Eldorado: Everything the Nazis Hate

Behind the Scenes of Eldorado: Everything the Nazis Hate—A Queer Berlin Revival

Benjamin Cantu’s 2023 documentary Eldorado: Everything the Nazis Hate resurrects a glittering chapter of 1920s Berlin, where a legendary nightclub became a sanctuary for the queer community—until the Nazis rose to power. The film, released on Netflix in June 2023, blends archival footage with modern interviews to trace the club’s legacy and the violent erasure that followed. But what went into bringing this story to screen? latestnetflix.com's view is that here’s what we know from the limited behind-the-scenes details available.

A Century-Old Story Told Through Modern Eyes

The documentary’s hook is its dual timeline: it juxtaposes the hedonistic freedom of 1920s Berlin’s Eldorado club with the personal stories of those who lived through its destruction. Central to the film is Walter Arlen, the Austrian-born composer and music critic who appears in the cast list. Arlen, who passed away in September 2023 at age 103, was a living link to the era—his own family fled Nazi persecution, and his presence in the film adds a poignant, firsthand dimension.

The film also features historians like Robert Beachy and Katrin Himmler (great-niece of Heinrich Himmler), whose expertise grounds the narrative in historical rigor. Their inclusion suggests a deliberate effort to balance personal testimony with scholarly context, though the evidence doesn’t reveal how their interviews were secured or filmed.

Netflix’s Role and the Film’s Reception

Eldorado landed on Netflix on June 28, 2023, as part of the platform’s push into documentary storytelling. The film’s nomination for the 2024 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Documentary hints at its impact, though the evidence doesn’t clarify whether Netflix actively promoted it or if it gained traction organically. The lack of buzz around its production—no leaked set photos, no director interviews about filming challenges—suggests a relatively low-key shoot, possibly due to budget constraints or the documentary’s reliance on archival material.

One unanswered question: How much of the film’s narrative was shaped by Netflix’s editorial input? The streaming giant has a history of requesting changes to documentaries, but no reports (confirmed or rumored) surface in the evidence about creative tensions here.

The Cast’s Connection to History

The film’s cast list reads like a who’s who of queer history and its chroniclers. Ernst Röhm, the openly gay SA leader assassinated during the Night of the Long Knives, appears in archival footage, while figures like Berno von Cramm (a descendant of the tennis legend Gottfried von Cramm) and transgender historian Morgan M. Page add contemporary perspectives. The inclusion of Zavier Nunn and Ben Miller, whose roles aren’t detailed in the snippets, hints at a mix of historians, activists, and possibly reenactors—though without further evidence, their contributions remain unclear.

Notably absent from the snippets: any behind-the-scenes drama or personal anecdotes from the cast. Did Arlen, in his final months, share unpublished memories? Did Himmler reflect on her family’s legacy during filming? The evidence doesn’t say.

Why This Story, Why Now?

The film’s release in 2023 aligns with a broader cultural reckoning with queer history, particularly in Germany, where debates over memorialization and reparations continue. Eldorado’s focus on a nightclub as both a symbol of liberation and a target of fascism feels especially urgent in an era of rising far-right movements. Yet the evidence doesn’t reveal whether Cantu or Netflix intended the film as a direct political statement or simply a historical corrective.

One rumor (unconfirmed in the snippets) suggests the film was in development for years, with Cantu and co-writer Felix Kriegsheim digging through archives to uncover lost stories. If true, the documentary’s timing—released amid global LGBTQ+ rights rollbacks—was either serendipitous or savvy.