Berlin Coquette

Suzanne Smith’s Berlin Coquette is a model of cultural history. Spanning the Wilhelmine and Weimar periods, Smith’s monograph skilfully juxtaposes the assessments of female prostitution made by feminists, sexologists, sex reformers and cultural critics with the visual and textual representations found in a range of popular media, including theatre, film and literature. Her use of Coquette is inspired. Defined as a ‘loose’, lustful or vain woman, the German term Kokotte experienced a tremendous upsurge in usage in the early twentieth century, especially in popular culture. As Smith explains, a ‘tenuous balance between titillation and restraint revealed a concomitant eroticization of the bourgeoisie and an “embourgoisement” of prostitutes that was embodied by the figure of the cocotte’ (p. 13). Prostitution itself was a booming business in Berlin. By 1900 there were an estimated 20,000–50,000 prostitutes plying the city’s streets. These numbers are so disparate in part because the Berlin regime of ‘regulation’—a system of surveillance and control adapted from the French—was notoriously lax. According to German federal law, prostitutes were required to register with local authorities and then submit to periodic health exams. Only a small number of those active in Berlin ever did so, however, removing most Berlin prostitution from direct state control. Additionally, Berlin authorities granted prostitutes great latitude in where they could live or work. And despite prohibitions on streetwalking in certain commercial areas, prostitution flourished throughout much of the city.

Bourgeoisie · Elite · German · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science) · Decadence, Literature, and Society · European history and politics · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · History · Law