Gordon, Mel - Voluptuous Panic
Hedonists, decadents, sybarites, voyeurs. Dilettantes or turistas.
Titillating excursion into the corrosive beauty of Weimar Berlin.
From the aftermath of the Great War until Hitler becomes chancellor. 1919-1933.
This book organizes and catalogues all manner of sexual activities, proclivities, and shenanigans that flourished in nightclubs, brothels, same-sex haunts.
Don’t blame Germany. Sexual currency, depravity, recreation, is older than the pyramids. Thing is, this was the first time years of photographs, adverts, paintings, and memorabilia survive, along with diaries and memoirs from participants, authorities, onlookers.
And hundreds of photographs and illustrations are the lure for this book.
I bought this when it was first published, and a later edition is extended, with more photos and a chapter on Sex Magick (which is hardly exclusive to Berlin).
For future time travelers, there is a handy map indicating where the clubs are. The finest to the sleaziest, same-sex-only to tourists welcome.