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Sunday Documentary: Legendary Sin Cities – Berlin: Metropolis of Vice

Berlin - Metropolis of Vice (screenshot from the Legendary Sin Cities documentary)

Photo: Still from Legendary Sin Cities – Berlin – Metropolis of Vice

Metropolis of Vice, an episode from the Legendary Sin Cities documentary series focuses on the potent mix of sex and entertainment in the Weimar era Berlin of the 1920s.

“Its very name became synonymous with perversion, debauchery and creativity. Berlin in the 1920s was the sex capital of Europe.”

In response to the hyperinflation of the 1920s, driven by poverty, the sex trade in Berlin exploded as a means to put food on the table.

“Berlin was what sexual daydreams wanted to be.  You could find almost anything there and maybe everything.”

In this environment, performers such as Claire Waldoff, Anita Berber and Marlene Dietrich thrived and became stars.  Word of Berlin’s raucous nightlife and attitude of sexual freedom spread and drew more artists and creative people to the city.

I first posted this documentary on Facebook and Twitter 6 months ago before I began my Sunday Documentary series.

Legendary Sin Cities – Berlin: Metropolis of Vice

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One Response to Sunday Documentary: Legendary Sin Cities – Berlin: Metropolis of Vice

  1. Mike 6 May, 2013 at 11:41 #

    I was going to say, “Sounds like my kind of place.” Then I read that the liberal sexual attitudes and raucous nightlife drew artists and creative types to the city.

    So that’s why I used to love living there back in the ’80s!! lol

    Seriously though, I had no idea of that part of the city’s history. Great post!

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