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
Christopher notes that Berlin has two centers: the first is the commercial, artistic, and religious center, which features many illustrious buildings. The second is the woods of Tiergarten (a large park in Berlin), where homeless peasant boys starve and freeze.
Christopher’s acknowledgement of the shadow side of Berlin, wracked by poverty, speaks to the income inequality that resulted from inflation in Germany.
Themes
Having returned to Berlin, Christopher once again lives in Frl. Schroeder’s boarding house. Bobby is still there, though his appearance and demeanor have suffered because he has been out of work for months. Christopher notes that the lively energy of the boarding house, and between Bobby and Frl. Schroeder, no longer exists. One day, Frl. Kost comes to visit. Though Christopher does not see her, Frl. Schroeder tells him that she looked very elegant in a fur coat and that she believes Frl. Kost will go far in life.
Christopher’s time in Frl. Schroeder’s boarding house at the end of the novel poses a sharp contrast to his time living there when he first arrived in Berlin, in 1930. The decadence of the Weimar party era, which Bobby represents, has faded.
Themes
Christopher continue to tutor students in English. One of his students, Herr Krampf, tells Christopher about the hardship that many Germans experienced during World War I and the Inflation. Everyone stole goods to sell, including children. He describes one incident in which his mother allowed a butcher to slap and pinch her cheeks in order to get some meat for her children.
Herr Krampf’s story, representing the average German’s experience after World War I, sheds light on the reason why many Germans may have been drawn to Hitler’s fascist policies that promised to restore Germany to economic glory.
Themes
Christopher describes a series of boxing matches that occur on a fairground. To Christopher, the matches are obviously fixed. Yet, the spectators believe in them, even betting money on them. Christopher is struck by their ability to believe anything.
The gullibility of the spectators speaks to the desperation of the average German to change their circumstances of poverty, no matter how illogical.
Themes
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One night, Christopher witnesses an altercation between two Jewish men and two Nazis. The Jewish men had offered two German women a ride in their car, and the Nazis intervened. A scuffle occurs, and the Jewish men get away. Three hours later, Christopher finds the Nazis patrolling in the same spot.
Not only do the Nazis suppress Jews politically, but they also engage in fear and surveillance tactics to attempt to exclude Jews from public life.
Themes
Another night, Fritz Wendel proposes a sort of farewell tour to the dive bars around Berlin, as the police have begun to take an interest in them. They go to a drag bar, which Christopher finds expensive and depressing. Afterward, they go to a dive known to be a gathering place for communists. There, Fritz introduces Christopher to student communists whom he knows, Martin, Werner, and Inge. They also meet Rudi, a handsome teenage boy.
The increased surveillance on the dive bars around Berlin signals the newly fascist German government’s desire to suppress hotbeds of creativity, decadence, and alternative lifestyles. Still, many pose a resistance, including the young student communists who continue to gather despite the danger.
Themes
Christopher begins to frequent the communist bar. He gets to know Martin, Werner, and Inge, who have varying levels of mistrust in one another. They all mistrust Rudi. Christopher becomes acquainted with Rudi, who tells him about his communist scout group, led by the misogynistic Uncle Peter. At first, Christopher suspects that “Uncle Peter” is his old friend Peter Wilkinson but later learns that he is not.
Though Christopher is only passively a communist throughout the novel (he never takes any political action), he finds solace in the communist spaces of Berlin in the same way he once felt solace in the decadent, artist-centric bars. The young communists are emotionally affected by the surveillance culture of Nazi Germany, as they begin to mistrust one another.
Themes
Christopher goes to visit one of his students who is a teacher at a reformatory school. As his pupil shows him around the school, he feels ashamed and guilty. When Christopher asks about the future of the boys, he learns that, aside from teaching them a trade, there is nothing the school can do for them.
Christopher’s visit to the reformatory school, the pupils of which will have a very limited future after graduation, highlights the desperation that plagued the German economy.
Themes
Christopher goes to visit Rudi’s clubhouse, where he meets Uncle Peter. The clubhouse is also the headquarters of an outdoors-oriented magazine. The clubhouse is full of scantily-clad boys, though the weather is cold. Christopher feels uncomfortable and leaves.
Though the communist scout group has the potential to be an effective resistance against the Nazi party, its semi-exploitative and disturbing practices (according to Christopher) presents the pessimistic view that political resistance initiatives often come with their own toxicities and issues, and their leaders often have their own agendas.
Themes
At the “Silver Sunday” festival (the Sunday two weeks before Christmas), Christopher runs into Werner. Werner proudly tells him about a demonstration that he and his comrades had made at the Labor Exchange. Werner tells him that the capitalist system will not last much longer. One night, as Christopher walks along, he sees a group of S.A. men (Nazi secret police) attack a young man, brutally maiming him.
Werner’s optimism is a touching expression of resistance, although readers today will know that communism did not prevail against Nazism. This fact plays out symbolically as the secret police overpower and attack a young man in public, illustrating to oppressive power of the Nazi party.
Themes
Right after Christmas, Werner gets into a physical fight with a police officer. Christopher visits him in the hospital and sees that Werner has become somewhat of a hero in communist circles. Werner is proud of the fact that he will most likely be prosecuted.
Though Werner will almost certainly face dire consequences for attacking a police officer, he finds solace and even happiness in actively challenging the Nazi party. Werner represents the anti-fascists who, unlike Christopher, actively resisted a fascist regime.
Themes
On January 22, 1933, Christopher watches a Nazi demonstration. He notices that there are more police in the crowd than Nazis and assumes that the general wants to assert the military’s power. At the demonstration, Christopher is struck by the collective power of the German workers. Though the communists are relatively few in number at the demonstration, Christopher feels their power.
Although modern readers know that the communist resistance will not prevail over the Nazi party, Christopher’s brief ode to the power of the collective action of workers reminds readers that active resistance has the potential to make real and tangible social change.
Themes
A week later, the general and head of police resigns. Hitler forms a new cabinet. Christopher remarks that the newspapers seem to be just full of new rules and regulations. Christopher spends his evening at a café where Jews and communists, knowing that they will soon be arrested, speak in hushed tones. The S.A. officers come in nightly and ask for money. One night, seeing that one of the men tried to call the police, they take him outside never to be seen again. Christopher continues to hear stories of Nazi violence and to witness disturbing scenes.
Not only is Hitler’s regime fascist and authoritarian, but it is also corrupt. When the S.A. officers come into the Jewish and communist café to get money from its clientele, they exercise their power to disenfranchise political dissidents or oppressed groups by force. This corruption faces no consequences, as fascist regimes silence dissidence.
Themes
One of Christopher’s students is the former police chief under the Weimar republic. They conduct their lessons while driving around in Herr N.’s car. Herr N., who is presumably an enemy of the Nazis, has received a job in America and worries about his wife making the journey and about leaving his son behind.
Herr N.’s anxiety about leaving his son behind demonstrates the fear that the Nazis sparked in their political opponents.
Themes
Christopher plans his final exit from Berlin. Frl. Schroeder is very upset about this and does not understand why he wants to leave. He overhears her talking reverently about Hitler, though she voted communist in the last election.
Frl. Schroeder’s reverence for Hitler presents an interesting psychological phenomenon of a fascist regime. Though she voted communist (the opposing party of Hitler’s regime) in the previous election, it stands to reason that her reverence for Hitler is a way of coping with the harsh realities of fascism and the economic devastation of 1930s Germany.
Themes
On Christopher’s final day in Berlin, he thinks of Rudi and his innocence. The weather is beautiful, and Christopher is horrified to see himself smiling in his reflection in a shop window. He observes the everyday normalcy of the Berlin street, despite the chaos. He writes, “Even now I can’t altogether believe that any of this really happened.”
At the end of the novel, Christopher comes full circle. He has recorded what it was like in Berlin from 1930-1933. His disbelief at the political and economic chaos set against a backdrop of normalcy illustrates the mundane nature of life as it unfolds in the moment, before it becomes history, just as his initial observations of the quotidian lives of Berliners did.
Themes
