Berlin Street Scenes Beautifully Caught on Film (1900–1914)

Some­where along the way, we’ve shown you vin­tage footage of 1906 San Fran­cis­co (before and after the dev­as­tat­ing earth­quake), 1927 Lon­don, 1930s Havana, and New York City cir­ca 1889–1906. Now, let’s do the time warp again and revis­it the street life of Belle Époque Berlin. Bikes, cars, trol­leys, trains — they all crammed the streets of a city mov­ing head­long into moder­ni­ty. And with a fair amount of chaos to show for it. But, even so, these were idyl­lic days. Shot between 1900 and 1914, the videos show us a more relaxed city, one unaware that World War I and decades of destruc­tion were right around the cor­ner.

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Relat­ed Con­tent:

Free His­to­ry Cours­es from Our Col­lec­tion of 700 Free Cours­es Online

British Actors Read Poignant Poet­ry from World War I

Euro­pean Cul­tur­al His­to­ry in 91 Lec­tures (Free)