»Völkerschauen« in Berlin's Lunapark

In the decades around 1900, so-called "Völkerschauen", the display of people who seemed "exotic", were a popular subject of entertainment culture: zoos, panoptics or amusement parks showed a paying audience supposedly authentic stagings of the everyday life of people from other countries and cultures in front of elaborately designed backdrops.

The Strait of Cairo

On the Whitsun holidays of 1911, a new attraction opened in Berlin's Lunapark: the Street of Cairo with "85 natives from the Nile country". ^[1] The Berlin Lunapark was located on the shores of Lake Halen at the end of Kurfürstendamm. It was the most popular amusement park in Berlin with a diverse and varied program that combined various fairground entertainments such as carousels, slides or shooting galleries with a well-kept green area and a spacious terrace restaurant. ^[2] So-called "Völkerschau"^[3] were also part of the annual program of the Lunapark, especially before the First World War they were staged and advertised at great expense.

The summer of 1911 was marked by the "Orient" at Halensee. The Berliner Tageblatt wrote even before the opening of the street from Cairo: "Yesterday [...] several groups of exotic figures alighted from the Potsdam train station [...] several groups of exotic figures [...]. The destination of these dark-coloured guests, among whom many a stately appearance, was the Lunapark, where an entire city has sprung up close to the lake." For one summer, these people were now to "live according to the customs of the country and prepare their own food". ^[4]

Within a few days, the street of Cairo had been "conjured up as a fairy tale of Rabitz and cement from the sand of the Brandenburg", as one journalist put it. ^[5] The construction was carried out by the Berlin company Hugo Baruch & Co, which produced costumes, scenery and props for theatres, circuses and entertainment venues and sold its products internationally. ^[6] The Cairo setting on Lake Halen consisted of a mosque, a coffee house, a dervish temple and a bazaar street with small shops where traders and craftsmen such as turners and potters offered their wares. To make life in the streets of Cairo even more colourful, jugglers and magicians performed. Even a "harem" was not to be missed – but the sources do not reveal what exactly this means.

The street of Cairo was by no means a Berlin invention. Since the end of the 1860s, Cairo shows had been part of the standard program of every major (world) exhibition. They were held at the Paris World's Fairs in 1867, 1889 and 1900, at the Vienna World's Fair in 1873, in Chicago in 1893 and in St. Louis in 1904. In Berlin, too, there had already been an Egyptian exhibition as part of the 1896 Trade Exhibition in Treptow. At the time, the 30-meter-high copy of the Pyramid of Cheops, the top of which visitors could reach with the help of a modern elevator, caused a sensation at the time. ^[7]

The construction of the Cairo Street in the Lunapark in 1911 was preceded by a lengthy approval process. The Berlin building police were concerned about the fire safety of the facility, especially in view of the "well-known carelessness of the exotic peoples". ^[8] It was only when the Lunapark submitted a building application with buildings made of non-combustible Rabitz plaster that the attraction was approved in May 1911. ^[9] It is true that the facility is "very aptly modelled on the Egyptian models in architecture and in the bright colour". ^[10] But the short time in which the buildings on the Strait of Cairo had been erected and the stage-like construction of wire plaster also gave rise to ridicule: "But everything still looks a little too new, the real costumes incredibly clean, and the smell of fresh oil paint mixes with the scent of the Orient." ^[11] "Rabitz in Moorish," said the Berliner Tageblatt. ^[12]

Congo in the Lunapark

While the claim to authenticity of the Cairo Strait was ironically commented on by the press in 1911, the following year's "Völkerschau" tried to be serious. Congo was announced as the "most interesting Völkerschau Berlin had ever seen"^[13] and, according to the Vossische Zeitung, it showed "our newest compatriots". ^[14] The global political background of the show was the Morocco-Congo Agreement of 4 November 1911 between France and the German Reich. In it, Germany renounced political claims in Morocco, so that the second Moroccan crisis could be resolved. In return, France handed over parts of its colony of French Equatorial Africa to the German Reich. The additional dominion was added to the German colony of Cameroon, which now reached as far as the Congo.

From this "formerly French, now German Congo region" about 80 women, men and children came to the Berlin Lunapark. ^[15] Since the Congo show presented new German "subjects", the press coverage was more scientific and political. An article in the Berliner Tageblatt said that one could now "study" "the peculiar character" of people's family life. Therefore, it was good "that the troops were given all freedom of movement, because this is how our black compatriots behave quite freely" and showed the "characteristic features of their native life" in the Lunapark. ^[16]

The reporting shows how naturally liberal newspapers also conveyed racist views of the world and of humanity. Attributions of supposedly collective characteristics of the people exhibited were omnipresent: "They make a relatively intelligent impression," judged the Vossische Zeitung. ^[17] The Wilmersdorfer Zeitung was even more explicit, linking its assessment to advance praise for German colonial policy. The colonized were a "magnificent, strong breed of people of not insignificant intelligence, who would probably achieve civility and great usefulness for human society under the strict German discipline." ^[18]

Actually, it had been forbidden by circular decree of the Reich Chancellor since May 1900 to bring people from the overseas possessions of the German Reich to Germany. The background to the ban was fears that the mostly purely commercial display of "colonial subjects" would rather harm colonial ideas. Instead, the exhibited people in European cities would be exposed to bad influences that they could carry with them to their communities after their return. ^[19] The Congo show of the Lunapark could probably only take place in 1912 because the handover of the new territory to the German Reich had not yet been completed. ^[20]

The spectators and the audience

The history of the large commercial "Völkerschau" in Germany, which were organized by internationally active impresarios such as Carl Hagenbeck or Carl Gabriel, has been scientifically investigated for some time. But it is only recently that a change of perspective has been observed, which places the people on display at the center of research. For example, it has been possible to find out a lot about the participants in the Berlin Colonial Exhibition, which took place in Treptow in 1896 as part of the Berlin Trade Exhibition. ^[21]

The Berlin Colonial Exhibition of 1896 was planned and carried out with special effort – it was the central advertising show of the German colonial administration and the colonial economy. For this reason, there are comparatively many sources and documents available about this "Völkerschau". However, the sources for the smaller and purely commercial shows are much poorer. There are also only a few sources about the women, men and children who were brought to the "Völkerschau" in Berlin's Lunapark, which are full of racist stereotypes. Neither the names of the people exhibited nor what the showmen promised them for their participation are known. Nor do we know what their living and working conditions in the amusement park looked like and how they perceived Germany or Berlin.

With the help of the available sources and research, it is easier to answer the question of what fascinated visitors about the "Völkerschauen". First, they offered a perception of difference. The supposedly "exotic" was perceived as a contrast and difference to one's own. The more clearly the image of a foreign culture was drawn, the more clearly many contemporary viewers believed that they recognized their own culture. Visiting a "Völkerschau" was thus by no means an escapist excursion into another world, but a mode of self-discovery and self-assurance. ^[22]

On a second level, "exotic" ensembles offered a detachment from space and thus a travel experience in times of emerging modern tourism. Around 1900, travel increasingly became an identity-forming leisure activity for the upper classes of society. Amusement parks offered opportunities to get to know foreign countries and cultures without traveling. At the same time, their stagings also helped to awaken this need in the first place and – if one could afford it – to satisfy it through a real trip. ^[23]

The attraction of the "Völkerschauen" lay – thirdly – in the fact that real people were exhibited who lived and interacted with each other. They generated a strong curiosity in the public. The humiliation that the exhibited "often suffered, whether intentional or not, was apparently inevitable and was just as necessary for these spectacles as the facades attached to racks or the crowds of curious spectators". ^[24]

An episode from a contemporary novel by Julius Stinde, which takes place at the Berlin Colonial Exhibition in 1896, describes the curiosity of the audience, the disrespect for the people on display and the feelings of shame associated with it: "There was a mother in front of a hut. She sat in the grass and played [...] with her little ones. They rejoiced with delight and the young woman beamed with happiness. […] We educated Europeans stood by the enclosure and watched. Some shouted phrases which, thank God, they did not understand, but it seemed to me as if the woman blushed under her cheek blackness when the snarriness was followed by neighing laughter. She got up and looked at the white people. What was she thinking? Then she took her children by the hand and retired to the hut. […] 'They would have really scared away,' said Uncle Fritz. 'Did you like them, Erika?' – His wife was silent. After a while she said: 'I felt so sorry for the woman.'" ^[25] The fascination, the alienation, the curiosity and the lack of inhibition in the face of people perceived as "different" have been handed down in numerous descriptions. ^[26]

Closely linked to the contemplation of real bodies is the fourth level of fascination. The "Völkerschauen" evoked erotic images and clichés to a great extent, and indeed in relation to both sexes. The belly dancers and harems announced in the Cairo shows fired the imagination of male observers. On the one hand, the "oriental" women were perceived as sexually attractive seductresses, but on the other hand they were also imagined as potentially enslaved victims of uncivilized male violence. The motif of a Western hero heroically rescuing a harem lady and kidnapping her from the clutches of slave owners was popular far beyond the dime novel. ^[27]

Again and again, contemporary sources also contain reports of alleged affairs between exhibited men and European visitors. On the occasion of the "Völkerschau" of the Lunapark in 1910, the so-called "Somali Village", a police officer complained about the "grievance" that the men on display "exerted a great attraction on certain female circles of the big city", which had led to "unpleasant scenes in the Somali village". ^[28] Another newspaper even claimed that a "special police contingent" had to ensure "that our ladies from the noble West do not 'attack' too stormily with their courtship of our black fellow human beings." ^[29] A letter from the Schöneberg-Wilmersdorf police put these exaggerations of the press into perspective: "Above all, the statements [...] about supposedly 'indescribable scenes' that are said to take place in the nooks and crannies of the village after dusk are quite inaccurate". Nevertheless, the police officer remarked that it was "unfortunately a fact" that "sometimes white women show a quite striking interest in male blacks". ^[30]

Fears about erotic capers on the part of the ladies were very powerful and closely linked to racist prejudices. On the one hand, male fears of losing control in the face of supposedly more potent competition from overseas were articulated here. On the other hand, the topos of the love affairs between "exotics" and European women was an expression of projections of female sexuality, which was considered potentially unbridled and therefore had to be kept in check. Racist and sexist prejudices combined to form a highly unpleasant situation.

Fifthly, the "Völkerschauen" were often attributed an educational content. They were seen as an opportunity to get to know other cultures in a vivid way that was easily accessible to everyone. The alleged authenticity of the depictions was considered a guarantee that the central characteristics of another culture could be grasped. Accordingly, newspaper reports by authors who, after attending a "Völkerschau", obviously felt themselves in a position to make ethnologically sound judgments, read professionally. One visitor, for example, formulated a comparison of peoples on the basis of the visit to the two "Völkerschau" in the Lunapark in 1910 and 1911: "If the Somali village had already exerted a great attraction in the previous year, this new attraction has given the Lunapark the highlight, especially since the magnificent Arabs, Sudanese and their tribesmen are much more civilized than the Somalis were, and some of them can communicate in German." ^[31]

There was also interest in "ethnological exhibitions" on the part of science. The Berlin physician, anthropologist, prehistorian and politician Rudolf Virchow, for example, advocated the use of the exhibited people for study purposes and sometimes even placed "orders" for particularly interesting peoples with impresarios. ^[32] On the occasion of the Somali show in Berlin's Lunapark, sound recordings of the Africans were made. ^[33] Anthropologists were most interested, as the shows provided study material for anthropological measurements and comparisons.

Although the "Völkerschauen" liked to give themselves an aura of scientificity, they served above all – sixthly – to confirm the stereotypical ideas of the viewers. The supposed authenticity was generated by "portraying the people shown according to the clichés". ^[34] Even if the audience rejected the stagings and displays of people, they too did not "really rethink the stereotypes", and despite all the "criticism and sympathy, the critics also remained attached to the stereotypes of their time". ^[35]

For the people on display, the shows were hard work under unfamiliar conditions with a fixed schedule and under the constant observation of a gawking public. In the audience, however, the racist images took hold, they were part of everyday entertainment culture like sausage stands or brass band music. The concluding quote from a newspaper article on the street of Cairo illustrates the casual matter-of-factness with which "Völkerschauen" shaped the image of the "Other": "And between coffee and dinner, the Berliner enjoys the wonders of the Orient here."^[36]