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The Seven Addictions and Five Professions of Anita Berber: Weimar Berlin's Priestess of Depravity | 
 enlarge | Author: Mel Gordon
Publisher: Feral House
Category: Book
List Price: $22.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 147904
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 213
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9.8 x 6.8 x 0.6
ISBN: 1932595120
Dewey Decimal Number: 792.78092
EAN: 9781932595123
ASIN: 1932595120
Publication Date: May 1, 2006
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Product Description
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 Berbers 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."
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| Customer Reviews:
 A Trip to Decadent Weimar Berlin November 18, 2008
This book is less about Anita Berber than it is about the decadent social scene of Weimar Germany and Berlin in particular. Anyone who thinks the 60s were the decade of sex, drugs and rock and roll should read this book and get some history. Sex, drugs and jazz dominated the Weimer "club scene". Nude dancing, drinking and druggging, homosexuality, S/M/B/D...how like the Nazis to come in and ruin a good thing.
 The career story of actor, dancer, poet, and sex culture icon Anita Berber September 11, 2006
10 out of 14 found this review helpful
The Seven Addictions And Five Professions Of Anita Berber: Weimar Berlin's Priestess Of Depravity is the career story of actor, dancer, poet, and sex culture icon Anita Berber, who scandalized Weimar Berlin by appearing naked in nightclubs and casinos save for a sable wrap. Her performance in Expressionist films, her disregard of all taboos and her drug habits all contributed to a life devoted to casting off restraints. Dozens of black-and-white photographs and drawings recreating Anita's "Repertoire of the Damned" illustrate this one-of-a-kind tell-all of Europe's first postmodern woman.
"She was the most remarkable spirit that I ever met in the weird underworld of human sexuality." September 10, 2006
51 out of 52 found this review helpful
Author Mel Gordon details a glittering, decadent Weimar Berlin in the book, "The Seven Addictions and Five Professions of Anita Berber: Weimer Berlin's Priestess of Depravity." Post WWI Berlin "became the world showcase of nude dance and the erotic revue-sketch", and with the catastrophic devaluation of the German Mark, "moral degeneration" reigned in a city that rapidly became a metropolis of exotic, erotic cabaret performances. During her brief, explosive career Anita Berber was Weimar Berlin's "most widely discussed female personality." She performed to packed theatres, outraging her audiences, sharply dividing critics, and shocking society with the scandals that surrounded her both on and off stage. With her perfect, lithe body, dancer and performance artist Anita Berber reigned supreme.
Gordon charts the meteoric rise and tragic fall of the notorious dancer. During her short, brilliant, and self-destructive life, she earned many names, and was called a "totally perverted woman", the "Madonna of Dresden", the "Countess of Sin", "a living embodiment of sin", and "an incarnation of the perverse." Gordon offers the reader a portrait of a difficult life--fraught with public scandal, private demons, and an avant-garde approach to dance that brought Berber the wrong sort of audience. Gordon argues that the very audience who flocked to Berber for her scandalous naked dances could not appreciate the artistic relevance of her performances, and thus heckled--and ultimately abused her.
Gordon tracks Berlin's long-standing tradition with Naked Dance as an art form and traces Berber's career from her early dance training to German Expressionist Richard-Oswald films. But it was Berber's ability to dance that brought Berlin--at least temporarily--to her feet.
The book examines Berber's disastrous relationship with petty criminal, con man, and fellow dancer--Sebastian Droste. Included are details of Droste's post-Berber career in America and his membership in a notorious New York sex cult. The major scandals in Berber's life are examined--her three husbands, her affairs with the sexually obsessed Gerda and her daughter Elsa, and the "lovesick" Baroness Leonie Puttkamer-Gessmann. Berber's health steadily declined as her various addictions grew uncontrollable, and she rapidly became a "creative liability" on stage--even whacking a businessman over the head with a bottle of champagne one evening.
The book also serves as a glimpse into artistic life of Weimar Berlin--and there are mentions here of many notables--including Leni Riefenstahl (she was Berber's understudy for one engagement), Conrad Veidt, Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, Marlene Dietrich, and Fritz Lang. The text is peppered with marvelous photographs, posters and graphics depicting various Berber routines (including the Dances of Depravity, Horror, and Ecstasy). Additional materials follow the text--including poems by Berber and Droste, synopses of Berber's dance performances, and a bibliography. It's sadly ironic that Anita Berber--who once was so infamous--has now almost disappeared, and it is a particular joy for those interested in Berber (me) that Mel Gordon wrote this work on a much-neglected artist. For more on the life of Anita Berber, I recommend the film "Anita: Dances of Vice" by Rosa von Praunheim--displacedhuman
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