The Lonely Inhabitant of the Metropolis: 1930s Berlin in German and English Modernist Novels

The habitats of 20th century modernism are metropoles. Similar to Baudelaire’s Paris, Dostoevsky’s Saint Petersburg, Freud’s Vienna, and Kafka’s Prague, Berlin is one of the centers of attraction of the 20th century. The image Berlin presents in between the two world wars is of a multi-layered, cosmopolitan city. Even right after World War I, Berlin becomes the center of social disorder, which is the principal characteristic of the modern age. Wilhelm’s Germany, which is defeated in the war, falls apart; the structure of the monarchic government, which is based on class stability, is succeeded by a new and mostly chaotic social sphere in which identities are blurred. This study is going to scrutinize daily life experiences in 1930s Berlin. It will also examine the significance of these experiences within social dynamics through examples from German and English literature. Irmgard Keun’s The Artificial Silk Girl and Christopher Isherwood’s Goodbye to Berlin witness the rise of National Socialism, which is simultaneous with the downfall of the Weimar Republic. At the same time, they portray Berlin’s transformation. The similarities and/or differences between the experiences of a young German woman in The Artificial Silk Girl, and a middle-aged English man in Goodbye to Berlin present a comprehensive portrait of Berlin in the 1930s. Discussing these two novels in the context of the interaction between the individual and the city shows that this metropole, which is under the grip of modernism in-between the two world wars, marginalizes city dwellers regardless of their identities.