Cabaret

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Anita Berber Expressionist exotic dancer and actress in German silent movies, Anita Berber epitomized for many the decadence of Weimar-era Berlin. he brought flamboyant eroticism, exotic costuming, and grotesque imagery to performances danced to the music of composers such as Debussy, Strauss, Delibes, and Saint-Säens. A pioneer of modern expressive dance, Berber was at first taken seriously as an artist, but soon became better known for her scandalous personal and professional life. “Anita Berber’s dances are living fervor, nonetheless cold, unapproachable…Something wild and essentially solitary surrounds her creations, one feels the compulsive destiny…and finally she dances alone, still not with hopeless courage for her passions. In the short period of time her performance lasts, she has mounted a revolt.” -Max Herrmann-Neiße (German writer) Through sympathetic portrayals of emotion while remaining cold and solitary, Berber represented human isolation in the modern world. In “Absinthe” (1925), she performed drinking the drug, she evoked death and miming a dark and solitary end to life. Some of the emotional and psychological underpinnings of her performances described by Herrmann- Neiße are captured in Dix’s portrait (see pg.17). New laws allowed for total nudity on stage if the performer was immobile, in a tableau, or far in the background. For women who dared to dance, covering the genital region was required. Most nude dancers performed only bare-breasted. Berber, dancing completely nude, challenged these laws, a rebellion some viewers may have interpreted as an indication of her sexual freedom or scandalousness. One song exclaimed, What does the audience want to see? Starving millions and misery Thousands in prison going rotten? Is that what the audience wants to see? Alas, Anita Berber’s naked bottom That’s what the audience wants to see. Anita Berber Anita Berber most frequently performed at The Weisse Maus (White Mouse) which opened in 1919. It is rumored to have acquired its name as it was across the street from the cabaret Chat Noir (The Black Cat.) It is described as a “beautiful 98-seat cabaret venue with a curtained stage” and was frequented by travelling salesmen, criminals, alongside elderly couples from the provinces and a smattering of Berlin intellectuals. In addition to the standard cabaret fare, naked ‘beauty dances’ were staged after midnight. The proprietor insisting before each performance that there was no pornographic content. “We come here for beauty alone”, though not everyone complied. Customers who wished to conceal their lecherous ways were given a choice of a black or white mask to wear. Attendees of The White Mouse in mask 12
Germany: The First Thirty Years 1914-1918 The Allies defeated Germany in World War I, and the German Empire ended. 1919 The Weimar Republic was established. 1919 Adolf Hitler joins the German Worker’s Party (GWP) September February 24, 1920 National Socialist German Worker’s Party publishes its first program October 1920 The Sturmabteilung (also known as SA, a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party) is formed. November 9, 1923 Adolf Hitler attempts Beer Hall Putsch (an unsuccessful attempt to seize power. Putsch is German for coup d'état. December 20, 1924. Hitler leaves Landsburg Prison (where he wrote Mein Kampf) December 1924. The Nazi Party wins 24 seats in the Reichstag, the German Parliament . June 1925 The Schutz Staffeinel (also known as SS, the Nazis main organization responsible for many of the crimes against humanity perpetrated) is formed July 1925 First volume of Mein Kampf was published July 1927 The Nazi Party holds its first Nuremberg Rally (annual rally of the Nazi Party held on Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg). May 1928 The Nazi Party wins 14 seats in the Reichstag. November 1928 Joseph Goebbels takes over as Reich Minister of Propaganda in the Nazi Party. December 1928 Second volume of Mein Kampf is published August 1929 Over 60,000 members of the Sturm Abteilung attend Nuremberg Rally. December 1929 The Nazi Party has a membership of 178,000. January 23, 1930 Wilhelm Frick becomes the first Nazi to become a minister in a state government. September 1930 The Nazi Party wins 107 seats in the Reichstag December 1930 Unemployment in Germany reaches nearly 4 million 13
Page 1 and 2: CABARET “We want pure art, beauty
Page 3 and 4: Welcome to Berlin It is Germany, 19
Page 5 and 6: After Germany’s loss in WWI, the
Page 7 and 8: Poster for “The Lavender Lay” T
Page 9 and 10: Popular Cabarets Apart from the vas
Page 11: The Emcee: The Conferencier Paul Mo
Page 15 and 16: The Weimar Republic The Weimar Repu
Page 17 and 18: How to make a Prairie Oyster! 1 who
Page 19 and 20: Sex and Prostitution Many factors a
Page 21 and 22: Bertolt Brecht Bertolt Brecht, one
Page 23 and 24: Cabaret: Production History 1966 -
Page 25 and 26: “Art…more effectively than alco
Page 27 and 28: Art…has existed in every known ci
Page 29: Bibliography/Webliography 29

Cabaret

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