Kitty's Salon: Sex, Spying and Surveillance in the Third Reich
Urs Brunner,
Julia Schrammel,
NIgel Jones
Kitty’s Salon was the most notorious brothel in the decadent Berlin of the Weimar Republic – the city of ‘Cabaret’. But after the Nazis took power, it became something more dangerous : a spying centre with every room wired for sound, staffed by women agents specially selected by the SS to coax secrets from their VIP clients. Masterminded by the spymaster Hitler himself called ‘the man with the iron heart’ Reinhard Heydrich, architect of the Holocaust and the most sinister Nazi of them all, the exclusive establishment turned listening post was patronised by the Nazi leaders themselves, not knowing that hidden ears were listening.
One of the last untold stories of the Second World War, - previously only known via it’s portrayal in the Nazi sexploitation soft porn movie ‘Salon Kitty’, (1976), - Salon Kitty’s no less sansational true history is now revealed by historians Nigel Jones, Urs Brunner and Dr Julia Schrammel. After years of painstaking research and investigation, the story they tell sheds new light on Nazi methods of control and coercion, and the way that they used and abused sex for their own perverse purposes.
Salon Kitty’s story is set in the wider context of the Third Reich’s cynical and hypocritical attitude to sex and prostitution; - a mix of repression and cynical exploitation; of the vicious feuds between it’s competing espionage agencies, and of the cruel choice faced by the Salon’s owner, Kitty Schmidt herself, when compelled to collaborate and herself become ‘a spy in the house of love’. At once a deconstruction and reconstruction of a hidden history, ‘Kitty’s Salon’ is a gripping true story of historical detection that sheds a harsh light on one of the darkest last secrets of the Third Reich.
Book Details:
- Author: Urs Brunner, , Julia Schrammel, , NIgel Jones
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Urs Brunner,
Urs Brunner studied History, Politics and Literature at the University of Zurich and the American University of Cairo, and worked as a freelance journalist. Since 1989 he has been an entrepreneur in Thailand, working in coffee, real estate and finance. In 2008 he founded the film production company Angel & Bear Productions, with offices in Thailand, the UK and the US. ‘Kitty’s Salon’ is his first book.
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Julia Schrammel,
Julia Schrammel is an Austrian journalist who is passionate about stories. She studied Communication Science at the University of Salzburg and wrote her doctoral thesis on media censorship in Chile and Argentina under the Pinochet and Videla dictatorships. She has worked in various Media companies, including Radio Antenne Salzburg and Jedermann TV.
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NIgel Jones
Nigel Jones is a historian and journalist with an expert knowledge of Nazi Germany, who has worked in newspapers, magazines, radio and television. He has written eight previous acclaimed historical books and biographies, including ‘Hitler’s Heralds: The Story of the Freikorps 1918-23’ (John Murray, 1987), revised and reissued by Constable/Robinson (2004) as ‘The Birth of the Nazis’ with a foreword by Professor Michael Burleigh. ‘Countdown to Valkyrie: The July Plot to Assassinate Hitler’ (Frontline, 2008); with an afterword by General Count Bertolt ...
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Book Reviews
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"Kitty’s Salon is the only English language book about the eponymous wartime Berlin brothel."
The Spectator