Hannah Höch, Til Brugman, Lesbianism, and Weimar Sexual Subculture
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HANNAH HÖCH, TIL BRUGMAN, LESBIANISM, AND WEIMAR SEXUAL SUBCULTURE by JULIE NERO Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Art History and Art CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY January, 2013 CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES We hereby approve the dissertation of __________Julie Nero_____________ candidate for the Doctor of Philosophy degree*. _____________ Anne L. Helmreich _____________ (Chair of the committee) ______________ Ellen G. Landau _______________ _____________ Catherine B. Scallen _____________ _____________ T. Kenny Fountain ______________ September 10, 2012 *We also certify that written approval has been obtained for any proprietary material contained therein. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents iii List of Figures ix Acknowledgements xxi Abstract xxii Introduction 1 Chapter I Dada’s “Good Girl” and her Recurring Obsessions Introduction 20 Hannah Höch’s early life and career 24 Höch and the Dadaists 29 Photomontage: Conflict and Rupture 31 Höch and her Contemporaries: Aesthetic and Technique 34 Words not Pictures: Language and Sexism? 37 The 1920 Dada Fair and Höch’s Cut with the Kitchen Knife 40 Beyond Berlin: Höch and her Contemporaries 46 Höch and the Human Hybrid 48 Der Vater and Dada-Ernst: Höch and Female Sexual Agency 51 The Lighter Side of the New Woman: Höch’s Da-Dandy and Die Mädchen 60 Höch’s ‘fluid’ Sexual Identity? 63 iii Chapter II The Lesbian in Weimar and Hannah Höch’s Russian Dancer and English Dancer 71 Representations of Lesbians in Weimar 75 Mädchen in Uniform 78 Lesbian Books and Magazines and Popular Weimar Culture 83 Weimar Lesbian Representations of Female Nudity 85 Lesbian Subculture and Weimar Körperkultur 88 Berlin Lesbians and Weimar Entertainment and Dance Culture 92 Pornography, Sexual Depravity, and Lesbian Representation 97 Lesbian Ecstasy 102 Depicting Lesbianism: Mirroring 103 The Contribution of Weimar Lesbian Print Media 110 Conclusion 111 Chapter III Lesbian Representation, Weimar Ethnography, Politics, and Hannah Höch Visual Contrast and Lesbianism 112 Jeanne Mammen and Weimar Lesbian Representation 113 Weimar Ethnography and Lesbian Representation 117 Exoticism and Eroticism 118 Weimar Ethnography and the Russian 120 The Russian Ballet 126 Ballet and Weimar Eugenics 128 iv The Healthy Weimar Lesbian: the ultimate New Woman 130 Hannah Höch’s Liebe 132 Dreams and Utopia: Höch, Lesbian Representation, and the Rise of Nazism 137 Chapter IV Hannah Höch and Til Brugman: Creative Collaboration, Social Critique, and Political Resistance Introduction 144 Til Brugman 146 Til Brugman and the avant-garde 147 The literary Grotesque 149 Gender and the avant-garde 151 Hannah Höch and Til Brugman: A Lesbian Couple 156 Repression and Censorship 160 “Brave or foolish:” Höch hides Brugman’s Manuscripts 165 Hannah Höch and Til Brugman: Joint Commercial Projects 169 “Von Hollands Blumenfelder” 170 Scheingehacktes 180 “Scheingehacktes” 183 “Schaufensterhypnose” 186 Weimar Sexism: Brugman’s female Victims and Höch’s disturbed Brides 188 Brugman’s “Himilia” 189 Höch’s English Dancer and “Himilia” 194 The Fetishization of the Female Body in Weimar and Höch’s Marlene 197 v Conclusion 201 Chapter V Hannah Höch’s Tamer, Sexology, and Weimar Sexual Subculture Introduction 203 The New Woman 204 Nineteenth-century Sexology: Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, Carl Westphal, and Richard von Krafft-Ebing 207 Magnus Hirschfeld 212 Hirschfeld and Sexual Intermediacy 215 Hirschfeld: Sexology and Photography 218 Hirschfeld’s Transvestites, 1910 220 Sexual Deviancy and Weimar “Life through the eyes” 221 Weimar Culture and the Cross-dresser 222 The Feared Masculinization of Women and the Garçonne 226 Bearded Women and “Terrifying News” 229 Weimar Subculture and the Cross-dresser 230 Gertrud Liebherr’s “Moderne Fotokunst” 231 The Weimar Transvestite Voo-Doo and Höch’s Tamer 234 Sexual Intermediacy and Höch’s Tamer 235 Höch’s Tamer and Weimar Criminology 239 Conclusion 241 vi Chapter VI The Wonders of Weimar Endocrinology: Höch’s gender-hybrids and Brugman’s literary Grotesques Introduction 243 Eugen Steinach and Surgical Rejuvenation 245 Der Steinach Film 248 Hannah Höch’s Strong Men 252 Til Brugman and Weimar Sexology 256 “Revision am Himmel” 257 “Warenhaus der Liebe” 257 Weimar Sexology and “Extreme Transvestites” 263 Gender Reassignment Surgery 267 Gender Reassignment and the Weimar Print Media 269 Hannah Höch’s Sweet One: The Surgical Construction of Gender? 271 Einar Wegener: “Aus Mann wird Frau” 273 Einar becomes Lili: Constructing Femininity 275 Transsexuals, Homosexuals and Gender Montage 279 Conclusion 280 Chapter VII Conclusion 283 Hannah Höch’s Nazi-era Oeuvre: Nature Studies and Abstraction 292 “Ich fühlte die Freiheit—die Freiheit!” 297 Certain recurring Obsessions: Höch and the ‘new’ New Woman 299 vii Figures 303 Bibliography 445 viii LIST OF FIGURES 1.1 Hannah Höch, 1915. Hannah Höch Archiv (HH Archiv), Berlinische Galerie, Landesmuseum für Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur, Berlin. 303 1.2 Til Brugman, ca. 1905. HH Archiv, Berlinische Galerie. 304 1.3 Hannah Höch, Dada-Puppen (Dada-Dolls), 1916-1918. Cloth and diverse materials, c. 60 cm. Berlinische Galerie. 305 1.4 Hannah Höch, Entartet (Degenerate), 1969. Collage, 34. 4 x40.5 cm. Collection Landesbank Berlin AG. 306 1.5 Entwurf für das Denkmal eines bedeutendes Spitzenhemdes (Design for a Memorial for an Important Lace-Shirt) 1922. Collage, 27.6 x 17 cm. Hamburger Kunsthalle. 307 1.6 Raoul Hausmann, Photo Hannah Höch, 1919. Berlinische Galerie. 308 1.7 Hannah Höch, Oz, der Tragöde (Oz, the Tragic Actor) 1919. Photomontage, dimensions unknown. Lost. 309 1.8 Raoul Hausmann, ABCD, 1923-24. Photomontage, 40.6 x 28.6 cm. Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. 310 1.9 Kurt Schwitters, Miss Blanche, 1923. Collage, 15.9 x 12.7 cm. Collection Dr. Werner Schmalenbach, Düsseldorf. 311 1.10 Hannah Höch, Collage (Dada), 1922-24. Collage, 24.7 x 32.8 cm. Collection Merrill C. Berman, Scarsdale, New York. 312 1.11 George Grosz and John Heartfield, Sonniges Land (Sunny Land), 1919. Photographic reproduction, dimensions and whereabouts of original unknown. Berlin, Akademie der Künste, John Heartfield Archiv. 313 1.12 Hannah Höch, Schnitt mit dem Küchenmesser Dada durch die letzte weimarer Bierbauchkulturepoche Deutschlands (Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada through ix the last Weimar Beer Belly Cultural Epoch of Weimar Germany), 1919-20. Photomontage, 114 x 90 cm. Neue Nationalgalerie Staatliche Museen, Preussischer Kulturbesitz Berlin. 314 1.13 Hannah Höch, Die Mädchen (The Girls), 1921. Photomontage, dimensions unknown. Lost. 315 1.14 Hannah Höch, Da-Dandy, 1919. Photomontage, 30 x 23 cm. Private Collection. 316 1.15 Hannah Höch, Dada-Ernst (Dada-Serious/Grave), 1920-21. Photomontage, 18.6 x 16.6 cm. Collection Vera and Arturo Schwarz, Milan. 317 1.16 Max Ernst, Le Cygne est bien paisable (The Swan is quite Peaceful), 1920. Gouache on photographic enlargement of photomontage, 21 x 29 cm. Collection Düsseldorf WestLB. 318 1.17 Johannes Baargeld, Typical Vertical Misrepresentation as a Depiction of the Dada Baargeld (Self-portrait), 1920. Photomontage, 37.1 x 31 cm. Kunsthaus Zürich. 319 1.18 Max Ernst, Jean Hatchet and Charles the Bold, 1929. Collage, 34 x 20 cm. Cleveland Museum of Art. 320 1.19 Marcel Janco, Oscar Dominguez, Jean Arp, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Cadavre Exquis, 1937. Mixed media on paper, 30.6 x 23.6 cm. Stiftung Arp, Rolandseck. 321 1.20 Hannah Höch, Grotesque, 1963. Photomontage, 25 x 17 cm. Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart. 322 1.21 Hannah Höch, Der Vater (The Father), 1920. Galerie Berinson, Berlin. 323 1.22 Abtreibungsinstrumente (Abortion-instruments). Magnus Hirschfeld, Vol. 4. Bilderteil: Geschlechtskunde auf Grund dreissigjähriger Forschung und Erfahrung bearbeitet (Stuttgart: Julius Püttmann Verlags- buchhandlung, 1930), 341. 324 1.23 Gustave Courbet, L’Origine du Monde (1866). Oil on Canvas, 46 x 55 cm. Musée d’Orsay, Paris. 325 x 1.24 Sheela-na-Gig, Corbel in the Church of St. Mary and St. David, Kilpeck, Ireland, 12th-century. Pictured in Monica Sjöö, The Great Cosmic Mother of All (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1987), p. 320. 326 1.25 Max Ernst, Les Hommes n’en Sauront Rien (Of this Men Shall Know Nothing), 1923. Oil on canvas, 81 x 64 cm. Tate Gallery, London. 327 1.26 Eric von Stroheim as Count Karamzin. Foolish Wives, Universal Jewel (1922). 328 2.1 Hannah Höch, Rüssische Tänzerin (Russian Dancer), 1928. Photomontage, 30.5 x 22.5 cm. Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museums Braunschweig, Kunstmusem des Landes Niedersachsen. 329 2.2 Hannah Höch, Englische Tänzerin (English Dancer), 1928. Photomontage, 23.7 x 18 cm. Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart. 330 2.3 Romaine Brooks, Una, Lady Troubridge, 1923. Oil on Canvas, 127.3 x 76.4 cm. Smithsonian American Art Museum. 331 2.4 Anonymous cover photograph (Three Nude Women). Liebende Frauen, 3. Jg., no. 36 (1927). 332 2.5 Hannah Höch, Album (Scrapbook), undated, ca. 1933, unpaginated. Berlinische Galerie. 333 2.6 Hannah Höch, Equilibre (Equilibrium), 1925. Photomontage, 30.5 x 20.3 cm. Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart. 334 2.7 Nacktkultur im Film. Aus der Zeitschrift: Schönheit [Wilhelm Prager, Film Still, Wege der Kraft und Schönheit, 1925]. Albert Moll, Polizei und Sitte: Die Polizei in Einzeldarstellungen, mit Genehmigung des Preuss. Ministerium des Innern. Herausgegeben von Dr. W. Abegg, Staatssekretär im Preussischen Ministerium des Innern (Berlin: Gersbach und Sohn Verlag G.M.B.H., 1926), vol. 9., p. 31. 335 2.8 Kupfer und Meyer, Tänzerinnen (Female Dancers). Die Freundin, August 8, 1927. 336 2.9 Anonymous cover photograph (Three Nude Women on a Beach). Die Freundin 7. Jg., no. 39, Sept., 16, 1931. 337 xi 2.10 Anonymous cover Illustration. Ruth Margarete Roellig, Berlins lesbische Frauen, mit einem Vorwort von Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld (Leipzig: Bruno Gebauer Verlag für Kulturprobleme, 1928). 338 2.11 Otto Hahn, cover Illustration. Marie-Renée Mecke-Daumas, Die klugen Jungfrauen, eine Sittenbild aus Berlin W. (Leipzig: W. Borngräber, 1924).