THE WEST GERMAN LEATHER CONNECTION

By Mistress Michelle Peters

A journey into the bondage capital of the world—an entire nation seemingly devoted to the whip of the dominatrix!

There is a tradition alive in West Germany that has, for decades, been one of the more bizarre trademarks of this European industrial power. The tradition of which we speak is the dominatrix, the leather clad bitch goddess who rules a kingdom of bondage and discipline.

In every major city in West Germany, one finds an abundance of professional dominas. Hamburg, Frankfurt, West Berlin, Stuttgart, Dusseldorf and Hannover each boast of having some of the world's premier dominas working in their environs. Their claim to leather fame is not an idle one. Any connoisseur of the leather scene will tell you that West German cities have the best — in quality and quantity both.

The tradition of the German domina is one that has survived two world wars, economic chaos and political calamity. The German's appreciation of a well trained and perfectly equipped dominatrix has survived the most difficult of times. It seems that the symbolic essence of the dominatrix is embodied deep within the subconscious of the West German male, and that it has existed there throughout most of this century.

Looking at German history, one begins to see a pattern which may help to explain this phenomenon. The emphasis on militarism which has run almost continuously through German history has effected the psyche of the nation as a whole. The extreme attention paid to uniforms of the military has always been thought of as a kind of nationwide obsession; and the German love of precise discipline is well known. We have seen both these qualities at work during the First and Second World Wars. And we see evidence of them today in West Germany's industrial complex.

The appearance of the traditional dominatrix as we know her really took place during the 1920's in cities like Berlin and Frankfurt. The brutal loss of military pride and power resulting from Germany's defeat in World War I sent German people reeling. This was a nation raised and fed on Prussian military pride and discipline. The sudden and shattering loss of both led to an intense state of demoralization amongst the populace. As a result, Adolph Hitler was able to speak directly to the heart of the matter and to revive Germany's pride. His desperate and oftentimes insane solutions and dreams only proves just how desperate the German people were. In this climate, then, appeared the German dominatrix. She was essentially a militaristic figure, clothed in German military garb along with the traditional mesh knit stockings, corsets, high heeled shoes and garterbelt. She was a figure who brought to mind German strength, even though that power rested in a woman. In psychological terms, the early German dominatrix was a challenge to the men of Germany to rise up and reclaim their pride. Her effectiveness lay in her ability to discipline her subjects, to give them what the military nation as a whole was not able to give them. Her popularity during the twenties and early to mid thirties was immense, culminating in a film which defined her role in Germany's cultural and political arena.

"The Blue Angel", starred Marlene Dietrich and introduced to the world the German dominatrix. Playing a cabaret entertainer who possessed all the qualities of the bitch goddess, Miss Dietrich characterized a woman bent on dominating and humiliating Germany's middle class. Symbolically, her character was the German military, in a state of suspension following the first world war. The middle class professor who falls so helplessly and naively in love with her represented Germany's middle and intellectual classes. In the film, Miss Dietrich literally destroys both those classes of German citizenry by exerting her powers of domination. Her appeal was entirely militaristic. Her sexuality lay in her power.

During this period of time, professional dominas were quite popular in Germany's larger cities. The Third Reich was assembling a powerful military machine, and the psychology of the entire nation leaned towards militarism. The German bitch goddess was a reflection of that mentality, and she established herself accordingly. The devastation suffered by Germany as a result of World War II was almost total. The nation was split into two, with the Soviet Union dropping the Iron Curtain over East Germany and dividing the city of Berlin. The German people once again found themselves reeling under the burden of economic and political chaos, and adding to that burden was the fact that they were no longer unified as a nation. The East sank into the shadows of Soviet rule while the West began rebuilding its industrial might with the help of the United States. In a matter of decades, West Germany has re-established itself as one of the industrial leaders of Europe. At the same time, the German dominatrix has regained her position as one of the foremost practitioners of bondage and discipline in all the world. Today, the West German dominatrix has made her presence known in every major city within the country's borders. She is not only housed within the thousands of bondage parlours throughout the nation; but she can also be found parading her wares in public. She has returned bigger and better than ever!

There are those who theorize that the presence of the German dominatrix indicates an extreme sense of national guilt within the German male as a whole. Although the nation has recovered economically, it has yet to erase the stigma of Adolph Hitler and the atrocities committed during the Second World War. Combined with that guilt there is also a subconscious feeling of having let down the great Prussian tradition of militarism. And once again, as was the case after World War I, the female domina dressed in the symbolic clothing of the military assumes her role as the symbol of that loss. The military and social factors of recent German history may then be said to contribute to the abundance of dominas in that Nation's primary cities. In Hamburg, for instance, we spoke with a domina who works through an out-call service and calls herself Mistress Gretchen.

Mistress Gretchen believes that in West Germany today there are more dominatrixes at work than ever before. "The number of girls who have dedicated themselves solely to the leather trade is incredible." Mistress Gretchen states. "I used to be the only one in my area, but now there are twenty-two others who have established themselves as dominas." The astounding rise in the number of dominas, Gretchen believes, is attributable to the economy and the general state of German industry. "The average businessman," Gretchen says, "now seeks out our services. I used to handle only big businessmen, but lately, my clientele consists only of office workers, men with families who live in the suburbs. They are the ones who have turned to bondage and the domina for their pleasure. One of Mistress Gretchen's regular clients is a forty-five year old family man whom we shall call Kurt. Kurt is a lower echelon executive with an industrial firm, lives comfortably and has the means to entertain his sexual fantasies. Kurt visits Gretchen once a week, and his requests are always the same. "The routine is exceptional, " Gretchen explains. "It has never varied once during the entire two years that Kurt has been coming to see me. He comes to my private dungeon and gets undressed. He waits on his knees while I prepare myself. I enter wearing a Nazi general's cap, military boots, long leather gloves, a leather garterbelt and sheer silk stockings. I carry a riding crop, and use that as my primary tool of discipline throughout the session."

Kurt's main objective during these sessions is to be treated as though he were the lowest soldier in the military. "My job," Gretchen explains, "is to make him bow down to the authority of my military boots. I use the boots to torture him, employing the spiked heel to drive him down to his knees and beg me for mercy. At the end of each session, Kurt licks my boots and cries that he is not worthy of such an honor." The obsession with military clothing, especially leatherwear, seems predominant within the German bondage scene. For that reason, many professional prostitutes have become involved in B&D as a result.

Freida is a beautiful young blonde woman who has worked as a prostitute in West Berlin for nearly three years. Her clientele consisted mainly of tourists and businessmen, with an occasional performer and television personality thrown in. Freida's calling card was anything but domination. She was a high class call girl who discovered that her beautiful body was enough to satisfy most clients. About six months ago, Frieda received a telephone call from a man named Wilhelm. Frieda is in that position where all her calls are screened, and all prospective clients are referred. Wilhelm, it turned out, was one of Germany's highest ranking industrialists, a man whose family had long been involved in Germany's industrial machine. Wilhelm's request of Frieda was a shocker to the young prostitute. He asked that she wear a certain outfit which he would send to her apartment by messenger prior to his arrival. He would not explain what kind of outfit it was over the telephone, but Frieda decided to accept his offer nonetheless, he was, after all, one of the most powerful men in West Germany. "I received the package," Frieda recalls, "and opened it. I was stunned. There was a long leather dress slit up the sides with military insignia on the shoulders and over the breasts. Along with the dress there was a pair of black leather boots with six inch spiked heels. Leather garterbelt, gloves and corset and a pair of mesh knit stockings completed the outfit. I was really hesitant about going through with the evening, but I realized that I would be losing a very important client if I did not."

Dressed in her war-like bitch outfit, Frieda greeted Wilhelm when he arrived later. "Wilhelm brought along a suitcase filled with everything from a whip to handcuffs. There were leather hoods, ball gags, and even a complicated harness." During the course of the evening, Wilhelm showed Frieda how to use each of the devices. By the time he had completed his lesson, Frieda had bound and gagged him and harnessed him to her bed. She had learned some of the basic techniques of bondage, and was quickly understanding the rudiments of discipline. "I began to understand this man," Frieda explains, "as the evening wore on, I found out what he wanted, how he liked to be tortured. And I understood how excited he became when I assumed the power over him. It was an amazing night for me, and one which took my professional career in an entirely new and unexpected direction." Like so many other prostitutes in West Germany, Fieda was discovering the necessity of learning the art of B&D. Although not a trained dominatrix in the traditional sense, Frieda began purchasing a full wardrobe of leatherwear, high heels and boots. In a specialty shop in West Berlin, she purchased a dungeon's worth of implements — from whips and chains to hoods and harnesses.

Frieda had understood quickly that the trends within her profession were changing, adding a dramatic new element to the standard fare of the professional hooker. "I heard the same story from my sisters on the streets," Frieda maintains. "They, too, found it necessary to arm themselves for the invasion of men who wanted a dominatrix. Today, every working girl I know has a full wardrobe and enough tools of domination to make any submissive client happy. And the way they tell it, a new client emerges each week wanting a dominatrix." The trend in Germany towards domination is one that seems to be growing in most industrial nations throughout the world. The United States, for instance, has developed an intense and popular bondage and discipline circuit. The parallels between the two nations are often quite unique, and the shift in trends reflects that. In Germany, for instance, it is the businessmen and industrialists who make-up the foundation of the dominatrix's clientele. These are normally men of power, men who make decisions on a daily basis which effect many peoples' lives. They are men who man the helm of the conomy, and in many cases, hold the fate of the nation itself in their hands. The West German businessman and industrialist considers the dungeon of the dominatrix one of his focal points of entertainment. In the higher echelons of power, executives compare notes on the dominas they have visited, exchanging numbers and descriptions of her techniques. Industrialists, meeting to discuss a merge of their two companies, for instance, might very well end that meeting with a visit to a very discreet and expensive house of bondage and discipline. The dominatrix, in a curious sense, has become a mainstay of the corporate social scene.

Psychologically, the businessman and the industrialists' compelling need to seek out the services of a dominatrix fits into the pattern of behavior discussed in recent years pertaining to this subject. It has been found that there are three main types of men who equates punishment with love as a result of childhood experiences. This individual will commonly grow up in a household where corporal punishment is practiced. In many cases, to an excessive degree. His experience as a child has taught him that parental love comes in the form of a belt whipping or a spanking. As an adult, he seeks the same kind of verification of his existence through the ministrations of a dominatrix. The second class of men who commonly subject themselves to the whip of a domina are those who feel guilty about their inherited station in life. These are the men who have been born into privelege. Everything, from their education to their standing in the community, has been handed to them not as a result of their own efforts, but merely because they happened to be born to the right parents. Their lives consist of one series of easy successes after another. Soon, they look for some kind of equalizing element. After a lifetime of privelege, they seek to punish themselves and pay for that privelege. The third class of men are probably the most fascinating, since they have basically created themselves. Their needs are the not the result of lifelong conditions or stature; instead they form as a result of their successes in adulthood. These are men who have achieved an inordinate amount of power in their career. By definition, they are the more successful in any field — the corporate president, the wealthy industrialist and the successful politician. They have secured financial security for their families, and they have gone as far in their particular field as they can go. In the community, they are the decision makers, the men who oftentimes control the destiny of their fellow citizens. The pressures are intense amongst these men, but more than that is the feeling that they do not deserve such power. Most successful businessmen and industrialists are intelligent enough to understand the role which luck plays in any endeavor, and most are quite aware that even with all their preparation their station in life could not have been attained had not certain factors come together at exactly the right time. In many ways, this perception leads to a sense of guilt, to a feeling that some abstract kind of punishment awaits them. They are in a tenuous position, and must find a means of bringing those fears into focus.

In big business circles throughout the world, there are all kinds of societies and private clubs which serve to balance the egos of their powerful members. In West Germany, the underground society of dominas serve exactly this purpose. Their entertainment value is superb, but more than that is their ability to take the businessman or industrialist out of his realm, to take him to that other side of his personality where his ego no longer exists. One example of this service is told to us by a middle-aged industrialist who owns one of Western Germany's largest steel mills. Henry, as we shall call him, began seeing a dominatrix seven years ago after he and his mistress split up. "My power is total," Henry explains, "and after our break-up there were countless young girls who worked for me offering themselves. Long ago, my wife and I came to an understanding, so I was free to pursue my pleasure. But with all these women, there was no satisfaction. There was not one of them who would turn me down, refuse my advances." It was at this time that Henry attended a conference in Dusseldorf. Along with many of his country's top financiers and industrialists, Henry spent one week discussing the future of West Germany. It was a conclave of the highest order, with the true power of Germany in attendance. It was also the beginning of Henry's obsession with dominas. "One evening," Henry recalls, "we had just finished a meeting and a friend and fellow industrialist asked me if I would join him in a very special kind of entertainment. He was quite secretive, but insisted that I would be enthralled. I had known this man to be very bizarre in his tastes, so I decided to go along. If nothing else, I knew there would be a new experience for me."

"He took me to an old, stone house on the outskirts of Dusseldorf. The house was dark, and ominous. Inside, we were greeted by a very beautiful woman wearing a leather dress, leather gloves and high heeled shoes. She had coal black hair, and the most piercing eyes I had ever seen. For the first time in a long time, I wanted a woman very much. My friend told me that this woman could be mine for the night."

"I followed her through a maze of hallways and into a large, cavernous room that was illuminated by candlelight. On one wall was a huge cross, on the other, a long wooden bed. She told me to undress. I hesitated, then tried to kiss her. She slapped me across the face, then pinched my neck. She told me that I would kiss her when and if she ordered me to do so. And only then. I was stunned, but intrigued. I was also out of my mind with desire for this woman. She had been the first in years who had ever turned me down."

"Needless to say, the remainder of the evening found me bound and gagged and manacled to the cross. I endured things I had only read about in books. But each new torture, each new method of discipline excited me more than anything I had ever known. This beautiful woman had stripped me of my powers, turned me into her sex slave and gave me sexual excitement. In a strange way, I felt reborn with her, as though all that I had achieved and accumulated no longer mattered. I look at that experience as one which resulted in my sexual freedom."

Many men of power say somewhat the same thing about their encounters with dominatrixes. The power elite, it seems, possesses a strong need to be "stripped down" and freed of the responsibilities which their status gives them.

The dominatrixes who service the powerful in West Germany are a very special breed of professional. They are superbly trained, and most are extremely well educated. They are also members of an elite, and they understand the strange power which they hold over these men. Because of their unique position, they are extremely cautious. Until last year, Eva was one of West Germany's most popular dominatrixes. A professional, Eva was on call by some of that nation's most powerful men. Her clientele was impressive, and her reputation as a talented and discreet domina superb. After working at her profession for nearly a decade, Eva managed to save enough money to retire. Today, she owns and operates a school for bondage in Los Angeles, California. Her memories of West Germany and the 'industrial get togethers' shed some light on just how popular the domina scene is in that nation. "The retreat is the most sensational event of all, " Eva explains. "It is usually held in a remote camp in a forest, far away from civilization. Every year, the location is changed. For one week, some of the most powerful men in the country get together to talk business and simply enjoy themselves. The most popular form of recreation at these retreats are the dominatrixes." "Only the dominas with the best reputations get invited to the retreat. We are hand-picked, screened then taken by special caravan to the site. We are obligated to stay the full week, and we are to be on call twenty-four hours a day." "Each camp has its own dungeon, with separate rooms so that as many as ten domination sessions may be held at one time. Those dungeons are equpped with the finest implements of torture and bondage known to the profession. They are a collector's dream."

The year before Eva left West Germany, she attended her final retreat. In a camp outside West Berlin, the power elite of Germany gathered. Eva, along with thirteen other professionals, had arrived the day before and prepared themselves for the arrival of their subjects. "The first night of the retreat," Eva recalls, "I received a call from a man whose voice I instantly recognized. He was very big in the political scene, and I had seen him many times on television. He asked me to join him in one of the dungeon rooms." "I arrived wearing my best costume — a leather corset with the eagle on each breast, a studded collar, thigh high boots with six inch spiked heels, dark nylons and a beautiful leather garterbelt. On my hands were glossy leather gloves, and on my head was a German military cap. I had found, over the years, that this particular costume was the most effective and the most popular."

Eva's client for that night greeted her as a schoolboy would his teacher on the first day of a new semester. "I was accustomed to this," Eva explains. "I had seen men who ruled nations barely able to speak when I walked into a room with them. They knew what was coming and had prepared themselves for it. This gentleman was certainly ready for me." The session began when Eva struck her client with a whip, driving him backwards and forcing him to lose his balance. "I began cursing him, calling him a pig for interrupting my evening. He apologized, but I told him that that was not enough. I forced him to his knees and made him lick my boots, then suck my spikes." After an hour of exquisite torture, Eva bound her client to a large St. Andrew's cross. He hung from the crossbars naked and vulnerable. "It was then that I decided he needed a special kind of treatment," Eva recalls with a smile. "So I simply left him for three hours. After that time, I returned with two assistants. We spent the remainder of the night taking our subject through every kind of torture and discipline imagineable."

The following day, Eva's special treatment was the talk of the retreat. Demand for her services increased, and Eva attempted to oblige every man who desired to become her slave. "It was my last retreat," Eva says, "but it was by far my most successful!"

The retreat is an unusual and highly selective event. The average businessman and industrialist is normally without an invitation to these special events. For him, the pleasure and entertainment of the dominatrix must be obtained through the more normal channels which are found in the major cities. These are, of course, the houses of bondage, the out-call services and the high class prostitutes who work only by personal reference. Those women who do work within the cities as dominas all claim that within West Germany's business and industrial community the dominatrix has become the rage. One young and fairly new domina named Anna describes her involvement with an entire company. "It began with a vice-president," Anna explains, "when he was referred to me by a friend. He was a young man, and he told me that he had heard stories about domination from his superiors. He felt left out and wanted to try it. After my session with him, I then received a call from his superior, a President, who told me that his vice-president had been kind enough to give him my name and number. In this one company, then, I started working my way up the ladder. Every subordinate wanted to impress his boss by telling him about me. In the end, I wound up with the chairman of the board sitting naked and gagged in my dungeon, with me holding his penis bound in leather. Believe me when I tell you that I knew that company inside and Out!"

The entertainment and social factors surrounding the dominatrix have become so prevalent within industrial West Germany that smaller less powerful versions of the aforementioned retreats have begun to spring up everywhere. Essentially, these 'clubs' are comprised of businessmen and industrialists who have experienced the same domina. They may meet once a week, or once a month. Over beer and cheese, these men discuss in intimate detail their last session, revealing everything to one another. Often one of them will suggest a new twist and the dominatrix will be required to use that new method on each member during his next session. This exotic social gathering is relatively new in the big cities, but it seems to be taking hold very quickly. The dominatrix in West Germany has become a mainstay of that culture. As in the United States, her fashions and styles have come to dominate the look of women on the streets. The professional ranks of the domina has grown enormously, and the number of amateurs has also increased. The West German businessmen and industrialists have become exotic soulmates in their quest for the ministrations of the dominatrix. In so doing, they are establishing a foundation of sexual behavior which will almost certainly trickle down into the rest of West Germany's society.

The nation that gave us The Blue Angel, and the nation that has so long cherished the military tradition is, in may ways, remaining true to form. The modern dominatrix of West Germany is not so much a phenomenon as she is a Germanic tradition! MM