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Queer (Berliner Cabaret #AtoZChallenge)

Q (AtoZ Challenge 2019)

Berlin had long been a queer-friendly place when the Weimar Republic was born. Thanks to an illuminated policy that preferred monitoring to repression, Berlin became a place where homosexuals could live a relatively peaceful life in the 1800s already. This is certainly what attracted so many of them in the city from all across Europe.

It is also the city where the first Institute of Sex Research was founded in 1919 by Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, who was likely a gay man himself,  although he generally wrote about ‘homosexual’ at a remove. The Institute was a non-profit foundation backed by anonymous wealthy benefactors and  provided services about sexual life to rich and poor alike, ranging from marriage counselling to early attempts at hormone therapy.
Dr Hirschfeld was an activist and scholar of sexuality who in 1909 wrote The Transvestite, an essay in which he argued that people cannot chose their sexuality and so sexual orientation cannot be taken as a guilt to punish. The term “transvestitism” at that time encompassed people of all gender identities, from those who occasionally wore men’s or women’s clothes on weekends, to those who today might well identify instead as transgender, a term that was not in common usage at the time. Hirschfeld sustained that people who clothed themselves as the opposite sex truly felt how they dressed, and would greatly suffered if they had been forced to do otherwise. On this ground, and through his active campaigning, Dr Hirshfled finally eased the creation of ‘transvestite passes’.
Homosexuality was against the law in Germany even during the Weimar Republic. Cross-dressing however wasn’t, although the practice often led to charges of being a “public nuisance,” which could mean six weeks’ imprisonment or a fine of 150 marks. The ‘transvestite passes’, which were issued by the police, allowed transvestites to walked in the street unchallenged.

Drag shows, very popular in 1920s #Berlin, were effective tools of integration for the #queer population #history Click To Tweet

Drag artists

Anita Berber mit Partnerin, Berlin, 1921
Anita Berber mit Partnerin, Berlin, 1921

The ‘transvestite passes’ opened up greater opportunities for drag artists. Previously, male and female impersonators had risked arrest by stepping on the stage or walk on the street. It subjected them to any arbitrary decision the police might make, which greatly depended on how well they were able to ‘pass’. The ‘transvestite passes’ allowed them to freely perform on stage as well as going from one venue to the other without taking out their dresses.

The term ‘drag’ is credited to Shakespeare as the shorten form for ‘Dressing resembling a girl’, though in modern times it has been applied to girls dressed as men as well.
While there had always been a stigma attached to men dressing as women, women dressing as men had generally encountered more tolerance. This was particularly true during the Weimar Era when the ideal of the garçon emerged: a woman that not only dressed as a man, but also acted as one and demanded the same treatment and aspirations. Because this could turn into a social and even political statement, many women started dressing in a masculine clothes. It became a fashion, to the point that if a woman dressed like a man this didn’t necessarily indicate her sexual preferences.

Cabaret once again appropriated the political meaning of this behaviour. After the ‘transvestites passes’ were created, ‘drag’ performances became quite common in Berlin and even popular. While there were still ‘closeted’ clubs that only queer people would frequent, cabarets where drag actors performed – the Eldorado was the chief example – were quite a different place. They were frequented by all kinds of people that in the cabaret met and interacted freely, without barriers either physical or psychological.
By their mere existence these cabarets invited a more open acceptance of one another, adding to the queer-friendly feeling characteristic of Berlin.

NOTE: thanks to Carrie-Anne for commenting on the origin of the term ‘drag actor’. I did some more digging and apparently the origin of the term is very unsure, although it doesn’t seem to go further back than the 1700s. One article specifically says it has nothing to do with Shakespeare, since the direction ‘dressing resembling a girl’ never appears in his plays nor in those of his contemporaries. Most articles I found attribute the term to the ‘dragging’ of female’s clothes on the stage when used by male actors. Or going back to an English dialect especially used in the theatrical environment.
In short, it appears nobody knows the true origin.


RESOURCES

Peter Jelavich, Berlin Cabaret. Harvard University Press, Harvard, 1993


Berliner Cabaret (AtoZ Challenge 2019) Queer - By the Weimar Era, Berlin had been a queer-friendly city for a few decades and it continue to be a place of queer expression and advancement
AtoZChallenge 2019 - Berliner Cabaret - Queer - Always a queer-friendly city, in the Weimar Era Berlin became the mecca of queer culture
Berliner Cabaret (AtoZ Challenge 2019) Queer - By the Weimar Era, Berlin had been a queer-friendly city for a few decades and it continue to be a place of queer expression and advancement

12 Comments

  • Kristin
    Posted April 19, 2019 at 05:35

    Interesting about the transvestite pass.

    • Post Author
      jazzfeathers
      Posted April 19, 2019 at 10:56

      I learned about these passes last year, while researching the Weimar Republic, but I hadn’t realised their importance fully. There’s always something to learn.

  • Carrie-Anne
    Posted April 19, 2019 at 16:31

    I’d never heard that about the origins of the word “drag” before. I wonder if all the cross-dressing Nazis (as documented in many photos) were influenced by cabaret drag artists.

    • Post Author
      jazzfeathers
      Posted April 19, 2019 at 22:44

      Mhm. I’ve read about the origin of the word in an article about Dr Hirschfeld. I find it very suspicious that you’ve never heard of if. I will have to double check that info.
      Thanks for commenting 🙂

  • Tarkabarka
    Posted April 20, 2019 at 10:11

    I didn’t know that about the origins of drag! I do know that Hirschfeld’s books were burned by the Nazis. Such a dark moment of queer history, for a place that was becoming accepting…

    The Multicolored Diary

    • Post Author
      jazzfeathers
      Posted April 27, 2019 at 09:11

      The change in the Germans’ attitude toward diverse people in the 1920s is quite shocking, though I mostly understand why it happened. And once again, that’s a warning to our times.

  • J Lenni Dorner
    Posted April 20, 2019 at 11:45

    Wow. That’s really interesting. I’ve heard there’s a study showing the tolerance of homosexuality is directly related to the level of peace/ war. In good times, be who you are. In bad times, procreate rather than love and lie for your life.

    The drag thing makes sense. I mean, it was important during Shakespeare times because women weren’t allowed to perform back then.

    So odd how some people are asked to repress who they are because others need to flaunt who they pretend to be.

    • Post Author
      jazzfeathers
      Posted April 27, 2019 at 09:16

      Yeah, I included the tidbit about Shakspear because it made sense to me for the same reason, but some more digging shows that actually nobody knows the true origin, which seems to be a lot nearer to us anyway.
      That serves to remind me that I should never trust the info on the internet at face value.

      I read the same thing about tolerance regarding Jews. I suppose that sadly, that’s how the human mind works: when there’s something going very wrong, we need to find a culprit, and of course that culprit will never be us or one of us, or we’ll never feel safe. Therefore is must be one of ‘them’…. whoever ‘they’ are.

  • Birgit
    Posted April 24, 2019 at 16:20

    I wonder if this Hirschfeld is related to the famous illustrator? This man was, obviously, way ahead of the times and also shows how forward thinking Berlin was at this time and Marlene brought this over to Hollywood.

    • Post Author
      jazzfeathers
      Posted April 27, 2019 at 09:17

      Wouldn’t know. But I’ve read quite a bit about dr HIrschfeld and never found reference to any famouse realtive.
      As I’ve said many time before, Berlin in the 1920s was an awesome place, and also a very depressing place.

  • Roland R Clarke
    Posted April 26, 2019 at 00:01

    You’ve added to my historical knowledge about queer attitudes. The origin of ‘drag’ sounds convincing given both Shakespeare’s plays and the restrictions on who played the female roles.

    • Post Author
      jazzfeathers
      Posted April 27, 2019 at 09:24

      Yes, I included that bit because it sounded reasonable to me too, but some more digging shows that, although nobody knows wht the actual origin is, it probably doesn’t go that far back in time.

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