Prostitution was legal, brothels flourished. Petty thieves, drug dealers and street walkers packed the all-night bars of Montmartre where cheap sex and cheap booze drew the tourists. The art students' ball took over the streets in a public orgy of alcohol and sex.

Berlin transformed itself into the Babylon of the world. Degenerate cabarets, bars, and clubs catering to every sexual daydream sprang up like mushrooms. Censorship was all but non-existent.

Nightclubs never closed and hotels supplied heroin with room service. No passport was required. Refugees of war, poverty and politics wandered the streets among the gangsters, prostitutes and cops.