Flower Hall becomes Babylon Garden: A dancing journey through time to the Golden Twenties
With dance, music, and dazzling costumes, the Blumenhalle transports its guests back in time. Between advertising columns and garden history, the flair of the 1920s comes to life.
While hundreds of guests bustle around the round stage in the flower hall, Heike Hein has found a quieter spot behind it. The Grüne Woche visitor stands next to the stairs covered in red fabric, rocking back and forth and smiling as she watches the professional dancers from Les Belles Magnifiques swing their legs through the air in silver sequined dresses with large white feathers on their heads. The glittering dance performance is based on the 1920s Chorus Line.
But why are 1920s dances taking place in the flower hall? To mark the 100th anniversary of Grüne Woche, visitors to the flower hall are being transported back a hundred years in time under the motto “Babylon Garden – The Golden Twenties in Full Bloom.”
Nostalgic shopping and historical gardening tools
An advertising column advertises products and cultural events, such as Grüne Woche from February 20 to 28, 1926, in the exhibition halls on Kaiserdamm. Nostalgic facades and shop windows invite visitors to stroll through the intricately designed KaDeFleur department store. At the Botanica bar, visitors can take a break with farmer's stew, lentils, coffee, and cake, have their future predicted by “Madame Blume,” and consider whether they would like to visit a dancing rhinoceros at the “Rhino Rouge” cabaret.
Over 30 trees, more than 35,000 early bloomers, 500 square meters of turf, and a fountain transform Hall 2.2 into a green oasis with an urban character. The Central Horticultural Association (Zentralverband Gartenbau e.V.) presents German horticulture through the ages. Historical exhibits from the German Horticultural Museum convey a picture of early horticultural practices: among other things, visitors can see a clockwork regulator that irrigated in a resource-saving manner, early drip irrigation systems, historical textbooks, and a “Reichsgebrauchsmuster”—a protected hand sprayer that was the starting point for debates about the risks and regulation of chemical pesticides.
Dancing as an expression of joie de vivre
“The hall is really well done. The dance performance was a personal highlight for me; I love watching dancing,” says visitor Heine Hein. In the 1920s, dancing became an expression of freedom, new beginnings, and urban joie de vivre—especially in vibrant cities like Berlin, which was often referred to as the “Babylon” of decadence during the Weimar period. People from all walks of life gathered here to leave the strict conventions of the pre-war era behind them to the rhythms of jazz and Charleston. “That fits very well with today's era. I love the philosophy of these dances, the style is very free, there are no mistakes, and it's also very diverse,” says dancer Claire Chen. She and her group will perform again in the Blumenhalle on Saturday, January 24.
The dancers breathe the flair of the golden 20s into the flower hall.