2024-01-01 03:25:19
The summer of 1940 was a real slap in the face of French society. And rightly so, since what had once been one of the powers of Europe under the baton of Napoleon Bonaparte had to see that same year how the Wehrmacht overcame its apparently impenetrable Maginot Line and, between laughter and sauerkraut, he stood with his German tanks in front of the Eiffel Tower itself. From then on, the occupation began and two universes were forced to coexist in the French country: that of the collaborationists eager to obtain some advantage from the Nazis, and that of the mythologized Resistance, more famous than effective thanks to propaganda. by Charles de Gaulle.
The Paris brothels opted for the first option. Without hesitation, and as Patrick Buisson states in ‘1940-1945 Années érotiques, Vichy ou les infortunes de la vertu’, the ‘madames’ opened their arms and their doors to the Teutonic forces in exchange for substantial sums of money. The decision, as far as liquidity is concerned, could not have been better. In fact, after the Second World War, some of them admitted that the Nazis’ continuous visits to their brothels gave them a benefit that they would never have been able to obtain with their compatriots. The Third Reich thus brought the Gallic brothels into a new golden age.
But among all the sex houses in Paris there was one that was lucky enough to become the favorite of the Nazi leaders due to its exclusive character: ‘Le Chabanais’. Located near the Louvre Museum and with almost a century of history behind it, this brothel had all kinds of dark secrets such as themed rooms or a strange ‘Love Chair’ or ‘Fellatio Chair’ that had been exclusively designed for King Edward VII. The women of this mansion of love boasted of belonging to high society and, as such, collected a considerable amount of bills from their clients.
International temple of vice
‘Le Chabanais’, the most exquisite center of lust and depravity in ‘la France’, opened its doors back in 1878 at number 12 Rue Chabanais, the same street that gave it its name. Today it is difficult to keep track of him. As Marc Lemonier reveals in his ‘Guide historique du Paris libertin’, the brothel was nothing more than a simple seven-story building that, during its peak, could not be distinguished at first glance from the rest. “Its façade was nothing special,” he notes. The woman who erected this temple of vice was ‘Madame Kelly‘. However, years later it was acquired by Nez Pointu, Ernest le Sourd and Georges le Cuirassier.
Despite its simplicity, this brothel soon became famous among Parisian society thanks to the fact that it was, as stated on a sign at the entrance, a “house of all nations.” Although not because its prostitutes belonged to many continents, but because it had themed rooms that transported its clients to distant lands. Of all of them, scholars remember the Hindu one, the Moorish one, the Pompeii one and even one set in the Middle Ages. “At the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900, a prize was awarded to the Japanese room,” adds the expert.
In total, ‘Le Chabanais’ had about twenty rooms built with a checkbook. In this temple of vice, extreme luxury came first. An example of this is that the painter Charles Toché, a specialist in frescoes, worked for a year inside this brothel and that some rooms such as the ‘Louis XVI’ were designed by the best local artists with luxury materials. But quality had to be paid for, as demonstrated by the fact that, during the Second World War, a service cost the weekly salary of a superior officer.
On a practical level, ‘Le Chabanais’ had about 22 prostitutes specially selected by the brothel management. This number quickly increased to 36 with the arrival of the World’s Fair that Paris hosted in 1878. All of them slept in the few beds that the establishment had, often two per bed. Although this practice was criticized in a report by the local council in 1883, by then the brothel had become so famous that the authorities preferred to turn a blind eye rather than have to confront its management.
The power that this building held was evident when its prostitutes began to distribute propaganda throughout Paris advertising their services, a practice that had been banned in 1880 by the government as indecorous. Although the truth is that by then they did not need to trumpet from the rooftops that the brothel existed. His fame had already spread throughout the country. This is what the author Brigitte Rochelandet states in ‘Les maisons closes autrefois’: «The reputation was such that many brothels used its name as a lure. There was a ‘Chabanais’ in Calais, Lille, Marseille, Nancy, Toulon and Frejus. The original, however, was always based in the capital.
Elite clients
The luxury and good taste of the rooms not only helped raise prices and helped ‘Le Chabanais’ radically increase its income. It also attracted the ‘crème de la crème’ of the European nobility to its walls. Lemonier remembers that it was common for “great men” and even “some crowned heads” to reserve a few hours in their busy schedule to enjoy a service at the brothel. Although, yes, the meeting was hidden under the following phrase: “Visit to the president of the Senate.” In defense of the dignitaries, it should be noted that people did not only go to this brothel to have sexual relations, but also to drink, enjoy a good dance or gamble.
It didn’t take long for great personalities from politics and the arts to pass through the rooms of ‘Le Chabanais’. Some as famous as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec – who enjoyed the services of the brothel girls for years while he decorated several of his rooms; the writer Guy de Maupassant – who even built a ‘Moorish room’ in his house so as not to feel homesick for the brothel; the popular Mae West or the famous Cary Grant. It is not surprising since, as Nicole Canet, owner of a gallery that treasures memories of the building, explained to the newspaper ‘The Telegraph’, the same travel agencies offered their most exclusive clients a visit to this brothel.
Big pervert
But, among all the clients, there was one who stood out for his perversions: the future monarch Edward VII of England. Better known in 1880 as ‘Bertie’, the portly Prince of Wales was a true ‘playboy’ who loved visiting Gallic brothels when he crossed the English Channel. His favorite was ‘Le Chabanais’, where he used to give free rein to his baser instincts. And all, to the despair of his mother, who only wanted to see how she settled down. But he was of no use to her. When his father found out that it was common for his son to abandon his military duties to see prostitutes, he wrote to her in desperation: “I knew you were thoughtless and weak, but I couldn’t think that you were depraved.”
Inside ‘Le Chabanais’, the Prince of Wales enjoyed long hours of pleasure in the ‘Hindu room’, his favourite. There he had his own paradise and luxuries such as a swan-shaped copper bathtub in which the water was replaced by champagne. This contraption was auctioned on May 8, 1951, shortly after the brothel closed its doors, for 100,000 francs, an exaggerated sum. In Lemonier’s words, it was ultimately bought by Salvador Dalí, who installed it in the Hotel Meurice.
But this bathtub was nothing more than a mere anecdote when compared to a contraption of depravity designed for him and called the ‘love chair‘ o la ‘Fellatio chair‘. The seat allowed him to have relations with two women at the same time while she had her bottom rested. Her system remains a mystery today. What is known is that the shape of the seat forced the Prince of Wales to remain with his legs open, so that a prostitute could kneel in front of him to perform oral sex on him. The other prostitute, it is believed, leaned on the two handles of the invention to continue the party. In any case, what is clear is that the objective was for the future monarch to spend as little energy as possible.
When the Nazis arrived in Paris in the middle of World War II, they hesitated. What on earth could they do with that contraption? Keep it? Wreck it? The most curious thing is that what disgusted them about the chair was not its perverse function. That seemed good to them. What they disliked, as author Stephen Clarke explains in his work ‘1000 Years of Annoying the French’, was that it had been designed and used exclusively by the enemy: Edward VII. In the end they decided that they would stay with it and that they would not remove the coat of arms of the royal family. “They decided to keep him because he had a German mother,” completes the author in his popular work.
Nazism arrives
In 1940, after the Germans began their advance into the heart of France, the situation took a drastic turn in the Parisian brothels. In the palaces of vice like ‘The Chabanais‘or the also popular’one two two‘, whose rooms competed in luxury, the prostitutes abandoned their jobs. In some cases, out of mere fear. But in others, as a form of resistance against the Teutons. Thus, it was not unusual to read on the doors of brothels a message as disconcerting as it was exasperating for Nazi soldiers and officers: «House closed. Mobilized personnel.
This passive resistance by the prostitutes was short-lived. To be more exact, the time it took for the Germans to order the reopening of the brothels and divide them according to military ranks. From then on, Teutonic money became an incentive that made the Gallic prostitutes work to please the new lords of France. The ‘madame’ of ‘Le Chabanais’ stated after the Second World War that she gave priority to German clients over local ones because they paid better, were exotic, knew how to speak several languages and were more educated. The abundance of ‘Reichsmarks’ caused the number of women willing to sell their bodies in Paris to increase to 10,000. A more than striking number if we take into account that, at the beginning of the war, there were only about 4,000.
The arrival of the Nazis activated these houses of vice. All of them benefited. From ‘One Two Two’, whose hall decorated with rich murals with sexual paintings captivated the Nazi hierarchs, to the cheapest and dirtiest ones, dedicated to soldiers. ‘Le Chabanais’, as expected, was reserved for the senior German officers of the three armies. «Of the one hundred and seventy-seven brothels or meeting places scattered throughout the Seine department, five were immediately assigned to the officers and eighteen to the troops. The signs in two languages placed on the doors of the institutions formalize this segregation,” adds Buisson.
‘Le Chabanais’ was thus run by senior leaders of the Reich such as Hermann Goering, who, despite everything, always preferred ‘One two two’. They enjoyed orgies and night parties in years when the French people suffered a curfew from eleven at night until five in the morning. In them, those present brought chocolate, cigarettes or champagne to the women to enjoy erotic dances or card games. The result was wild parties that ended when a Teuton suggested that one of the girls go up to the area with the themed rooms.
In exchange for their blind faith in the men of the Third Reich, the prostitutes of ‘Le Chabanais’ obtained a multitude of advantages. The main one was food, something basic in a country that was suffering from a great food shortage at the time. Many of the prostitutes, in fact, ultimately declared that they allowed themselves to be seduced by the Germans because it was the only way they had to feed their children. However, the big bosses who came to ‘Le Chabanais’ also used to give all kinds of luxury objects to their girls to make them happy. For this reason, hundreds of them were accused of being “horizontal collaborators” after the Second World War and punished by the French Resistance.
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