Weimar Berlin — The World’s First Open Fetish Culture Capital (1919–1933)

Between 1919 and 1933, Weimar Berlin became the most open-minded city of its time. In the fragile space between war and dictatorship, the German capital transformed into a sanctuary for sexual freedom, queer visibility, fetish experimentation, and avant-garde nightlife. Cabarets, private clubs, and famous brothels like Salon Kitty helped shape a culture where desires could be expressed openly and artistically. In this entry of the Atomique Fetish Encyclopedia, we uncover how Weimar Berlin became a global symbol of liberation before the Nazi regime suppressed its entire erotic landscape.

A Weimar City Reborn After War

With the end of World War I, Berlin became a laboratory for new identities and new bodies.The Weimar Republic legalized more personal freedoms than any other place at the time, allowing private clubs, queer bars, and artistic venues to flourish.

It was the first moment in modern history when fetish, queer identity, and alternative desire became public culture.

Cabaret Culture: Where Desire Became Theatre

Weimar cabarets were not simply entertainment venues—they were stages for gender play, kink aesthetics, and erotic experimentation.

Some of the era’s most iconic venues included:

• Eldorado – a legendary queer cabaret

• Moka Efti – nightlife temple with erotic performances

• Café Größenwahn – intellectual and bohemian gathering spot

• Haus Vaterland – themed halls blending spectacle and erotic atmosphere

These spaces welcomed drag performers, fetish-coded costumes, leather uniforms, burlesque, roleplay, and open expressions of identity.

Here, fetish became performance, not taboo.

Berlin Queer and Fetish Communities Flourish

Berlin in the 1920s had:

• gay and lesbian bars

• trans and cross-dressing communities

• early BDSM circles

• fetish photography studios

• specialized magazines exploring kink, bondage and roleplay

Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sexual Science—the world’s first—actively researched:

• fetish psychology

• gender identity

• non-normative desire

• transgender experiences

• queer relationships

It was decades ahead of the rest of the world.

Salon Kitty — Weimar’s Most Famous and Luxurious Brothel

Before it became political under Nazi control, Salon Kitty opened in the final years of the

Weimar era as one of Berlin’s most luxurious and discreet brothels.

Why Salon Kitty mattered in the 1920s:

• It catered to artists, aristocrats, writers and intellectuals

• It blended eroticism with high design and theatrical interiors

• It offered roleplay, costumes, and fetish-coded scenarios

• It became a cultural hotspot, not just a brothel

• It embodied Weimar’s spirit: decadent, experimental, open-minded

The experience was described as: “more salon than brothel — a place of fantasy, identity play, and erotic theatre.”

Salon Kitty symbolized the refined, ritualistic, imaginative side of Berlin’s fetish culture long before it was later seized and repurposed by the Nazi regime.

Fetish as Art, Identity, and Rebellion - Weimar Berlin fetish culture

Weimar Berlin’s openness was not just sexual—it was cultural.

Fetish expression appeared in:

• photography studios

• modern dance

• painting (Otto Dix, George Grosz)

• literature

• fashion experiments

• masquerade balls

• private clubs with strict dress codes

The city operated like a living archive of desire, where each neighborhood had its own language of fantasy.

1933: When Freedom Ended

With the rise of the Nazi regime, Berlin’s erotic and queer landscape was violently erased.Clubs shut down, salons disappeared, Hirschfeld’s institute was destroyed.

But the memory of Weimar Berlin—the courage, the experimentation, the radical openness—became a symbol for future generations.

It remains the foundation of contemporary fetish culture.

For Atomique, Weimar Berlin represents the origin of fetish as culture, not pathology: a moment when ritual, performance, identity, and desire were allowed to shape public life.

It stands as a reminder that fetish is not just personal—it is historical, artistic, and deeply human.