America's Weimar moment

The 1930s Germany of Netflix's Babylon Berlin is clearly different than America in 2018. But there are chilling parallels.

A scene from 'Babylon Berlin.'
(Image credit: Facebook/Babylon Berlin)

The right and left grow more polarized every day, with each side hating the establishmentarian center nearly as much as it does the extremists on the opposite side of the ideological spectrum. As each camp becomes more politically formidable, it draws on covert support from powerful domestic and international allies who have much to gain by the collapse of the liberal establishment. The center, meanwhile, strives to defend the liberal order in the face of powerful challenges but ends up engaging in tactics that violate democratic norms and undermine its own legitimacy, thereby contributing to the very centrifugal forces that imperil the system as a whole.

If this sounds like a distillation of contemporary politics in the U.S. and Europe, that's because it is. But it's also a partial summation of the plot of the best television show to debut this winter. That Netflix's Babylon Berlin takes place in Germany in 1929, just four years before Adolf Hitler's National Socialists rose to power and brought an end to the Weimar Republic, should give us pause. The show is a fractured mirror in which it's possible to catch glimpses of ourselves. The image isn't flattering, but it's very much worth thinking and worrying about.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Damon Linker

Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also a former contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test.