To foreign eyes, Berliners were at once identifiable by their prominent cheekbones, sallow colour and loose-fitting clothes. Nor was it just the poor who went hungry; for once the middle classes were equally affected. Stewart Roddie described how the market places had been converted into public kitchens where thousands of people from every class of society were fed daily. ‘Hunger is a great leveller. The rag-picker stood cheek by jowl with the professor. And what an extraordinary appearance they presented – miserable, gaunt, emaciated, shivering.’
