“Here it is possible for everyone to be happy in their own way and every taste is catered for […] particularly the priestesses of Sappho [...] follow me, if you like, to their glittering nooks…” RUTH MARGARETE ROELLIG, BERLIN’S LESBIAN WOMEN, 1928
During the Roaring Twenties Berlin was known as the “Capital of Pleasure”. Before the rise of Hitler, the city’s raucous cabarets, topless dancehalls and transvestite parties drew thousands of tourists to the capital to experience life on the wild side. Making their mark within the burgeoning sexual metropolis, German LBT women developed a subculture that was unparalleled anywhere else in Europe and Ruth Margarete Roellig wrote a guidebook documenting it. As an historian with a taste for all things queer, I visit Berlin to see whether any remnants of this celebrated sapphic scene remain.