Monocle-Bar

Monocle-Bar

Kabarett / Transgender Lesbian Bar

The Monocle-Bar was one of three prominent transgender-inclusive bars in Weimar era Berlin, alongside its peers Silhouette and Mikado Bar. Remembered of those three as being popular with actors, the Monocle, along with its peers, rose to popularity later into its years of operation as the much more popular trans-inclusive Eldorado grew a reputation for pandering to heterosexual thrill-seekers. The Monocle especially was liked by those who felt the scene was becoming too crowded due to its "militantly gynocentric" attitude: as recounted in Mel Gordon's Voluptuous Panic, "A hefty female transvestite at the door [...] holding a riding crop in one transgendered hand [...] made certain males did not enter." However, like many other popular clubs at the time, Nazis were known to have made their way inside - most notably Wolf-Heinrich Graf von Helldorff, who was ousted from his position as a head SA officer after it was found he frequented the Monocle. Members of its cabaret act recall him, drunk, heckling them with requests to play the Horst-Wessel-Lied.

Valerie Tumbleson

Gordon, Mel. 2006. Voluptuous Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin. Expanded ed. Feral House. monoskop.org/images/4/44/Gordon_Mel_Voluptuous_Panic_2006.pdf.

“Gay Berlin Institutions.” Queer Berlin Landkarte. www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/weitergeben/wp-content/uploads/sites/1016/2023/03/Gay-Berlin-Institutions-Sample-.docx&ved=2ahUKEwj5kLn0g-OLAxXjpIkEHcSYBYYQFnoECCEQAQ&usg=AOvVaw01a57IA45zFjH5dqAfemCy.

Harrison, Ted. “‘alter Kämpfer’ Im Widerstand. Graf Helldorff, Die NS- ...” Institut Für Zeitgeschichte, 1997, www.ifz-muenchen.de/heftarchiv/1997_3_2_harrison.pdf.

Schoppmann, Claudia. 1996. Days of Masquerade: Life Stories of Lesbians during the Third Reich. Columbia University Press.

Institution

Weimar Berlin, Germany

1929-1933

Budapester Strasse 14

Transgender people/"transvestites", lesbians
The Nazi SA officer Wolf-Heinrich Graf von Helldorff was ousted from his position when it came out that he was a visitor to this club