| Cabaret, Cliff, Ernst and Nazi attitudes to gay people | |
| Last Edit: AlanScott 05:36 pm EDT 07/25/24 | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 05:31 pm EDT 07/25/24 | |
| In reply to: re: Seeing CABARET having seen the original and the film - student_rush 09:40 am EDT 07/25/24 | |
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| I don't know if you read my several earlier posts in this discussion. You're making some of the same points that I made in those posts. But I specifically didn't mention Cliff being gay as a reason for Ernst to stay away from him for several reasons. First, while sex between men was illegal in Weimar Germany, there were prominent gay Nazis, and Hitler knew they were gay. While the Nazis were against homosexuality being legalized, there was nothing anti-gay in their original party platform. In 1931, after Cabaret takes place, there was a scandal when it was revealed in a newspaper that Ernst Röhm was gay, but Hitler defended him. It wasn't till 1934 that Hitler definitively turned against gay people, and Röhm and other gay men were infamously murdered. Second, when Ernst tells Cliff about the Kit Kat Klub on the train right after meeting him and tries to persuade Cliff to join him there that night, in the revised book he seems to think that perhaps Cliff might be gay or bisexual, saying to him, "We begin tonight — New Year's Eve — the Kit Kat Klub! This is the hottest spot in the city. Telephones on every table. Girls call you – boys call you — you call them — instant connections." But it's clear that Ernst does not definitely think Cliff is gay or bisexual. Later, after an English lesson with Cliff is over, he tries to get Cliff to join him on a double date, enticing Cliff with the possibility of meeting a girl named Elsa, who likes Americans. When Cliff demurs, Ernst says, "But you have not seen this Elsa! Hot stuff — believe me! In one minute, I guarantee you are making a pass after her." Shortly after that in the same scene, Sally shows up at Cliff's. As he leaves, Ernst says to Cliff, "I will see you Friday for the next lesson. But I am telling you something: I think I am taking from you the wrong kind of lessons!" So Sally showing up and asking to move in with Cliff seems to settle the question in Ernst's mind, if there was a question in his mind at that point. Having said all that, I will add something that I didn't write in my earlier posts: If Cliff were black, Fraulein Schneider almost certainly would not have rented a room to him. Even if she weren't personally prejudiced against black people, black people in Germany at that time were discriminated against and looked down upon. She would have been afraid that she would lose other tenants if she had a black man as a tenant. And Ernst would have understood this, and he would not have sent Cliff there in the first place. |
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