Areas of Research

Cabaret takes place during the years 1929 and 1930, almost a decade before the official start of World War II. At this time, Hitler and the Nazi party were on their rise to power. Adolf Hitler, soon to become the infamous dictator of Germany, had anti-Semitic and otherwise problematic political ideals that were born long before he gained power in Germany. Hitler learned about “anti-Semitism and Aryan race theories” from sources like the magazine Ostara, created by Jorg Lanz von Lienbenfels, who founded the “esoteric and anti-Semitic organization” Order of the New Templars (Nakagaki Sec 3). Hitler  was also influenced by the political beliefs and anti-Semitism of figures such as Martin Luther and Richard Wagner. Hitler’s political rallies would become a “thrilling spectacle of Wagnerian theatrics” including “music, usually by Wagner” (Nakagaki Sec 5). Hitler’s radicalized political beliefs were born from anti-Semitism and extreme nationalism that existed in Europe previous to his political career. It is essential to recognize that the roots of the Third Reich reach further back in history. 

Hitler had a troubled relationship with the city of Berlin, where Cabaret takes place. Previously known for being “culturally stuffy” and “dull,” in the 1920s Berlin “became a byword for artistic experimentation, anti-authoritarianism, radicalism, and the hedonism of every variety” (Evans 47-49). Though Hitler had originally intended for the city to become the center for his planned “overthrow of Weimer democracy,” he struggled to win the support of citizens of Berlin, and eventually declared that “the Berlin of Frederich the Great [had] been turned into a pigsty by the Jews” (Evans 49-50). Hitler famously loved Munich and hated Berlin, and thus the Nazi Party headquarters remained in Munich while the headquarters of the rest of the political parties of Germany were in the capital city (Evans 54). Once Hitler gained power and was able to win control of Berlin, Hitler was “finally free” to do away with the “‘degenerate art’, satirical cabaret, jazz, and other things that had disgusted him about the city in the 1920s” (Evans 56). The experimental expression and satirical cabaret that Hitler hated so much about the city of Berlin are at the core of Cabaret. The implication of the Emcee finding himself in a concentration camp at the end of Cabaret directly reflects Hitler’s eventual erasure of this way of life in Berlin.

​

​

Hitler’s swastika, the widely recognized symbol of the terror of Nazi Germany, appears on the stage in Cabaret. The careful manipulation of this symbol is another example that shows just how deeply rooted Hitler’s anti-Semitism and dangerous nationalistic beliefs were, and the presence of equally radical beliefs before Hitler. Before the corruption of the symbol, the swastika represented only positive meanings. The swastika existed before Nazi Germany, and is “possibly one of the world’s oldest and most universal symbols, possibly dating back to prehistoric times” (Nakagaki Sec 2). The symbol was used, and is still currently used, by “many world religions, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Zoroastrianism” (Nakagaki Sec 2). Prior to its use by the Nazis, the swastika symbol was even popularly used in the United States, “[appearing] on a diverse array of items [...] often accompanying the words ‘good luck’” (Nakagaki Sec 2). The four “legs” represented “the ‘four L’s’: love, life, light, and luck” (Nakagaki Sec 2). The Nazi flag featured the swastika symbol with a red, black, and white color scheme. These colors reflect Hitler’s nostalgic sense of Nationalism as they were the colors of the “German national flag used from 1871 until Germany’s defeat in 1918” and “recalled the glory days of the Empire, prior to the humiliation of the Weimar Republic” (Nakagaki Sec 3). Hitler took a widely used symbol known for its associations with positivity in both the Eastern and Western world and projected his beliefs of racism and anti-Semitism onto it. This symbol is forever changed, marked by the atrocities of Germany in World War II. 

Why was the Nazi party able to rise to power? While in prison “after a failed attempt to begin the National Socialist Revolution” in Munich, Hitler wrote his famous autobiography and political manifesto Mein Kampf (“My Struggle”) (Vasey 8). In this book, Hitler focused his political beliefs and made a plan to execute a political revolution “via the democratic process” in Germany (Vasey 9). As a member of the German Workers Party, which became the Nazi party, Hitler and his corrupt group members began to rise in popularity. But what ensured their success was Germany’s struggle in the Great Depression after the Stock Market Crash of 1929. The current “Weimer government seemed unable to deal with the crisis” and the Nazi party preyed on the fears of the citizens (Vasey 9). This economic struggle is even explored in Cabaret in the song “Money,” in which the Emcee and the cabaret girls and boys sing about going hungry and having no money. The struggling citizens of Germany “began to turn to the Nazi party, largely because of its youth, its vitality and its promise of decisive solutions to the crisis” (Evans 52). Hitler “blamed the Jews and the Weimer democrats for Germany’s problems,” attempting to offer solace to the panicked people of Germany (Vasey 10). The people of Germany “were prepared to accept Nazism” and “close their eyes to [...] the mistreatment of the Jews and Nazi corruption” (Vasey 17). This voluntary ignorance would allow Nazi Germany the ability to commit the egregious crimes of the Holocaust during World War II.