Moonlight , Nightingales and Dreams of Hawaii – Referential systems of “ Kitsch ” in the German Musical Cabaret of the late Weimar Republic *

Cabaret and the popular culture of the Weimar Republic are evidence of a thoroughly modern attitude towards kitsch, which outshines pejorative essays about the degenerating impact of kitsch. This is shown by the example of Friedrich Hollaenders “Kitsch-Tango”, composed for a cabaret revue, and the referential systems, the song refers to – the world of popular culture and the knowledge about the evaluation of certain clichés as “kitsch” by the academia then. C S T A H R E N B E R G • M O O N L I G H T , . . . .

In 1932 a gramophone record named "Kitsch Tango" was published in Berlin and quickly became a hit song on the dance floors of the clubs and cafés in the city.In this song, Curt Bois, famous German actor and cabaret artist, whispered "the whole sweet kitsch of love" in the ear of his beloved.The dance floor hit originated from a show named "Frankensteins unheimliche Geschichten" ("Frankenstein's scary stories"), staged in the big cabaret theatre "Kabarett der Komiker" (Cabaret of the Comedians) in November 1932.It was a grotesque one-act play, parodying the theatre-and film-scene of that time, including references to genres (e.g.gothic movies) or actual films, like the name giving "Frankenstein", which premiered in the US in 1931 with Boris Karloff playing the monster. 1 One of the authors of "Frankensteins unheimliche Geschichten", Kurt Robitschek (with co-author Friedrich Hollaender), sketched the intentions of the parodist play in the cabaret's program magazine: "The form of parody, the form of grotesque gives the opportunity to turn everything that we take seriously in life into absurdity two minutes before becoming a tragedy.[...] We want to find out if it's possible, to put all the caricatures about the small and big absurdities of the stage, of the world, of life, randomly side by side, so that they will suddenly form a whole, that can be taken seriously again, because it is so absurdly ridiculous." 2 The things "we take seriously in life" and the "absurdities" of the stage and the world form the background knowledge which the audience needs in order to understand the humour and the satiric potentialities of the parody.It forms a referential system which authors refer to in different ways.
In the "Kitsch Tango" for example, as one hit song of the cabaret play, the system referred to is the world of "Kitsch", as it is presented mainly in the songs of the recently invented sound films, but also in the world of operetta.The authors avail themselves of numerous clichés which are suspected to be kitsch and use various keywords, obviously picked from real talkie songs.But used out of context and in great accumulation, they turn into meaningless verbal gestures, revealing their function as pure catchwords without any deeper sense.By using these catchwords (like "moonlight", "red roses" or "Hawaii" for example) the authors evoke a set of possible associations in the listener, all linked to the notion of "Kitsch".In addition, the only purpose of Kitsch is revealed in the text, i.e. to seduce women, who seem to be especially susceptible to this kind of fake sugary aesthetics: 1 The libretto of the show seems to be lost.In 1931 the first sound film of "Frankenstein", directed by James Whale, premiered in the cinemas.There was also an earlier silent film directed by J. Searle Dawley (1910).In Germany "Frankenstein" was shown in the cinemas in May 1932, thus the parody show was quite up to date. 2 "Die Form der Parodie, die Form der Groteske gibt Gelegenheit, all das, was wir im Leben ernst nehmen, zwei The German text was transcribed from the gramophone disc recording from 1932, republished on the CD Reizend: 100 Jahre Curt Bois; sämtliche veröffentlichte Schallplatten 1908-1932 (Berlin: Duo-phon, 2001) (Edition Berliner Musenkinder), Duophon 05263.Curt Bois is accompanied by the Paul Godwin Tanz-Orchester.English translation by the author.
of that time, it becomes obvious that there are several possibilities as to what certain allusions may refer to.Some examples: -The term "white Tarragona" may refer to the Tango "Zwei rote Lippen und ein roter Tarragona" ("Two red lips and a red Tarragona"), which was published on record in 1930 in several German versions. 4-The "red rose" appears in several songs.Still popular in 1932 were for example the hit songs "Blutrote Rosen" ("Bloody red roses") by Hermann Hünemeyer, text Alfred Krönkemeier (a Slowfox originating from 1929) 5 , Robert Stolz's "Rosen, flammend rote" ("Roses, flaming red") from the operetta "Eine einzige Nacht" (1927) 6 or the foxtrot "Zwei rote Rosen" ("Two red roses") by Walter Kollo from 1926, for which Robitschek himself had written the text 7 .-"My Vienna", a term where "everything [lies] inside", can be associated with numerous operettas, e.g.
Gräfin Mariza by Emmerich Kálmán ("Grüß mir mein Wien") or Léhars Land des Lächelns ("Ich liebe dich, und du liebst mich, / und da liegt alles drin", "I love you, and you love me / and there lies everything inside").But the listener may also think about Robert Stolz's hit song "Im Prater blühn wieder die Bäume", because evokes a very popular and stereotyped picture of Vienna.-"Eine Nacht in Monte Carlo" ("One night in Monte Carlo") cites the tango of the same name by Werner Richard Heymann from the film "Bomben auf Monte Carlo" 8 , which was the second most successful film in the year 1931 (after "Der Kongress tanzt") and featured several stars.-After the premiere of Paul Abraham's operetta "Die Blume von Hawaii" (1931) the alien world of Hawaii with exotic accessories was very much en vogue. 9Several hit songs toyed with the exotic dreams of the South Pacific, Honolulu or Hawaii, often by using the clichéd sound of the Hawaiian Guitar 10 , e.g.Walter Kollo's "Grüß mir mein Hawaii" (1930), which was sung by Richard Tauber.11Robitschek links his lyrics to this exoticism with the term "dreams of Hawaii", but also alluding to other exotic regions with keywords like Rome or Madrid.
The examples show, that the models for allusions in the "Kitsch-Tango" remain (purposely) unclear, leaving the listener a wide space for association to link his own experiences to the song.Robitschek's text was set into Tango music by Friedrich Hollaender.He used a musical style that had an expressive and emotional image and was therefore closely linked to kitsch.By referring to the Tango as a form of dance music, which was brimming with sexual meaning, Hollaender used a musical reference beyond the text to add to the irony of the content.As early as 1922, Heinz Pollack had named the Tango a "deep prayer of the body" 12 in his essay about radical change in ballroom dance (Die Revolution des Gesellschaftstanzes) using an accumulation of emotional adverbs to describe it: "There has never been and will never be a rhythm, which like the Tango gives the body so much room to softly hint at colourful dreams or subdued pleasures of love or tearful grief or overflowing joy or feverish longing or wistful renunciation" 13 By using the exaggerated connotation of Tango, Hollaender added an ironic flavour to the text.
Thus both, Hollaender and Robitschek, used (musical and textual) clichés for evoking connotations of kitsch, and subversively caricatured it by means of overblown images and accumulation.The stereotypes used by the authors were also common in contemporary and later aesthetic essays about kitsch, which were, however, void of any ironic level.For example, Fritz Karpfen's "Der Kitsch.Eine Studie über die Entartung der Kunst" 14 ("Kitsch.A Survey of Degeneration in the Arts"), published in 1925, places "exotic kitsch", similar to Robitschek's allusion to Hawaiian dreams, beyond other forms of "kitsch".Karpfen mentions the carvings of "South Pacific Indians" as an example for the degenerating influence of European tourists and colonialists to originally unspoiled crafts: "It [the exotic kitsch] was brought about by the whites, originally it wasn't known.
[…] Only as the antipodes [the natives] recognized the superficial minds of the aliens, they produced the worthless trash for them." 15Thus, the production of kitschy artisan products was motivated by, or almost invented for, a degenerated European wish for triviality.
One characteristic for "Kitsch", according to Karpfen, is the industrial production and marketing of the products: "In China, whole urban districts have come into existence, where residents live exclusively from the fabrication of 'antique' artwork.There are temples of Fo in the central regions of Asia, whose statue of Buddha was sold to eager Europeans a hundred times.The procedure is always the same: [...] The compliant merchant in Shanghai, who gives the tourist a hint, the captain of the junk, the monk and prior of the monastery make up a registered corporation [...] The company members sneeringly rake in the money of the white chump." 1612 Heinz Pollack, Die Revolution des Gesellschaftstanzes (Dresden: Sibyllen-Verlag, 1922), 20.
The mass production and the organized sales strategy imply something soulless, a "fake" 17 , which is played off against something "original", authentic, unique.Although Karpfen even concedes a certain artistry to the imitations, he does not consider them as "real artwork" 18 : "Because art is something that is created with the lifeblood of the creator, who endows it with all the spiritual vibrancies of his time, raised to highest rank." 19Karpfen draws a line to distinguish between art and industrial (mass) production ("Kitsch") on the one hand, on the other hand he distances both from a sort of unspoiled folk handcraft: "Not the poorest soul in areas not yet contaminated by Europeans would consider to have his simple, pretty goods replaced by useless rubbish". 20Thus imitations of foreign origin especially designed for Europeans would come under "exotic kitsch" in Karpfen's sense of the word.Furthermore, any imitation of exotic objects of European origin -for example a "Hawaiian"-like song -or any copy of an exotic style -like the Argentinian Tango -would be kitsch: it's not an "original", but a fake.
Thus Karpfen and the "Kitsch Tango" share a fundamental definition of kitsch: it is the distinction between original and fake, between "true" art and "false" kitsch.If Robitschek uses the words "Talmi und Flor" 21 ("fake and gauze") he signalizes, that kitsch is nothing authentic or real, but deception.The phrase "und ist auch nichts dran wahr, / es klingt so wunderbar" ("even if nothing's true about it -it sounds so wonderful!")further underlines this.But while Karpfen discredits the consumers of kitsch as an "army of naive and careless people" 22 , Robitschek sees them as intentionally calling for and enjoying kitsch: "Ach Liebling, mach mir was vor" ("Honey, please fool me").For them, kitsch is an aesthetic play with a special attraction of ambiguity, because it is not known, if they deal with it consciously or naively.Although Robitschek and Hollaender implicitly criticize kitsch in the "Kitsch Tango", they are far away from any "kulturkritik" opinion, which sees Kitsch as a degenerated and harmful variety, like Karpfen or later Hermann Broch ("Das Böse im Wertsystem der Kunst "23 ).Instead, the authors even seem to enjoy a witty play with the subject of kitsch and have a relaxed attitude towards it.
This attitude, shown in the song of 1932, resembles an approach to kitsch, which was referred to as "postmodern lifestyle"24 by Ute Dettmar and Thomas Küpper in the editorial to the reader "Kitsch.Texte und Theorien" (2007).They closely link it to Gerhard Schulze's concept of an "Erlebnisgesellschaft" ("adventure society") and the "deverti-17 Ibid., 9.The connection between mass produced goods and kitsch is not only topic of this chapter but through the whole book of Karpfen.18 Ibid., 28f.

22
"Heer von Leichtgläubigen und Gleichgültigen", ibid.23 Hermann Broch, "Das Böse im Wertsystem der Kunst" [1933], in: Broch, Geist und Zeitgeist: Essays zur Kultur der Moderne,  ed. by Paul Michael Lützeler (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1997), 7-42.calisation" ("Entvertikalisierung" 25 ) of social space in the second half of the twentieth century, which manifests itself in it: "Nowadays, Kitsch is in many people's homes-putting a garden gnome in one's front yard, or decorating one's living room with a belling stag, does not necessarily mean being narrow-minded, bourgeois or over-sentimental.Such a person might simply master the playful dealing with kitsch, lead a 'postmodern' lifestyle and does not expect dismissive, but rather approving comments about his taste preferences.[…] -as a bogeyman, Kitsch had its day." 26hus, the dealing with kitsch as described above is not only a "postmodern" attitude, but is already indicated in the Cabaret of the twenties and thirties, in songs like the "Kitsch Tango" or in Robitschek's foreword to "Frankensteins unheimliche Geschichten".Therefore, it is quite convincing when Wolfgang Ruttkowski transfers the concept of "camp" on performance in Cabaret, as early as in the Weimar Republic: "In cabaret songs, and especially in prostitute songs, we notice again and again a basic attitude of the writer as well as the performer of the text, which can only be described by the aforementioned term 'camp'.It is reflected in witty puns, innuendos, and asides; in exaggerations, which are not meant to be taken seriously; and in pathos, which nobody believes in, neither the performers nor the audience.In short, 'camp' involves the exaggerated use of stylistic elements, which previously had been taken seriously, for the purpose of entertainment." Being aware of using kitsch, dealing with it consciously, is thus the crucial point for Ruttkowski, too.Only self-consciousness makes a performance "camp": "It is the 'decadent' ennui (boredom) with social seriousness and the socialist agenda that produces the 'camp' attitude.Sentimentality?Yes!But the camp performer always knows that s/he is being sentimental and enjoys the indulgence." 27here are many examples of this conscious dealing with kitsch respectively camp in the staging of chansons in cabaret, not only in the genre of prostitute songs.Ruttkowski sees the "attitude of 'camp'" 28 already unfolded in Yvette Guilbert.As one of the most significant figures of "camp" he states the prototype of the Vamp, first in Cabaret, later in films: "In her grotesque attire, make-up, and behaviour she is also always 'camp' in Sontag's and Ruttkowski's understanding of the word." 29According to this picture of a seducing, man-eating woman, Marcellus Schiffer wrote a chanson titled "the Vamp" (from the operetta "100 Meter Glück"), which exaggerates the attributes, thereby ironizing it: 25 "Im mehrdimensionalen Raum ist oben und unten nicht mehr eindeutig bestimmbar.Gruppen, die sich an verschiedenen Stellen in diesem Raum zusammenklumpen, könnten sich nur dann gegenseitig in einer Hierarchie wahrnehmen, wenn es ein privilegiertes alltagsästhetisches Schema gäbe.[…] Statt auf einer gemeinsamen Leiter stehen die sozialen Gruppen auf einem Podest, jede für sich, und jede stellt sich auf die Zehenspitzen, um auf die anderen herabschauen zu können.Die Entvertikalisierung der Alltagsästhetik ist Teil einer umfassenden Entvertikalisierung des Verhältnisses sozialer Großgruppen."Gerhard Schulze, Die Erlebnisgesellschaft. Kultursoziologie der Gegenwart (Frankfurt am Main: Campus, 2005), 167.