Berlin was a city living in its libertine moment. It was a city where the post-war shimmering light had become a jewel-like sparkle. A capital deemed representative of the new democracy where women were emancipated like nowhere else, and its people were obsessed with the arts, ballets, and cabarets full of burlesque performances and transvestites.

 But it must be remembered that the preface to Berlin’s culture was WWI. On June 28, 1919, under intense pressure from the victors, Germany wa...