Eldorado (Berlin)

These are some of the known locations of Eldorado, listed by descending date of opening: • Thorstraße 12, Berlin (address changed to Torstraße with an unknown number); this location was active as the Eldorado as early as 1848 (however, this location had a different owner). == History ==

owned three of the Eldorado locations (Kantstraße, Lutherstraße, Motzstraße), two of which were known gay spaces (Lutherstraße, and Motzstraße). Many of the details about the history of the Lutherstraße club were published in the German book Ein Führer durch das lasterhafte Berlin: Das deutsche Babylon 1931 (English: A Guide Through Licentious Berlin: The German Babylon 1931) authored by Curt Moreck (pseudonym for ); and the German book Berlins lesbische Frauen (1928) authored by Ruth Margarete Roellig. Paragraph 175, a provision in the German Criminal Code from 1871 until 1994, made homosexual acts between males a crime. Places like Eldorado offered same-sex dancing partners through a membership system; they issued coins. The performances at the club were diverse and included effeminate men dancing whilst dressed in women's clothing, and a man singing Parisian-sounding songs in a high-pitched soprano. Marlene Dietrich performed at the club. There were numerous somewhat similar establishments to Eldorado during its day. The club has been described by writers and artists, and has been immortalized in paintings and photographs. Closure of Motzstraße 15 In December 1932, the Berlin Police President Kurt Melcher ordered a closure of all the "homosexual dance pleasures"; this forced closure of more than a dozen clubs. By May 1933, Berlin's Institut für Sexualwissenschaft ("Institute for Sexual Science") was also raided by the Nazis. Starting in 2015, the location is an organic grocery store. == Legacy ==

The club was written about in the German nonfiction book (), authored by Curt Moreck (pseudonym for Konrad Haemmerling). Two of the fiction novels by Christopher Isherwood are partially set at the Eldorado; Mr Norris Changes Trains (1935; U.S. edition titled The Last of Mr Norris) and Goodbye to Berlin (1939). Artist Christian Schad painted the portrait ''Count St. Genois d'Anneaucourt in 1927'' (1927) which is now held at the Centre Pompidou; on the right side of the painting is a well-known transsexual who was a regular at the Eldorado. Otto Dix's watercolor painting Eldorado (1927) and Ernst Fritsch's triptych painting (1929) immortalized the club. Largely overlooked in the telling of Eldorado's LGBTQ history is the building at (former) Motzstraße 15's role in the West German beginnings of the second gay and lesbian movement. Coincidentally, it was in former Motzstraße 15, by that time renumbered as Motzstraße 24, where the founders of the first lesbian and gay organization in Germany after World War II officially formed a group called the (HAW) on 15 August 1971. The HAW gave rise to the West German LGBTQ movement, and to an extent to the former East German LGBTQ movement. The group's relative obscurity in the present could in part be due some of its members' expressed political ideas at that time, that may seem politically inopportune to some in the political atmosphere of the present day. The first Berlin radio station that featured gay content, (1985–1991) was named after the nightclub. In 2023, Netflix released the documentary Eldorado: Everything the Nazis Hate. == Notable people ==

A list of notable people associated with the Eldorado club: == See also ==