Café Kranzler, Berlin 1937

Guests read newspapers and eat cake on the crowded Kranzler terrace, a waitress serves two women in fur coats, and swastika banners hang across the street.

Under the awning lettered Restaurant Kranzler Konditorei the terrace is packed with guests in coats and hats; men read broadsheets, a waitress in a white apron serves two women in fur coats, and from above the round tables with their cups and plates of cake form a pattern of white. Across the tree-lined street hang long swastika banners.

Johann Georg Kranzler had opened his Berlin café in 1825; in 1932 a modern branch followed on the Kurfürstendamm. The papers read on its terrace had been brought into line by Joseph Goebbels in 1933.

Café Kranzler, Berlin 1937

Newspaper readers on the Kranzler terrace, 1937

The terrace of the Kranzler, 1937

A waitress serves two women in fur-trimmed coats, 1937

The café terrace from above, 1937

Coffee and cake at the Kranzler, seen from above, 1937

At the entrance of the Kranzler, 1937