The monkey show at the Stuttgart fair, 1937
Children and men in hats crowd a low fence to watch monkeys in knitted jackets perform, and a trainer tucks a monkey into a doll's bed.
Along the picket fence of a small tented arena, children in caps and knitted bonnets lean over the rail, one with a lollipop, and men in hats and suits crowd behind them under a banner reading Auf Wiedersehn. In the ring a small monkey in a knitted jacket and cap sits on a sloping board, a chain round its neck, while another climbs beside it; a trainer in a white cap bends over a little wooden bed and tucks a monkey in under a white cover, and a family in the front row, a girl in a white beret among the spectators, watches with grave attention.
Performing monkeys dressed as people had toured German fairs for generations. The animal protection law of November 1933, which the regime advertised as the most advanced in the world, left such shows untouched.
