1874–1945
✕ Killed in an air raid
German publisher and activist who issued Der Eigene, the world’s first regular gay magazine, and led the Gemeinschaft der Eigenen
In 1907, in the middle of the Eulenburg affair, he accused Chancellor Bülow of homosexuality and was sentenced to eighteen months for libel.
A Berlin publisher and activist. In 1896 he founded Der Eigene, the first regularly published gay magazine in the world, which he ran until 1932, and in 1903 the Gemeinschaft der Eigenen, which upheld love between virile men as its ideal against Hirschfeld’s theory of sexual intermediaries. He practised the outing of prominent men and was imprisoned after targeting Chancellor Bülow in 1907. Nazi seizures ended his work in 1933, and he was killed in an Allied air raid in 1945.
Activities and affiliations
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1896–1932
Ideology and propaganda
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1903–1933
Social movements and organizing
Related historical events
Der Eigene and the Gemeinschaft der Eigenen
Born in Gesundbrunnen, Berlin, the son of an office messenger, he wanted to become a teacher but was expelled from teacher training when anti-religious writings were found on him. In 1896 he founded Der Eigene, which he published until 1932: the first regularly appearing gay magazine in the world. In 1899, to draw attention to another case, he struck the Reichstag deputy Ernst Lieber with a dog whip and served a year in prison. In 1903 he founded the Gemeinschaft der Eigenen with Benedict Friedlaender and Wilhelm Jansen; it upheld love between virile men and Greek-style pederasty as its ideal and rejected Hirschfeld’s theory of sexual intermediaries, joining Hirschfeld’s Scientific-Humanitarian Committee only in the campaign against Paragraph 175. He practised the public outing of prominent men, and during the Eulenburg affair in 1907 claimed that Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow had a homosexual relationship; sentenced to eighteen months, he escaped after eleven. He served two years in the army in the First World War and married in 1920. Late in life he showed antisemitic leanings and sought coexistence with the Nazis in an open letter, but in 1933 the Nazis seized his books and papers, ending the magazine and ruining him. In February 1945 he and his wife were killed in an Allied air raid on their house in Berlin-Wilhelmshagen.