The Onyx Review: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal © 2016 Center for Writing and Speaking 2016, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 15–23 Agnes Scott College “Berlin Meant Boys”: Christopher Isherwood in Weimar Germany’s Gay Culture Zoë C. Howard Agnes Scott College Our collective memory of Germany in the 1920s and 1930s focuses on Adolf Hitler’s rise to power and leaves little room for much else; thus, we have overlooked—or passed over—one of the most incredible cultural scenes to have existed during this period in not just Germany, but also in history: Berlin’s extensive and internationally known gay culture. This paper examines and analyzes Berlin’s vibrant and thriving gay culture through the renowned British novelist Christopher Isherwood’s experience in Berlin and how his participation in this internationally known hub of social and sexual freedom changed his writing and boosted his self-confidence and self-esteem. This research explores the economic, social, and political conditions in which this culture was able to form in Berlin, the exact nature of the gay scene in the city, and Christopher Isherwood’s background and experience in this liberated culture and how it influenced him. In researching this largely unknown culture, this paper will contribute to the relatively small body of work on this subject and help bring awareness to this culture’s importance and its legacy through Isherwood’s writings, especially in a time that is still struggling with LGBTQ rights. ermany in the 1920s and early was a country squire. 1 Isherwood did not 1930s is usually associated with have a close relationship with his parents, so G the rise of Adolf Hitler. While when he went to boarding school at eight Hitler was indeed gaining a foothold at this years old, he forged “intimate and creative time, much more was happening in friendships with a vast range of personalities Germany that has not received as much from all walks and classes of life.” 2 That attention in our collective memory. Berlin close bond he did not share with his parents, was an internationally known hub of social he created with his peers. In 1925, at age and sexual freedom during this period, and twenty-one, Isherwood was dismissed from had a particularly vibrant gay culture. The Cambridge University after supplying British novelist Christopher Isherwood was nonsensical responses on his final exams. one of the many visitors to Berlin who came After his expulsion, he served as a secretary, to this city specifically in order to escape the a tutor, and briefly as a medical student; oppressive nature of his country’s during this time, he published his first novel condemnation of homosexuality and All the Conspirators before joining his homosexual behaviors. In Berlin under the childhood friend and fellow writer W. H. Weimar Republic, Isherwood participated in Auden in Berlin in 1929. 3 Berlin was to an uninhibited gay culture and that included nightclubs and acceptance of gender non- 1 Katherine Bucknell, “Biography,” The conformity and sexual experimentation. Christopher Isherwood Foundation, 2012, Isherwood experienced a sexual freedom Accessed March 28, 2016, that changed his writing as well as his self- http://www.isherwoodfoundation.org/biogra confidence and self-esteem. phy.html. Christopher Isherwood (1904-1986) was 2 Ibid. born near Manchester, England, and he had 3 Bucknell, “Biography”; Robert a privileged childhood, as his grandfather Beachy, Gay Berlin: Birthplace of a Modern The Onyx Review, 2016, 2(1) Z. C. Howard/ ISHERWOOD IN BERLIN’S GAY CULTURE 16 become the setting for several of his novels censorship in print media 6 —and a as well as somewhat of a safe haven from homosexual population between 50,000 and his home country’s attitude toward 100,000. 7 Prostitution was also a major homosexuality. attraction to visitors. “The pervasive In the years following World War I, prostitution (both male and female), the Berlin became a hub of sexual freedom. public cross-dressing, and the easy access to There, gender identity and expression did bars and clubs [catered] to homosexual men not conform to traditional cultural and and lesbians.”8 Many male sex workers who societal expectations. Berlin during this time engaged in same-sex acts did so only for the could be described as an anomaly; sake of making a little extra money—around homosexuality and nonstandard expressions one third identified as heterosexual in their of masculinity and femininity were, in many personal preferences. 9 Not all prostitutes places, criminalized, yet the gay culture in were hesitant to serve the gay community, Berlin existed without much backlash. After however. Prostitution was a source of World War I, Germany had fallen into a pit income for some—not always stable or of defeat, economic inflation, and general reliable—but it provided some money in a despair, and, with the dismantling of the time of fewer jobs and opportunities.10 Some Kaiser and his censorship, “the celebrated men even endeavored to find a long-term cultural efflorescence and social tolerance of partner, one who might pluck them from the Weimar years arose out of, or in spite of, their lives as sex workers and foster a a perhaps equally celebrated atmosphere of relationship around true love.11 perversion and abandon.”4 It was accepting Berlin also had a flourishing of and even encouraged open sexuality, “homosexual bar scene,” boasting a “vibrant transsexuals, cross-dressers, same-sex nightclub culture and cabarets,”12 each with couples, and everything in between, and it a unique atmosphere and focus; some was because of this that Berlin became specialized in shows, while others were just internationally known as a place of freedom social gathering places:13 for the closeted and persecuted LGBTQ These bars were the foundation of community throughout Europe and America. ordinary Berlin homosexual life; some Eastern and Western Europeans and bore evocative names (like the café Americans flocked to Berlin for its gay Amicitia), others were perfectly culture. Many visitors were sex tourists, travelers interested primarily in taking advantage of the unregulated sex industry, 6 Brent L. Pickett, The A to Z of but some were just curious onlookers, there Homosexuality, The A to Z Guide Series, to observe the culture and document their No. 122. (Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2009), experiences. 5 The sex industry was 79. promoted by advertisements, gay and 7 Beachy, Gay Berlin, 189, 197. lesbian magazines and newspapers— 8 Ibid., 188. allowed by Weimar’s relaxation of 9 Ibid., 189. 10 Ibid. 11 Ibid. Identity (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 12 Beachy, Gay Berlin, 44-45, 188. 2014), ix. 13 Florence Tamagne, A History of 4 Nick Paumgarten, “Berlin Nights,” The Homosexuality in Europe: Berlin, London, New Yorker 90, no. 5 (2014), n.p. Paris, 1919-1939, Vol. I & II (New York: 5 Beachy, Gay Berlin, 198. Algora, 2006), 38. The Onyx Review, 2016, 2(1) Z. C. Howard/ ISHERWOOD IN BERLIN’S GAY CULTURE 17 anonymous—only the informed masculine Prussian officers beneath their customer would know what to expect uniforms.”18 In addition to material objects, inside. Many were tastefully decorated, the Institute also possessed a collection of with boudoir-like soft lighting and photographs (fig. 1) that showed both sexual upholstered banquettes* to facilitate and non-sexual scenes. dialogue and enable clients to become Hirschfeld was considered a specialist in acquainted, with the utmost discretion. homosexuality and homosexual practices, These clubs were preferred by and he actively pushed for the reversal of homosexuals of the middle class, and Paragraph 175, the German law that above all they sought to preserve their stipulated that sexual acts between men were reputation and avoid embarrassing illegal and could result in a five-year prison scenes, touts, gigolos, and too- term. 19 Partly because of this and partly conspicuous personalities.14 because of his own sexuality, Hirschfeld The local gay community in Berlin knew was also viewed as a humanitarian and his which bars offered certain services as well institute and foundation were clear as which bars had been shut down and representations of that status.20 He founded where they were reopening next, and those the Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld Stiftung— long-term visitors to Berlin also learned.15 Foundation—in 1919 (the same year as the Berlin was also home to the Institute for Institute for Sexual Science) for “scientific Sexual Science, a revolutionary museum- investigation of sexual variation and like institute founded in 1919 by Magnus diseases.”21 Hirschfeld was also praised for Hirschfeld. 16 The Institute was focused bringing awareness to the existence solely on sex and sexuality and their variations and manifestations. 17 Hirschfeld could be referred to as an archivist of 18 Ibid., 16. sexuality, for inside his museum, he 19 Glenn Ramsey, “The Rites of displayed “whips and chains and torture ‘Artgenossen’: Contesting Homosexual instruments designed for the practitioners of Political Culture in Weimar Germany,” pleasure-pain; high-heeled, intricately Journal of the History of Sexuality 17, no. 1 decorated boots for the fetishes; lacy female (2008): 85, 86. Lesbians were not mentioned undies which had been worn by ferociously in the law. The culture of the nineteen twenties and thirties viewed lesbians as “unobtrusive,” meaning they were less * Cushioned benches usually attached to obvious than male homosexuals and tended walls and commonly found in bars, to fly under the radar; the nature of female restaurants, and diners. relationships was seen as one of 14 Ibid. companionship. Because of this, lesbian 15 Ibid., 36-37. relationships may have been perceived as 16 Christopher Isherwood, Christopher and simply an example of that female friendship, His Kind, (New York: Farrar, Straus, and and thus, less threatening; this may have Giroux, 1976), 17.