A review by eddie
Gay Berlin: Birthplace of a Modern Identity by Robert Beachy

5.0

This brilliant history was on target to get 4 stars from me -the extra star is for the magnificent last chapter and epilogue outlining the interaction and in some respects weird symbiosis between the rise of the Nazis and the various competing strands of gay liberationism in Berlin. Quite shockingly, a poll of gay men in Berlin at the time found that 30% supported Hitler - but Beachy gives convincing explanations of how such mistakenly self-destructive support came about. It is very sobering to consider Berlin's legendarily permissive sexual scene with a vibrant gay press, cultural and political organisations, 100s of gay bars, was all wiped away and buried so far by the Nazis that little memory of it all exists. Beachy deserves congrats for bringing it back to light and doing it such justice.