The winters of the year 1940 was brutal for the residents of the city of Berlin. Germany’s waterways from the smallest canals and lake to the greatest arterial rivers, froze solid. Temperatures fell as low as minus 20 degrees Celsius. The effect of the brutal weather disrupted the lives of berliners to a great extent….
Category: Field Studies
Business flourishing under the blanket of blackout
“One man’s loss is another man’s gain” In the year 1939 Berlin was covered in a blanket of darkness, a defensive measure to protect itself. Berlin was having total black outs to protect itself from air raids by the British. The blackout was a measure to ensure that plane could not see any sign of…
Berlin Blues
The mood within the city of Berlin shifted with the changes in the war for Germany in 1940. There was a depressing atmosphere because of strict rationing, enduring blackouts, and lost loved ones. Berliners tried to distract themselves through entertainment, such as theaters. By 1941, from the Berliners’ perspective, Germany seemed to have won the…
A Hurricane or War
When reading about the precautions taking when preparing for warm I could not help but realize that it greatly resembled the preparations taken when expecting to be hit by a hurricane. Living on an island on the east coast of Florida, this is the closest similarity I could draw to what was being described in Berlin…
1 September, 1939
A journal entry from Edith Färber, age 10 living in Berlin the morning that war was declared on Poland. This morning started like any other. Mother woke both Hans and I and fed us breakfast, Father had his coffee and went off to work, then the rest of us left for school. Hans and I…
Top 3 Reasons Rollins College Fox Day is the same as the Hitler’s Birthday festivities
Upon beginning reading Berlin at War by Roger Moorhouse, I was inspired by the details of the festivities associated with the celebration of Adolf Hitler’s birthday on April 20th in 1939. Throughout reading the prologue, I could not help but notice the similarities between the morale of the German city on Hitler’s birthday and that…
Berlin Morale
If chapter four (“Marching on their Stomachs”) focused on the rationing, chapter two (“A Guarded Optimism”) highlighted the effects of the blackout upon the Berlin residents. It is interesting to see how both affected people’s morale but the rationing was immensily more effective (militarly speaking). The advent of radar technology made the blackouts innefective yet…
My Character in Berlin
My character is a German man, age 25 in 1939 living in Berlin. He comes from a wealthy family and is a member of the Nazi party. I chose this character because he is my polar opposite and I believe it will be an interesting experience to delve into such a different perspective. The Berlin…
(More) Rations and Restrictions
While reading chapter 4 of Berlin at War, it was nearly impossible not to notice the parallels (and differences) between the Berliners’ experiences in the Second World War and that of German citizens in World War I. According to Moorhouse, inadequate or nonexistent rations were the main issue plaguing German citizens in the capital. Starvation,…
To Ration or Not To Ration – That is the Question
In times of war and natural disaster, rationing may play a major role. In Nazi Germany, citizens were given ration cards for food, clothing, coal, and other basic necessities. The government proclaimed that “Nobody shall hunger or freeze” (75). In contrast to the situation of World War I, the Nazi Party was able to adequately…