One of the most successful shows from the writing partnership of Marcellus Schiffer and Micha Spoliansky was Es Liegt in Der Luft (It’s In The Air).

It is a short revue, consisting of twenty-four short stories told in the setting of a large Berlin Department Store and premiered at The Comedy on The Kurfüstendam on 15 May 1928.

One of the most notable scenes featured a relatively still unknown Marlene Dietrich duetting with rising-star Margo Lion. The pair play two affluent women on a shopping trip. As the song unfolds it becomes clear that they are both dissatisfied with their husbands and their relationship with each other is more than a little intimate.

The song Wenn die beste Freundin (When My Best Girlfriend) was a big hit and became an anthem for German lesbians in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

When the best girlfriend
With the best girlfriend,
for shopping,
for shopping,
going for a walk,
tramping the streets,
blabbing about everything,
says the best girlfriend
to the best girlfriend.
My best girlfriend.
o my best girlfriend,
o my pretty girlfriend,
o my faithful girlfriend,
o my sweet girlfriend!
Walks the best girlfriend
With the best girlfriend,
says the best girlfriend
to the best girlfriend:
My best, my best girlfriend.

Yes, what does the best girlfriend say?
Tell me what crosses your mind!
Also, I can only tell you one thing, if
I didn’t have you, we get along so well…
Yes, we get along terribly well.
How good we get along!
We can hardly bear how great we get along,there is just one person I
get along with equally well, and that is my little cute husband.
Yes, with your little cute husband

Yes, my husband is a man!
What a man, like my husband!
Like the husband of the wife,
like the husband of the wife
We used to have paramours,
but they exist no longer!
Today instead of paramours,
we have girlfriends!

Your little man is a bit pushy!
So?
Yes.
Why?
Well, I find
Well, why?
Why I find …?
Why you find?
He does those things…
I don’t like that!
Hmm. Okay, Let’s make up! (Kisses)
Okay, we make up! (Kisses)

(thanks to Jill Koglatis for the translation!)