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

Men:Sophisticated types admitted when accompanied by a lesbian entourage but treated as passive onlookers once inside. Waitresses will often regard them as nonentities.

Unusual:At the end of their commercial day, Gougnette patrons meet here for open sexual displays of conquest and submission. Gougnettes are easily recognized by their heavy makeup and characteristic attire—stylish men’s hats, long fur coats, patent-leather footwear, and specially tailored skirts that are sharply upturned in the center to reveal the tops of their glossy, sheer silk stockings.

Affiliation:Nationalist (FKK). Led by anti-Koch doctor, Artur Fedor Fuchs. Official journal, Nacktsport .

Atmosphere and Philosophy:Class-oriented but pointedly progressive. Aryanism married to holistic principles of natural health.

Clientele:General mix of upper- and upper-middle-class Berlin. Bald aristocrats (noticeably wearing their wire-rim glasses or monocles), flaccid matrons in red bathing caps. A few attractive young women. (Jews, homosexuals, and Marxist types gently discouraged.)

Health Regimen:No alcohol. Most members religiously imbibe a special Bulgarian cultured-milk drink.

Separation of Genders:Implied. Modest display of breasts and male genitalia.

Studios:The Lunabad facility in the Lunapark on Sundays is reserved for FKK members. Naked air baths, sunlamp treatments, and curatic massages are offered. On Tuesdays, the Association rents the monstrous Wellenbad building, which features several indoor beaches and two powerful wave machines that mimic North Sea currents. Every ten minutes, a lifeguard issues a mock-serious warning to swimmers, “The waves are coming!”

Unusual:Nude members maintain Prussian protocol in the bath and restaurant, where one can observe formal greeting rituals, such as bowing and hand-kissing; even the military habit of clicking (barefoot) heels when meeting a superior is common here. Refined and sanitary-minded naked dinners use silver tongs to pick up sugar cubes and breakfast rolls.

Affiliation:Strictly apolitical. Undogmatic. Founded by the free-spirited Charly Straesser. No membership cards, personal questionnaires, nor cultural, ethnic, and class restrictions.

Atmosphere and Philosophy:Hedonistic and pleasure-oriented. Strong libertarian tenor. Guests have certain work obligations to help run the camp but may engage in any chosen activity after that. No rules regarding diet or dress. Organizational codes of “purity and cleanliness,” athletic beauty, or civic belief are ignored and often parodied.

Clientele:A community of “New People.” Young, vivacious, attractive Berliners, including many 175ers. Former-Wandervogel types. Wealthy actresses and their companions. Some nonconformist families with children. (Voyeurs toting cameras, and thrill-seeking bourgeois patrons not admitted.)

Decor:Extremely rustic, except for an outdoor coffee shop.

Health Regimen:Basically laissez-faire. Lots of medicine ball games, tennis, volleyball, free-form gymnastics, popular social dance. Sun bathing and swimming. Nude exercises and competitive games, like mud-wrestling, enacted in a playful atmosphere.

Separation of Genders:None.

Unusual:Public homosexual contact and inter-generational sex is common here and adds to the aura of unfettered carnal freedom.

Affiliation:Socialist (“Free Men, Union for Socialist Life Reform and Free Body Culture in the Alliance of People’s Health”). Official journal Körperbildung/Nacktkultur.

Atmosphere and Philosophy:Fun blended with didactic study. Koch’s instructors pontificate that vigorous hygiene, Bode-like exercises, and nudity are all married to good health. Lectures are often laced with pedagogical and therapeutic terminology. Utopian, spiritual mood.

Clientele:Thousands of working-class and unemployed families. [Over 300,000 members in 1932, of which the out-of-work comprise almost half. Payment is 5% of annual salary, if any.] Lots of children. Among adults, many overweight and unattractive bodies. “Pendulous breasts and Zulu hips” noted among mature female members. Homosexuals and lesbians welcome.

Health Regimen:Two-hour sessions: 8 p.m.—public showers and freestyle warm-ups; 8:30—special group rhythmic gymnastics (synchronized to tiresome children’s songs on piano or drumbeats); 9 p.m.—nude bathing in municipal swimming pool.

Separation of Genders:All sexes and ages mixed, except during morning exercise sessions. Designated political lectures related to the Women Question.

Studios:Headquarters in the two floors of the Apollo Theater. Friday night meetings in the Berlin State Bathhouse.

Unusual:Everyone is addressed, as in Kindergarten, in the familiar case (“Du”).

Affiliations:Seemingly apolitical with a Nationalist slant (“Free Sunland Union” and the “Concerned Community of Free Sunland and Naked Sports”). Overseen by Dr. Artur Fedor Fuchs, editor of Nacktsport .

Atmosphere and Philosophy:Upscale. Strangely erotic. Restricted to well-paying members and guests. (Each participant must present a passport-like booklet that establishes his or her political beliefs.) Relatively little overt propaganda, but nudism is promoted as a healthful and vital aspect of pre-Christian German life.

Clientele:6,000 paid-up members. Lots of middle-class denizens in family units and office groups. Unconventional Nationalists, who often gather by a far corner around the radio in the evening. Many aristocrats and social butterfly types, including gigolos and “Merry Widows” from the Resi. Also a place for UFA film stars, like Willy Fritch and Lilian Harvey. A few American tourists.

Decor:Entire encampment surrounded by wooden fences and Gothic Verboten signs. Mock primitive within. Sandy, pine-studded meadows. Two “fuck” cabins in the woods, three chalets, a restaurant, and an outdoor changing room, each covered in a characteristic rough-hewn oak.

Health Regimen:No smoking, liquor, or beer. Heavily sports-directed—organized swimming and diving, javelin-tossing, medicine-ball throwing. Nude tennis and volleyball being the most popular intersex group activity after swimming. Massages and facials offered.

Separation of Genders:During mornings, segregated activities for mature men (horseshoe-pitching), young men (boxing), women (gymnastics), and children (handball). Mixed activities after lunchtime. Groups of men in well-oiled bodies by the sea often register—to outsiders—a strong homoerotic sensation.