The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1913-03-27
AMERICAN IDEAS
- >. s. =
INVADING BERLIN
The German Metropolis Being
Transformed.
PRINCE HENRY IS DISMAYED

Wonderful Advertisements of Yankee
Origin Startle Teutonic Citizens,
! German Girls Now Portrayed Accord
| ing to Gibson ideaIs-City Is Full Of
! American Bars.
Prince Henry of Prussia is much dis
mayed by the characterization Of Ber-
lin. Since he arrived home from ia
pan he has discovered that the sacred
palace quarter is rapidly being Ameri-
canized-that is, on the Spree's banks.
near his own palace, a boarding stood
high to protect some work, and on it
glowed a gigantic paper ear. The ear
was rosy, irreverent and tipsy looking,
and from a distance it looked more like
mere drunkard's nose. Beneath it
famed ''Hoeren Sie'-Do You Hear?-
and all this was an advertisement for
soap. Henry was displeased with this
extravagant ear and made the remark
that 1.-THE Americanization of Berlin is
making life sad.''
And not only Berlin life. A Hanover
newspaper recently appeared with it's
front page made up as an ordinary
| news page and big scare heading,
"Krupp v. Bohlen and Holbach Offers
a Million Marks" Under this was an
explanation that the husband of Ber-
tina Krupp, the cannon queen, had
calculated that he would pay a million
| marks to cure his headaches and that
Herr Schmidt or Herr Mueller has an
unfailing means to win the million,
only he doesn't want it, as with true
philanthropists money is no object.
In what way this thing is American
the average German doesn't know. but
he knows that it is American. Every
thing big, soaring, startling and in
genious is American. And Berlin has
become the biggest, soaringest, star
tlingest, most ingenious city in Europe.
1t is all quite new. Where ten years
ago Friedrichstrasse and Potsdamer
platZ resembled the iveliest spots in
Emporium, Pa. they have now come to
resemble the liveliest spots on Broad
way for crowds, street cars, illuminat-
ed sky signs and noise.
Craze For American Art.
German-American artists are rebuild
ing Berlin on Germany American lines.
There are no skyscrapers because po-
lice regulations limit Berlin to five
humble stories, but the new German
department stores are built of steel on
best skyscraper principles. Likewise
there is craze for American art It
started two years ago. when Berlin
had an American picture exhibition.
and it has degenerated into a universal
Gibson girl craze In the streets Ger
mans look as German as ever. but Ger
man beauty has ceased to be German
ideal. The fancy stores are full of pic
lures Of impossibly slim and clean cut,
clean shaven young men. who kiss i'm
possibly American Gibson girls. The
originally German picture postcard
business has been entirely American
lied as regards it's ideals of beauty.
This craze exists also outside Berlin
The Augsburger Abendzeitung started
schoolgirl and schoolboy drawing
competition to show Bavarian ideals of
beauty. Sixty out of ITO school girls
sent in drawings Of 1.-The unmistaka-
BILE young American man with the
we'll made chin which we are so used
to-" while half the boys ideals of
feminine loneliness were either Glib
son girls or German girls ''modifed by
Gibson influence
American Bar Popular.
Innocent Augsburg confines it's Amer
icanism to the pictorial side. Berlin
goes further and tries to live Ameri-
canwise. The theater. concert and
cabaret are being ousted by what Ber-
lin considers the american" bar
Five years ago an American bar ex-
listed only in the Kaiserhof hotel. Now
there are registered in Berlin over
seventy bars" most of which claim
to be more or less american" and
prove their claims by long schedules
Of cocktails and juleps with Anglo
Saxon names. The American bar.
like most other American institutions
in Berlin, was originated by rich re-