ABSTRACT

This chapter aims at illustrating the connections between Charlotte's transvestism and the kitsch domestic culture of the Gründerzeit. Charlotte's passionate collecting can be described as a camp practice since the style of the Gründerzeit had been discredited as kitsch for a long time up until the late 1970s especially by many art historians: Gründerzeit furniture was criticized for privileging décor and ornament while carelessly neglecting functionality. Camp is characterized by its special love for decorative objects. The growing similarities between Charlotte and her furniture point to a transcending movement that is, according to Rebentisch's remarks on Camp Materialism, essential to the cultural practice of camp. Camp aesthetics refrain from drawing a hierarchical boundary between humans and things. The privileging of a decidedly decorative style counters the modernist-progressive aesthetics of socialism which is based on notions of functionality, rationality and simplicity.