Weimar Berlin: The Tiller Girls in Berlin

Tiller Girls at the Sportpalast 1928

The Tiller Girls were among the most popular dance troupes in the 1920s, in Europe and the U.S.

"They usually consisted of some ten to twenty young women who performed fast, perfectly coordinated dance steps, as the Rockettes of Radio City Music Hall do to this day. In the 1920s the most famous of such troupes was that of the Tiller Girls, who in fact were English. John Tiller had been a cotton magnate in Manchester until he went bankrupt in the 1880s. Seeking a new vocation, he began to drill young women in perfectly synchronized movements. The number drew great attention in the 1890s, and by the 1920s several Tiller troupes were performing in major cities of various nations.

The Lawrence Tiller girls

"Haller (Herman Haller was another revue director) hired one of them, the so-called Empire Girls, away from the Ziegfeld Follies in New York. This created some confusion about their nationality, and throughout the twenties many observers believed that they were an American troupe. The Empire Girls, renamed the Lawrence-Tiller-Girls (after the founder's son) in future seasons, were such a hit in the Haller revues that Charell saw himself compelled to hire his own troupe, the John-Tiller-Girls. Soon other troupes were formed, including the Hoffmann Girls and the Jackson Girls. To proclaim their originality and superiority, Haller's Tiller Girls adopted the slogan: "Often copied-never equaled!" (Oft kopiert-nie erreicht!).

Tiller Girls Christmas Party 1928

"Lineups of pretty women were nothing new. They had been a staple of numerous variety shows, as well as the prewar Metropol. What was novel was the dynamism and precision of the Tiller Girls. From their first performance, in Haller's More and More (Noch und noch, 1924), they garnered rave reviews. Herbert Ihering, arguably the outstanding theater critic of the Weimar era, immediately concluded that they, like the revue form itself, were a perfect expression of the age: "The revue accords with the needs of the modern metropolis ... For the audience reacts to movement, to tempo. The applause for comedians is often weak, but for the Empire Girls it thunders right on into the intermissions. The rhythm, the lightness, the exactness are electrifying. The American [sic] Girls are a sight worth seeing and a standard to follow." Ihering concluded: "Beauty on stage, not through nakedness, but through motion."

Erik Charell's dancers

"Within that context, it is understandable that numerous male critics of the day noted approvingly that the Tiller Girls and similar troupes appeared to be sexless. Their short hair, slim build, and athletic performance differed radically from the more prurient displays, where naked women appeared in total passivity. In contrast, the Girls performed vigorous athletic motions. The Tiller Girls were known for their coordinated kicklines, often moving up and down stairs. The Hoffmann Girls specialized in even more athletic, circuslike stunts, such as synchronized climbing of ropes suspended from the stage ceiling. This radically new image of womanhood, full of strength and energy, negated the picture of passive sexual receptivity that had prevailed until then, and made the Girls seem asexual. Fritz Giese, a professor of "psychotechnics" at the University of Stuttgart and the author of a book entitled Girlkultur, referred to the Girls' "neutralization of the sexes, the exclusion of the feminine." Theater critics wrote of their "absolutely unerotic dance," which resided "beyond sexuality." Even Kracauer argued that they were not primarily sexual, but rather "a system of lines which no longer has an erotic meaning, but at best signifies the place where the erotic may be found." The sexual inapproachability of troupes like the Tiller Girls was underscored by publicity reports which stressed that they were constantly chaperoned, roomed in pairs, and even traveled with their own pastor. The novelist Joseph Roth complained ironically about the "well-behaved puritanism" and "provocative moral purity" of the Girls.

Tiller Girls 1927

"One may question whether the Girls' appeal was as asexual as some contemporary observers claimed. Coy publicity shots certainly gave the lie to such contentions. Alfred Polgar, an outstanding critic of the day, admitted that he did not understand "why women actually go to revue theaters ... In revues the primacy of the male reveals itself still unshaken. There is nothing there for women." Fred Hildenbrandt wondered what the women in the audience must have thought about the fact that "it is
always members of their sex that run around on stage with hardly anything on." They must have concluded the obvious: "that's the way the world is, one has to cater to men, since they pay for the whole racket. "

(from Berlin Cabaret, by Peter Jelavich)