Gragoatá (Jun 2004)
THE SODOMITIC REPUTATION OF WEIMAR BERLIN
Abstract
Weimar Berlin became the European city of erotic dreams and moral nightmares. Berlin became the symbol both of the wonderful things that could be achieved if one fought for them and of the terrible things that might happen if one did not fight against them. The openness and proliferation of Berlin's homosexual life was both a promise and a threat. Weimar's legacy was not so much the vengeful righteousness of Nazism as the efficient fervour with which queer Berlin re-established itself and thrived after the war, even at the hostile epicentre of the Cold War.
