Eldorado (Berlin)

Eldorado
Eldorado at Motzstr. 15, Berlin (1932)
AddressBerlin, Weimar Republic
Coordinates52°29′53″N 13°20′56″E
OwnerLudwig Konjetschni[1]

The Eldorado was the name of multiple nightclubs and performance venues in Berlin, Weimar Republic before the World War II.[2] Two locations were gay bars attracting the LGBTQ+ community as well as artists, authors, celebrities, tourists and a heterosexual audience, and featured drag shows and performances by "transvestites".[1][3][4][5] The club has been described by writers, and artist and have been immortalized in paintings and photographs.[6][7]

Postcard for Eldorado (1900), a theatre formally located at Elsässer Straße
A 2013 digital tribute of the Eldorado at Motzstr. 15 on Second Life, "1920s Berlin Project"

Former locations

These are some of the known locations of Eldorado, listed by descending date of opening:

  • Thorstraße 12, Berlin (address changed to Torstraße with an unknown number), this location was active as the Eldorado as early as 1848 (however this location had a different owner).[2]
  • Alte Jakobstraße 60, Kreuzberg, Berlin, named the "Eldorado-Diele" and advertised as a "a cozy home for older men"[2]
  • Kantstraße 24, Charlottenburg, Berlin, active form c. 1920 – before 1928, and advertised as the “meeting point of the international sophisticated world”.[2]
  • Lutherstraße 31/32, Nollendorfkiez area of Schöneberg, Berlin (in 1963, the street name and address changed to MartinLutherStraße 13), active as the Eldorado from 1926 until 1930.[2]
  • Motzstraße 15/Kalckreuthstraße 11, Nollendorfkiez area of Schöneberg, Berlin, (a corner location, the address has changed to Motzstraße 24/Kalckreuthstraße 11), active as the Eldorado from 1928 until c. December 1932.[2]

History

Ludwig Konjetschni owned the three of the Eldorado locations (Kantstraße, Lutherstraße, Motzstraße), two of which were known LGBTQ+ spaces (Lutherstraße, and Motzstraße).[8] Many of the details about the history of the Lutherstraße club published in the German book, Ein Führer durch das lasterhafte Berlin: Das deutsche Babylon 1931 (English: A Guide Through Vicious Berlin: The German Babylon 1931) authored by Curt Moreck (pseudonym for Konrad Haemmerling); and the German book, Berlins lesbische Frauen (1928) authored by Ruth Margarete Roellig.

Paragraph 175, a provision in German Criminal Code from 1871 until 1994, made homosexual acts between males a crime.[9] Places like Eldorado offered same-sex dancing partners through a membership system, they issued coins.[10]

The performances at the club were diverse and included effeminate men dressed in women's clothing dancing, and a man singing Parisian-sounding songs in a high-pitched soprano.[4] Marlene Dietrich performed at the club.[1] Additionally they would throw fancy balls and costume parties.[4]

Closure of Motzstraße 15

In December 1932 during the Preußenschlag, the local police chief Kurt Melcher ordered a closure of all the "homosexual dance pleasures” which forced closure on more than a dozen clubs.[2] A few weeks later the Nazis were in power.[2] Ernst Röhm was a regular at the club prior to the closure.[2] Hitler was appointed chancellor in January 1933, and shortly after the Nazi's seized the club space at Motzstraße 15 to use it as the Sturmabteilung (SA) headquarters.[11] By May 1933, Berlin's Institute for Sexual Science (Institut für Sexualwissenschaft) was also raided by the Nazis.[11]

As of 2015, the location is an organic grocery store.[2]

Legacy

The club was written about in the German nonfiction book, Ein Führer durch das lasterhafte Berlin: Das deutsche Babylon 1931 (English: A Guide Through Vicious Berlin: The German Babylon 1931), authored by Curt Moreck (pseudonym for Konrad Haemmerling). Two of the fiction novels by Christopher Isherwood are partially set at the Eldorado; Mr Norris Changes Trains (1935; U.S. edition titled The Last of Mr Norris) and Goodbye to Berlin (1939).[12]

Artist Christian Schad painted the portrait, Count St. Genois d'Anneaucourt in 1927 (1927) which is now held at the Centre Pompidou, and on the right side of the painting is a well-known transsexual that was a regular at the Eldorado.[13][14] Otto Dix's watercolor painting titled, Eldorado (1927)[15] and Ernst Fritsch's triptych painting, Erinnerung an Eldorado (1929) immortalized the club.

The first Berlin radio station that featured gay content, Eldoradio (radio broadcast) (1985–1991) was named after the nightclub.[16]

Notable people

A list of notable people associated with the Eldorado club.

References
  1. Badhan, Mya (2020-10-11). "Hope between the horrors: The forgotten LGBTQ+ firsts of Weimar Germany – New Histories". Retrieved 2021-04-14.
  2. Kuhrt, Aro (2015-07-01). "Das Eldorado". Berlin Street (in German). Retrieved 2021-04-14.
  3. "A Peek Inside Berlin's Queer Club Scene Before Hitler Destroyed It". The Advocate. 2016-07-19. Retrieved 2021-04-14.
  4. "Die erste Weltmetropole für Lesben und Schwule". www.tagesspiegel.de (in German). Retrieved 2021-04-14.
  5. "Das schwule und lesbische Berlin der Zwanziger Jahre". www.tagesspiegel.de (in German). Retrieved 2021-04-14.
  6. Ellison, Joy (2021-03-16). "Rainbow Rant: The queer time traveler's vacation guide". Columbus Alive. Retrieved 2021-04-14.
  7. "Das schwule und lesbische Berlin der Zwanziger Jahre". www.tagesspiegel.de (in German). Retrieved 2021-04-14.
  8. Bryant, Chris (2020-11-12). The Glamour Boys: The Secret Story of the Rebels who Fought for Britain to Defeat Hitler. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 59. ISBN 978-1-5266-0175-9.
  9. "Germany to quash convictions of 50,000 gay men under Nazi-era law, Parliament votes through measure overturning conviction and offering compensation to the estimated 5,000 men still alive". the Guardian. 2017-06-22. Retrieved 2021-04-14.
  10. Raber, Ralf Jörg (2010). Wir sind wie wir sind: Ein Jahrhundert homosexuelle Liebe auf Schallplatte und CD. Männerschwarm Verlag. ISBN 978-3-939542-91-9.
  11. "Photo of the Eldorado Club". Experiencing History, Holocaust Sources in Context. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved 2021-04-14.
  12. "Weeste noch…?". Spreedarling (in German). Retrieved 2021-04-14.
  13. Schad, Christian. "URBANE DECADENT". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2021-04-14.
  14. Dollenmaier, Verena (2007). "Konzession an die Konvention: "Graf St. Genois d'Anneaucourt"" [Concession to the Convention: “Count St. Genois d'Anneaucourt”]. Die Erotik im Werk von Christian Schad: eine Untersuchung (in German). VDM, Verlag Dr. Müller. pp. 150–155. ISBN 978-3-8364-2667-1.
  15. Tamagne, Florence (2006). A History of Homosexuality in Europe, Vol. I & II: Berlin, London, Paris; 1919-1939. Algora Publishing. pp. cover, vi. ISBN 978-0-87586-356-6.
  16. Johnson, Phylis W.; Keith, Michael C. (2014-12-18). Queer Airwaves: The Story of Gay and Lesbian Broadcasting: The Story of Gay and Lesbian Broadcasting. Routledge. p. 179. ISBN 978-1-317-46151-7.

Further reading
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