Christopher Isherwood's Goodbye To Berlin

In Christopher Isherwood’s, Goodbye to Berlin, we see a first hand account of the rise of early Nazi Germany. While the bulk of Nazi related material is reserved for the final chapter, there are traces of the growing mentality strewn throughout the rest of the book. One of the more obvious changes in German society described in the book is the rise of anti-semitism through the people. Given that such thoughts are one of the key points of the NAzi Ideology, it is not surprising that Isherwoods sees this while he is in Germany. There is also a progression of how aggressive the belief becomes. For example, in the beginning of the book Frl. Mayr, a known Nazi, is living in the same building as Isherwood. Below them lives a Jewish woman named

This first comes up when Isherwood is staying with Peter and Otto on Ruegen Island. Peter is a fellow Englishman who suffers from extreme mental illness that he keeps in control by visiting therapists. While none seem to work for him over long periods of time, he finds that his friendship with Otto is beneficial and thus he clings to him. During this time they meet a doctor on the beach who not only insists on the Nazi ideas of ethnic superiority, but also on mental and physical health. He insists on always doing physical activity and indeed the only times we see him and when he is outside exercising. He also remarks on Peter’s condition saying that it is most likely a problem with his tonsils and that he has seen this many times before. He then finishes with his thoughts that anyone like that has the mind of a criminal and should be properly dealt with. At the end of the book we also see this at a local reformatory in Berlin where mentally disabled and criminal children are kept. They are shut away and do menial labor. The people who run the place only see two options for the children's future, prison or the engineering works, and the works are being closed