Germany in War Time: What an American Girl Saw and HeardMcAuley, Mary Ethel
History
Germany in War Time: What an American Girl Saw and Heard
McAuley, Mary Ethel
World War, 1914-1918 -- Germany
The play that caused the greatest sensation in Germany last season was
a tragedy called "_Liebe_," or "Love." It was a grewsome tale of two
married people. It was full of the sordidness, the horrible actualities
of life. I lived at the same boarding-house with the actress that took
the part of the wife in the play, _Frau Anna_, the main role. She was
quite a frivolous young German girl, but she splendidly managed the
part of a woman that had been married nine years.
[Illustration: _A Boat Club in the Grunewald near Berlin._]
Moving picture shows are not as popular in Germany as in America
because of the high prices. In Germany it costs as much to go to
a "Kino"--that is what they call a "movie"--as it does to sit in
the gallery at the opera. For shows no better than our five-cent
shows we had to pay two marks, and one can sit in the gallery at the
Charlottenburg Opera House for ninety pfennigs.
They have their "movie stars," and one of the greatest favorites is an
American girl named Fern Andra. When I left Berlin her films were still
drawing great crowds, America's entrance into the war having made no
difference. They do not have Charlie Chaplin in Germany. They know him
in Norway, but so far Germany has escaped. One German editor wrote,
"_Gott sei Dank_, the war has prevented us from going Chaplin mad."
As a whole the German "movies" are not nearly so good as ours, they
cannot compare with our wonderful productions. The only part that is
better than ours is the music, and they always have fine orchestras of
from ten to thirty men. Here in America we just drop into a "movie,"
but in Germany it makes a special evening's entertainment. Most of the
"kinos" have restaurants attached, and in all "kinos" you must check
your wraps. I often stayed away from shows just because I hated the
idea of going to the _Garderobe_ and checking my wraps.
[Illustration: _Booty Exhibition in Berlin. Captured Air-Ships._]
I saw a great number of fine art exhibitions in Germany. Germans
consider an art exhibition as one of the necessities of life. Cubist
art has rather gone out of date, and war art has taken its place.
Such stirring pictures as these war artists have produced! Most of
the best German artists have been to the front sketching, and the
war productions of such artists as Fritz Erler and Walther Georgi
are some of the most wonderful paintings I have ever seen. Weisgerber
was another artist who has made blood-stirring war pictures. He was a
German officer and was killed a year ago in France. He was very young,
and his work was full of great promise. His work was much seen in _Die
Jugend_.
I saw the great Berlin exhibition of art last fall. It was not nearly
so interesting as the great international exhibitions that were held in
Germany before the war. It was monotonous, and yet I have never seen an
exhibit where so many pictures were sold. I saw hundreds and hundreds
of pictures marked _Verkauft_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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