Lutes’ gorgeously drawn scenes evoke both the grandeur and the grit of Berlin during the final, dramatic years of the Weimar Republic. This chaotic mixture of uncertainty and change has been captured brilliantly by Jason Lutes in his graphic novel Berlin, which is set in the period from late 1928 up through the installation of Adolf Hitler as chancellor in early 1933. And, while some arrived with extreme political ideologies, others contributed to radically new and disruptive social, cultural and artistic mores and practices that for many, particularly in the middle class, seemed a piece with the deterioration of order on the streets. A large and growing metropolis in the heart of the continent, Berlin attracted all manner of immigrants from throughout Germany and across Europe as those desperate for work, grasping for power or simply escaping their past poured into the city in search of a new beginning. These conditions were particularly manifested in the capital city of Berlin. Stuck in the middle of this power-play: a besieged population left to fend for itself. Actively attempting to undermine the existing government, the leaders of these organizations fomented conflict, rallying their members toward ever more polarized positions and training them for combat. Successive administrations proved incapable of righting a decade long decline in the economic situation, and equally powerless to tamp down increasingly violent skirmishes on the streets between partisans of the National Socialist and Communist parties. Germany’s Weimar Republic teetered on the brink of collapse as the 1920’s came to a close.

Berlin jason lutes review