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

Clientele:Short-haired, blonde Wild-Boys, sailors, and pot-bellied Tree-Stumps. Sugar-Lickers around dinner time. Favorite word-of-mouth spot for British queers living on the cheap.

Decor:Discreetly blackened-out façade. Entrance is shielded by a somber curtain hanging from a flimsy shower rod. Inside the smoky room are bare tables, separated by paper arbors, and a bar-counter. Hanging from the ceiling are paper garlands and monstrously oversized cardboard grapes. Two walls are covered with cheap landscape paintings. Sparse lighting.

Entertainment:After 3 p.m., sentimental songs are pounded out on an antique piano by the resident drunk. In the center of the tiny room is an open area for one or two “dancing” couples. Watered-down drinks complete the nightmarish environment.

Women and Straight Men:Never.

Unusual:The lads here do not qualify as professional Line-Boys. Too much cynicism and despondency. The Wild-Boys listlessly lean against the naked walls or slump over tables. All eyes face the entrance way, in a half-hearted attempt to attract the attentions of a Sugar-Licker. The Boys here usually trade sex in the toilet for beer, wurst, coffee, or—more frequently—cigarettes. Good place, however, to obtain inexpensive cocaine and rolled balls of opium.

Area:BERLIN NORTH. On ALEXANDERPLATZ. (Formerly the ALEXANDER-PALAIS.)

Atmosphere:Upscale. Expensive.

Clientele:Mostly mature, middle-class gay couples in tuxedos and top hats; elderly shopkeepers, frock-coated clerks, and even policemen. Their quaint and courtly manners are a reflection of their conservative, sometimes monarchist, political affiliations.

Decor:Gigantic American ballroom for 150 couples.

Entertainment:Big Band and cabaret stage. Dancing from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Unusual:AP offers monthly Transvestite Balls, which welcome non-transvestite guests. Separate lesbian nights are also offered.

Area:FRIEDRICHSTADT. At the edge of the Spree by SPITTELMARKT.

Atmosphere:Located in an isolated tract by the river, the BC can only be discovered through the reddish glow of its outdoor marquee. The riverfront district around the bar is quiet, serene, and virtually abandoned at night. Inside, the air is saturated with clouds of blue smoke. General mood is upbeat and highly flirtatious.

Clientele:Blonde Line-Boys (many in schoolboy outfits that expose their knees and upper chests) crouch at the bar with their beer and smoke cigarettes. Stiff-collared merchants and state officials in expensive suits. The Line-Boys here are clean and great teases.

Decor:Tables separated by high garlanded trellises. Standard bar with many hidden corners.

Entertainment:Live piano music. The middle-class men dance with boys; the Line-Boys with each other. Little space for ballroom-style dancing, so there is much intentional bumping, touching, and lingering glances. Lots of suggestive, girlish movements on the dance floor.

Women and Straight Men:None.

Unusual:Many of the Line-Boys appear in freshly laundered sailor outfits since that is a basic taste of their customers. Sexual contact takes place at a nearby pier.

Area:BERLIN EAST. South of SPITTELMARKT.

Atmosphere:Wacky. No admission.

Clientele:Mostly petty bourgeois, mature gays. Aunties.

Decor:Painted on a wall inside is the sign of the lounge: a crouching spider resting snugly in her web.

Entertainment:Saturdays and Sundays at 7 p.m., a floor show is presented. A few of the announced acts: “Luziana, the Mysterious Wonder of the Earth—Man or Woman?”; Liselott from the Mikado; the Alhambra-Duo, a song-and-dance team of male twins; or Gert Bathé as a man.

Women and Straight Men:None

Area:KREUZBERG. South of the HALLESCHES TOR. (Formerly NOSTER’S RESTAURANT.)

Atmosphere:Hard-drinking boy-bar. On cold nights, Bubes sit around the pot-bellied stove with their sleeves rolled up and shirts unbuttoned to the waist. In summer, the same wide-eyed boys sport high-cut lederhosen.

Clientele:Rough-trade Bubes (working-class Line-Boys) and their adoring Tree-Stumps. Aspiring British writers led by Christopher Isherwood.

Decor:Homely. Former neighborhood restaurant. Blacked-out windows. A leather curtain conceals the entranceway from the inside. Photographs of boxers and cyclists are pinned up above the bar. That overheated stove.

Entertainment:Drinking and card games.

Women and Straight Men:None

Unusual:The toilet stall is an open space without partitions or cubicles. Instead there is a long urinal trough, where the Bubes can innocuously display their penises and pretend to urinate before titillated Suitors.

Area:BERLIN NORTH. South of the Hospital complex. (Formerly Café-Restaurant CEMENT-CELLAR.)

Atmosphere:Private, underground. Very crowded and boisterous. Heavy, depressed mood. Surprisingly free of tobacco smoke and alcoholic beverages. Closes sharply at 2 a.m.

Clientele:Young Line-Boys, nearly all beardless in crisp, tailored sailor outfits. Coolies and Tree-Stumps on the make. Hectic groups of Bad Boys are constantly entering and then abruptly leaving for street action or other lounges. (Many are dealing cocaine in the clubs.)

Decor:Stripes of wax paper cover the inside entrance to the “Cement Cellar.” In the first room is a massive bar and a dusty glass liquor cabinet. A dim inner room is primitively decorated with jeweled lampshades (made from the cloth of old coats) and jewel-studded walls covered with mismatched paintings of men’s portraits and tiny porcelain tchotchkes.

Entertainment:At a broken-down baby grand piano, shoved into a corner, a pianist and fiddler play. Regulars, like “Pretty Benno” and “Karlo” waltz between the tables. Other couples dance in the shadows against the bejeweled walls.

Food:Plates of Hungarian pastries and lemonade only.