Berliners were ignorant of it, even frightened by it.