Gender and Sexuality in Weimar Berlin, 1918 - 1933

Catalog description

This course engages with why Weimar Berlin was a unique and important moment in the Western history of gender and sexuality. This course introduces students to topics in gender and sexuality in media, literature, film and their cultural context in Weimar Berlin. Students will explore how gender was policed in Weimar Berlin and the ways in which medical, political, and artistic institutions became involved with people of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. Students will discuss the ways in which certain behaviors or lifestyles were allowed to exist in public spaces for the first time, on the one hand, but also how this the Nazis used this knowledge in the following decades. Students will analyze how Berlin between 1918-1933 served as a significant hub for queer and gay subcultures and who the prominent figures in this cultural era were.