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The Seven Addictions and Five Professions of Anita Berber: Weimar Berlin's Priestess of Decadence
The Seven Addictions and Five Professions of Anita Berber is the first contemporary biography of a notorious actor/dancer/poet/playwright who scandalized sex-obsessed Weimar Berlin during the 1920s.
In an era where everything was permitted, Anita Berber‘s celebrations of “Depravity, Horror and Ecstasy” were condemned and censored. She often haunted Weimar Berlin’s hotel lobbies, nightclubs and casinos, radiantly naked except for an elegant sable wrap, a pet monkey hanging from her neck, and a silver brooch packed with cocaine. Multi-talented Anita saw no boundaries between her personal life and her taboo-shattering performances. As such, she was Europe’s first postmodern woman.
Among those Anita Berber claimed as members of her vast sexual harem were Marlene Dietrich, Magnus Hirschfeld (the founder of modern sexology and gay liberation), Klaus Mann, Conrad Veidt, Lawrence Durrell, and the King of Yugoslavia. Berber acted in Fritz Lang’s Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler and starred in the silent epic, Lucifer. Even Leni Riefenstahl credits Berber for inspiring her controversial career. After sated Berliners finally tired of Anita Berber’s libidinous antics, she became a “carrion soul that even the hyenas ignored,” dying in 1928 at the age of 29.
The Seven Addictions and Five Professions of Anita Berber chronicles a remarkable career, including over 150 photographs and drawings that recreate Anita’s enduring “Repertoire of the Damned.”
In an era where everything was permitted, Anita Berber‘s celebrations of “Depravity, Horror and Ecstasy” were condemned and censored. She often haunted Weimar Berlin’s hotel lobbies, nightclubs and casinos, radiantly naked except for an elegant sable wrap, a pet monkey hanging from her neck, and a silver brooch packed with cocaine. Multi-talented Anita saw no boundaries between her personal life and her taboo-shattering performances. As such, she was Europe’s first postmodern woman.
Among those Anita Berber claimed as members of her vast sexual harem were Marlene Dietrich, Magnus Hirschfeld (the founder of modern sexology and gay liberation), Klaus Mann, Conrad Veidt, Lawrence Durrell, and the King of Yugoslavia. Berber acted in Fritz Lang’s Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler and starred in the silent epic, Lucifer. Even Leni Riefenstahl credits Berber for inspiring her controversial career. After sated Berliners finally tired of Anita Berber’s libidinous antics, she became a “carrion soul that even the hyenas ignored,” dying in 1928 at the age of 29.
The Seven Addictions and Five Professions of Anita Berber chronicles a remarkable career, including over 150 photographs and drawings that recreate Anita’s enduring “Repertoire of the Damned.”
213 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
October 26, 2011
Anita Berber was the original rock star. Dead before 30; burned out on coke and booze; fearless in her pursuit of public sin and scandal. It was nothing for her to start brawls, insult Kings to their faces, strip nude while dining at the poshest restaurants, seduce mothers and daughters and make them her lesbian sex slaves, sleep with countless men on a whim. She started out during World War I as a sort of copycat Isadora Duncan and quickly evolved into the most depraved dancing artist of Weimar Berlin during the crazy days of the great Inflation of the early 1920s. By the mid-20s she was already a has-been, playing the sticks with a series of usually gay husbands. She went broke and eventually died of her various medicinal indulgences, hastened by tuberculosis. She has been called the "Madonna of Dresden" (anachronistically), "The Countess of Sin" and much more. Mel Gordon, author of the acclaimed pictorial overview of sex and sin in 1920s Berlin, Voluptuous Panic (a copy of which I own) and the publishers at Feral House evidently thought a separate volume on Berber alone was merited, and they were right. Unfortunately, this attempt is a highly mixed bag. I would own this mostly for the incredible photos and illustrations of Berber, her partners and other sights of wild artistic Berlin in its most hedonistic days. The text, though, ranges from atrocious to merely adequate. The book seems poorly researched; many of the anecdotes are set up and concluded abruptly without full explanation. Too many sentences begin with frustrating clauses. The tone ranges from overly analytical academese to over-reaching attempts to sound hip and popular. The whole thing is a very jagged read. The only thing that keeps one reading is to see what crazy thing Berber is going to do next. I would recommend this until a better book on the subject comes along, and for the art.
December 13, 2012
Why would anyone want to read Mel Gordon’s
The Seven Addictions and Five Professions of Anita Berber?
Why indeed! George Santayana, the American philosopher whose most significant contribution to his discipline, Aesthetics, might well have been
The Sense of Beauty,
once famously wrote: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
This copiously illustrated, non-fiction treatise is as much about the Weimar Republik, pre-war Berlin, hyper-inflationary Germany, and the lengths—or depths—to which the human spirit and body can go—or descend—as it is about the dancer, Anita Berber. I stumbled upon it almost by accident. I’m glad I did. You may well stumble upon this review by accident. If so, call it ‘serendipity’—and consider reading this book (or any other you can find about Anita Berber) if for no other reason than to get a sense of the time and times. Those we live in now are a distant cousin—related, to be sure, but not yet living under the same roof. We might well want to find a way to ensure that that cousin never comes to visit, much less stay.
Allow me to quote the entire last paragraph on p. 164, just opposite the magnificent full-length portrait of Anita Berber by the German Expressionist, Otto Dix.
“Hans Feld, in the Film-Kurier (November 13, 1928), wrote that although Anita was condemned as ‘an incarnation of the perverse,’ she represented an entire generation. Anita had led the fight between bourgeois parents and their freethinking offspring, protested against the rigidity of authoritarian teachers, embodied the thoughts and desires of an unfettered, liberated world. The details of her life and career could be forgotten, but her overall influence could not be so easily put to rest.”
“(C)ould not be so easily put to rest”? In the decade leading up to the Third Reich and WWII, Anita Berber may well have been her generation’s foremost performance artist — much like a Madonna or a Lady Gaga today. In any event, her body was likely the best-known in Europe; her mores, possibly unsurpassed in depravity by anyone of any note.
Would I, from these Puritan United States of America, condemn such a woman — or at least her behavior? Not on your life! The only aspect of that behavior I would roundly condemn is Anita Berber’s almost rampant—not to say ‘obsessive’ — consumerism. I understand her drug addiction—particularly under the circumstances I briefly mention in the second paragraph of this review. I sympathize with her art — with or without clothes, with or without a snake as partner. What I don’t understand and can’t sympathize with, however, is her mad love affair with expensive jewels and clothes (when she chose to wear any at all). This, too, has parallels in our own times and with many of our so-called ‘artistes.’ It is a sad, sad commentary on so-called “free choice” when those who would otherwise create and invent have to resort to obsessive binges on “bling” to fill the void in their lives.
RRB
12/08/12
Brooklyn, NY
This copiously illustrated, non-fiction treatise is as much about the Weimar Republik, pre-war Berlin, hyper-inflationary Germany, and the lengths—or depths—to which the human spirit and body can go—or descend—as it is about the dancer, Anita Berber. I stumbled upon it almost by accident. I’m glad I did. You may well stumble upon this review by accident. If so, call it ‘serendipity’—and consider reading this book (or any other you can find about Anita Berber) if for no other reason than to get a sense of the time and times. Those we live in now are a distant cousin—related, to be sure, but not yet living under the same roof. We might well want to find a way to ensure that that cousin never comes to visit, much less stay.
Allow me to quote the entire last paragraph on p. 164, just opposite the magnificent full-length portrait of Anita Berber by the German Expressionist, Otto Dix.
“Hans Feld, in the Film-Kurier (November 13, 1928), wrote that although Anita was condemned as ‘an incarnation of the perverse,’ she represented an entire generation. Anita had led the fight between bourgeois parents and their freethinking offspring, protested against the rigidity of authoritarian teachers, embodied the thoughts and desires of an unfettered, liberated world. The details of her life and career could be forgotten, but her overall influence could not be so easily put to rest.”
“(C)ould not be so easily put to rest”? In the decade leading up to the Third Reich and WWII, Anita Berber may well have been her generation’s foremost performance artist — much like a Madonna or a Lady Gaga today. In any event, her body was likely the best-known in Europe; her mores, possibly unsurpassed in depravity by anyone of any note.
Would I, from these Puritan United States of America, condemn such a woman — or at least her behavior? Not on your life! The only aspect of that behavior I would roundly condemn is Anita Berber’s almost rampant—not to say ‘obsessive’ — consumerism. I understand her drug addiction—particularly under the circumstances I briefly mention in the second paragraph of this review. I sympathize with her art — with or without clothes, with or without a snake as partner. What I don’t understand and can’t sympathize with, however, is her mad love affair with expensive jewels and clothes (when she chose to wear any at all). This, too, has parallels in our own times and with many of our so-called ‘artistes.’ It is a sad, sad commentary on so-called “free choice” when those who would otherwise create and invent have to resort to obsessive binges on “bling” to fill the void in their lives.
RRB
12/08/12
Brooklyn, NY
May 21, 2018
Anita Berber (1899-1928) was an extraordinary woman alive at an extraordinary time in an extraordinary place (Weimar Berlin). A dancer and actress, she was immortalised by Otto Dix, one of the most important artists of the era.
This book, however, is extraordinary only by virtue of being so badly-written as to defy belief. Seriously. The writing is painfully bad. Generally speaking, any book on which I would bestow fewer than three stars would quickly find itself winging its way towards the nearest charity shop.
The fact that I’m keeping this book is a reflection of the fact that it contains a generous helping of photographs, many of which I’d never before seen. It is also (as far as I’m aware) the only book about Berber available in English. Thus: one star for the photos, one star simply for existing.
Somebody, please, put me out of my misery and write a half-decent biography of Berber!!!
This book, however, is extraordinary only by virtue of being so badly-written as to defy belief. Seriously. The writing is painfully bad. Generally speaking, any book on which I would bestow fewer than three stars would quickly find itself winging its way towards the nearest charity shop.
The fact that I’m keeping this book is a reflection of the fact that it contains a generous helping of photographs, many of which I’d never before seen. It is also (as far as I’m aware) the only book about Berber available in English. Thus: one star for the photos, one star simply for existing.
Somebody, please, put me out of my misery and write a half-decent biography of Berber!!!
March 26, 2010
Berber's life holds a wealth of fascination, and yet Gordon's biography is shallow, barely scratches the surface. Badly in need of an editor, this quick read felt more like a half-assed student paper than an actual attempt at presenting the reader with the actual woman. No context of the times, no serious study, and on a whole, very disappointing. 30 minutes and a basic knowledge of Google will turn up every picture contained in this book, so it's definitely not worth the inflated asking price.
December 31, 2019
Berber was scandalous in a period when Germany wasn't easily shocked. She started out doing partially clothed dancing when still a teen then moved on to wandering around Berlin clothed only in a fur coat and a necklace of cocaine. Decadent, violent, addicted, Berber was a woman who danced to her own tune. I can't say I finished this biography particularly fond of Berber but she was certainly a character!
May 12, 2012
I've been obsessed with women of the 1920s for quite a while now, and naturally I had to know more about the amazing, unbelievable life of Anita Berber.
Berber was a dancer, a actress, a performer, call her what you like, in the joyful and liberated Berlin of the Weimar Republic, and she remains now one of the symbols of that blissful era, when women could smoke and get drunk, be financially independent, and have sex with other women.
The story doesn't end well, neither for Anita nor for Germany, but Berber paved the way for women who decided to reclaim their bodies and their lives, later in the 60s and 70s.
I had high expectations for this book, and I probably knew too much already, so I was quite disappointed.
I wanted to know more about Berber's psychology, I wanted to know what drove this ordinary girl to have such a crazy destiny, not just what she did and who she met. I guess it's still a good book if you're looking for facts and rare photos, even if that wasn't what I was looking for.
Berber was a dancer, a actress, a performer, call her what you like, in the joyful and liberated Berlin of the Weimar Republic, and she remains now one of the symbols of that blissful era, when women could smoke and get drunk, be financially independent, and have sex with other women.
The story doesn't end well, neither for Anita nor for Germany, but Berber paved the way for women who decided to reclaim their bodies and their lives, later in the 60s and 70s.
I had high expectations for this book, and I probably knew too much already, so I was quite disappointed.
I wanted to know more about Berber's psychology, I wanted to know what drove this ordinary girl to have such a crazy destiny, not just what she did and who she met. I guess it's still a good book if you're looking for facts and rare photos, even if that wasn't what I was looking for.
December 3, 2014
Thoroughly disappointed. Such a fascinating subject matter, such a badly-written book - from the evocative title, I somehow expected a lot more. The text reads like a poor translation done with the help of a bilingual dictionary - or like the work of a bored undergraduate. I still feel that I know next to nothing about Anita Berber, and this book does little to convey a sense of context or atmosphere. The best thing about this book is the pictures.
November 2, 2016
On the back cover, I found the following synopsis of this biography:
"The notorious actor/dancer/poet/playwright scandalized Weimar Berlin, appearing in nightclubs and casinos radiantly naked except for an elegant sable wrap, a pet monkey hanging from her neck, and a silver brooch packed with cocaine. ... The multi-talented Anita (Berber) saw no boundaries between her personal life and her taboo-shattering performances."
And yes, dear Reader, there are lots and lots of pictures.
Dead at age 29, it is rather amazing that the woman who embodied the spirit of "live hard and die young" was virtually erased from memory within a few years of her death, and certainly by the rise of the Nazi party prior to World War II. Of the films she made (some directed by Fritz Lang), only a couple are sporadically available today.
Most fascinating for me was that her Life and her Art became inseparable. Both were extensions of the other. While other performers basked in the shock of the Naked Dance, Anita Berber made it a part of herself and used it to bare not just her body, but also her soul. She explored such depth that her partners were often eclipsed. Audiences went for the titillation, but they were moved and haunted in unexpected ways.
This is not to suggest that Anita Berber was an artistic genius. She was able to tap into the basic emotions that drove her, and displayed them for her audiences. Often, this would result in physical assaults, especially when she felt slighted. Her sexual appetite was voracious and included rape (at her instigation). And she refused to conform to any expectations of civility. In short, she may have been the poster child for anger management treatment.
Still, there were critics and performers who remembered her decades after her death and were still influenced by her work. Indeed, her choreography for her "Dances of Depravity, Horror and Ecstacy" is still part of the repertoire of dance companies from time to time.
The writer, Mel Gordon, has done an excellent job in condensing the essence of various reference materials into a very readable book. Like his VOLUPTUOUS PANIC, he creates a "you are there" feeling, witnessing various tableaux that shocked audiences of the time, but were well bypassed by the permissive 1970's.
For the student hoping to learn more of the culture of Weimar Berlin, this is an essential book. For other Readers, it is an introduction to a most amazing artist ... and a very disturbed human being.
I definitely recommend it.
"The notorious actor/dancer/poet/playwright scandalized Weimar Berlin, appearing in nightclubs and casinos radiantly naked except for an elegant sable wrap, a pet monkey hanging from her neck, and a silver brooch packed with cocaine. ... The multi-talented Anita (Berber) saw no boundaries between her personal life and her taboo-shattering performances."
And yes, dear Reader, there are lots and lots of pictures.
Dead at age 29, it is rather amazing that the woman who embodied the spirit of "live hard and die young" was virtually erased from memory within a few years of her death, and certainly by the rise of the Nazi party prior to World War II. Of the films she made (some directed by Fritz Lang), only a couple are sporadically available today.
Most fascinating for me was that her Life and her Art became inseparable. Both were extensions of the other. While other performers basked in the shock of the Naked Dance, Anita Berber made it a part of herself and used it to bare not just her body, but also her soul. She explored such depth that her partners were often eclipsed. Audiences went for the titillation, but they were moved and haunted in unexpected ways.
This is not to suggest that Anita Berber was an artistic genius. She was able to tap into the basic emotions that drove her, and displayed them for her audiences. Often, this would result in physical assaults, especially when she felt slighted. Her sexual appetite was voracious and included rape (at her instigation). And she refused to conform to any expectations of civility. In short, she may have been the poster child for anger management treatment.
Still, there were critics and performers who remembered her decades after her death and were still influenced by her work. Indeed, her choreography for her "Dances of Depravity, Horror and Ecstacy" is still part of the repertoire of dance companies from time to time.
The writer, Mel Gordon, has done an excellent job in condensing the essence of various reference materials into a very readable book. Like his VOLUPTUOUS PANIC, he creates a "you are there" feeling, witnessing various tableaux that shocked audiences of the time, but were well bypassed by the permissive 1970's.
For the student hoping to learn more of the culture of Weimar Berlin, this is an essential book. For other Readers, it is an introduction to a most amazing artist ... and a very disturbed human being.
I definitely recommend it.
January 25, 2021
A view of Weimar Berlin and other European venues through the lens of one artist, celebrity, and narcissist. Berber was first a teen modern dancer in the Isadora Duncan style, then also a model, then also a film star, and eventually all of that and a nude dancer and professional depraved celebrity. Busy, busy! Morphine, cocaine, and TB killed her before she was 30. Fascinating to see a slice of post WW One Berlin, the strange artistic cults in the midst of hyperinflation and starvation. Much of the dance stuff seems a quaint now, but some of the photography, art, and Expressionism still engages. Gordon has a light narrative touch with solid scholarship, and a trove of visual material. Berber was neither voluptuous nor especially talented, but she was fearless and clearly had a certain something that, briefly, was marketable. Conrad Veidt, Marlene Dietrich, and many others have cameos. Such a feverish era of hustlers, defining that word variously. Barber's hard to like, which, in an anti-bourgeois way, is what she was going for. The book is fascinating.
Read
November 9, 2021Part biography, part gossip column, part performance review, 'The Seven Addictions' takes a closer look at *the* scandalous dancer of Weimar Berlin, Anita Berber. It's a fascinating and tragic story, one of rebellion and restlessness.
However, for me personally, the book resembles Mel Gordon's other work: "Voluptuous Panic" in that I'm never quite sure if what I'm reading is fact, or salacious gossip, or wild assumptions presented as fact. At times it makes the text feel too subjective for my taste. I also found it difficult to get a clear picture of who Anita really was in the end.
I really enjoyed all the photographs, and the descriptions of the dances (although they might have been better placed in an appendix). All in all, Anita's is a really interesting life, and I'd be keen to get to know her better.
However, for me personally, the book resembles Mel Gordon's other work: "Voluptuous Panic" in that I'm never quite sure if what I'm reading is fact, or salacious gossip, or wild assumptions presented as fact. At times it makes the text feel too subjective for my taste. I also found it difficult to get a clear picture of who Anita really was in the end.
I really enjoyed all the photographs, and the descriptions of the dances (although they might have been better placed in an appendix). All in all, Anita's is a really interesting life, and I'd be keen to get to know her better.
July 3, 2021
A well-documented historical view of dancer Anita Berber in Weimar Germany from 1919 through to her death from TB in 1925 at 29 years of age. Berber was an absolute original talent who pushed dance to its extreme limits, and established new ways of personal marketing as the first completely nude dancer of the age. Berlin was a center of rampant drug abuse, wade-ranging prostitution, and sexual expression and Anita Berber embodied all the "sturm and drang" of the period that saw out-of-control inflation and debauchery on all fronts.
The book includes a wealth of photographs and posters from the age, and an appendix includes many of Berber's dance scripts as well as some of her poems and those of her husbands of the time.
The book includes a wealth of photographs and posters from the age, and an appendix includes many of Berber's dance scripts as well as some of her poems and those of her husbands of the time.
May 19, 2019
The book provides an interesting overview of the infamous life of Anita Berber, who encompassesd and became the much imitated representative of the dark, corruptible impulses of Weimar inflationary decadence. She is depicted as a free spirit in it's most tragic sense, an artist who ultimately lost heself to vices, impulsiveness, sorrows and addictions. Interesting asides follow others who were in her trajectory - like her ex-husband Sebastien Droste abandoning her to seek fortune in New York, he fails, joins a tantric sex cult, and ultimately acheives recognition for his artistic vision after his death, much like Berber, since they both seemed insufferable in life.
November 21, 2022
https://jenniemeid.blogspot.com/2022/...
Onlangs heb ik een boek gelezen over Anita Berber. En hoewel Anita Berber een fascinerend figuur is en een blijvende indruk heeft gemaakt op de wereld van dans en cultuur, doet dit boek daar nauwelijks recht aan. De focus ligt volledig op haar seksuele escapades, haar drugsgebruik en haar onvoorspelbare gedrag. Dit had veel beter gekund.
#Anitaberber #weimar #Weimarberlin #biography #biografie #thesevenaddictionsandfiveprofessionsofanitaberber #melgordon #malegaze #exploitation #lezenisleuk #lezeniseenlifestyle #bookstagram #booksofinstagram #henrichatinhofmann #dancesofvicehorrorandecstasy #morphium #cocaine
Onlangs heb ik een boek gelezen over Anita Berber. En hoewel Anita Berber een fascinerend figuur is en een blijvende indruk heeft gemaakt op de wereld van dans en cultuur, doet dit boek daar nauwelijks recht aan. De focus ligt volledig op haar seksuele escapades, haar drugsgebruik en haar onvoorspelbare gedrag. Dit had veel beter gekund.
#Anitaberber #weimar #Weimarberlin #biography #biografie #thesevenaddictionsandfiveprofessionsofanitaberber #melgordon #malegaze #exploitation #lezenisleuk #lezeniseenlifestyle #bookstagram #booksofinstagram #henrichatinhofmann #dancesofvicehorrorandecstasy #morphium #cocaine
November 3, 2019
I was intrigued by the time period, the place, and the art, enough to want to pick this up and read it. I was not impressed at all by the writing or organization of this slight biography. Unfortunately, after reading about Anita Berber, I had no desire to learn any more about her. My take on her: crude, soulless, passionless, degenerate, drug addict. Time to move on to learning about those with talent, passion, genius, heart, and soul.
August 2, 2018
I did research on the 20s and pulp characters for a story, and came across Anita Berber. She was quite the character in an interesting time in history: Germany's Weimar Republic. To give you a hint of who she was: Anita used to travel around wearing nothing but a fur coat, a necklace filled with cocaine and pet monkey on her shoulder.
This was a straight up bio, gave good information.
This was a straight up bio, gave good information.
January 7, 2023
This gives an interesting glimpse into Weimar Germany through the life of someone who lived it to her fullest. It could have been written better as it is a bit disjointed and I had to go back and re-read some but the content is excellent. (And I am a sucker for all the images from that period)
May 2, 2024
5 stars for the depravity and art making of Anita Berber. Fewer stars for the book itself. My struggle to read this slim tome was echoed by others and I am glad to hear I am not alone in wanting more. Nonetheless, you want Berber? Ya read this.
September 23, 2020
Extremely interesting character but one of the worst written books ever. The pictures were good and if you work hard you can glean some interesting material.
January 3, 2021
Fascinating illustrated biography of Anita Berber. The writing is at times a bit overheated for a subject not in need of embellishment.
February 6, 2025
Bitches be crazy!
September 8, 2011
Berlin in the 1920s produced some outrageous characters but the most outrageous of them all was Anita Berber. Mel Gordon’s The Seven Addictions and Five Professions of Anita Berber: Weimar Berlin's Priestess of Decadence is a sort of artistic biography of the notorious actress/dancer. It’s a somewhat gossipy and disjointed book that makes no attempt to analyse either Berber or the Berlin of the Weimar Republic. In some ways that’s a good thing since attempts to analyse this period often amount to little more than “of course it was the depravity of Berlin in the 20s that caused the rise of the Nazis.” Gordon simply gives us a glimpse of Berber and her art and her city without trying to draw moral lessons.
I hadn’t realised that Berber had appeared in so many movies. Most of them now lost, unfortunately. She had a bit part in Fritz Lang’s Dr Mabuse: The Gambler and she appeared in what was almost certainly the first movie to deal openly with the subject of homosexuality, the 1919 film Different From the Others. The latter was inspired by the work of pioneer sexologist and apostle of sexual freedom Dr Magnus Hirchsfeld. Hirchsfeld was exclusively gay but he slept with Anita. She had that effect on people. To describe her as bisexual doesn’t really go far enough. Her sexual tastes and appetites were both voracious and wide-ranging and certainly included a significant element of sexual domination with Anita doing the dominating. That, combined with her enthusiastic consumption of cognac, morphine and cocaine, was part of the legend. He fame rested on more than that however. She was an important and innovative dancer. She was famous as a naked dancer but her dance combined sexual titillation (lots of it) with artistic expression. Gordon devotes a very large of the book to descriptions of her dances and the book is profusely illustrated so it’s possible to get a reasonably idea of what an Anita Berber performance must have been like. Berber’s increasingly out-of-control behaviour and her many sexual conquests (which included the young Marlene Dietrich) also get plenty of space. I’d have preferred a bit more depth and a bit more detail but it’s a lively and vivid book and the inherent fascination of the subject matter make it a very worthwhile purchase. You can’t really call yourself decadent unless you own a copy of this book.
I hadn’t realised that Berber had appeared in so many movies. Most of them now lost, unfortunately. She had a bit part in Fritz Lang’s Dr Mabuse: The Gambler and she appeared in what was almost certainly the first movie to deal openly with the subject of homosexuality, the 1919 film Different From the Others. The latter was inspired by the work of pioneer sexologist and apostle of sexual freedom Dr Magnus Hirchsfeld. Hirchsfeld was exclusively gay but he slept with Anita. She had that effect on people. To describe her as bisexual doesn’t really go far enough. Her sexual tastes and appetites were both voracious and wide-ranging and certainly included a significant element of sexual domination with Anita doing the dominating. That, combined with her enthusiastic consumption of cognac, morphine and cocaine, was part of the legend. He fame rested on more than that however. She was an important and innovative dancer. She was famous as a naked dancer but her dance combined sexual titillation (lots of it) with artistic expression. Gordon devotes a very large of the book to descriptions of her dances and the book is profusely illustrated so it’s possible to get a reasonably idea of what an Anita Berber performance must have been like. Berber’s increasingly out-of-control behaviour and her many sexual conquests (which included the young Marlene Dietrich) also get plenty of space. I’d have preferred a bit more depth and a bit more detail but it’s a lively and vivid book and the inherent fascination of the subject matter make it a very worthwhile purchase. You can’t really call yourself decadent unless you own a copy of this book.
December 14, 2011
I read this one and the Marchesa Casati book ("Infinite Variety") back to back, as I thought them somewhat similar - two outrageous women of the teens and twenties.
This book had more history about Weimar Berlin and it's modern dance culture, which isn't a bad thing; I only take one star because it almost assumes you've also read the same author's "Voluptuous Panic" which is a more general history of the time and place - names and places are mentioned without enough context otherwise.
I also cut a star due to personal taste - like Casati, Berber self-destructed, though more extravagantly: Casati died poor; Berber died poor, of TB, after inhaling a swath of cocaine across Europe and seemingly using everyone in her path. MUST all wild women burn too soon? (No: Check out Simon Doonan's "Wacky Chicks").
This book had more history about Weimar Berlin and it's modern dance culture, which isn't a bad thing; I only take one star because it almost assumes you've also read the same author's "Voluptuous Panic" which is a more general history of the time and place - names and places are mentioned without enough context otherwise.
I also cut a star due to personal taste - like Casati, Berber self-destructed, though more extravagantly: Casati died poor; Berber died poor, of TB, after inhaling a swath of cocaine across Europe and seemingly using everyone in her path. MUST all wild women burn too soon? (No: Check out Simon Doonan's "Wacky Chicks").
December 28, 2014
The four stars are for the content being so interesting, but certainly not for the quality of the writing. At first I thought it was a bad translation into English or written by someone with English as a second language, but no it would appear that the author does have English (or at least American English) as their first language. He is also a professor at Berkeley, so I would have hoped for considerably better writing than he has exhibited here. I also found it irritating the way he frequently refers to Anita as a "vixen", uneccessary and all a little prurient I feel. But despite the terrible writing this is a fascinating book and I would recommend it to anyone interested in Weimar Berlin.
April 27, 2012
The subject, Anita Berber, is so interesting, but this book took forever to read because it is so badly written. The story's title tells you the subject of the book, but it went on tangents about other people. It being a biography also has the reader believing that it will be linear, which it wasn't.
Quote from book: "Into the hospital bedroom, Lania smuggled in Antia's much-prized religious mementos: her old collection of morphine syringes, Madonna and Jesus statuettes, and a box of good-luck charms."
This doesn't make sense!
Quote from book: "Into the hospital bedroom, Lania smuggled in Antia's much-prized religious mementos: her old collection of morphine syringes, Madonna and Jesus statuettes, and a box of good-luck charms."
This doesn't make sense!
June 5, 2013
I checked this book out from the library primarily for its incredible title, but ended up being interested in its subject. I'd never heard of Anita Berber, nor known anything about post WWI Berlin artistic culture.
I would have enjoyed the book more if it had been able to convey more insights about Anita's personality and inner life, but I doubt that this hard-living woman left anything in the way of diaries or letters from which to derive that insight.
Ultimately, I think this book is primarily of interest to dance or cultural historians.
I would have enjoyed the book more if it had been able to convey more insights about Anita's personality and inner life, but I doubt that this hard-living woman left anything in the way of diaries or letters from which to derive that insight.
Ultimately, I think this book is primarily of interest to dance or cultural historians.
April 10, 2008
This was a fantastic and fascinating book with just the right balance of information and fun. It was never too bogged down with familial lineage data or supposition of the internal workings of its subject, who herself remains to be an enigma. Instead it is an honest portrait of a strange and rebellious character of the Weimar Berlin scene of the 1920s. This is an excellent companion to Voluptuous Panic and I will many times refer back to this book as I have with Mel Gordon's other work.
November 7, 2014
This isn't a biography of Anita Berber in the strictest sense of the word. Gordon spends a fair amount of time discussing the life of her second husband Sebastian Droste and the dance movements that came to be in the early part of the 20th century. From what I understand there is a limited amount of information available about Berber's relatively short life, and yet Gordon has done an excellent job of exploring her character and her influence on Weimar culture.
April 24, 2014
Anita Berber and Sebastian Drost are two of the most interesting performers I've ever read about. I'm sad that there's not more documentation of their lives and careers in Weimar Berlin. This book is great if you're interested in learning about this wild era or if you're just interested in reading about an iconic, rebellious dancer. I especially liked that the book included so many photos from Weimar Berlin and all kinds of bits of writing and performance notes from Anita and Sebastian.
February 5, 2013
Some really amazing anecdotes and information in here, but I wish the writer would've stuck to being more objective, instead of labeling his subject things like a, "whiny brat." I also wish he would have separated, at least a little, of the difference between her persona and actual life, especially with the way she was reported on by the press.
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