This year, Glenn did a deep dive into the decades in Germany leading up to the rise of the Third Reich. How did the most modern, educated, and diverse society degrade into the one that orchestrated the Holocaust? One insight that surprised Glenn was how Weimar Germany became one of the most sexually fluid societies that would give the modern West a run for its money.
For example, did you know that the first transgender surgery was performed in Germany in 1907? Additionally, the Berlin cabarets in the 1920s were so unhinged that it would make many today blush.
Glenn learned about these pivotal years leading up to the rise of the Third Reich in Mel Gordan's acclaimed book, Voluptuous Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin. Read on to learn more about this fascinating sourcebook that drew Glenn's interest in 2023.
"This sourcebook of the pre-Nazi, Cabaret-period “Babylon on the Spree” has the distinction of being praised both by scholars and avatars of contemporary culture, inspiring performers, filmmakers, historians straight and gay, designers, and musicians like the Dresden Dolls and Marilyn Manson. It is the visual scrapbook and inspired design source of hit television series, "Berlin Babylon."