Armin T. Wegner and Café des Westens

You can’t miss the famous café Kranzler, when you are in Kurfürstendamm in Berlin. Actually, Kranzler is a nostalgic reminder of Café des Westens, established in an adjacent building in 1898 and destroyed in WWII. In the years before First World War, Café des Westens became the center of the literary Expressionism and the birthplace of German Cabaret. Else Lasker-Schüler, Max Reinhardt, Richard Strauss, René Schickele, Roda Roda and many others were frequent guests. Satiric social-political shows like “Stachelschweine” (Porcupines) in Berlin and later “Saturday Night Live”, a popular TV show in the US, are derived from the progression of that period.

However, there were also ‘intellectuals’ who felt so overwhelmed by their own great ideas, that the venue was nicknamed Café Größenwahn (megalomaniacs’ hangout).

In describing Café des Westens Armin T. Wegner remembers:

The revolving door moved continuously in the afternoon and evening hours, behind which stood the red-haired hunchback doorkeeper, ‘Richard’, a poor Berliner fella, who kept watch like a snarling dog over every Berliner artist. A muffled tranquility pervaded the room. Most guests read the papers, others conversed quietly with each other. In the evening in one corner a violinist with a cellist played music.

The sweet melodies spread a strangely calming atmosphere. Even at midnight no one showed a desire to leave. Whereto? Home? Was there an ‘at home’ for us? The majority of these mostly young writers and artists, the city gypsies, had no regular jobs. They were joined by young actors and actresses, theatre and lecture audiences and returned to the Cafe, after performances in Friedrichstadt, for a cup of coffee, a glass of brandy or 2 eggs in a glass, the usuel snack in coffeehouses at that time.

Without a pause new couples pushed through the softly sighing revolving door.