Although one of the characteristics of cabaret is being a social commentary, not just a form of escapism, not all cabarets were created equal. Its earlier, Parisian incarnation, for example, was more artistic and focused on a commentary of life. When cabaret reached the Weimar Republic, where everything was politicised, it immediately took up a more political, almost militant personality and its focus became more social.
During the Weimar Republic Germans called this form of show cabaret or kabarett interchangeably, but in the following decades kabarett would come to signified that form of the show that was more prominently political and more characteristically German.

Away from the vivaciously artistic Parisian environment, and into the politically troubled Weimar Republic, cabaret artists became more engaged. Often they were actively involved in politics, whether on the socialist or the communist side.
The majority of them straddled the divide between high and popular culture and sought not just to entertain people, but to provoke critical thinking. Many upheld the democracy, with all her shortcomings, and conveyed the dream of a world where individual liberty, social equality and peace was possible.
Maybe that’s why many cabaret artists faced persecution and jail.

Berliner Schnauze

For a long time it was believed that ‘the Berliner’ didn’t exist in real life. Berlin gathered people from all across Europe. Whether they were Eastern European refugees or British and French artists, all kinds of people converged on Berlin and  while they found their dimension there, they rarely shed their original individuality and culture. So, Berliners were long thought to be an amalgam of very different cultures rather than their own peculiar culture.

But over time, a kind of ‘Berliner’ emerged who was the product of that messy, diverse, loud, complex, unmanageable conglomerate of different experiences. Berlin was a tough place, so Berliners needed to be tougher.

The Berliner as a human type emerged as early as 1821, with the performance of Julius von Voss’s play Der Stralauer Fischzug, which was the first farce to present characters speaking berlinersich as a pointed and aggressive argot.
A roster of characters subsequently emerged which other authors used and that depicted the average Berliner as a half-educated yet cunning, self-assured and slyly subversive person. They were proud and defensive of their city in front of outsiders, but among themselves they gladly mock it.
The Brliner is always quick-witted, always ready to find a sharp, spicy, witty formulation for every encounter of event, but he also has a tendency to carp down anything great or profound or to drag it down to the level of illusion of fashion.
This dichotomy eventually create a personality that was peculiar to Berlin, the Berliner Schnautze (Berlin Snout), that was marked by disrespect of the authority and cynical scepticism toward received value.

Berliners were innately subversive and maybe this is why hey embraced the subversive form of cabaret so readily, both as artists and audience.

RESOURCES

The Guardian – Wicked Joys

Peter Jelavich, Berlin Cabaret. Harvard University Press, Harvard, 1993