Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Goodbye to Berlin, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Friendship
Storytelling
Antisemitism in Germany
Money as Security
Decadence
Summary
Analysis
The novel’s young English narrator, Christopher Isherwood, looks out his window at the Berlin streets. He observes the life around him, consciously trying to record it all in his mind for later. He anticipates the evening, during which young men will go calling for their lovers, and laments his own loneliness.
This first scene cements the novel as a series of observations from Christopher’s point of view. He is a storyteller, relaying the specifics of an historically important time and place. It also cements Christopher as a character without romantic or sexual connections, which will become important when understanding his relationships throughout the novel.
Themes
Christopher describes the boardinghouse in which he lives. The landlady, Frl. Schroeder, has decorated the living space in a Gothic style, and the room is full of antiques. Christopher wonders what will become of these antiques as time goes on. He describes Frl. Schroeder, who was wealthy before World War I and the Inflation that resulted from the war. She often tells Christopher stories about her past, before her economic situation changed and she had to let out rooms in her apartment. She also tells Christopher stories of her past lodgers, pointing out the marks that they’ve left on the place. Christopher wonders where they all are now, and where he will be in the future.
Frl. Schroeder’s boarding house and financial situation tells the reader a lot about Berlin culture during the 1930s. She is the first character the novel describes whose life has been deeply affected by the economic inflation Germany experienced after World War I. Christopher’s musings about what will become of her antiques mirrors the larger theme of the novel: how will history live on?
Themes
Christopher describes the rest of the lodgers in Frl. Schroeder’s apartment. Bobby is a young man who works as a bartender in a club called the Troika. Frl. Kost is a prostitute who often brings men into her room. Frl. Mayr is a yodeler who often lays tarot cards with Frl. Schroeder to tell their fortunes. She often tells stories of her life as a performer. Frl. Mayr is also an ardent Nazi. One night, Christopher visits Bobby at the Troika. He observes the scene, which is not lively until a group of wealthy people come in and the bar workers and the band spring to life.
The rest of the lodgers in Frl. Schroeder’s boarding house also provide a view of Berlin at the time of Christopher’s writing. Frl. Mayr, specifically, highlights the quotidian nature of antisemitic beliefs in Berlin society. Bobby, on another note, serves as Christopher’s entry point into the decadent club culture of Berlin. In the nightclub, Christopher’s observation that the place comes to life when wealthy people enter hints at the power that wealth held in Berlin at the time, when many Berliners struggled financially.
Themes
In order to make money, Christopher works as an English tutor. One of his students, a 19-year-old girl named Frl. Hippi Bernstein, comes from a wealthy family. She prefers to gossip during their lessons rather than perfect her English. She also spends their lessons talking to her family on the phone that connects the rooms in their house. One day, the Bernstein family invites Christopher to lunch, and they joke about money.
Christopher’s life as an English tutor allows him to enter the world of wealthy Berliners. Hippi’s disinterest in learning and her habit of spending her lessons talking on the phone with her family highlights the indifference to important matters that existed among wealthy Berliners.
Themes
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Sometime after Christopher’s lunch with the Bernstein family, Frl. Kost and Frl. Schroeder, get into a fight. Frl. Kost accuses someone in the house of stealing money from her. Around the same time, Christopher discovers that Frl. Kost is having an affair with Bobby Christopher chalks Frl. Schroeder’s anger up to her jealousy over this affair. After a fight with Frl. Kost, Frl. Schroeder breaks down over the betrayal of the affair.
The chaos within Frl. Schroeder’s boarding house underscores the volatile nature of the tension in Berlin society at the time. Though the boarders usually live in harmony, it only takes one conflict for bubbling resentments to explode. The fact that the fight is about money also reminds the reader of the sensitivity of the issue of money in Berlin at the time due to widespread poverty.
Themes
