Adolf Brand

Adolf Brand (1874-1945) was a German journalist and school teacher who began publishing the first German homosexual periodical, Der Eigene (The Special One), in 1896. This was the first homosexual publication in the world, and ran until 1931. It concentrated on cultural and scholarly material, and may have had an average of around 1500 subscribers per issue during its lifetime, although the exact numbers are uncertain.

Brand became a radical activist, and his writings are often claimed by romantic anarchists, who sidestep his racial, elitist and nationalist views. In 1899/1900 he published Elisar von Kupffer's (1872-1942) influential anthology of homoerotic literature, Lieblingsminne und Freundesliebe in der Welt-literature. The work was reprinted again in 1908.

Brand was involved in Magnus Hirschfeld's Scientific-Humanitarian Committee (the first homosexual rights organization ever), until there was a split in 1903; that same year Brand led the formation of the Gemeinschaft der Eigenen organisation with the scientist Benedict Friedlander and Wilhelm Jansen. The GdE was only the second such group in the world. To this new group, male-male love was viewed as a simple aspect of virile manliness; they rejected the stance of doctors such as Magnus Hirschfeld who wished to make of it a 'medical theory'. The GdE was a sort of scouting movement that echoed the warrior creed of Sparta and the ideals of Ancient Greece, and the ideas on pedagogic eros of Gustav Wyneken. The GdE was heavily involved with camping and trekking and occasionally practiced nudism - the latter then common as part of the Nacktkultur ('culture of nudity') sweeping Germany. In the 1920s this would develop into the Freikörperkultur under Adolf Koch.

The GdE was similar to other such groups in Germany at the time, such as the Wandervogel. Wilhelm Jansen, co-founder of the GdE, was one of the chief financial supporters of the Wandervogel and also a leader in it (see: Mills, Richard. 'A Man of Youth: Wilhelm Jansen and the German Wandervogel Movement'. Gay Sunshine, 44/45 (1980)).

The writings & theories of the romantic anarchist John Henry Mackay (1864-1933) had a significant influence on the GdE from 1906 (see: Kennedy, Hubert. Anarchist of Love, 2nd Ed. (2002)). Mackay had lived in Berlin for a decade and had become a friend of Friedlander; although Mackay did not share the GdE's avid preference for homosociality. Friedlander did not share the anarchist leanings of Brand and Mackay, favoring instead the thinking on 'natural rights' and land reform, then current in Germany.

Brand was a proponent of outing famous gay men long before the term exists; when in 1907 he claimed in print that Prince von Bülow (1849-1929) was homosexual, he was sued for libel and sentenced to eighteen months in prison. In a later justification for outing, Brand stated... "When someone... would like to set in the most damaging way the intimate love contact of others ... in that moment his own love life ceases to be a private matter."

Brand was sentenced to two months in prison, allegedly for allowing 'lewd writings' to be published in Der Eigene, under the notorious Paragraph 175 of the German legal code. During World War I Brand and the GdE curtailed their activities for the duration. After the war the enforcement of Paragraph 175 slowly declined.

The GdE and other groups formed a united 'action committee' with Magnus Hirschfeld's group, to formulate a new law. In 1925 more groups joined and the larger Cartel for Reform of the Law against Sexual Offenses was formed. Despite a new law being drafted, it was not voted on, and by 1929 there was no further chance to reform Paragraph 175.

Adolf Brand gave up gay (then 'homophile') activism in the early 1930s, under constant pressure from the Nazis. After the sacking and burning of the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft he finally sent a public letter to his followers announcing the end of the movement, and he married. He and his wife were killed in an air raid during World War II.

Further reading

• James D. Steakley. The Early Homosexual Emancipation Movement in Germany. (1975).
• John Lauritsen and David Thorstad. The Early Homosexual Rights Movement, 1864-1935. (Second Edition revised)
• Günter Grau (ed.). Hidden Holocaust? Gay and lesbian persecution in Germany 1933-45. (1995).
• Mark Blasins & Shane Phelan. (Eds.) We Are Everywhere: A Historical Source Book of Gay and Lesbian Politics (See chapter: The Emergence of a Gay and Lesbian Political Culture in Germany).
• Harry Oosterhuis. (Ed.) Homosexuality and Male Bonding in Pre-Nazi Germany: The Youth Movement, the Gay Movement, and Male Bonding Before Hitler’s Rise: Original Transcripts from Der Eigene, the First Gay Journal in the World. (1991).

External links

• Brand exhibition in Germany, 2000 (http://www.friedrichshagener-dichterkreis.de/projektadolfbrand_en.htm). Has a portrait of Brand & other images.