Joseph Goebbels, futuro Ministro da Propaganda na Alemanha nazi, foi um dos maiores críticos da vida de Berlim:

[...] the noise of the city, the lights, prostitutes, the confusion of gender roles caused by homosexual men and modern, nonmaternal women, the babble of languages—all were markers of an immoral and degraded world where people pursue bodily pleasures. Sex and drugs define their lives (Weitz, 2007: 78).