Berlin

'Table seven calling number four....' Berlin's retro chat-up lines

image credit: ballhaus-berlin.de

This is what phone-flirting looked like long before the existence of dating apps: numbered telephones on nightclub tables enabling smooth-talking calls to whoever caught your eye.

Once all the rage in Berlin's Weimar-era clubs and ballrooms, incredibly, these pioneers of the pick-up line still exist in the Ballhaus Berlin, a century-old dance-hall in the heart of the city.

image credit: ballhaus-berlin.de

Don't be fooled by the building's unprepossessing exterior - inside (to steal a phrase from 'Cabaret', which also features its very own table-telephone song) "life is beautiful". Or at least, a rather glitzy confection of gilt, mirrors and a balcony overlooking the dance-floor.

But the star attraction at Ballhaus Berlin is, of course, those late 1930s 'Tischtelefonen'; a unique survivor of the city's racy pre-war heyday. Get ready to flirt, retro-style, because for once, an inability to put down your phone is all just part of the party.

See also:
A burlesque bar in Kreuzberg
Silent movies at the Babylon Kino
Berlin's amazing party store

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