[foobiekr]

For RPGers, this is one of the many elements from that time that show up in "Berlin: The Wicked City" for Call of Cthulhu. It doesn't get the attention that it deserves as a module and setting. Weimar Berlin is practically mythos-tastic in and of itself.

[TillE]

RPG setting books can be a ton of fun even if you're not into roleplaying per se. I picked up one of the AD&D Lankhmar books as a kid, and while I love Fritz Leiber, reading those books can immerse you in a richly detailed world in a way that Leiber's original work doesn't quite do.

That probably applies even more to Lovecraft, who's one of my favorite writers, but I know plenty of people who don't like his writing but are really into Call of Cthulhu and other Mythos stuff.

[dmonitor]

i can imagine why people aren’t so enthusiastic about role playing early 20th century germans

[rodgerd]

Germany, up until the rise of the Nazis, was a popular destination for Eastern Jews fleeing pogroms, a centre of sexuality research, cutting-edge culture for music and film.

We should do a better job of remembering that, because the reason none of that survives is "the Nazis murdered everyone". Particularly given the direct adoption of Nazi-era phraseology in modern political movements.

[Barrin92]

Yes, it's sad how little attention that period of German history gets especially abroad. Babylon Berlin is a fantastic German TV production that captures the cultural side of the late Weimar period very well.

[ghaff]

Of course, the musical Cabaret as well. Based on Christopher Isherwood's writings.

Unsurprisingly, the film sanitizes things a little bit and makes it into a Liza Minnelli star vehicle--which actually improves on some book problems with the stage version but sort of makes it less interesting overall. Still worth a watch though. The stage version is still playing in London.

The play uses the idea of being able to phone another table as well.

[amanaplanacanal]

I just watched this for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Enjoyable film, though I actually cried at the end, knowing what was about to happen there.

[pgreenwood]

The silent film; Berlin, Symphony of a Great City (1927) by Walter Ruttman always made a big impression me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdFasmBJYFg https://archive.org/details/BerlinSymphonyofaGreatCity

[Archelaos]

To get an insight into the time, I can highly recommend reading the diaries of Harry Graf Kessler.[1] Extensive excerpts are available in English translation under the title: "Berlin in Lights".

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Graf_Kessler

[treprinum]

I guess its end by hyperinflation followed by nazis is not something people would be proud of.

[boondoggle16]

don't forget the civil war!

[Gabriel_Martin]

Every other day I hear a reactionary takes on behaviors that would have been called "sexual bolshevism" at the time. Scary times.

[jojobas]

Are you using the term Bolshevism in a positive sense, seriously?

[Gabriel_Martin]

The other reply is correct, I'm referencing the Nazi's brand of rhetoric.

Today's rhetoric has the charming variety of "exactly the same" to "distinctly similar". Blood libel, for example being exactly the same as what Qanon believer espouse, and reactionary rhetoric about drag performers being distinctly similar to "degenerate art". A 1500 person poll had 50% of Republicans believing in a pedophile cult among democrat Elites[1]. 25% identify as believing in Qanon, which is literally blood libel [2].

So no, not using it in a positive sense, at all.

1: https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/articles-reports/20... 2: https://www.prri.org/research/the-persistence-of-qanon-in-th...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Bolshevism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_libel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degenerate_art

[jojobas]

Except pedophile brothels were actually rife in Weimar Germany and its elites were the ones consuming them.

[goos]

I.. don't think that's what they're doing at all. "Sexual Bolshevism" was used in a derogatory sense by the Nazis, criticizing more liberal sexual views and practices by implying it was related to the Russian Bolsheviks. I think what the above poster is doing is comparing similar critique heard today, to what the Nazis were saying back then.

[jojobas]

So, if the Nazis hated it, it must be good... right?

[TRiG_Ireland]

A reminder that the famous photos of Nazi book burnings were mostly burning Hirshfield's research into the lives of trans people.

[zokier]

> It doesn't get the attention that it deserves as a module and setting. Weimar Berlin is practically mythos-tastic in and of itself.

I suspect weimar berlin is just pretty difficult setting to utilize; in particular you would be trying to draw inspiration from and evoke art/media of the time, which in this case would be stuff like German expressionist cinema and modernist literature which do not have exactly mass-market appral, compared to e.g. victorian era works.