By Oliver Ohmann
Schöneberg – jungle, vault, Berghain? Forget it! Above all nightclubs and dance temples that have ever existed in Berlin – the Eldorado shimmers and shines.
The Eldorado nightclub at today’s Martin-Luther-Straße 13 was the “place to be” in the late 1920s. You had to go there, you had to have been there, whether you were a local or a tourist. The Eldorado was a meeting point for the queer scene, where sexual diversity was openly lived out.
The Eldorado (here a game scene from the Netflix documentary) was a dazzling meeting point of the queer scene around 1930 Photo: Netflix
In his famous “guide through vicious Berlin” Curt Moreck called the Eldorado a “transvestite operation staged for the cosmopolitan curiosity”.
Now Netflix has taken on the story of the Eldorado. The result is a documentary film with game scenes à la “Babylon Berlin”. “Eldorado – Everything the Nazis hate” shows the fate of queer people in the upheaval between the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany. It also includes newly discovered archive material and interviews with the last contemporary witnesses, such as Walter Arlen, who is now 100 years old.
Eldorado, which was closed by the Nazis, featured campaign advertising for Hitler in March 1933 Photo: bpk private
The dress code in the Eldorado ranged from elegant (tuxedo, tails, evening dresses) to flashy. Many celebrities such as Claire Waldoff, Marlene Dietrich and Egon Erwin Kisch came as guests. Even Charlie Chaplin made a detour to the Schöneberg nightlife during his visit to Berlin in 1931.
Homosexuals were systematically persecuted, arrested and killed by the Nazis Photo: Netflix
Since 1930 there have even been two Eldorados, since the house owners and tenants have fallen out. The second Eldorado was just around the corner, Kalckreuth/corner of Motzstrasse. The SA hordes of the Nazis had their sights set on the hustle and bustle, although high-ranking Nazis such as SA leader Ernst Röhm also frequented the Eldorado. After the accession to power in 1933, both bars were closed immediately because “homosexual dance merrymaking was to be avoided”.
The Eldorado on Motzstraße advertised with the slogan “Here ist ist Correct” Photo: Netflix
Director Benjamin Cantu (44) shot in front of us behind the camera with a mostly queer team. Cantu: “This part of German history is still unknown to many today. The story of the Eldorado and especially that of the queer people, whose persecution did not end with 1945, was uncomfortable for the post-war public for a long time and was hushed up.”