Tango and Munich
Chapter 1 of 1 · since 1914
The carnival ban
The police of Munich rank the tango with the apache dance, January and February 1914.
Altstadt · Schwabing
In mid-January 1914 the Munich police, with the carnival balls in view, banned all indecent dances, the tango included.1
The police ordinance for the carnival said that the force would act firmly against indecent dances, whatever name they bore, and ranked the so-called tango among them, on the same level as the apache dance and, in experts' judgement, "more an incitement to sensuality than a dance".2
A Dutch weekly mocked the Munich police for placing the tango on a par with the apache dance, while noting that the authorities were also uneasy at the number of dance occasions in the carnival: 131 redoutes (masked balls).3
The German article adds that Kaiser Wilhelm II and the King of Bavaria likewise forbade their officers to dance the tango in uniform.4
Sources
- 1. 'Een goede maatregel', Dutch weekly De Amstelbode, 15 January 1914, via Delpher, Koninklijke Bibliotheek
- 2. 'De Münchener politie en de Tango', Het nieuws van den dag voor Nederlandsch-Indië, 10 February 1914, via Delpher, Koninklijke Bibliotheek
- 3. 'De Tango geen Dans?', Dutch weekly De Expres, 13 February 1914, via Delpher, Koninklijke Bibliotheek
- 4. 'Tango Argentino', Wikipedia (de)
The music of these years, most danced first
What happened, and where
No placed, sourced line for these years yet.