Moka Efti in German literature

The Moka Efti, as shown in the TV-series Babylon Berlin, is a restaurant and ballroom. But in the basement it is another profession, a very old one, that is practiced. Guests move freely between the two levels. If they are waved through by the « madame » downstairs, that is.

Erich Kästner, a well-known writer and journalist, in his 1930 novel Fabian, describes a joint he calls Haupt’s Ballroom which has similarities with Babylon Berlin’s MokaEfti, though it is said to have a real night-club as its model : Mundts Festsäle, on the Köpenicker Strasse.

Kästner is famous for his novel Emil and the detectives, a very succesful book for youth. However, the excerpt from Fabian I transcribe here is by no means aimed to the youth under 18…

As every evening, it was beach party at Haupt’s Ballroom. At precisely ten o'clock, two dozen girls came downstairs from the gallery. They wore colorful bathing suits, stockings rolled to the knee and high-heeled shoes. Those girls who took off their clothes had free access to the restaurant and got a schnapps for free, benefits that were not to be despised in view of the low employment rate in their trade. At first, the girls danced with each other so the men could have something to behold.

The sight of exuberant female forms, moving rythmically to music, aroused all the clerks, accountants and retailers hanging over the railings. The dancing master shouted that they should throw themselves on the ladies, and that’s exactly what happened. The thickest and cheekiest among the women were preferred. The booths were quickly occupied. The bar-girls painted their lips. The orgy could begin. Labude and Fabian sat at the railings. They loved this place because they did not belong here. The lamp of their table-phone glowed without interruption. The device buzzed. Someone wanted to talk to them. Labude lifted the receiver and put it under the table. They had peace again, because the noise that remained, the music, the laughter and the singing, was not meant to them and was therefore not disturbing.

/.../

Two angels in tricot leaned over the balustrade. One of them was thick and blond, her breast were on the plush as if they were being served. The other person was thin and her face looked as if she had crooked legs. "May we have a cigarette," said the blonde. Fabian handed them his case, Labude gave them a light. The women smoked, looked at the men, waited and after a while the thin one said in a rusty voice: "Well, that's how it is."

"Who buys me a schnapps?" asked the fat one.

They went all to the counter. Vine leaves and enormous grapes, all made of cardboard. They sat down in a corner. The wall was decorated with a landscape from Caub in the Palatinate. Fabian thought of Blücher (a Prussian general who fought a battle at Caub), Labude ordered liqueur. The women whispered. Presumably discussing how they would share the two cavaliers. Because immediately afterwards the fat blonde threw her arm around Fabian, put a hand on his leg and looked pleased. The thin one drank her glass in one gulp, pinched Labude's nose and chuckled foolishly. "Upstairs there are some free booths," she said, pulling her blue bathing suit over her thighs and winking. "How did you get those rough hands? "asked Labude. « Not from what you are thinking », answered she, choking with laughter and pointing her finger at him." "Paula used to work in a cannery," said the blonde, took Fabian's hand and rubbed it over her breasts,

until the nipples became big and firm. "Shall we go to a hotel then?"she asked.

"I'm shaved all over," explained the thin one and seemed ready to prove it on the spot. Labude laboriously stopped her from going further.

"You sleep better afterwards," said the blonde to Fabian and stretched her fat legs.

The girl behind the counter filled the glasses. The women emptied them as if they hadn’t eaten for eight days. The music came over muffled. At the bar, a huge guy gargled with kirsch. /…/Behind the Palatinate mountains burned an electric bulb and spread sunlight on the Rhine, if only from behind.

"There are booths upstairs," the lean one repeated, and they went up.

Labude ordered cold cuts. As the plate of meat and sausage came, the girls forgot everything else and ate with enthusiasm. Down in the hall, the most beautiful figure was being chosen. The women turned in a circle with their skimpy bathing suits, spread their arms and fingers and smiled seductively. The men watched them like in the cattle market.

"The first prize is a box of chocolates," explained Paula without stopping her chewing, "and whoever wins it, must return it to the manager afterwards. »

"I prefer to eat. Besides, they always think my legs are too thick" said the blonde." But for me, big legs are the best thing. I was once with a Russian prince, he still sends me postcards. "

"Nonsense!" Paula growled. "Every man wants something different, I knew once a guy, an engineer, who loved girls with sick lungs. And Victoria’s boyfriend has a hump and she says that’s what she needs. I think, the main thing is to know your business. "

"And we have learned our business indeed," claimed the fat and fished the last piece of ham from the plate. Down in the hall, the most beautiful figure was just being crowned. The band played a fanfare. The managing director handed over a chocolate box to the winner. She thanked him happily, bowed to the cheering guests and went away with her prize. She probably carried it back to the office.

"Why don’t you work in your cannery anymore?" asked Labude, and his question sounded reproachful.

Paula pushed back the empty plate, stroking her belly and answered : "First, it was not MY factory, and second, I got fired. Fortunately, I knew something about the director. He had seduced a fourteen-year-old girl. ‘Seduced’ is not the right word, but that’s what he believed. So I called him every fortnight, to ask for fifty marks, or else I would tell it to everybody. "

" That's blackmail! "exclaimed Labude.

"The lawyer the director sent to me said that too. I had to sign a paper, got hundred marks, and so my nice pension was off. So, I am here now."

"It's awful," Labude said to Fabian, "how many directors abuse the relationship they had with their employees. "

The fat woman shouted, "Oh, man, what are you talking about. If I were a man, and a factory director at that, I would do the same. "

Then she pulled Fabian’s hair, gave him a kiss, seized his hand and laid it on her full belly. Labude and Paula danced together. She really had crooked legs.

In the neighboring booth, a woman sang loudly in a drunken voice.

The fat girl said, "That broad is really something. She does not belong here. She comes in expensive fur coats, but underneath she wears something transparent. She is said to be a rich woman from the Kurfürstendamm, and married too. She takes young guys in the booth, pays them and behaves in such way that even the walls blush." Fabian got up and looked over the partition wall.

In the other booth sat a large and handsome woman in a green silk swimsuit and, while singing, tried to undress a Reichswehr soldier who resisted desperately. "Man!" cried she. "Do not make such a foolish impression! Come on! Show me your ID!" But the brave infantryman pushed her back. /.../

She reached out over the railings shouting: "And those guys call themselves men! If you tackle them, they'll go out of their way! Ladies, I propose we imprison them all. Ladies, what we really need are men brothels! All that agree, raise your hand! "