Between and , dozens of bars, clubs and dance halls in Berlin offered LGBTQ people spaces to socialise, dance, drink and enjoy cabaret and drag performances. Hirschfeld frequented bars and clubs himself. Harry Benjamin, who would become one of the most influential sexologists to work with trans patients in the s and s, regularly visited Hirschfeld in Berlin.
They [Hirschfeld and another friend] repeatedly took me along on their rounds through the homosexual bars in Berlin. Hirschfeld coined it only in in his well-known study. There was more than one Eldorado in Berlin.
In the s, businessman Ludwig Konjetschni ran three clubs, all called Eldorado. These clubs were famous for their drag shows. They were famous for ending their drag act by taking off their breasts and throwing them at the orchestra. Clubs like the Eldorado offered queer and trans people spaces to meet and socialise with other members of the LGBTQ community.
However, these venues were also enormously popular with straight cis tourists who wanted to catch a glimpse of LGBTQ life. To make more money, some club owners began to cater specifically to straight and cis audiences.
Here screaming boys in drag and monocle, Eton-cropped girls in dinner jackets play-acted the high jinks of Sodom and Gomorrah, horrifying the onlookers and reassuring them that Berlin was still the most decadent city in Europe.
