Theatre in the Weimar Republic : 3D Gallery

Theatre

The theatres of Berlin and Frankfurt An Main were graced with drama by Ernest Toller, Bertolt Bhrest, and the Cabaret

Cabaret

A feature of late 1920s Germany, which has become known for its high living, vibrant urban life and the popularisation of new styles of music and dance. Cabaret is largely dominated by sexual innuendos, jokes, songs and dancing. Berlin’s first cabaret nightclub began in 1901, however during the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm II, German cabarets were not permitted to perform or promote bawdy humour, provocative dancing or political satire.

Key points:

1. After decades of restrictive, authoritarian government, Weimar was a period of social liberalisation.
2. In post-1924 economic revival saw many seek new forms of leisure and entertainment, like Kabarett.
3. German cabaret entertainment revolved around themes of sexual liberation and political criticism.
4. The cabarets followed no political line: any party or leader was subject to criticism or mockery.
5. Many feared the impact the ‘cabaret culture’ was having on German society and public morality.

Erwin Piscator

Erwin Piscator was born on December 17, 1893 in Ulm Germany. He passed on March 30, 1966 in Starnburg. He was a theatrical producer and director famed for his Expressionistic staging techniques. He was the originator of the theatre style later developed by the German playwright Bertolt Brecht.

Christopher Isherwood

Christopher Isherwood was a novelist, playwright, screen-writer, autobiographer, and diarist. He was also homosexual and made this a theme of some of his writing. He was born near Manchester in the north of England in 1904, became a U.S. citizen in 1946, and died at home in Santa Monica, California in January 1986.

Josephine baker

a renowned world performer, a WW2 spy. One of the most famous Successful African American performer in French History. When Adolf Hitler took over Germany, she joined the fight against the Nazi regime. She aided the French officials by passing secrets she heard while dancing for the enemy.She transported confidential information by writing invisible ink on music sheets. After many years of performing in Paris, she returned to the United States - only to face discrimination.

Flatford Mill

Flatford Mill (Scene on a Navigable River) is an oil painting by English artist John Constable, painted in 1816. It is Constable's largest exhibition canvas to be painted mainly outdoors, the first of his large "six-foot" paintings [more]

The Fighting Temeraire

Christopher Isherwood was a novelist, playwright, screen-writer, autobiographer, and diarist. He was also homosexual and made this a theme of some of his writing. He was born near Manchester in the north of England in 1904, became a U.S. citizen in 1946, and died at home in Santa Monica, California in January 1986.

The Hireling Shepherd

This is a painting by William Holman Hunt, a leading British Pre-Raphaelite.

Ophelia

Ophelia is a painting by British artist Sir John Everett Millais, completed between 1851 and 1852. It depicts Ophelia, a character from Hamlet, singing before she drowns in a river in Denmark. [more]

The Music Lesson

Christopher Isherwood was a novelist, playwright, screen-writer, autobiographer, and diarist. He was also homosexual and made this a theme of some of his writing. He moved to Berlin where he taught English, dabbled in communism, and enthusiastically explored his homosexuality. Goodbye to Berlin (1939), is his most famous book.

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Theatre in the Weimar Republic