Prostitution
Artist: Josef Fenneker
Year: 1919

Anita Berber was a German dancer, actress, writer, and prostitute who lived during
the Weimar period.  Born in Leipzig to divorced bohemian parents
(a cabarét artist and a violinist), she was raised mainly by her grandmother
in Dresden.  By the time she was 16, she had moved to Berlin and made her debut
as a cabaret dancer. By 1918 she was working in film, and she began dancing
nude in 1919.  She was scandalous, androgynous and infamous, quickly making
a name for herself on the Berlin scene.  She wore heavy dancer’s make-up,
which on the black and white photos and films of the time
came across as jet black lipstick painted across the heart-shaped
part of her skinny lips, and charcoaled eyes.

Her hair was cut fashionably into a short bob and was frequently bright red,
as in 1925 when the German painter Otto Dix painted a portrait of her,
titled "The Dancer Anita Berber".  Berber's cocaine addiction and bisexuality
were matters of public chatter.  She could often be seen in Berlin's
hotel lobbies, nightclubs and casinos, naked apart from an elegant sable wrap,
with a pet monkey and a silver brooch packed with cocaine.

When director Richard Oswald needed a femme fatale to star opposite
Conrad Veidt (star of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) in his thinly-veiled
“Social Hygenic Film” on the dangers and lure of Prostitution,
Anita Berber was the perfect choice.  In this poster, she draws back
her stocking to reveal her track marks to a throng of adoring patrons…
enticing, indeed!

Facsimile editions

Archival bamboo paper
44” Edition of 150…………$1850
36” Edition of 150………….$950

Cotton rag paper
36” Edition of 300…………. $550