After the First World War, Berlin had this moment of glory during the twenties. Those years were so important to the city that some people call it The Golden Twenties, and they are right regarding the name. Because of this, this video from the Summer of 1929 in Berlin is special.
The twenties in Berlin were pretty special. It was the time of the Greater Berlin Act when the German capital became the third largest city in the world after London and New York. During those years, Berlin took leadership roles in everything it could, from science to music, passing through cinema and health issues.
It was the Weimar Republic era, and during its short existence, many things happened to Germany, especially Berlin. German Expressionism began during the First World War and continued to influence significantly the art world in the years to come.
During those years, the world of architecture and design changed forever with Bauhaus. Literature in Germany had one of its high points with Berlin Alexanderplatz. The cinema world would never be the same after Fritz Lang’s Metropolis in 1927 and Marlene Dietrich’s Blue Angel.
And it didn’t stop there…
Too bad that this culture would be torn to pieces in the upcoming years with the rise of right-wing politics and the Nazi Party.
But we are here to talk about the good things from the past. And the movie trailer above is one of these things. Filmed by Billy Wilder in the summer of 1929 in Berlin, the footage is an extract from a silent movie called Menschen Am Sonntag, a title that the film translated as People On Sunday.
This shows a lot of what Berlin used to be back then. People on the streets are talking to each other, enjoying the sun, taking the train, and smiling at the camera. It is like a trip back in time.
People on Sunday was a significant movie success in Germany when it was released in 1930. Directed by Curt and Robert Siodmak, the film follows the lives of a group of residents of Berlin on a summer’s day during the interwar period that was so good for the city. The movie was hailed as a work of genius, pure movie gold, and it was pivotal to the development of German cinema and Hollywood.
A trip back in time to the Summer of 1929 in Berlin with Menschen Am Sonntag
If you want to watch People on Sunday aka Menschen Am Sonntag, entirely click here on YouTube.
And, if you’re going to watch more vintage videos of Berlin, click here to see how Berlin used to be back in 1900, how everything changed in the 30s, how East Berlin used to be during the Cold War, and how everything changed even more after the reunification.
