38 FOCIIS on L i leratllr J~ Dr. Melies. nBucher kritisc h gd escn. Zu Martine Monods d el" u .~ \VcllfJiihll/:. Whisk y ocr K O ll igi 43 (1955): 1375·76. "Like a Stone Thrown into Water:" The ){' Flllmericll,21. l1 Kahlau, I li lde. l1u chbespreclmngcn . Die Wolke. Ocr Bibliolhckar 1 Tes timony of Magnus Hirschfeld / 1958.51-52. " See D ecker, Bernhard I I. wT hc Wall as Seen T hrougll the Eyes of Border Gua rds: The HordeI' as a Literary 'Io pos within the Framework of Socialist Defense Readiness Education." 'Ihe Berlin wall. Rcpresctl ca,ions David Prickett and Perspectives. Eds. Ernst Schiirer, Manfred Keune and Philip Jenkins. New York: Peter bllg, 1996. 11 9-125. 120. J'Kuitur li nd Fon sch rill, fOllnded in 1947, was owned by the Introduclory Lecture to "The First Institute for Sexual Science (1 9 19- Germ an-Soviet Friendship Society (G cscllschaft fUr DClilsch-Sowjet isd lC 1933)," an ex hibit on loan to the Max Kade German Cullll r:'ll CCl1ler, Frcundschaft) before it became part of Yolk li nd Weh . See Jacobs. University of C incin nati , OH USA, from the Magnlls-Hirschfeld­ 4°Transl:uion m ine. I. Gesellschaft e.Y., Berl in. The exllibit open ed at the row s 011 Literalllr " The 3gn.-c lllcnt between Petain and H itler in October 1940. 4L1 1 Annual German Grad uale Student Conference, O ClO ber 15-16, U As an interest ing dctail, C harlcs Spaak, co· writer of the script for 1999. Normalldie·Nib m!ll, was also t he scriptwriter o f fA G rallde "blsion. WQt·ks C ited t was in 1895 that Magnus Hirschfeld, a Jewish medical doctor ill I Magdeburg, published the pamphlet Sappho und Sok rales under ;1 Monod, Martine. ISMe/ tel que je I'ai V II, Paris: Les Editeurs Fran\"ais pseudonym. In the preface to a latcr work, Hi rschfeld expbins to the Reunis, 1968. reader that he " . .. was moved to write [Sappho li nd SokralCs] by the ---. i.e Nllage. Paris: Les Edileurs fra m;ais Reunis, 1955. suicide of a young offi cer, Olle of my patients, who shot himself on the ---. i.e Whiskydela Paris: Editeurs RCllllis, 1954. Reillc . Les F ra n ~a i s ni ght he m:t rried, and left me his co nfession" (Sex xii). j-jirschfeld de· Paris: Les Ed ite urs Rcu nis, 1950. ---. Malacerta . Fran~ ai s scribes Sappho lind Sok ra ces as " . a stone throw n il1to water which, - . Normandie·NjemcfI . Paris: Les J1:1itcu rs Fr.m r;ais Rcu nis, 1960 . fall ing, sets up waves that go on spreading" (Sex xii). Hi rschfeld's in­ Stendhal [Maric·H enri Beyle]. U! rouge elle noi r. Lausanne: l1:1it10 11 s tention was to move homosexuality from lhe arena of illness to a nattl­ Renconue, 1968. ral condition. The wo rk also serves a sociological function as an at­ tempt by H irschfeld to legiti mize homosexuality to th e bourgeois so­ ciety at large. In this paper 1 wish to 'lIla IYl.£ one) what Hirschfeld meant to achi eve via hi s writings, two) how he presents his theories, and three) to what extent his arguments were sllccess ful. '10 this en d I will examine the writin gs of some of H irschfeld's contemporaries. Redefini ng tlte "Ur:l11 ian" H irschfeld founded his research largel y 0 11 the works of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, a German lawye r. Like Hirschfeld, Ulrichs Was ho mosexual, and ti le prejudice that he encoulltered led him Lo analyze himself, others like him, and their position ill society. In lhe 1860s, rY)Clls 011 L ilera /III" Vo lume 7 (2000) 40 {"{Jells 011 Uleratur l cstimony of Magnus Ilirschfeld 41 1 [i rsch reid 's creed SC ;e''1ll1 m SC iCli ce 10 Ulri chs publ ished his twelve-volume rvrsdmngclI tiber dtls I?iifhsel der of per ad jusliliam-th roll l~ ll jus­ VI. tice (Ooslcrliuis 2 ~G). Th ro ugh his Il lstitute, his wril i ll~ S, ;lIld hi s II/tl1lmnfilllilichcn Liebe. UI ri chs' tlICO I"Y, in brief, cal ls for 1h e rccoi;l1 i­ lion of a "Third Sex", a term which H irschfeld would fll so usc. Ac­ many public speeches, Ilirsc hfeid Struve lo m;l ke h o m ()~cx lla l s appea r "hi gh ly respcctable" to society at brge (Moose 187). cording LO Ulrichs. homosexllals, or "Uran;:ms" (Urni"ge). rcprcsC Ill an intcrmccii :llc, aud therefore, thi rd ge nder between the male :md the Ilespeclabilily and Ilomosexu:lIily fe male. Ulrichs fe lt that OIiC'S sexual orientation was inll:l.lC, and there­ fore nalUr:t1. This would become the basis for Hi rschfeld's theo ry of scxuality. Through his works, U lrichs hoped to cm:mci p:llC homo­ The notion of resJ>Cctability was of paramount im porlallce for sex uals and win them the same societal respect enjoyed by hClcrosex u­ I li rschfcld in order to full y real i7.£ emancipation and acceptance of :1ls. With the o nset of Prussian rule in H annover in 1866 :mel t he sub­ the ho mosex ual within bourgeois Wilhel mine German society. 1\ person's respectability was two-tiered: respectability Il ot onl y in the sequent illlroduclion of :uni-holllosexlI:1 1 laws, Ulriclls fl ed to Bavaria. Ilomoscxuality was lOlernted there umil 1872, wh ell the Pnlssiall stat­ sense of bein g a good citizcn, but also in the sense of one's sexual 0 ules were extcnded to all parts of Germany. Most Il ot:lbl e of these was mo rality. [ Iirschfeld's pOrimyal of homosexuals i.s by 11 me.a ns fl at­ the in f:lInous Pll mgmph 175, a law that made male-male sex acts crimi­ terin g according to loday's standards. Yet in all of Ius wo rks, 1.11I'Schfcld nal acts (Kennedy 109). ill terweaves conceptions of sexu:1lmorality, patriotism and Images of ideal cilizens_ An ideal citizcn in Wilhelmine Germany was of course Such were the legal parameters in Germany about twenty ye~ n; bter when Magnus H irschfeld publi shed Snppho lind Sokmtes. It is someone who understood his or her place in society and who did not therefo re no surprise that he published under a pseudonym. Indeed, devi:ne from it . ·1·llcse were-and ill some sense stil l rcmain - key traits so n. I 'irschfeld hoped that if he wi .. a re­ I lirschfeld neve r publicl y ca me Out regarding his homosex ua lity. As of a respectable per ~o llld historian George Mosse notes, I lirschfeld's" . putative homusexual­ spectable illl;lge for homosex ual s, he could ensure a f.. ·st step toward their inclusion inu) hetcrosex ual society. ity made Sigmund Freud can him ' flabby and ul1appeliz.ing'" (14 1). Ilirsch fcld revived Ul rich's ideas and published them with his friend Max Spohr in 1898. As historian Jamcs Jones states, the maill illlpelUs T h c Respcctabilily of Hcd in's "' O.-illes Gesch lcch t" behind Hirschfeld's research is that which prompted him to publish Snppho li nd Sokrales-lo remove the "tragic effects" of the link between A prime example of H irschfeld's literary strategy was his b ook Ber· 90~. homosexuali ty and mental disease (60). In her swdy Magllll5 Hmchfeld: fi m D riues Geschlec/Jt, which was published in 1 A colleague had A Port.rait ofll Pioneer i" Sem/ogy, hi storian Chari one Wolff calls I Ii rsch­ lIrged him to produce:1 s.wdy ~h:n wo ~ld be understood by the pllblic at large. What followed IS a IH ghly enjoyable account of o m osexual feld "the Humanitarian Physician " (33). Sh e writcs that he: I~ nerl ill at the turn of the cc ntury. Ilirschfeld lIses a style akll'l to that o f ... dcvoted hilllsc.lf to a revo lutionary work plan which a tour book, accompanyin g heterosexual bourgeoi s Wilhelm ine soci­ would combine the study of biology and psychology ety to the must-sees of homosexual Berlin. Hirschfeld ex pl.lins to ~h e wit h reference to the many va riations of human love. rcader that the Ur(lllierin is so by nature, and that most lay a hI gh He decided to write about his findings in a forlll which Y.l lue 0 11 keeping tllei r nature a secret (Berlin 15). ln do illl) so, a certain would be understood by all. (33) split-personality develops along the lincs of &rltfs':lCns~h by day and Geschiechlsmensch by night. This could then mamfcst Itsel f through Unlike U lrichs, Hi rschfeld was a [rained physician. He is best know n sam c-sex love o r transvcstism. offe rs many colorful accOllnts o f the ho­ fo r Il is work as t he leader of the /USlIlUl fur Sexuniwiuemcha{t in Ber­ Beriim Driues Geschlechl lin , whicl l he headed fro m 1919- 1930. The Institute put illl o p ractice mosexual subculture. Yet it is ho w Hirschfeld intcgr:\tt:s the life stories 42 Fowl on Literatlll" "cstimany of Magllus Ilirschfeld 43 of individuals frollllhis SUOCUitUI-e that makes Berlins Driues Gescblccht is to ask him/herself if, after readillg thesc cases, persccution of these such a significa nt book.