BRITISH IDENTITY AND THE GERMAN OTHER A Dissertation ...

1898): 235.
are still furtively munching when actually back in their stalls. After each
act—astonishing though it may seem—there is a repetition of the process I have
described. Their appetites seem positively to increase rather than diminish after each
attack upon the eatables. 35
Another source commented:
A sine quâ non of every German theatre is a large foyer, flanked by cold buffets which are
piled with heaps of greasy-looking “doorsteps” of bread and sausage amid innumerable
glasses of beer and lemonade. Every German theatrical performance is interrupted for a
twenty minutes’ interval in the middle, when the entire audience storms the buffets,
satisfies its appetite, and then solemnly defiles in procession round the foyer. It is a truly
extraordinary sight to see a smart audiance at the Opera gathered about these sandwich
counters, wolfing down “Butterbrödchen” as if they had not had a meal for a week. 36
The image of the slovenly boor complimented the concept of backward or agricultural
Germany. Berlin, often labeled a dull and uninspiring city, a “sprawling commercial town in the
middle of a sandy plain,” and a “provincial town” in comparison to the great capitals of Europe,
seemed an appropriate environment for the dull, indolent, self-indulgent Prussian:
Fortunately, the Prussian is an optimist who looks on his immediate surroundings
with a superb indifference. He needs little in this life and seems to expect less in the next.
So long as he can sit in a tree-shaded garden, smoke tobacco, drink lager-beer, and listen
to a band, he is perfectly happy. The stern joy of violent physical exercise he cannot
understand, preferring rather to cultivate philosophy and a portly figure. Occasionally he
is considerate, frequently he is kind. But now and again the English visitor finds himself
recalling with satisfaction the answer of the schoolboy who, when asked to describe the
manners and customs of a certain tribe, laconically replied, “These people have no
manners, and their customs are beastly.” 37
35 B. Fletcher Robinson, “Berlin: A Capital at Play,” Cassell’s Family Magazine (February
36 F. W. Wile, Our German Cousins (London; The Daily Mail, n.d.), 52-53.
37 Robinson, “Berlin: A Capital at Play,” 227.
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