Date: Monday, February  27, 2023
Time: 7pm
Admission: $8

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The very first thing foreigners noticed in Weimar Berlin were whores, thousands of tarted-up females on the streets, in hotel lobbies, and seated at cafes and clubs. How many **Beinls made their living in Berlin during the Golden Twenties was impossible to calculate. --Voluptous Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin by Mel Gordon

After their World War I defeat and its aftermath, Germany was left in devastating financial ruin. Hyperinflation reached its peak in November 1923, and unemployment soared. Financial desperation forced thousands of women (and men) into sex work and, in 1927, the Reichstag passed a law that made it perfectly legal for women to sell sex in Germany without police interference. 

Homosexuality, nudism, brothels, torture dungeons, sex cinemas, pornography and orgies were easy to come by, as were drugs of all kinds (cocaine was freely available), seedy opium dens and alcohol. Every dirty birdy perversion imaginable and kinky desire was catered for. Randy sex tourists in search of cheap thrills--and even cheaper pleasures--flocked to the German Capital to sample the fresh meat on offer!

As Berlin continued to emerge as Europe’s smuttiest city during the Great Inflation of the early 1920s, a more respectable and progressive enterprise was to surface: Sexual Science.

The Einstein of Sex--the Jewish homosexual sexologist Dr Magnus Hirschfeld (1868 – 1935)--is regarded as one of the most influential sexologists of the twentieth century. He was not only a physician, but also an outspoken advocate for sexual minorities amd women. In 1897, he founded the Scientific-Humanitarian-Committee, the first organization to protect the rights of homosexuals. His Institute of Sexual Research was opened on July 6, 1919 in Berlin. Hirschfeld also co-wrote the 1919 film Anders als die Andern (Different From the Others). The film was directed by Richard Oswald and stars Conrad Veidt as one of the first homosexual characters ever written for cinema. On May 6, 1933, members of the German Student Union targeted Magnus Hirschfeld’s Berlin Institute of Sex Research and destroyed 20,000 of Hirschfeld’s priceless books, rendering the good Doctor persona non grata in Nazi Germany.

Tonight, Le Pustra will take a look at the dark and seedy underworld of sex for sale on the streets of depraved Berlin and discuss our rather morbid fascination with the legendary Babylon-by-the-Spree of the 1920s and why we still associate sexual freedom with modern day Berlin.

*Tauentziengirls were young, fashionable street walkers working on the Tauentzienstraße near Wittenbergplatz in West Berlin.

**Beinls is a Romani (Indo-Aryan Language) word for Daughters or Prostitutes (variant)

Madame Le Pustra is an actor, creative director, salonnier, artist's muse, occasional writer and has performed in European Variety and Cabaret since 2006.  Le Pustra is best known for his sumptuous and iconic cult 1920s Weimar Berlin inspired theater play, Le Pustra’s Kabarett der Namenlosen and playing “Edwina Morell” in the award-winning German Netflix series Babylon Berlin (Season 3-4).  In 2020, Le Pustra co-authored a chapter for the book “Circus and the Avant-Gardes: History, Imaginary, Innovation” published by Routledge. The chapter, entitled “Glam Clowning: From Dada to Gaga – A Conversation with Le Pustra '' explores the origin and reinterpretation of the Dada inspired vinyl suit made famous by German countertenor and New Wave artist, Klaus Nomi.

“Le Pustra can be best described as (but not limited to) an iridescent queer kunstfigur – a creation of beauty and living work of Surrealism-inspired art. From underground cabaret darling to accidental club kid-cum-avant-garde fashion muse, Le Pustra is a colorful shapeshifting conduit thriving on visual stimuli”. -  Dr Anna-Sophie Jürgens, The National Australian University. 

Social Media:

• Website: www.madamelepustra.com

• IG: www.instagram.com/lepustra

• Facebook: www.facebook.com/lepustra

• YouTube: Le Pustra Official - YouTube

Image: Otto Dix "The Salon I”, 1921