From Publishers Weekly
An intriguing cache of recently discovered erotica from 1920s Berlin (photographs, theater programs, guidebooks and pictorial magazines) is on display in Voluptuous Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin. U.C. Berkeley theater professor Mel Gordon (The Grand Guignol) enhances the compelling visual images with snippets of personal memoirs, interviews and other sociological accounts that describe a sexually charged city brimming with prolific prostitution, homosexuality and drugs in the heady days before the Nazis came into full power.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
Between 1921 and 1933, Berlin developed a reputation for debauchery unrivaled by any city before or since. Unlike European capitals like Paris, Barcelona, and Amsterdam, where brothel districts were extensive but discreet, in Berlin sexual tourism was a primary industry. On any given evening, over 600 establishments, from massage parlors to sex clubs to cabarets to private torture dungeons, promised unique sights and pleasures. Using tourist guidebooks that appeared before the Nazi period, historical memoirs, and more than 400 specialized journals and books, Mel Gordon has put together a controversial exploration of Berlin's erotic demiworld and its relationship to the rise of Nazism.
