Anita Berber: Weimar Berlin's Priestess of Decadence

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Anita Berber (1899-1928)
Cabaret Dancer
Actress
Extreme Performer
Anita Berber was the epitomy of excess and decadence of the Weimar Berlin era. The whole culture was fascinated with morbidity, addiction, horror, ecstasy and narcissism. Anita Berber indulged in all of the above. She was addicted to cocaine and morphine, but her drug of choice was equal parts of ether and chloroform. She would allegedly stir this up with a white rose and then chew off the petals. This later transitioned to a cocktail of cocaine, opium and cognac.

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When she was performing on stage, Berber's pieces were extremely erotic. She famously appreared naked at 'Die Weisse Maus' ('The White Mouse') cabaret in Berlin. This was a small and exclusive club in Berlin, where the audience wore white masks to remain anonymous. Of her performances there, it has been written:

'After midnight, the guests were ready for the apocalyptic moment when the blouse-less girls pranced up the stage ramp. Anita's girls were powdered in deadly pallid shades and appeared like figures of death incarnate. But Anita performed with bitter sincerity. Each intrusion annoyed her. She responded to the audience's heckling with show stopping obscenities and incident provocations.Berber had been known to spit brandy on them or stand naked on their tables, dousing herself in wine whilst simultaneously urinating.

It was not long before the entire cabaret one night sank into a groundswell of shouting, screams and laughter. Anita jumped off the stage in fuming rage, grabbed the nearest champagne bottle and smashed it over a businessman's head.'
Berber has been described as many things, such as a "totally perverted woman", "countess of sin" and an incarnation of the perverse. 

Her relationships were as unconventional and troubled as her performances on stage. She married wealthy young screenwriter Eberhard von Nathusiu in 1919, but soon after began a series of lesbian affairs, including one with the young Marlene Dietrich. At the same time, she explored S&M sex. Her marriage ended in divorce in 1921. 

Soon after, she met Sebastian Droste, a dancer and a poet. They both understood that together they could create something theatrically bold, new and shocking, such as their production 'The Dances of Depravity, Horror and Ecstasy'. They got married in 1923. However, the pair fell into abusive and excessive drug use and the relationship failed.

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Then in 1924, she married American dancer Henri Chatin-Hoffman. They began performing through Europe and the Middle East with their new production 'Dances of Sex and Ecstasy'. But in Zagreb, Berber publicly insulted the King of Yugoslavia and was imprisoned for six weeks. Returning to Berlin, the pair returned to the cabaret.

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Tragically, yet unsurprisingly Anita Berber died in 1928, at the age of 29.  She collapsed while performing at a Beirut nightclub and was diagnosed with a state of advanced pulmonary tuberculosis, and died four months later in Bethanien Hospital in Kreuzberg.

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While in Düsseldorf in 1925, Otto Dix painted her now iconic portrait 'The Dancer Anita Berber'. The colours used in this painting represent fire, passion and danger- everything Anita Berber was. She looks considerably older in this painting than you would think she would at the age of 26. This could be the way that Otto Dix perceived her- after all she was a worldly and wise woman for the age of 26. I do however think that the excessive abuse of drugs and alcohol, combined with a lack of sleep, aged her considerably. Based on what we know these days about what drugs and alcohol do to the skin and the body, if someone was to be as excessive as Berber was, they would not retain their youthful appearance.

1 https://www.tumblr.com/search/anita+berber viewed on 19/10/2014 
2 Image screenshot from  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm3QcIa0cCA viewed on 19/10/2014
3 Image screenshot from  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dm3QcIa0cCA viewed on 19/10/2014

4 http://www.cabaret-berlin.com/?p=365 viewed 19/10./2014
5 http://ozebook.com/nostalgia/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/anita-berber03.jpg