A place that sits on my list to visit for ages now is The 1920s Berlin Project. As the name says: it is Berlin in the 1920’s, ergo: historic roleplay. From what I understood it is not roleplay with difficult storylines and such, but people live there as citizens of Berlin, situated in the 1920’s. Normal, daily life – in the past.
This means that visitors, all are welcome, are requested to dress appropriate and follow the theme. Sounds fair and I completely understand.
With the Vintage Fair 2011 going on (will blog about that later) I thought it would be a great moment to shop for some vintage clothes, so I could go travel to Berlin all ready and dressed up. Alas, it is still so incredible busy and laggy on the fair, that I had to skip that brilliant idea.
I went to Berlin in my normal avatar and dress, hoping to find something suitable on the spot.
Well, yeah! You land in a modest shopping mall, near the train station and there are some shops that sell vintage outfits and hair and all! Also, for when you do not want to spend money but still want to visit, there are freebies available to dress you up! Needless to say you will be handed out some notecards with rules, it is best to read them, it is roleplay after all and you don’t want to disrupt other people’s Second Life (well, I don’t!)
I found a nice, plain, dress at Old Time Prims and some sensible shoes. In my inventory I had some hair that suited the ’20s look and within 10 minutes I was good to go!
To enter the actual city, you have to ‘take the train’ and so I did. Short ride though, yay for teleports :)
It was quiet in the City, so first I had to look up where I was and where to go, and went for a walk through the streets…
I took some more pics, I will upload those on my Flickr – it is such a great place for photography. There were other people in the city though, but I did not want to bother them in their daily occupations…so that’s why I went a bit out of the way and you only see me on the pics.
Now, I read on the SL Forum a post from Jo Yardley (the owner and creator) there will be a special event next weekend (19th and 20th November), in Berlin.
Kids Day. All SL Kids are welcome, dressed of course as 1920 kiddy’s, to come over and play, watch movies and all. Adults (with or without children) are of course welcome as well, as there will be happy hours in the bar! I plan to go, gives me another reason to shop for a nice festive outfit instead of my plain dress (hehe) and I think it will be nice to see some activity, can’t wait!
More information you can find in the forum post click here and on the official website of The 1920’s Berlin Project, where you can find some more background information about the project, the Weimar Culture and related links.
* Dress and shoes are from Old Time Prims, the hair is from TuTy’s and the poses from Geez Editorial.
Cait's World 
Wonderful photos Caity! I visited not long ago. I picked up a freebie dress at the landing spot and walked about a bit. It is a wonderful place to explore. I bought a dress from Ivalde for my next trip.
I, too, have been to the Vintage Fair a couple of times but it has been very very laggy. I hope that, as the days pass, it will be a bit easier to get there. I have a feeling I might need to wake at 2AM MY TIME to do some serious shopping.
Oh yes, Ivalde has wonderful vintage clothing too. Do they still have their store conveniently zoned in years? I liked that, makes it so much easier when you are not really sure if you are in the right era!
I made it to the Vintage Fair yesterday, 4 AM sl time! Woot! Maybe it is getting easier now, the first week is over :)
I saw your post here and plan to visit in my new avatar. This made me curious as to the history of blacks in Germany. A quick Google proved to be most interesting. Perhaps Europeans know this more than Americans. There were about 24,000 blacks in Germany in the 1920s and many felt that there was less discrimination in Germany than in the USA. Then the Nazis came and it seems that they practiced their hideous experiments on the blacks before the Jews. I had no idea. I would still have no idea if I had not seen this post, changed my avatar’s appearance and been curious because of it.
In general black people in Germany and most other European cities had it a LOT better then they did in most of America.
Racial segregation was totally unheard of.
Especially in big cities like Berlin they were actually very welcome, people found them interesting and exotic, it was a time of huge interest in jazz, black and african culture, etc.
In 1920s Berlin black people were much liked, I read about some black boys who pretended they were Harlem Jazz band musicians, just to get more girls :)
I’ve seen old footage where a crowd of people is walking around and a black man is amongst them, nobody even looks at him, pointed, laughed or responded in a manner that did not suggest they were totally fine with him being there.
But when the Nazis came to power they generally ignored the blacks, there is a very interesting movie about a boy being born in Germany to a black father and white mother.
I saw a amazing photo of him with a little swastika on his shirt running around playing.
Nazis of course had a problem with jazz and black culture, they felt they were superior to blacks but they were more focused on jews, gypsies, etc.
There were not enough black people for the Nazis to spend much time on them.
Thank you very much for the explanation, Jo! You know of course so much more than me!
My pleasure.
There is a great book and movie about the black kid growing up in nazi Germany and living trough the war, anyone interested in his story, google Hans Massaquoi sometime.
Amazing story :)
Jo, your sim is simply marvelous. I know this is Caitlin’s blog and not a public forum so I won’t belabor the point (too much). I agreed with nearly everything you said and I’m sure you’re far more versed in the topic than I am. However, your comment, “Nazis of course had a problem with jazz and black culture, they felt they were superior to blacks but they were more focused on jews, gypsies, etc.There were not enough black people for the Nazis to spend much time on them.” is not what the literature on the subject shows. A cursory search on this topic on the Internet (which, granted, is not an exhaustive research project) shows that the blacks were the precursors to the atrocities that were perpetrated later onto the Jews and Gypsies etc. They were rounded up, put into camps, enslaved and tortured and killed in large numbers.
My main point in posting here was to show that things like this post of Caitlin’s, your sim, and the chance changing of an avatar’s appearance can come together for a true learning experience as well as entertainment.
Oh yes absolutely, those things happened but what I tried to say is that many other black people lived trough the 1930s and the war with relatively little trouble, if you can say that about the general racism they encountered anyway.
I mean they at least didn’t have it as bad as many others.
Some even joined the Nazi’s and fought as soldiers in the Wehrmacht.
Rare, but it did happen as well.
What I was trying to say was that the Nazis treated black people very badly but there was no official systematic program for their elimination.
But anyway, before 1933 (it is 1929 in our sim) black people had it much easier in Berlin then they would have had it in many American cities :)
One of the many great subjects we can discuss over Schnaps at the bar in Berlin :)
1929 was a very interesting year! While I might choose a stein of beer over the Schnapps, I’m sure the conversation would be quite enjoyable.
Ha! This is one of the few times I can write “Nazi” without being accused of pulling a Godwin! :)
Ellyn, sorry am a bit behind with keeping up comments (my blogposts went on autopilot this week, literally – yay for scheduled posting).
Anyways, I see Jo has given you lots of info and also just saw your pics on the SLF, lovely!!
Yes, Caity, Ivalde is still divided into rooms by decade (or so). Easy to find stuff that way!