A Peek Inside Berlin’s Queer Club Scene Before Hitler Destroyed It

A brand new guide informs the real tales behind Cabaret, and the thing that was probably the most thrilling homosexual celebration scene the entire world has ever understood. Read an excerpt right here.

The next is an excerpt from Queer Identities and Politics in Germany: a past history, 1880-1945 by Clayton J. Whisnant:

As soon as the change regarding the century, Berlin’s homosexual scene had been attracting such notoriety so it often was mentioned in tourist literary works, lifting up the town’s gay scene as evidence of the evils of metropolitan life together with hazards of modernity; inside them, Berlin became the country’s Sodom and Gomorrah assembled, a yes indication of the land’s degeneracy.

Regarding the phases of Berlin, the Tiller Girls showed off their feet, dancing a Rockettes-style performance that amazed and titillated spectators. In crowded cabarets, audiences admired “tableaux” of women posing nude or watched actors telling risque jokes and performing lewd tracks

Groups high in guys powder that is wearing rouge as well as shorthaired females dressed in tuxedoes provided pictures of a global apparently switched upside down. This world was bewildering—and quite possibly terrifying for the general public.

For Germany’s gay men and lesbians, though, Berlin represented vow. Its gay scenes offered exciting places to look for love and joy. Christopher Isherwood, whoever quick tales based on their remain in Berlin ultimately became the foundation for the 1972 movie Cabaret, with Liza Minnelli, place it just enough: “Berlin suggested boys. ”

Different, but Divided

Magnus Hirschfeld, a jewish physician that is german sexologist and pioneering homosexual legal rights advocate, ended up being well familiar with Berlin’s scene and commented regarding the variety one of the pubs. (more…)