If you go back to the Frame Travel Roam Capture archives, you’ll see that we love to see old videos of Berlin. This short one from Berlin in 1936 is no exception since it shows how beautiful the city used to be and focus on the changes that were happening to the German capital during the time it was governed by the Nazi party.
The video starts with a shot of Strasse des 17. Juni covered in Nazi banners. Back then, this street was known as Charlottenburger Chaussee since it connected Mitte with Charlottenburg’s neighborhood. It also shows the new placement of the Victory Column since it was moved from its original spot in front of the Reichstag to have a more prominent space in Hitler’s new Berlin. From there, it shows the Brandenburger Tor and the Reichstag with its old dome.
I love that a special part of the video is focused on the newly developed Berliner Funkturm, the former broadcasting center of the German capital. Just the year before, the first regular television program in the world was broadcast from there, and this is just one example of how important the tower used to be.
From there, the video returns to the center of Berlin and shows how Unter Der Linden used to look in 1936. It focuses on the military presence in the city’s most famous avenue and the Berliner Schloss, which is being rebuilt right now. It also shows Museum Island, where many people walk and drive around.
Alexanderplatz also appears in the video, and it can be seen in all its former glory—before the Second World War and before the Soviet forces redeveloped the area in the city. You can recognize some buildings around it, but it’s pretty simple to see that most of the square would never be the same.
This short movie from 1936 features a dancing scene on top of Karstadt Hermannpla in Neukölln. The shop was one of the most beautiful buildings in Berlin and was located in a neighborhood known for its bars and nightlife. Today, only a small part of the building is original, but you can go to the last floor and see a model of how Karstadt used to look before the war.
It’s also great to see how modern the public transportation system used to be. Even in the thirties, Berlin was a city preparing for the future.
There is also a shot of the Berliner Zoo filled with exotic animals. But the scene after is more interesting to me since it shows a lake around Berlin filled with men and women in bathing suits enjoying the water and the sun. Something that looks way more modern than the American movies I remember watching from the same era.
Overall, this movie shows Berlin as more advanced than most cities worldwide. The town was being developed to become even greater, but they didn’t see that the future would soon become dark.
In less than 10 years, Berlin would lay in ruins, which is still being developed and changed today.
