Saturday 15 January 2011

Into The Tardis Again - Berlin, 1900


Paul in NY just made some slight and wistful noises about my 'Berlin in 1900' post on the old blog - it was more than enough to provoke an instant re-post here!

Time to time travel again - I've already buckled up my seat belt and am set to go!

This particular journey is the result of seeing a most poignant piece of footage - Berlin between 1900 and 1910, just before the carnage that was World War One.

People seem prosperous and confident, a world of such seeming certainties - the ultimate calm before the storm.

There's the hustle and bustle of the streets - just a slice, across the social spectrum, of ordinary people going about their daily business ...


And images of individual people, close-ups of shadowy often unsuspecting figures, frozen in time ...


... people about whose lives I can't help speculating about!

There are snatched impressions of old and new forms of transport ...


... and famous landmarks ...
 
Brandenburg Gate


There are examples of new social activities, such as bicycling ...

... and new jobs, like directing traffic ...

...and those minuscule usually unrecorded commonplace business activities, such as paying for a cab ...

Finally, there's a bunch of folk out on that new-fangled contraption, the bicycle - performing a cute though perhaps not-quite-Busby-Berkley-standard routine for the camera ...


So, without delay, to the video ...

... which I hope you'll like.
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4 comments:

  1. Paul in NY15 January 2011 at 06:06

    Nick, thank you so much for reposting this! It's even more magical than I remembered.


    And surely, somewhere, someone will know the identity (and story) to the young man in the 7th photo.

    May AD Films have a long, fruitful life!

    ReplyDelete
  2. nickraymondhall15 January 2011 at 06:11

    hi paul

    my real pleasure to re-post it - both for selfish and for selfless gratification!

    the ultimate fantasy of course would be for the man's (gay and astonishingly beautiful) great grandson to comment here - and to say that he'd incorporated his great grandfather in his latest novel!

    fantasy can run riot, can't it!

    best

    nick

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  3. Paul in NY15 January 2011 at 09:27

    Nick: that's very funny, since I just finished a novel set in 1910-11. Male-male romance. Starts in Manhattan and ends in Dresden, the night Richard Strauss's opera DER ROSENKAVALIER had its world premiere (January 26th). But our couple are both Americans, and--at least in this novel--never get to Berlin.

    By the way, what are YOU doing to celebrate ROSENKAVALIER on the 26th? And, yes, the man's gorgeous gay great-grandson is SURELY a follower of your blog. How could he not be?

    Maybe the adorable young man in your film saw it when it got to Berlin a bit later?

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  4. nickraymondhall15 January 2011 at 10:45

    hi paul

    looks as though you've stumbled across the great grandson's book already! and with all the connections we'd love to have - der rosenkavalier, dresden and so on

    of course, the centenary on the 26th - thanks for telling me - i guess (i'm sure - my anglo-saxon understatement fights my french heritage all the time!) i'll be listen to a favourite recording - how bout you? do you have anything more extravagant that me planned?

    now there's a thought - he may well have been on his way to the station to buy his ticket for the upcoming performance?

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