By the Weimar Era, Berlin had been a queer-friendly city for many decades. The popularity of the drag show was often an effective way of integration
Although it found its more meaningful, more socially involved incarnation in Berlin, cabaret was actually born in Paris at the end of the 1800s
Berlin cabaret was about life, about the experience, the feelings, the thoughts, the fears, the compromises. It was a mirror of real life
Even when non-political, cabaret questions social mores with special regard to sexuality, religion and commercialism and this is what constitutes its form of humour and its stronger point of social commentary. Of course, no nationalistic force would ever have any of it.
Germans loved jazz from the beginning. It sounded like the music that could bring renovation and new life to their tired society and was generally welcomed
For many philosophers and scholars, laughter was a serious matters and cabaret sure received this message. The more self-conscious cabaret supported the freedom laughter creates
While in the interwar years Germans used the French world Cabaret and the German world Kabarett interchangeably, in subsequent decades, Kabarett came to indicate a more engaged, more political form of entertainment.
Many cabaretists were Jewish, but they performed in front of a Gentile audience. In the interwar years, when anti-Semitism rose to violence, this created unexpected issues.
Cabaretists very rarely rehearsed their numbers. Their best skill was improvisation and the ability to interact with the audience and adjust to their reactions.
Although similar to other concurrent forms of entertainment, cabaret had a very specific characteristic: intimacy. The locale in which cabaret happened was therefore of importance to the language of the show
The kicklines of girls, though not a novelty, because extremely popular in Germany in the interwar years. They gave a dynamic image of the Nerw Woman… but also insinuated a less glamorous truth about her actual role in society
A subversive form of art, cabaret wasn’t the right choice for a time of war. During the First World War cabaret renounced its nature to become pure, mindless entertainment