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

Women and Straight Men:Why bother?

Unusual:Testy old waiters are dressed in nautical uniforms, identical to the teenage Line-Boys they serve. Alcoholic drinks are not are served to customers but drugs, especially cocaine and morphine, are freely traded and used at the tables.

Area:KREUZBERG. South of the HALLESCHES TOR. (Formerly RESTAURANT HEIDEBLUME.)

Atmosphere:Bizarre. “Unorthodox.” Falls into no set category. Closes at 3 a.m.

Clientele:On weeknights, lower-middle-class men with their Hausfraus in tow, some gay men and transvestite couples. On weekends, lots of British and Dutch “straight” tourists (both male and female) searching for the “authentic Berlin.”

Decor:Dilapidated strip club with an elevated dance stage. Bar on the side.

Entertainment:Amateurish transvestite revue—surprise: the girls are really boys. Dances and songs are performed by eight or nine effeminate Line-Boys, ranging in age between 14 and 18. Some of them appear to be undernourished. Professional piano accompaniment. Hunky blonde teenager “Pretty Adolf” acts as energetic conférencier.

Women and Straight Men:Strong word-of-mouth has made this de rigueur for heterosexual foreign couples.

Unusual:Monte-Casino is owned by a “kind-hearted” drag queen with a stable of obliging Line-Boys. They orally service the working-class customers in backroom cubicles while the young dancers prance on the cabaret stage. The ever-patient customer-wives sit in the hall and drink beer (across from the tables of other lonely Hausfraus) and take in the entertainment.

Area:BERLIN NORTH. Corner of ROSENTHALER PLATZ.

Atmosphere:“Celebratory.” Noisy. Heavy drinking of Pilsen with unconstrained displays of affection and sexual bravado throughout.

Clientele:This is the outpost for Society Men—40- to 60-year-olds with magnificent moustaches and facial hair. Every kind and color of hair-lock is here, from slight blonde Van Goghs to full Santa Claus beards. Long bushy sideburns and Kaiser Wilhelm moustaches predominate. The Society Men are a cross-section of middle-class Berlin: accountants, publishing types, small business owners. Also a goodly number of non-hirsute Line-Boys after midnight.

Decor:Large beer-hall room lodges some 200 animated drinkers. Half at tables, the others around the bar. In the back is a tiny stage, festooned with flowers.

Entertainment:One lonely transvestite chanteuse.

Women and Straight Men:None.

Unusual:Good pickup place for Line-Boys , charging 2 or 3 marks (about $12). Lots of sex between the Society and the boys in the toilet stalls.

Overheard Pick-up Lines:“Mine is bigger than yours!” (pointing to waxed moustache)

Area:Center of FRIEDRICHSTADT.

Atmosphere:Creepy, old fashioned, the refuse of a previous century. “A synthesis of Byzantinism and pornography.” Musty old shops where one can buy dirty French postcards, glass transparencies of the Madonna, meerschaum pipes, or an amber necklace for the wife. Discount stores, tired travel agencies and peepshows but each establishment lacking in earnest business prospects.

Clientele:Purveyors of the various shops and cafés but also—from 9 a.m. to 3 a.m.—the main thoroughfare for desperate Doll-Boys and their customers. 276

Decor:Faded glass-covered arcade supported by marble-paneled iron columns. A strange Wilhelmian imitation of a Renaissance market. Prewar signs and unintentionally disturbing window displays.

Entertainment:THE ANATOMICAL MUSEUM, open until the late evening, advertises exhibitions “Devoted to the Improvement of Mankind. No Children Admitted!” Inside are cases of antique mannequins engaged in horrific rituals and surgical operations; also prominent are displays of real body parts ravished by venereal disease and sexual organs representing the world’s “races.”

WORLD-PANORAMA is a stereoscopic emporium, where as many as 25 viewers can sit around a huge wooden cylinder of peepholes and watch three-dimensional images of naked people from exotic climes. A pornographic cinema theatre, the “STAR” does a small tourist business in the late afternoons and evenings.

Food:Several cafés, all filled with Doll-Boys and their free-spending Suitors.

Unusual:The competition among the dirty-faced Doll-Boys is so great that many Tree-Stumps are able to offer them less than a mark for an hour’s engagement. By 6 p.m., there are over 70 hardened Doll-and Line-Boys posing in the vicinity of the “STAR-KINO” alone. Another 80, with their hands in their pockets, mill around the Behrenstrasse exit. (The Line-Boys wear peaked schoolboy hats and short pants to appear considerably younger.)

Area:FRIEDRICHSTADT EAST. “One minute from SPITTELMARKT.”

Atmosphere:“The Most Beautiful Dance Emporium in Berlin.” Wild, “American,” aggressive, noisy, fun.

Clientele:Both gay men and lesbians on separate floors. Each of the dance halls can accommodate over 1,500 merry-makers.

Decor:Three stories: An enormous dance hall for lesbians on first floor, “the American Dance Palace.” Second and third floors, the “Florida Dance Hall” (with sweeping pink lights) and “Oriental Casino,” a lounge area, are exclusively for gay men.

Entertainment:Brassy orchestra plays on balcony above dance floor, both jazz and German folk dance music—for group dances that resemble gay square dancing, which frequently results in lovers’ disputes.

Women and Straight Men:Absolutely forbidden by opposite groups.

Lesbian Floors:Aggressive, “masculine” mood among the Bubis with lots of drunken brawls over available Mädis . Flower-sellers inside provide on-the-spot gifts for public apologies by Bubis . On New Years, a great costume ball, “The Silver Spider,” is given and at midnight the Princess of the Moon releases a gigantic balloon on the roof.

Area:BERLIN WEST. Near NOLLENDORFPLATZ and the Hotel Eden. [In 1929, renamed the GEISHA BAR.]