Between World Wars, Gay Culture Flourished In Berl : NPR

Contents:

• GAY BERL, BEFORE HLER CAME TO POWER
• GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME - PHOTOGRAPHS
• QUEER & GAY BERL: YOUR GUI FOR LGBTQ+ BERL
• GAY BERL
• BETWEEN WORLD WARS, GAY CULTURE FLOURISHED IN BERL
• GAY HISTORY. BERL THE 1920S-1930S: FROM GOLD TO DT

GAY BERL, BEFORE HLER CAME TO POWER

Whisnant:As early as the turn of the century, Berl's gay scene was attractg such notoriety that equently was mentned tourist lerature, liftg up the cy's gay scene as proof of the evils of urban life and the dangers of morny; them, Berl beme the untry's Sodom and Gomorrah put together, a sure sign of the land's the stag of Berl, the Tiller Girls showed off their legs, dancg a Rockett-style performance that amazed and tillated spectators. "Diverse, but DividMagn Hirschfeld, a Jewish German physician, sexologist and pneerg gay rights advote, was well acquated wh Berl's scene and mented on the diversy among the bars.

GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME - PHOTOGRAPHS

By far the most famo was the Eldorado a nightclub whose ftive atmosphere attracted not only homosexuals but also artists, thors, celebri, and tourists wantg to admire a piece of "nt" Berl or tch a glimpse of someone Lbian Club SceneLbians uld also be found some of the bars that were voted mostly to gay men [and were] often seen the larger clubs of the 1920s, such as the Topp and the Eldorado. The Dorian Gray, one of the olst and bt-known gay clubs by the Weimar era, had a special night set asi for the turn of the century, there were also a handful of exclively lbian bars the cy.

QUEER & GAY BERL: YOUR GUI FOR LGBTQ+ BERL

The atmosphere was generally refed; the lightg was soft and sentimental mic played the of the most famo was Chez Ma Belle Sor on Marburger Strasse, rated Greek-style and furnished wh private booths, where upl uld take refuge behd the gay bars, many of the lbian bars were segregated somewhat by class.

One French observer of the cy around the turn of the century noted that gay balls were held often several tim a week different clubs durg the ftive season between October and Easter. They would s down to eat at tabl led wh flowers; the director, drsed a "gay velvet jacket, " would greet the guts and give a short dner, the tabl would be put away, and the orchtra would beg playg waltz and other lively dancg mic while the upl would dance through the night.

" *Excerpt om the chapter "The Growth of Urban Gay Scen, Berl's Gay and Lbian Bars, " om Queer Inti and Polics Germany: A History, 1880-1945, by Clayton J. Bent director Moisés Kfman was surprised to disver that the 1920s and early 1930s, Berl was home to over 100 gay bars—far more than you’d fd any global cy today.

GAY BERL

We talked wh Robert Beachy, thor of Gay Berl: Birthplace of a Morn Inty and a historian at Yonsei Universy, to fd out about the liv the characters Bent—Max and his boyiend, Rudy, bar owner and drag queen Greta—might have led before Hler me to power.

Homosexual acts were illegal on the books, but a batn of factors allowed a vibrant gay culture to beg to tablish self Berl as early as the late 19th century.

In fact, Germans’ “rpect and regard” and fah science, said Beachy, is part of the explanatn for why they rejected tradnal relig views of homosexualy more quickly than the rt of the Wt. Lots of proment cultural figur were “pretty wily regnized as gay or lbian, and some s they had life or long-term partners” who were treated as spo—not people to be hidn or embarrassed about, said Beachy.

BETWEEN WORLD WARS, GAY CULTURE FLOURISHED IN BERL

Most of Berl’s gay bars remaed open after the Nazis took power, except for about 15 of the bt-known tablishments, which they closed the first months of their le.

“It was only after that, a full 17 months to the Third Reich, that ’s gog to start to dawn on some people that they’re gog to be trouble if they ntue to be openly homosexual, ” said Beachy. They rried out a mpaign agast male homosexualy that clud shuttg down gay and lbian meetg plac and arrtg men unr Paragraph 175, the statute of the German crimal that banned sexual relatns between men. Ruby Rich sums up this way:"The years of the Weimar Republic wnsed a flowerg of women's rights and of stggl for homosexual emancipatn, as well as a burstg forth of a large lbian and gay subculture quartered largely Berl.

GAY HISTORY. BERL THE 1920S-1930S: FROM GOLD TO DT

Acrdg to Angel Espa-Virseda, "One of the most popular ladi’ clubs was the Damenklub Vletta, led by Lotte Hahm, a well-known figure the homosexual rights movement. Berl liv and breath diversy every rpect: we have gathered practil rmatn, tips and pots of ntact for gay, lbian, bisexual, transgenr and tersexual people. In Schöneberg fli the flag: In 1996, Schöneberg was the first borough to officially fly the rabow flag at the town hall for the CSD gay pri para, and has done so ever sce.

Sce 1982, there has been a memorative plaque at the Nollendorfplatz unrground statn where the Rosa Wkel memorat the persecutn and murr of homosexuals the Third Reich. Learn about how Berl beme a hotspot for gays and lbians over the urse of the 20th century, and how s scene attracted people om all over the world – and ntu to do so today.