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Voluptuous Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin (Expanded Edition) Paperback – Illustrated, August 1, 2008

by Mel Gordon (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 216 ratings
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When Voluptuous Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin first appeared in the fall of 2000, it inspired wide acclaim and multiple printings.
This sourcebook of hundreds of rare visual delights from the pre-Nazi, Cabaret-period “Babylon on the Spree” has the distinction of being praised both by scholars and avatars of contemporary culture, inspiring performers, filmmakers, historians straight and gay, designers, and musicians like the Dresden Dolls and Marilyn Manson. It is the visual scrapbook and inspired design source of hit television series, "Berlin Babylon."
Voluptuous Panic’s expanded edition includes the new illustrated chapter “Sex Magic and the Occult,” documenting German pagan cults and their bizarre erotic rituals, including instructions for entering into the “Sexual Fourth Dimension.” The deluxe hardcover edition also includes sensational accounts of hypno-erotic cabaret acts, Berlin fetish prostitution (“The Boot Girl Visit”), gay life (“A Wild-Boy Initiation!”), descriptions and illustrations of Aleister Crowley’s Berlin OTO secret society, and sex crime (“The Curious Career and Untimely Death of Fritz Ulbrich”).
Previous page
  1. Print length
    300 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Feral House
  4. Publication date
    August 1, 2008
  5. Dimensions
    8 x 0.8 x 11 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0922915962
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0922915965
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Mel Gordon is Professor of Theater Arts at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of twelve books, including "The Grand Guignol," "Dada Performance," "The Stanislavsky Technique," and the Feral House titles, "Erik Jan Hanussen: Hitler's Jewish Clairvoyant" and "The Seven Addictions and Five Professions of Anita Berber."

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Feral House; NONE, Expanded edition (August 1, 2008)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 300 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0922915962
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0922915965
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.85 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8 x 0.8 x 11 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 216 ratings

About the author

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Mel Gordon

Mel Gordon

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Ph.D., Theater, New York University. Directing, Acting, History of Theater. Author of Dada Performance; Erik Jan Hanussen; Expressionist Texts; The Grand Guignol: The Theatre of Horror and Terror; Lazzi: The Comic Routines of the Commedia dell’Arte; Mikhoels the Wise; The Seven Addictions and Five Professions of Anita Berber; The Stanislavsky Technique in America; The Stanislavsky Technique: Russia; Voluptuous Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin; and co-writer of Meyerhold, Eisenstein and Biomechanics: Actor Training in Revolutionary Russia as well as one hundred and thirty articles and entries on American, French, German, Italian, Russian, and Yiddish theater and cinema. Director of over twenty productions in Frankfurt, Houston, New York City, Paris, and Zurich. Former Associate Editor of The Drama Review. Taught at Lee Strasberg Institute, Michael Chekhov Studio, New York University, and Yale University.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
216 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Kya
5.0 out of 5 stars Voluptuous Panic by Mel Gordon
Reviewed in the United States on July 5, 2007
Verified Purchase
Excellent book, which had lots of information regarding Berlin, Germany in the wild 20s. I only wish there was more in depth material to read and more photo's. Especially interesting was the "Occult" section, which could have had a more in depth coverage, but I'm not complaining. Dietrich Eckhart, who belonged to a number of Occult Societies introduced Hitler to Ernst Rohm The Criminal Elements or crime section was also heady. Overall, well put together and very interesting. I think including the individuals and activies of some subversive groups in Berlin at the time would have been helpful in understanding the rise of Naziasm in the 20's. I understand there were a number of "White Russian" exiles that supported Hitler's cause.
10 people found this helpful
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Pedr
5.0 out of 5 stars Jazz Age Sex Capital of the World
Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2015
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This is an excellent book if you want to get a sense of the decadent side of Weimar Culture. I don't know of any other book that discusses this side of Germany between the wars in such detail. There is Peter Gay's book which is fine, but it has an entirely different focus. There are lots of pictures. If you have an interest in gender relations, nudism, eroticism in the arts or hedonism, this book will be of interest. Between WW1 and 2, Germany and in particular Berlin, was the sex capital of the world. This book points out the many prescient features of the clubs. If you don't know already, you may be surprised to learn that naturism, nudism, homeopathy, the hippie movement, body culture all started in Germany. The German culture has had a huge effect on the world and this book focuses on one aspect of it.
If you liked this, you may also find the following of interest: The Seven Addictions and Five Professions of Anita Berber: Weimar Berlin's Priestess of Depravity, Naked Germany: Health, Race and the Nation and Empire of Ecstasy: Nudity and Movement in German Body Culture, 1910-1935.
(I used this book for research I'm doing for a novel I'm writing.) The back of the book categorizes it under Popular Culture, Art History and Gender Studies. The book discusses homosexuality and nudism quite a bit, so if those topics interest you, then this book might be of interest.
14 people found this helpful
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Gunlover
4.0 out of 5 stars Berlin During the Interregnum
Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2022
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This book is a good primer on the artistic and cultural environment of Berlin during the Weimar period. Lots of juicy facts about the drugs, sex, cinema and theater nightlife.

However, this is really more of a picture book that seeks to inform rather than educate. For a more academic treatment of this fascinating time in history, check out "Weimar Culture: The Outsider as Insider" by Peter Gay. You won't regret it!
4 people found this helpful
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Taffey Lewis
5.0 out of 5 stars Weimar my Weimar - idealized paradise in a past life
Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2020
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This fantastic, one of a kind book is living proof that the hippies didn't invent drugs, sex, and artistic freedom. In fact, the hippies seem much more dated and silly than the denizens of the Weimar Republic, who embraced a lifestyle as artful and libertine as it was impoverished. How incredibly sad to realize that this enlightened culture was soon to be utterly decimated by the Nazis in only a few years. Weimar was an artistic statement in itself but could not sustain itself against a juggernaut of evil hellbent on the destruction of anything different from itself.

Voluptuous Panic helped me to realize that in a past life I was an exuberant, creative student at the Bauhaus by day, and a cocaine and opium addicted sex fiend by night - at least I long for it to be true. Perhaps in the next life I can go back to where I truly belong. After all, life is a cabaret my friend.
12 people found this helpful
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anonymous
5.0 out of 5 stars NECESSARY BOOK
Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2011
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Much is being said now about Weimar and economy, and how the U.S. has circumstances that mirror it. But little is said about progressives, leftists and the sexual 'liberation' programs in "left" times---- But The Institute of Sexual Research was, in fact, a mirror instiution to The Institute of Social Research, which in the 30s became known as the Marxist "Frankfurt School," and set up shop in Columbia University, after they left Germany to create the "New Left" and programs that would lead american Academics after the WWII. George Lukacs the Marxist theorist was Sex Commissar under Bela Kun in the short-lived coup, which was the second Marxist government in the world, which happened after Russia, in Hungary. The use of the Weimar Sex playbook in society has a long history with the left, and the Institute for Sexual REsearch was also involved with Magnus Hirshfeld, a gay rights activist who actively worked for pro-abortion in Weimar Germany, and who was a sex researcher, now known as the 'father of gay rights."

Thanks for the book. It is one of the few providing links to the world of Weimar and its use of sexuality in the population--- the "burlesque" and how it relates to theories of social control. A must read.
8 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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David Charles Houssart
5.0 out of 5 stars Bratwurst at Tiffany's.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 17, 2023
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This is a phenomenal book. Entertaining? Most certainly but also monumentally informative. Occasionally disturbing but that is in no way a criticism. Where the historical meets the hysterical.
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Marlowe
5.0 out of 5 stars Very interesting and document book
Reviewed in Italy on November 24, 2017
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A fascinatig outlook to the less studied and descprited Berlin Weimar era. A stimulating reading. And very vividly portayed. Also a festival of bizzarre about the Babylon on the Spree
One person found this helpful
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blumenberg
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Weimar
Reviewed in Australia on August 28, 2019
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For those who appreciate both the breadth and depth of the revolution that came through the turmoil of the 1930s Weimar Republic, this is another wonderful testament
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jct
5.0 out of 5 stars étonnant mais très intéressant et iconographie très riche des "bas-fonds" de l'Allemagne de Weimar
Reviewed in France on October 12, 2014
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bien qu'en anglais, le livre est très illustré et l'anglais assez facile à comprendre , cela ne gêne donc pas trop pour la lecture.
c'est aussi un joli livre à contempler, la mise en page est particulière mais va bien avec le sujet. On aurait peut-être aimé en savoir plus sur l'évolution de cette époque de tolérance à l'arrivée au pouvoir des nazis? On connait le dénouement mais qu'en est-il de la période intermédiaire ?
Une traduction en français serait l'idéal. Ce livre est à rapprocher du livre de Gilles Bardebette "Paris gay 1925" qui apparemment a été réédité en 1998.J'ai une édition plus ancienne, le contenu est érudit et ne manque pas d'humour, en revanche les illustrations sont beaucoup moins nombreuses et évoquent principalement le milieu gay masculin.
Plus récemment est paru lLe livre de François Buot "Gay Paris: Une histoire du Paris interlope entre 1900 et 1940", il est clair que l'auteur s'est beaucoup servi du livre de son prédécesseur, je dirais presque pillé son prédécesseur car malgré le titre, l'ouvrage évoque plus particulièrement sur la même époque que le livre de Gilles Bardebette à qui je rend un hommage ému car hélas posthume
3 people found this helpful
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recluse
3.0 out of 5 stars ベルリン裏面史
Reviewed in Japan on October 5, 2003
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第一次大戦終了後からヒトラー政権台頭までのベルリンをいわゆる風俗産業の観点から取り上げた本です。取り上げられている領域は、レビューから街娼、同性愛クラブまで多岐にわたっています。ほとんどが当時の豊富な雑誌、写真並びにパンフレットを基に構成されています。このワイマール裏面史に興味のある方にはお勧めです。ある一瞬のベルリン全盛の時代の一面です。
5 people found this helpful
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