Max Karl Tilke

Returning to Berlin, he began to paint works of historical costumes, which gained him a reputation among the authorities and in high society.

Among the (regular) guests and performers were Charles Horning, Ernst Griebel, Erich Mühsam, Georg David Schulz, Hans Hyan, Hanns Heinz Ewers, Maria Eichhorn ("The Dolorosa") et al. with sketches, songs and programs.

[1][2][3] In 1912 he and Magnus Hirschfeld published the book Die Transvestiten - eine Untersuchung über den erotischen Verkleidungstrieb mit umfangreichem casuistischen und historischen Material (2nd edition) on cross-dressing.

[4] In 1913, his friend Hanns Heinz Ewers helped Tilke to find a job at the "Deutsche BIOSCOP GmbH Filmgesellschaft", Neubabelsberg/Berlin.

The results are works that combine ethnological accuracy with a talented artist's eye for character, place, detail, and emotion.

The outbreak of World War I put an end to the project before it was completed, and Tilke returned to Germany, taking some of his paintings with him.

His most famous work, Orientalische Kostume in Schnitt und Farbe (Oriental Costume: Their Designs and Colors), was published in 1922.

In the Transvestiten case interview, Tilke (as "Herr F") talked in detail about his life-long habit of cross-dressing and sexual experiences with both men and women.

[4][8] Max Tilke's talent, his wide range of activity, and his exquisite workmanship secure for him a pre-eminent place among artists and ethnographers alike.

Bruhn, Wolfgang, and Tilke, Max, Kostümwerk, Verlag Ernst Wassmuth, 1955, as translated into English as A Pictorial History of Costume and republished in 1973 by Hastings House).