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Speaker 1: The Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that proves there's more than one way to

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Speaker 1: make history. I'm Gabe Bluzier, and in this episode we're

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Speaker 1: talking about the time when the last Emperor of Germany

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Speaker 1: went to war with a popular new dance style. The

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Speaker 1: day was November. German monarch Kaiser Wilhelm the second forbade

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Speaker 1: his officers from dancing the tango while in uniform. The

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Speaker 1: new Latin American dance had captured the whole world's attention,

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Speaker 1: but not everyone was a fan of its intimate some

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Speaker 1: would say erotic dance moves. For instance, when upper class

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Speaker 1: Germans began dancing cheek to cheek at state dinners, Kaiser

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Speaker 1: Wilhelm was disgusted. He immediately denounced theo as vulgar and

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Speaker 1: began discouraging his subjects from dancing it in public. He

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Speaker 1: especially disliked seeing army officers dance the tango, as he

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Speaker 1: considered it a disgrace to their uniforms, and swiftly passed

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Speaker 1: an imperial bill to put a stop to the practice.

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Speaker 1: That may seem like an extreme reaction, and there was

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Speaker 1: but the Kaiser was hardly the only one to push

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Speaker 1: back against the popular dance. All across Europe and beyond,

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Speaker 1: political and religious leaders had begun speaking out against the

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Speaker 1: supposedly immoral dance. Yet despite their best efforts, the forbidden

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Speaker 1: dance lived on. In nineteen thirteen ultimately became known as

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Speaker 1: the Year of the Tango. The exact origins of the

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Speaker 1: tango are a matter of debate, but it's generally believed

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Speaker 1: to have developed in the late nineteenth century and the

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Speaker 1: dance halls, bars and brothels of Buenos Aires. Although Argentina

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Speaker 1: was among the wealthiest nations in the world at the time,

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Speaker 1: there was great inequality between the classes in the capital city.

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Speaker 1: At first, the tango was strictly the province of the poor,

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Speaker 1: a lively, fast and sensual counterpart to the wealthiest prim

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Speaker 1: and proper dance moves. Gradually, though, the tango began to

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Speaker 1: draw the eye of the upper classes. Soon the young

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Speaker 1: and wealthy were ditching their somber ball rooms and sneaking

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Speaker 1: off to the slums to sample the hot new dance craze.

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Speaker 1: In the years that followed, many of Argentina's young elite

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Speaker 1: began traveling to Europe to complete their education. They brought

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Speaker 1: the tango with them, and pretty soon it was popping

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Speaker 1: up at British tea parties and in the salons of Paris.

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Speaker 1: By nineteen thirteen, much of Europe's aristocracy was in the

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Speaker 1: grip of what some newspapers called tango mania, and as

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Speaker 1: the year went on, more and more countries around the

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Speaker 1: globe fell prey to it, including Australia and the United States.

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Speaker 1: Just like the dance trends of today, the tango in

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Speaker 1: thirteen evoked a wide range of emotions in the public.

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Speaker 1: Some were amused, some were transfixed, and some were outraged.

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Speaker 1: Most of the controversy centered on the intimacy of the tango,

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Speaker 1: which requires couples to press their legs and arms close

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Speaker 1: against each other so as to move in unison. At

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Speaker 1: the time, the tango was only the third ballroom dance

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Speaker 1: in which men and women both held and faced each other.

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Speaker 1: The other two were the Viennese waltz and the polka,

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Speaker 1: and while they lacked the close, continuous contact of the tango,

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Speaker 1: they were still met with suspicion when introduced. That's because,

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Speaker 1: for the most part, social dancing in Europe had always

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Speaker 1: been a very controlled and organized affair. Men and women

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Speaker 1: danced in lines or squares, and physical contact was limited

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Speaker 1: to loosely holding hands. You can imagine then, what a

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Speaker 1: stir the tango caused when it made its way to

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Speaker 1: the dignified halls of German power. By mid November, government,

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Speaker 1: dignitary and even military officers had begun hosting so called

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Speaker 1: tango tea parties. It was at one such event that

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Speaker 1: Kaiser Wilhelm first set eyes on the dance, and he

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Speaker 1: loathed it from the start. However, according to reports from

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Speaker 1: the era, the Kaiser didn't implement his crackdown until he

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Speaker 1: discovered that his son and daughter in law had succumbed

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Speaker 1: to the lure of the tango themselves. In January of

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Speaker 1: nineteen fourteen, the Brisbane newspaper The Queenslander addressed Germany's ban

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Speaker 1: on the tango, writing quote, the immediate cause of the

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Speaker 1: Kaiser's anti tango decree was the discovery that the German

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Speaker 1: Crown Princess was taking lessons in the Argentine tango, the

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Speaker 1: one step and other ultra modern dances from an American

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Speaker 1: woman who conducts a fashionable dancing school in Berlin. As

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Speaker 1: there was strong reason to believe that the Crown Prince,

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Speaker 1: who was an ardent dancer, was also interested in the tango.

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Speaker 1: His parents decided to put their in perial ban on

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Speaker 1: the dance for all officers of the army. The article

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Speaker 1: goes on to describe how the Kaiser's disapproval set off

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Speaker 1: a ripple effect in Berlin high society, with many upper

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Speaker 1: class Germans refraining from dancing the tango until all of

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Speaker 1: their quote unquote official guests had departed. In addition, some

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Speaker 1: German cities imposed even tighter restrictions on the tango, such

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Speaker 1: as Inhale, where the police actually hired a ballet dancer

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Speaker 1: to demonstrate the tango so that officers would be able

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Speaker 1: to recognize and shut it down when they saw it.

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Speaker 1: With World War One just around the corner, many Western

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Speaker 1: nations found little to agree on. In nineteen a mutual

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Speaker 1: distaste for the tango was a rare point of crossover

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Speaker 1: between government and church leaders. In England, Queen Mary and

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Speaker 1: King George the Fifth banned the dance from palace functions,

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Speaker 1: calling it a violation of social mores. In France, Cardinal

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Speaker 1: Amen of Paris took a hard line against the tango,

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Speaker 1: saying that Christians could not in good conscience take part

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Speaker 1: in it, and in Italy, Pope Pious the tenth when

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Speaker 1: a step further, instructing all Roman Catholic clergy to quote

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Speaker 1: initiate a crusade against the step, which is offensive to

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Speaker 1: every right minded person. His successor, Pope Benedict the fifteen,

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Speaker 1: doubled down on that sentiment a year later, declaring the

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Speaker 1: tango quote an outrageous, indecent heathen dance which is an

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Speaker 1: assassination of family and social life. In the United States,

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Speaker 1: the story was much the same. Ministers, priests, rabbis, town mayors,

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Speaker 1: and even the Vice President all spoke out against the

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Speaker 1: moral degeneracy of the tango. Meanwhile, in Australia, cooler heads prevailed.

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Speaker 1: There was no widespread panic about the tango's potential impact

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Speaker 1: on morality and public decency, and most people seem to

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Speaker 1: recogniz is the trend for what it was, a fun,

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Speaker 1: provocative dance that wasn't nearly a scandalous as other countries

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Speaker 1: seemed to think. One reporter said as much in a

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Speaker 1: Melbourne newspaper called The Argus in December of nine. They

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Speaker 1: wrote rather presciently that quote, the day will come when,

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Speaker 1: despite the edicts of ephemeral monarchs, the tango will be

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Speaker 1: danced at all official gatherings, and people will wonder at

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Speaker 1: the prudery of their ancestors and marvel at the prejudices

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Speaker 1: of kings. The German Crown Prince and the Crown Princess

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Speaker 1: will have to restrain themselves for a while, but someday

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Speaker 1: they will have authority to order the tango to be

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Speaker 1: danced at court, and even to be taught in the

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Speaker 1: academies to a modern generation of young folks. That prediction

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Speaker 1: was largely proven true. Despite the many public condemnations from

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Speaker 1: political and religious leaders, the tango survived the First World

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Speaker 1: War and became much more mainstream along the way. It's

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Speaker 1: popularity faded by the end of the nineteen tens, but

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Speaker 1: in ninety one it came roaring back thanks to some

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Speaker 1: fancy footwork from Rudolph Valentino in the silent film The

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Speaker 1: Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Often regarded as the first

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Speaker 1: true anti war film, it became the top grossing movie

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Speaker 1: of the year and helped cement the tango's place as

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Speaker 1: one of the most romantic styles of modern dance and yes,

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Speaker 1: as you'd expect. Kaiser Wilhelm reportedly hated I'm Gay, Bluesier

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Speaker 1: and hopefully you now know a little more about history

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Speaker 1: today than you did yesterday. If you enjoyed today's episode,

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Speaker 1: consider keeping up with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram

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Speaker 1: at t d i HC Show, and if you have

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Speaker 1: any comments or suggestions, you can always send them my

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Speaker 1: way at this day at I heart media dot com.

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Speaker 1: Thanks to Chandler May's for producing the show, and thank

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Speaker 1: you for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow

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Speaker 1: for another Day in History class. H