In the various discussion as to how far, if at all, current political circumstances bear any relationship to Germany in the early 1930s – the drift to the far right, the rise of extremism, a referendum with illegalities which the government chooses or prefers not to investigate – it was a pleasure to see A German Life at the Bridge Theatre which is precisely about how easy it was to be complicit with the rise of fascism: to laugh at it, or ignore it and pretend it isn’t happening or is just a part of normal life, dominated by the smiling faced and always polite villains of the right, who seem in many ways so normal. It’s an amazing and totally convincing tour-de-force by Maggie Smith, directed by Jonathan Kent.
a pleasure and so incredibly performed, designed, etc but so disturbing. That dreadful question what would you do…..delicately handled by Fiona MacCarthy in her superb biography of Gropius who tried to work in Germany; and Mies who would really have liked, I think scholars agree, to be as successful as Speer in Germany in the 1930s
Yes, indeed, some people – actually, most people – obviously just drifted into collaboration without necessarily understanding, let alone believing in, its consequences. Charles