Mel Gordon - Voluptuous Panic - The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin

In 1927, Julius Streicher’s virulently anti-Semitic Nazi newspaper, Der Stürmer had only 14,000 subscribers. Ten years later, its circulation approached one-half million copies, making it one of the most popular journals in the Reich. Der Stürmer and its sister publications advanced the preposterous Nazi theory about Jews and Berlin: Babylon-on-the-Spree was the invention of the accursed Jews. Graphic color illustrations showed hideous Jewish businessmen, doctors, lawyers, film directors, even pastors (concealing their Hebraic origins) as lust murderers, dope peddlers, and defilers of Aryan youth. Decadent Berlin was a Jewish and homosexual paradise and therefore a Germanic hell.

Streicher’s relentless propaganda, itself a form of pornography, found more and more adherents as the real Weimar Berlin receded into history. The Prussian metropolis was an evil place. Eternally evil. For the German people and the nations who defeated them in 1945 after a superhuman struggle, Streicher’s distorted image remained. And endures.■

The following listingswere compiled by the author from approximately 200 sources, most of which appeared in the late Weimar period between 1927 and 1932. Descriptions in the 1931-1932 Weimar Berlin guidebooks—the last to appear—frequently mimicked earlier accounts and were likely “borrowed” renderings. Occasionally, a contrary situation arose; some travel digests were widely at odds with one another over their assessment of the actual scope of depraved activity in a featured Diele or entertainment environment. (When in doubt over which report to believe, I generally accepted the more salacious account.) The 50 locales described here represent between five and ten per cent of all the known erotic or nighttime establishments in Weimar Berlin. Solid-numbered establishments are included on the map.

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1Cabaret of the Nameless

2Café Braun

3Haller-Revue

4Haus Vaterland

5Heaven and Hell

6Kakadu Bar

7James-Klein Revue

8“Resi”

9Restaurant Hackepeter

10Rio Rita Bar

11Stork’s Nest Cabaret

12Weisse Maus

1Adonis-Lounge

2Alexander-Palast

3Bürger-Casino

4Cabaret of the Spider

5Cosy Corner

6Karls-Lounge

7Monte-Casino

8Moustache-Lounge

9The Passage

10Zauberflöte

1Aukula-Lounge

2Café Domino

3Café Dorian Gray

4Café Olala

5Hohenzoffern-Café

6Mali and Ingel

7Meyer-Stube

8Taverne

9Toppkeller

10Verona-Lounge

1Berlin Association of Free Body Culture

2Birkenheide

3Body Culture School of Adolf Koch

4Free Sunland

5New Sunland

6Territory Adolf Koch

1Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute of Sexology

1Eldorado

2Eldorado (New)

3Mikado Bar

4Monocle-Bar

5Silhouette

1The Blue Stocking

2Hundegustav Bar

3Red Mill Cabaret

4Sing-Sing

1Café Aryan

2Pension Schmidt

Area:Center of FRIEDRICHSTADT.

Atmosphere:Clamorous, malevolent, sadistic. “Typical Berlin bad taste.”

Clientele:Thrill-seeking middle-class Berliners bent on slacking their brutal, anti-social impulses.

Decor:Standard small cabaret space with tables and 98 chairs. Wine and champagne are served.

Entertainment:Fifteen ten-minute amateur acts are introduced by the acerbic conférencier “Elow” (Erwin Lowinsky) over the course of an evening. Selected for their utter lack of performance talent, weird physicality, and astounding naiveté, the “artistes” are further deluded by Elow into believing that they are about to receive their big show-business break.

Typically, the clueless entertainers try to imitate the work of established cabaret personalities and proceed to humiliate themselves completely in their numbing attempts. While audience members drunkenly interrupt and boo the wretched losers, Elow unctuously takes the part of a kindly uncle or philanthropist and encourages the amateurs to ignore the vicious Philistines and continue their rotten singing, juggling, storytelling, impersonations, or poetry recitals. Sometimes Elow “directs” a trio of the most unskilled performers in a scene from a well-known German classic.

Unusual:The truly mentally unstable, ranting megalomaniacs, and near-cripples are “the Nameless’” favored victims. Aggressive spectators frequently target the slowest-moving performers with crumpled programs and coins. (Naturally the audience’s murderous insults and constant jeering are sometimes misinterpreted by certain simpleton-“stars” as yet another stormy accolade that affirms their exalted status.)

Area:ALEXANDERPLATZ. Concealed in an alley around the corner from the Alex. [Formerly the BEROLINA.]

Atmosphere:Sexy. Fast moving. “American” tempo. Crowded at all hours.

Clientele:In-the-know, bohemian types.