The Impact Of Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Stories

Christopher Isherwood likely could not have predicted as to the impact of his novel, Berlin Stories, upon the various media of plays, musicals and film. It is even more doubtful that he could have foreseen its various adaptations throughout the years would so reflect the LGBT+ community, considered then illegal, immoral and above all remained unmentioned in “polite company.” Although the initial media based on Isherwood’s work mentioned non-heterosexual deviances only in rare and subtle forms, so as to remain in distribution and not face censorship; later variations added more LGBT+ relevant lines, characters, and even plot-central references to rest alongside their own individual dissimilarity in each work. In chronological order, each work
Before its publication, the stories reflected upon also echo the views of the 1930’s. This is visible not only in the book, in which German characters casually speak with growing anti-Semitist ideology, but also in the cultural and moral standards of the society when the creation of Berlin Stories transpired. Christopher Isherwood, a gay man, could not accurately tell of his true Berlin lifestyle in his book, involving trysts with other men, as society considered homosexuality not only illegal but also a serious moral
Also featuring an elderly couple facing complications in their romance due to anti-Semitism and the Kit Kat Klub, an unsubtle reference to the Ku Klux Klan, this musical discussed radical notions of abortion, sex outside of marriage, and issues of race and anti-Semitism of the respective times of 1930’s Germany and 1960’s America that mirrored each other. The producer desired this to have literal exemplification, and so used a giant mirror in replacement of a stage curtain, to force audience to be aware of the similarities between the rise of Nazi Germany in the 1930’s and 1960’s America, despite how much no person sought to admit such a