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Night Falls on the Berlin of the Roaring Twenties
Symphony of a Great City
The rip-roaring metropolis of the 1920s
It was the age of drag balls, Metropolis, and Josephine Baker. Of scientific breakthroughs, literary verve, and the political chaos of the Weimar Republic. After the best-selling Hollywood in the 30s and New York in the Roaring Twenties , illustrator Robert Nippoldt teams up with author Boris Pofalla to evoke the fast-moving, freewheeling metropolis that was Berlin in the 1920s .
Like a cinematographic city tour through time , Berlin of the Roaring Twenties takes in the urban scale and the intricate details of this transformative decade , from sweeping street panoramas, bejeweled with new electric lights, to the foxtrot and tango steps tapped out on dance floors across the town. With characteristic graphic mastery of light, shadow, and expression , as well as a silver-printing sheen, Nippoldt intersperses portraits with cityscapes, revealing the changing scenery and dynamic hubs of this burgeoning and rapidly industrializing capital, as well as the extraordinary protagonists that made up its hotbed scene of art, science, and ideas .
With an eager eye on the eccentrics and outlaws that made up this heady age as much as the established “greats,” Nippoldt includes rich profiles not only of the likes of Lotte Reiniger, Christopher Isherwood, Albert Einstein, Kurt Weill, Marlene Dietrich , and George Grosz , but also for “the woman with ten brains” Thea Alba, “Einstein of Sex” Magnus Hirschfeld, and the city’s notorious criminal Adolf Leib. So, too, does the book contain special features for some of the most prominent cultural and political phenomena of the time, whether the most iconic film characters or the frenzied chaos of the Weimar cabinet.
Beyond the people and the places, the book captures above all the incomparable and ineffable spirit of time and place , of an epoch suspended between two world wars and a country caught between joie-de-vivre daring and the darkness of encroaching National Socialism . Before the night falls, Nippoldt shows it all to the bright lights and the backstage whispers, the looming factories and the theoretical physics, the roar of the sports hall and the hush of the theater, the songs of the Comedian Harmonists, the satire of George Grosz, and the gender-bending icon of Marlene Dietrich, lighting up a cigarette in top hat, tuxedo, and come-to-bed eyes.
The rip-roaring metropolis of the 1920s
It was the age of drag balls, Metropolis, and Josephine Baker. Of scientific breakthroughs, literary verve, and the political chaos of the Weimar Republic. After the best-selling Hollywood in the 30s and New York in the Roaring Twenties , illustrator Robert Nippoldt teams up with author Boris Pofalla to evoke the fast-moving, freewheeling metropolis that was Berlin in the 1920s .
Like a cinematographic city tour through time , Berlin of the Roaring Twenties takes in the urban scale and the intricate details of this transformative decade , from sweeping street panoramas, bejeweled with new electric lights, to the foxtrot and tango steps tapped out on dance floors across the town. With characteristic graphic mastery of light, shadow, and expression , as well as a silver-printing sheen, Nippoldt intersperses portraits with cityscapes, revealing the changing scenery and dynamic hubs of this burgeoning and rapidly industrializing capital, as well as the extraordinary protagonists that made up its hotbed scene of art, science, and ideas .
With an eager eye on the eccentrics and outlaws that made up this heady age as much as the established “greats,” Nippoldt includes rich profiles not only of the likes of Lotte Reiniger, Christopher Isherwood, Albert Einstein, Kurt Weill, Marlene Dietrich , and George Grosz , but also for “the woman with ten brains” Thea Alba, “Einstein of Sex” Magnus Hirschfeld, and the city’s notorious criminal Adolf Leib. So, too, does the book contain special features for some of the most prominent cultural and political phenomena of the time, whether the most iconic film characters or the frenzied chaos of the Weimar cabinet.
Beyond the people and the places, the book captures above all the incomparable and ineffable spirit of time and place , of an epoch suspended between two world wars and a country caught between joie-de-vivre daring and the darkness of encroaching National Socialism . Before the night falls, Nippoldt shows it all to the bright lights and the backstage whispers, the looming factories and the theoretical physics, the roar of the sports hall and the hush of the theater, the songs of the Comedian Harmonists, the satire of George Grosz, and the gender-bending icon of Marlene Dietrich, lighting up a cigarette in top hat, tuxedo, and come-to-bed eyes.
223 pages, Hardcover
First published November 24, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 12, 2019
My initial desire to read this comes out of a snail-mail roleplaying game project that I am currently undertaking (using the De Profundis RPG rules, among others). The idea is to immerse myself into the Berlin of 1933, triangulating this book with Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu supplement, Berlin: The Wicked City (speaking of which, I need to buy myself a hard copy of that one!) and the Trail of Cthulhu supplement Bookhounds of London. I am just starting the actual play of the game, so we shall see how it goes. Getting people on the same page (so to speak) for a snail mail RPG is like herding cats, especially when you have several talented people with wide ranging interests and responsibilities. But I want to game with interesting people, so I sometimes have to deal with the "stop and start" a bit.
Whether you RPG or not (and if not, why not?), Night Falls on the Berlin of the Roaring Twenties is well worth your time and hard-earned cash. It is a Taschen book, which already qualifies it as "good," and it's one of the better Taschen books I've read, which is saying a lot. It is part graphic novel, part educational text, like the old Dorling Kindersley books, but for adults. And it IS only for adults! Nothing is held back in this expose of the roaring '20s. Nothing. So, please, don't let your kids go thumbing through this unless you want them asking "Mom, what's BDSM?" or "Dad, why are they all naked?"
On the other hand, with nothing held back, there's a lot to like here. There are several one page (or sometimes longer) biographies of notable people of Berlin from Marlene Dietrich to Max Ernst to Bertolt Brecht to Albert Einstein and a slew of others you've never heard of, from the police to the underworld, composers to criminals, politicians to prostitutes, it's all here. There are sections on the movies, hotels, traffic, airport, festivals, and brothels of Berlin, noting their features and, oftentimes, events that unfolded at each.
But this is not just a history book, it is a book of cultural unfolding, decadence, and collapse. Its scale is epic, for a work about one city in one decade. This focus provides an immersive experience for the reader. The inclusion of a CD with several recordings of songs from the period help in the immersion, an unholy baptism into the wicked city. You may come to this volume an agnostic, but you'll leave a believer!
Whether you RPG or not (and if not, why not?), Night Falls on the Berlin of the Roaring Twenties is well worth your time and hard-earned cash. It is a Taschen book, which already qualifies it as "good," and it's one of the better Taschen books I've read, which is saying a lot. It is part graphic novel, part educational text, like the old Dorling Kindersley books, but for adults. And it IS only for adults! Nothing is held back in this expose of the roaring '20s. Nothing. So, please, don't let your kids go thumbing through this unless you want them asking "Mom, what's BDSM?" or "Dad, why are they all naked?"
On the other hand, with nothing held back, there's a lot to like here. There are several one page (or sometimes longer) biographies of notable people of Berlin from Marlene Dietrich to Max Ernst to Bertolt Brecht to Albert Einstein and a slew of others you've never heard of, from the police to the underworld, composers to criminals, politicians to prostitutes, it's all here. There are sections on the movies, hotels, traffic, airport, festivals, and brothels of Berlin, noting their features and, oftentimes, events that unfolded at each.
But this is not just a history book, it is a book of cultural unfolding, decadence, and collapse. Its scale is epic, for a work about one city in one decade. This focus provides an immersive experience for the reader. The inclusion of a CD with several recordings of songs from the period help in the immersion, an unholy baptism into the wicked city. You may come to this volume an agnostic, but you'll leave a believer!
May 13, 2021
Wow.
I'm sure I could wax poetic about this book (and I probably will, on my blog), but in short: there's nothing about it that I didn't love. I bought it on a whim, expecting little, and I was absolutely delighted with it from the very moment I opened it.
"Night falls on the Berlin of the Roaring Twenties" is an experience, managing to bring to life the feel of a moment in time, of an unparalleled time and age of music, film, dancing and entertainment on the edge of future disaster, a brief second of glorious light between a world war and the rise of dictatorship.
It creates the picture of an age and mood. I was expecting to learn about the and places in the Berlin of the Roaring Twenties, but I wasn't expecting the flair of their presentation, the wonderful black-and-white drawings that hide as much as they reveal, nor the music that so wonderfully complements the book itself (there's a CD, as well).
It's a world of glamour, of actors, dancers and musicians, but also of criminals and police, of writers, of foreigners. Beneath the shine of the main streets of Berlin, you can see and feel the grime of poverty and the desperation of the poor, with the specter of extremism always breathing down the necks of revelers. And it's stunning, evocative, and enchanting.
I'm sure I could wax poetic about this book (and I probably will, on my blog), but in short: there's nothing about it that I didn't love. I bought it on a whim, expecting little, and I was absolutely delighted with it from the very moment I opened it.
"Night falls on the Berlin of the Roaring Twenties" is an experience, managing to bring to life the feel of a moment in time, of an unparalleled time and age of music, film, dancing and entertainment on the edge of future disaster, a brief second of glorious light between a world war and the rise of dictatorship.
It creates the picture of an age and mood. I was expecting to learn about the and places in the Berlin of the Roaring Twenties, but I wasn't expecting the flair of their presentation, the wonderful black-and-white drawings that hide as much as they reveal, nor the music that so wonderfully complements the book itself (there's a CD, as well).
It's a world of glamour, of actors, dancers and musicians, but also of criminals and police, of writers, of foreigners. Beneath the shine of the main streets of Berlin, you can see and feel the grime of poverty and the desperation of the poor, with the specter of extremism always breathing down the necks of revelers. And it's stunning, evocative, and enchanting.
January 1, 2021
This is a glorious artbook, tracing the journey of Berlin during the Weimar Republic. The book is populated with superb black and white illustrations, rather than photographs, and is full of fascinating facts and descriptions of places, people and events. It's not a book that can be read lightly, as it demands the time to explore. I really enjoyed it, and the CD which is included has recordings of music from the time which are referenced in the text so you can put them on at the appropriate time. An excellent book to finish the year on.
July 3, 2023
Ikonisch und schön das Buch. Ich würde es schon fast eine „Überreizung“ nennen, passend zum Thema. So viele unterschiedliche Persönlichkeiten, die Einen heute vergessen und die Anderen immer noch bekannt. Die Illustrationen sind perfekt umgesetzt, in das Layout als auch passend zu den Themen und nicht ablenkend, trotzdem wirken sie sehr lebendig. Ein wirklich tolles Buch zu den Ikonen der goldenen Zwanziger. Empfehlenswert.
February 24, 2022
A true masterpiece. It consists of short (1-3 pages), well crafted texts about what made the Berlin of the twenties the grandiose place it was. Interspersed are the biographies of some of the people typical of the time, most of them long forgotten. Absolutely fascinating read if you are interested in that period of time.
September 13, 2021
Fabulous fun - a lavishly illustrated account of a fascinating era in Berlin's history. It's the art and the large format that make this book. It's masterfully done.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews