#weimar berlin

Willi Pape/Voodoo was a dancer/variety performer photographed & interviewed on behalf(?) of Magnus Hirschfeld, though conducted by the scientific humanitarian committee.

'Assigned male at birth' in Germany 1891, Willi was noted for blending gender fluid elements in his/her shows, & was apparently quite popular. Pronoun use seems to have been he/she, afaik :o

This photo of Willi Pape appeared in a 1927 issue of the German lesbian magazine "Die Freundin".

Willi met Magnus Hirschfeld in 1909 and had several photos taken that later appeared in his 1912 book "The Transvestites/Die Transvestiten", a word which then applied to both crossdressers & transgender people, unlike today, where it rarely does... Hirschfeld did acknowledge the confusion of that, so he furthered the distinction by coining the term "transsexual" after this. Transvestite was thus, as he put it, only the "most obvious part"—i.e the "crossdressing" as it was applied to all regardless if they were trans as we know it or not.

When called up for military service in 1914, Willi showed up in full feminine dress. (lmao, that must've taken some guts to do in violently bigoted 1914... Based and iconic ✨)

Willi also used to do shows based on Roman emperor and hectic party-goer—someone so young she should've never been entrusted to not act like a child when given the crown... Elagabalus :) The variety shows he/she did were apparently noted for an element of gender fluidity.

In September 1928, opened a bar in Berlin with partner Emil Schmidt called "Zum Kleinem Löwen", visited by both Klaus Mann & Christopher Isherwood; it was also, apparently, marketed for trans people.

And of course, here's the 2022 book about Willy Pape, written by Jens Dobler, whose research has essentially brought him/her back to consciousness 🌺 esteemed dancer on stage once again ^^ "You have never seen a dancer like Voodoo".

Es ist im Deutsch, und ich kann es nicht gefunden eine kopie im Englisch.

Anita Berber - actress, dancer, writer, and infamous Weimar Berlin icon appears in a cameo in Fritz Lang's Dr. Mabuse the Gambler - Part I

She also doubled for Aud Egede-Nissen's Cara Carozza for the Folies Bergeres cabaret dance sequence.

Just to share texts and collect inspiration to motivate myself and maybe just maybe find a few more players (see below, I already have one mutual who'd like to play)

The setting is 1920's Germany, the Weimar Republic, most likely with a strong focus on Berlin so I can utilize the Call of Cthulhu sourcebook "Berlin -The Wicked City".

The vibe is going to be lovecraftian, with a lot of occultism and spiritualism, but also weird science and espionage, revolutionaries and violence.

Weimar is a period and place I have a great affinity for, and I think its story is more important than ever in these ideologically charged days.

Narratively it provides everything I need to tell stories about the supernatural, but also intrigue, political violence, strange figures and an atmosphere that is very easily relatable to the tone and themes of the Gothic Punk genre Vampire the Masquerade defines itself by.

I will have some more texts introducing the idea of the campaign, an index of everything will be at the bottom of this post as it accumulates.

-----LFG-----

What are we playing?

Vampire the Masquerade and any other relevant game or supplement from the 20th Anniversary edition or older.

Who are we playing?

The first group is planned to be lower powered vampires, ghouls, or gifted mortals, from sorcerors to mediums or anything else that can be made to work. No mages, werewolves, wraith or changeling.

I'll create a list of the most fitting options for characters from the different games that give rules for mortal characters and anything else that would balance well. Of course I'd also take suggestions.

I'll only consider complete homebrew if it's something lovecraftian that fits in with the world and isn't covered by established rules. For balance's sake.

You'll start out weak, but with great potential.

I'd like for all characters to develop their own motivations as individuals and as a group.

The fates of the characters will be intertwined in some way.

Do I gotta know sh!t all about Weimar Germany or the world of Darkness?

Nope.

I'm looking to build a group that's interested in the social aspects of role-playing, wants to tell a cool story together and have fun.

I'll not accept bigots and I want everyone in the group to be accepting of people's limitations when it comes to neurodivergence, anxiety etc.

disclaimer;

This is a role-playing game with already dark tone and subject matter. The time period is full of decadent nightlife, violence, political extremists, cultists and there will be strange, bizarre, disgusting and disturbing things happening all around you.

The first step of keeping people comfortable is to set the baseline.

I'm not interested in gratuitous cruelty in my game for the sake of it.

I'm a 40 year old cis male with strong left leanings by the way, I've been playing tabletop rpg's since I was 9.

I haven't been able to run anything in a while, so I might be rusty.

I've been playing Vampire the Masquerade since the 2nd edition and have been GM/storyteller for several World of Darkness games and others.

no worries (i think alan alda would be honoured, if i remember correctly, he mentioned meeting him once as a kid in his memoir). it's this fellow:

his name was conrad veidt, a famous german actor of the weimar republic, later escaped to britain and then the us to get away from the nazis with his jewish wife, Ilona Prager. he also starred in two pro-jewish films shortly after the nazis came to power in 1933 (the wandering jew, and jew süss, but i confess i haven't watched these yet, so i cannot say how well they aged) -- generally did a few films that were about Social Issues that came down on the side of the oppressed, including the woman's crusade, and the merry-go-round, as well as... (see below)

famous for some very important movies: 1. played the lead in the first movie to openly portray gay men (anders als die andern), which was produced by magnus hirschfeld and the institute of sexology in a bid to get support for legalising homosexuality -- it's free on youtube! also 105 years old, can you believe... 2. played the somnambulist in the cabinet of dr caligari, and generally was every vamp-girls/boys dream back in the day, playing in a lot of the german expressionist films and proto-horror films, and generally not afraid to play offbeat, uncomfortable roles that weren't about being an attractive leading man (eerie tales, the hands of orlac, waxworks, the man who laughs) 3. after he moved to the us, he was very happy to portray nazis to give them realism, and he plays major heinrich strasser in casablanca in 1942 (his second-last film)

i believe he was in a total of 115 films, but quite a few of them between when he started in 1917 and 1930 are lost (der januskopf, i think of you often....murnau, bela lugosi, and conrad veidt, in an adaptation of jekyll and hyde??? arghhh)

other fun facts, did occasionally crossdress and in fact this may have contributed a little to his first divorce, as his wife found him and a bunch of his friends wearing dresses one night after she came back from work -- notably conrad was in her new dress. she told a friend that this was the breaking point, but it may have partially been a joke. they did divorce though

was also at one point called the prettiest girl in berlin in print, good for him

was probably bisexual, although having said that i've actually never read why people think this -- so for now, he was a mensch and a great ally to a lot of people, a little on the queerer side in all things

i do follow a fair few conrad veidt blogs on here, but i don't talk about him often, it's one of those "am a fan, but keeping it mostly to the chest" kind of things with him -- however, as you can tell, very happy to give the Info when asked!