Sausage vendor and cook: comic sketch, Berlin circa 1930

A man in a top hat and dark frock coat playfully holds out a sausage to a cook in white uniform and chef's hat – a gag built on the contrast between bourgeois appearance and kitchen staff. Such street vendors and snack stands were part of everyday life in Berlin's entertainment districts around Potsdamer Platz, where nightclub-goers were served sausages and other quick bites after visiting cabarets and bars. The footage is part of American newsreel raw material on Berlin city life that captured traffic and everyday scenes alongside the capital's vibrant nightlife. Small comic bits like this underline the lighthearted tone often used to portray nightlife during the Weimar Republic – just a few years before this culture of entertainment came to an abrupt end with the Nazi seizure of power in 1933.

Period

1932

Credit

The March of Time (Outtakes)US National ArchivesPublic Domain (NARA) · Digitalisierung und Bearbeitung: © zb Media GmbH