HANNAH HCH, 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.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents List of Figures Acknowledgements Abstract Introduction Chapter I Dadas Good Girl and her Recurring Obsessions Introduction Hannah Hchs early life and career Hch and the Dadaists Photomontage: Conflict and Rupture Hch and her Contemporaries: Aesthetic and Technique Words not Pictures: Language and Sexism? The 1920 Dada Fair and Hchs Cut with the Kitchen Knife Beyond Berlin: Hch and her Contemporaries Hch and the Human Hybrid Der Vater and Dada-Ernst: Hch and Female Sexual Agency The Lighter Side of the New Woman: Hchs Da-Dandy and Die Mdchen Hchs fluid Sexual Identity? 20 24 29 31 34 37 40 46 48 51 60 63 iii ix xxi xxii 1

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Chapter II The Lesbian in Weimar and Hannah Hchs Russian Dancer and English Dancer Representations of Lesbians in Weimar Mdchen in Uniform Lesbian Books and Magazines and Popular Weimar Culture Weimar Lesbian Representations of Female Nudity Lesbian Subculture and Weimar Krperkultur Berlin Lesbians and Weimar Entertainment and Dance Culture Pornography, Sexual Depravity, and Lesbian Representation Lesbian Ecstasy Depicting Lesbianism: Mirroring The Contribution of Weimar Lesbian Print Media Conclusion Chapter III Lesbian Representation, Weimar Ethnography, Politics, and Hannah Hch Visual Contrast and Lesbianism Jeanne Mammen and Weimar Lesbian Representation Weimar Ethnography and Lesbian Representation Exoticism and Eroticism Weimar Ethnography and the Russian The Russian Ballet Ballet and Weimar Eugenics
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71 75 78 83 85 88 92 97 102 103 110 111

112 113 117 118 120 126 128

The Healthy Weimar Lesbian: the ultimate New Woman Hannah Hchs Liebe Dreams and Utopia: Hch, Lesbian Representation, and the Rise of Nazism Chapter IV Hannah Hch and Til Brugman: Creative Collaboration, Social Critique, and Political Resistance Introduction Til Brugman Til Brugman and the avant-garde The literary Grotesque Gender and the avant-garde Hannah Hch and Til Brugman: A Lesbian Couple Repression and Censorship Brave or foolish: Hch hides Brugmans Manuscripts Hannah Hch and Til Brugman: Joint Commercial Projects Von Hollands Blumenfelder Scheingehacktes Scheingehacktes Schaufensterhypnose Weimar Sexism: Brugmans female Victims and Hchs disturbed Brides Brugmans Himilia Hchs English Dancer and Himilia The Fetishization of the Female Body in Weimar and Hchs Marlene
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130 132 137

144 146 147 149 151 156 160 165 169 170 180 183 186 188 189 194 197

Conclusion Chapter V Hannah Hchs Tamer, Sexology, and Weimar Sexual Subculture Introduction The New Woman Nineteenth-century Sexology: Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, Carl Westphal, and Richard von Krafft-Ebing Magnus Hirschfeld Hirschfeld and Sexual Intermediacy Hirschfeld: Sexology and Photography Hirschfelds Transvestites, 1910 Sexual Deviancy and Weimar Life through the eyes Weimar Culture and the Cross-dresser The Feared Masculinization of Women and the Garonne Bearded Women and Terrifying News Weimar Subculture and the Cross-dresser Gertrud Liebherrs Moderne Fotokunst The Weimar Transvestite Voo-Doo and Hchs Tamer Sexual Intermediacy and Hchs Tamer Hchs Tamer and Weimar Criminology Conclusion

201

203 204

207 212 215 218 220 221 222 226 229 230 231 234 235 239 241

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Chapter VI The Wonders of Weimar Endocrinology: Hchs gender-hybrids and Brugmans literary Grotesques Introduction Eugen Steinach and Surgical Rejuvenation Der Steinach Film Hannah Hchs Strong Men Til Brugman and Weimar Sexology Revision am Himmel Warenhaus der Liebe Weimar Sexology and Extreme Transvestites Gender Reassignment Surgery Gender Reassignment and the Weimar Print Media Hannah Hchs Sweet One: The Surgical Construction of Gender? Einar Wegener: Aus Mann wird Frau Einar becomes Lili: Constructing Femininity Transsexuals, Homosexuals and Gender Montage Conclusion Chapter VII Conclusion Hannah Hchs Nazi-era Oeuvre: Nature Studies and Abstraction Ich fhlte die Freiheitdie Freiheit! Certain recurring Obsessions: Hch and the new New Woman
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243 245 248 252 256 257 257 263 267 269 271 273 275 279 280

283 292 297 299

Figures Bibliography

303 445

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LIST OF FIGURES

1.1 Hannah Hch, 1915. Hannah Hch Archiv (HH Archiv), Berlinische Galerie, Landesmuseum fr Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur, Berlin. 1.2 Til Brugman, ca. 1905. HH Archiv, Berlinische Galerie. 1.3 Hannah Hch, Dada-Puppen (Dada-Dolls), 1916-1918. Cloth and diverse materials, c. 60 cm. Berlinische Galerie. 1.4 Hannah Hch, Entartet (Degenerate), 1969. Collage, 34. 4 x40.5 cm. Collection Landesbank Berlin AG. 1.5 Entwurf fr das Denkmal eines bedeutendes Spitzenhemdes (Design for a Memorial for an Important Lace-Shirt) 1922. Collage, 27.6 x 17 cm. Hamburger Kunsthalle. 1.6 Raoul Hausmann, Photo Hannah Hch, 1919. Berlinische Galerie. 1.7 Hannah Hch, Oz, der Tragde (Oz, the Tragic Actor) 1919. Photomontage, dimensions unknown. Lost. 1.8 Raoul Hausmann, ABCD, 1923-24. Photomontage, 40.6 x 28.6 cm. Muse National dArt Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. 1.9 Kurt Schwitters, Miss Blanche, 1923. Collage, 15.9 x 12.7 cm. Collection Dr. Werner Schmalenbach, Dsseldorf. 1.10 Hannah Hch, Collage (Dada), 1922-24. Collage, 24.7 x 32.8 cm. Collection Merrill C. Berman, Scarsdale, New York.

303 304

305

306

307 308

309

310

311

312

1.11 George Grosz and John Heartfield, Sonniges Land (Sunny Land), 1919. Photographic reproduction, dimensions and whereabouts of original unknown. Berlin, Akademie der Knste, John Heartfield Archiv. 313 1.12 Hannah Hch, Schnitt mit dem Kchenmesser Dada durch die letzte weimarer Bierbauchkulturepoche Deutschlands (Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada through
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the last Weimar Beer Belly Cultural Epoch of Weimar Germany), 1919-20. Photomontage, 114 x 90 cm. Neue Nationalgalerie Staatliche Museen, Preussischer Kulturbesitz Berlin. 1.13 Hannah Hch, Die Mdchen (The Girls), 1921. Photomontage, dimensions unknown. Lost.

314

315

1.14 Hannah Hch, Da-Dandy, 1919. Photomontage, 30 x 23 cm. Private Collection. 316 1.15 Hannah Hch, Dada-Ernst (Dada-Serious/Grave), 1920-21. Photomontage, 18.6 x 16.6 cm. Collection Vera and Arturo Schwarz, Milan. 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 Dsseldorf WestLB. 1.17 Johannes Baargeld, Typical Vertical Misrepresentation as a Depiction of the Dada Baargeld (Self-portrait), 1920. Photomontage, 37.1 x 31 cm. Kunsthaus Zrich. 1.18 Max Ernst, Jean Hatchet and Charles the Bold, 1929. Collage, 34 x 20 cm. Cleveland Museum of Art.

317

318

319

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 Hch, Grotesque, 1963. Photomontage, 25 x 17 cm. Institut fr Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart. 1.21 Hannah Hch, Der Vater (The Father), 1920. Galerie Berinson, Berlin.

322 323

1.22 Abtreibungsinstrumente (Abortion-instruments). Magnus Hirschfeld, Vol. 4. Bilderteil: Geschlechtskunde auf Grund dreissigjhriger Forschung und Erfahrung bearbeitet (Stuttgart: Julius Pttmann Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1930), 341. 324 1.23 Gustave Courbet, LOrigine du Monde (1866). Oil on Canvas, 46 x 55 cm. Muse dOrsay, Paris.

325

1.24 Sheela-na-Gig, Corbel in the Church of St. Mary and St. David, Kilpeck, Ireland, 12th-century. Pictured in Monica Sj, The Great Cosmic Mother of All (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1987), p. 320. 326 1.25 Max Ernst, Les Hommes nen Sauront Rien (Of this Men Shall Know Nothing), 1923. Oil on canvas, 81 x 64 cm. Tate Gallery, London. 1.26 Eric von Stroheim as Count Karamzin. Foolish Wives, Universal Jewel (1922). 2.1 Hannah Hch, Rssische Tnzerin (Russian Dancer), 1928. Photomontage, 30.5 x 22.5 cm. Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museums Braunschweig, Kunstmusem des Landes Niedersachsen. 2.2 Hannah Hch, Englische Tnzerin (English Dancer), 1928. Photomontage, 23.7 x 18 cm. Institut fr Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart. 2.3 Romaine Brooks, Una, Lady Troubridge, 1923. Oil on Canvas, 127.3 x 76.4 cm. Smithsonian American Art Museum. 2.4 Anonymous cover photograph (Three Nude Women). Liebende Frauen, 3. Jg., no. 36 (1927). 2.5 Hannah Hch, Album (Scrapbook), undated, ca. 1933, unpaginated. Berlinische Galerie. 2.6 Hannah Hch, Equilibre (Equilibrium), 1925. Photomontage, 30.5 x 20.3 cm. Institut fr Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart.

327

328

329 330 331 332 333 334

2.7 Nacktkultur im Film. Aus der Zeitschrift: Schnheit [Wilhelm Prager, Film Still, Wege der Kraft und Schnheit, 1925]. Albert Moll, Polizei und Sitte: Die Polizei in Einzeldarstellungen, mit Genehmigung des Preuss. Ministerium des Innern. Herausgegeben von Dr. W. Abegg, Staatssekretr 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, Tnzerinnen (Female Dancers). Die Freundin, August 8, 1927. 2.9 Anonymous cover photograph (Three Nude Women on a Beach). Die Freundin 7. Jg., no. 39, Sept., 16, 1931. 336 337

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2.10 Anonymous cover Illustration. Ruth Margarete Roellig, Berlins lesbische Frauen, mit einem Vorwort von Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld (Leipzig: Bruno Gebauer Verlag fr Kulturprobleme, 1928). 2.11 Otto Hahn, cover Illustration. Marie-Rene Mecke-Daumas, Die klugen Jungfrauen, eine Sittenbild aus Berlin W. (Leipzig: W. Borngrber, 1924). 2.12 Foto Angela, Die Tnzerinnen Schwestern Karolewna (The Dancing Sisters Karolewna). Die Dame, 3. Novemberheft (Berlin), 1929, p. 11. 2.13 Heinz von Perchkhammer, Ecstasy, 1930. Photograph, dimensions, whereabouts unknown. www.tumblr.com/tagged/heinz-von-perckhammer?before=1307366646 (accessed January 5, 2012).

338

339 340

341

2.14 Heinz von Perchkhammer, Heliogravure. Edle Nacktheit in China mit 32 Originalaufnahmen von Heinz von Perckhammer (Berlin: Eigenbrdler Verlag, 1928). 342 2.15 Anonymous photograph. Frauen-Liebe 3 Jg., no. 5 (1928). 2.16 Anonymous, Die Badenden (The Bathers). Photograph. Die Freundin 4. Jg., no. 8, April 16, 1928. 2.17 Anonymous, Ideale Schnheit (Ideal Beauty). Photograph. Die Freundin, 4. Jg., no.3, Feb. 6, 1928. 2.18 Anonymous erotic postcard, 1920s. http://www.delcampe.de/list.php?cat=7894&searchMode= all&searchTldCountry=net&searchInDescription=Y Seite 4 (accessed March 1, 2012). 343 344 345

346

2.19 Fernand Khnopff, Avec Gregoire le Roy. Mon couer pleure dautrefois (Along with Gregoire the King. My heart cries once again), 1889. Colored pencil and white chalk on paper. Private collection. 347 2.20 Franz Roh, Selbstbegrssung (Greeting Oneself) 1927-33. Gelatin silver print, 15.4 x 19.8 cm. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. 2.21 Claude Cahun, Self-Portrait in Mirror. Photograph, 179 mm x 237 mm, 1928. Jersey Heritage Trust/1995/00030/g.
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348 349

3.1 Masculine/feminine lesbian sartorial configuration, undated. Postcard, France. Collection author. 3.2 Jeanne Mammen, Two Women Dancing, ca.1928. Watercolor and pencil, 48 x 36 cm. Frderverein der Jeanne-Mammen-Stiftung, Berlin. 3.3 Jeanne Mammen, Zeebrugge, c. 1930. Watercolor and pencil, 39 x 34 cm. Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa. 3.4 Josephine Baker in modernen Revuekostm. Hirschfeld, Vol. 4. Bilderteil: Geschlechtskunde, Plate 51.

350

351 352 353

3.5 Magnus Hirschfeld, Gesichtsbemalung einer Indianerin aus Arizona; Gesichtsbemalung der Haussa-Frauen im Westsudan (Face-painting of an Arizona Indian; Face-painting Haussa-woman of West Sudan). Hirschfeld, Vol. 4, Bilderteil: Geschlechtskunde, 1930, p.768. 354 3.6 Sent Marona, orientalische Tnzerin (oriental Dancer). Die Freundin, March 5, 1928. 355

3.7 Rudolf Koppitz, Studie russischer Tnzerinnen (Study of Russian Dancers), ca. 1926. Bromide Print, 33.4 x 17.9 cm. Private collection, Vienna. 356 3.8 Anonymous photograph (Entwined Figures). Liebende Frauen, 3. Jg., no. 41 (1928). 3.9 Lenare, Lydia Sokolova Queen of English Dancers. The Illustrated London News, Oct., 6, 1926, 683. 3.10 Hannah Hch, Liebe (Love), 1931. Photomontage, 21 x 21.8 cm. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. 3.11 Anna Pawlowa Libelle (Anna Pavolva Dragonfly). Postcard, undated. Collection author. 3.12 Libellule, Postcard, undated. http://www.delcampe.de/list.php?searchString=libellule&cat7894&searchMode=all&searchTldCountry=net&searchInDescription=Y (accessed March 9, 2012). 3.13 Young Girl with Wings, Postcard, undated. http://www.delcampe.de/page/item/id,153841928,var,Libelleoriginele-foto-rond-1915,language,G.html (accessed March 1, 2012).
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357 358 359 360

361

362

3.14 Herta Wasserkampf, Postcard, Felix Korn Verlag, Stuttgart, ca. 1930. Akpool.de/ansichtskarte-postkarte-nixe-sitzt-auf-rosenblatt-libelle-fisch (accessed January 15, 2012). 3.15 Hannah Hch, Album (Scrapbook), undated, ca. 1933, unpaginated. Berlinische Galerie. 3.16 Hannah Hch, Vagabunden (Vagabonds) 1926. Photomontage, 35 x 25 cm. Collection Guido Rossi, Milan.

363 364 365

3.17 Hannah Hch, Von Oben (From Above, or Two Children above the City), 1926-27. Photocollage on paper mounted on cardboard, 30.6 x 22.2 cm. Private collection, Des Moines, Iowa. 366 3.18 Hannah Hch, Auf dem Weg im F. Himmel (On the Way to F. Heaven) 1934. Photomontage, 36.8 x 25.4 cm. Private collection, New York. 3.19 Anonymous, Mrchenland (Fairy-Tale Land). Photograph. Die Freundin, 7 Jg., no. 43, Oct., 28, 1931. 3.20 H. W. Mager, Traumbild (Dream-picture). Photomontage. Die Freundin, 4. Jg., no. 9, April 30, 1928. 3.21 Hannah Hch, Flucht (Flight), 1931. Collage, 24.5 x 18.1 cm. Institut fr Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart. 3.22 Hannah Hch, Siebenmeilenstiefel (Seven-League Boots), 1934. Photomontage, 22.9 x 32.2 cm. Hamburger Kunsthalle, Kupferstichkabinett. 3.23 Hannah Hch, Nur nicht mit beiden Beinen auf der Erde stehen (Dont Stand with both Feet on the Ground), 1940. Photomontage, 32.2 x 20.8 cm Institut fr Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart. 4.1 Til Brugman SHE HE (1917-1922), collection Gerrit Jan de Rook, Den Haag. 4.2 Til Brugman, undated photograph. Berlinische Galerie, BG-HHC-F 191/79. 4.3 Damenklub Violetta, Der Vorstand [Charlotte Lotte Hahm]. Frauen-Liebe, 2. Jg., no. 49 (1927): 12. 4.4 Hannah Hch and Til Brugman with their cat Ninn, 1928. Photograph, HH Archiv, Berlinische Galerie. 367 368 369 370 371

372 373 374 374 375

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4.5 Hannah Hch, Bsingstrasse, 1929. Linocut, 14.1 x 14. 9 cm. Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, BG-G 6840/93. 4.6 Hannah Hch, Tulip Farmer, Atlantis: Lnder, Vlker, Reisen 5 (1933): 431. 4.7 Hannah Hch, Tulip Field, Atlantis: Lnder, Vlker, Reisen 5 (1933): 430. 4.8 Nazi Rally, May-Day 1933, Interfoto Mchen. Pictured in Udo Pini, Liebeskult und Liebeskitsch: Erotik im Dritten Reich (Munich: Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1992), 36-37.

376 377 378

379

4.9 Hannah Hch, Der Schandfleck im Tulpenbeet, 1927. Ink on paper, 213 x 202 mm. Pictured in Herbert Remmert und Peter Barth, eds., Hannah Hch: Werke und Worte (Berlin: Frhlich & Kaufmann, 1982), 47. Present whereabouts unknown. 380 4.10 Hannah Hch, cover Illustration. Scheingehacktes (Berlin: Verlag der Rabenpresse, 1935). 4.11 Hannah Hch, hand-colored cover Illustration. Scheingehacktes, 1935. Berlinische Galerie, BG-HHC 560/79. 4.12 Hannah Hch, Cabbage Patch, Scheingehacktes, 1935, p. 15. 4.13 Hannah Hch, Schaufensterhypnose, Scheingehacktes, 1935, p. 23. 4.14 Hannah Hch, Die Braut (Pandora) (The Bride [Pandora]), 1927. Oil on canvas, 114 x 66 cm. Die Berlinische Galerie, Landesmuseum fr Moderne Kunst, Photographie, und Architektur, Berlin. 4.15 Hannah Hch, Traum Seines Lebens (His Lifes Dream), 1925. Photomontage, 30 x 22.5 cm. Museum of Modern Art, New York. 4.16 Hannah Hch, Buerliches Brautpaar (Peasant Wedding Couple), 1931. Photomontage with collage, 21.6 x 20.9 cm. Private collection, Berlin. 4.17 Hannah Hch, Die Braut (The Bride), ca. 1933. Photomontage, 20 x 19.7 cm. Collection Thomas Walther, New York. 4.18 Hannah Hch, Brgerliches Brautpaar (Bourgeois Wedding Couple), 1920. Watercolor, 39 x 107cm. Private collection. 381 382 383 384

385 386 387 388 389

4.19 Man Ray, Garderobe, 1920. Gelatin silver print, 25 x 16.5 cm. Kunsthaus Zrich. 390
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4.20 Advertisement, Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung, August 17, 1924, p. 942. 4.21 Beinfetischismus (Leg-fetishism). Hirschfeld, Geschlechtskunde, p. 741. 4.22 Hannah Hch, Marlene, 1930. Photomontage, 36.7 x 24.2 cm. Collection Dakis Joannou, Athens. 4.23 Hannah Hch, Der Schuss (The Kick), 1935. Photomontage, 18 x 23 cm. Berlinische Galerie. 5.1 Hannah Hch, Dompteuse (Tamer), 1930. Photomontage, 35.5 x 26 cm. Graphische Sammlung, Kunsthaus Zrich. 5.2 und im Wintergarten, Barbette, das geheimnisvolle wesen am Trapez (and at the Wintergarten [theatre], Barbette, that mysterious creature on a trapeze).Blick in die Welt, Das 12 Uhr Blatt, July 31, 1931. 5.3 Flicien Rops, Dirne in Mnnerkleidung (Prostitute in Mens Clothing) (undated, late 19th-c.). Albert Moll, Polizei und Sitte (Gersbach & Sohn Verlag, Berlin, 1926), p. 22. 5.4 Mnnlicher Transvertit. Benutzung der Bubikopfmode (Male Transvestite. Use of Bubikopf hairstyle). Moll, Polizei und Sitte, p. 23 5.5 Mnnlicher Transvertit (Male Transvestite). Moll, Polizei und Sitte, p. 23.

391 392 393 394 395

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397 398 399

5.6 Eine Frau die es liebt Uniform zu tragen; der Bart ist angeklebt (A Woman who loves to wear Uniforms; the beard is glued-on). Magnus Hirschfeld, Berlins drittes Geschlecht (Leipzig: Verlag Max Spohr, 1904), p. 122. 400 5.7 Androtrichie (feminae barbatae) (Bearded Women). Magnus Hirschfeld, Geschlechts-bergnge; Mischungen mnnlicher und weiblicher Geschlechtscharactere (sexuelle Zwischenstufen) (Leipzig: Verlag der Monatsschrift fr Harnkrankheiten und sexuelle Hygeine, 1905), Plate 14. 401 5.8 Eine Schreckensnachricht (Terrifying News). Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung, no. 41, Oct., 12, 1924, 1216. 5.9 Gertrud Liebherr(?), Portrait Photograph. Liebende Frauen, 5. Jg., no. 16 (1930). 5.10 Advertisement for Gertrud Liebherrs portrait studio. Die Freundin, Oct., 17, 1927.
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402 403 404

5.11 Gertrud Liebherr, Die Frau als Mann (A woman as a man). Die Freundin, March 5, 1928, p. 5. 5.12 Gertrud Liebherr, Die Frau als Mann, Die Freundin, March 5, 1928, p. 4. 5.13 Der Elegante Herr (The Elegant Man). Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung, August 10, 1924, p. 271. 5.14 Gertrud Liebherr(?),Portrait photograph, Liebende Frauen, 4 Jg., 18 (1929).

404 405 406 407

5.15 Voo Doo. Magnus Hirschfeld and Max Tilke, Der erotischen Verkleidungstrieb (Die Transvestiten.) Illustrierter Teil (Berlin: Alfred Pulvermacher & Co., 1912), Plate 16. 408 5.16 Gerlach, Voo-Doo. Die Freundin, 4 Jg., no. 14 (1927): 27. 5.17 Pseudohermaphroditismus masculinis bei berwiegend weiblichen Habitus. Error in sexu (Pseudohermaphrodite with dominant feminine behavior). Hirschfeld, Geschlechts-bergnge, Plate 7. 409

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5.18 Male Cross-dresser, undated police Photograph. Lothar Goldmann, ber das Wesen des Umkleidungstriebes, Geschlecht und und Gesellschaft 12 (1924/25): Plate 1. 411 6.1 Der Steinach Film, Advertisement, 1923. Humboldt Institut, Online Archiv fr Sexology, http://www2.hu berlin.de/Sexology/GESUND/ ARCHIV/COLLSTE.HTM Tab Der Steinach Film (accessed March 1, 2012). 6.2 Der Steinach Film, Film Still (detail), 1923. Humboldt Institut, Online Archiv fr Sexology http://www2.hu berlin.de/Sexology/GESUND/ ARCHIV/COLLSTE.HTM Tab Der Steinach Film (accessed March 1, 2012). 6.3 Eugen Steinach, Verjngung durch experimentelle Neubelebung der alternde Puberttsdrse (Berlin: Verlag von Julius Springer, 1920), pp. 20-21. 6.4 Hannah Hch, Die Starken Mnner (The Strong Men), 1931. Photomontage, 24.5 x 13.5 cm. Institut fr Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart. 6.5 Max Schmeling, Ullstein Bild, 1926. Photograph. The Granger Collection, New York.

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413 414 415 416

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6.6 Boxer Schmeling and Aphrodite Kallipygos. Hirschfeld, Vol. 4. Bilderteil: Geschlechtskunde, Figs. 206, 207. 6.7 Hannah Hch, Die Ssse (Sweet One), 1926. Photomontage with watercolor, 30 x 15.5 cm. Museum Folkwang, Essen. 6.8 Gerda Wegener, Portrait of three Women (Lili in the centre), undated. Niels Hoyer, ed. Man into Woman, An Authentic Record of a Change of Sex, trans. H.J.Stenning (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1933), facing page 224. 6.9 Gerda Wegener, Moderne Demimondnen. Moll, Polizei und Sitte, between pp. 128-29. 6.10 Einar Wegener (Andreas Sparre) about 1920. Frontispiece, Hoyer, Man into Woman, 1933. 6.11 Einar Wegener (Andreas Sparre) posing as Lili, Paris 1926. Hoyer, Man into Woman, 1933, facing page 40. 6.12 Einar Wegener (Andreas Sparre) after definitely assuming the name of Lili, Paris, January, 1930. Hoyer, Man into Woman, 1933, facing page 96.

417 418

419 420 421 422 423

6.13 Einar Wegener (Andreas Sparre) as Lili Elbe, Dresden, May 1930, between second and third Operations. Hoyer, Man into Woman, 1933, facing page 112. 424 6.14 Einar Wegener (Andreas Sparre) as Lili Elbe, Copenhagen, February, 1931. Hoyer, Man into Woman, 1933, facing page 208. 6.15 Dust-jacket, Neils Hoyer, ed., Lili Elbe, ein Mensch wechselt sein Geschlecht: Eine Lebensbeichte (Dresden: Carl Reissner Verlag, 1932). 425 426

6.16 Schnittbild aus Zeitschriften die vorzugsweise in homosexuellen Kreisen gelesen Wurde (Collage from newspapers primarily read in homosexual circles). Moll, Polizei und Sitte, p. 101. 427 7.1 Claude Cahun [and Marcel Moore], Self-portrait, ca. 1928. Photograph. Jersey Heritage Trust (JHT)/1995/0036/b print. 7.2 Claude Cahun, Photomontage prefacing Chapter III, Aveux non avenus (Paris: dition Carrefour, 1930). 7.3 Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore (signed Moore). Photomontage. Frontispiece, Aveux non avenus, 1930.
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428

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7.4 Leonor Fini, Travesti loiseau (Transvestite with a Bird), c. 1932. Oil on canvas, 100 x 65 cm. Private Collection. 7.5 Leonor Fini, Le supplice de lallure (The Torture of Allure), 1940. Oil on canvas, 64.8 x 40.7 cm. Private Collection. 7.6 Hannah Hch, Schne Fanggerte (Beautiful Trapping-Machines), 1946. Photomontage, 30 x 22 cm. 1946. Collection Landesbank Berlin AG. 7.7 Hannah Hch, Mhn (Poppies), 1935-40. Goauche, 63 x 47 cm. Berlinische Galerie 7.8 Hannah Hch, Maske und Vase (Mask and Vase), 1940. Gouache, 45 x 32 cm. Berlinische Galerie.

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7.9 Hannah Hch, Tmpel (Pond), 1936. Watercolor 40 x 57 cm. Berlinische Galerie. 436 7.10 Hannah Hch, Flora 1942, Watercolor, 35 x 48 cm. Berlinische Galerie. 7.11 Hannah Hch, Der Mond zu Besuch (The Moon comes for a Visit), 1943. Watercolor, 72 x 57 cm. 7.12 Hannah Hch, Und die Freunde der Keime (And the Friends of Sprouts), 1943. Ink on Paper, 23 x 23 cm. Berlinische Galerie. 7.13 Hannah Hch, 1945, 1945. Oil on canvas, 92.8 x 81.4 cm. Landesbank Berlin AG. 7.14 Hannah Hch, Liebespaar am Hang (Romantic Couple on a Slope), 1948. Gouache, 45 x 62 cm. Berlinische Galerie. 7.15 Hannah Hch, Schwebende Formen (Floating Forms), 1957. Oil on canvas, 90 x 60 cm. Berlinische Galerie. 437

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7.16 Hannah Hch, Um einem roten Mund (Around/About a Red Mouth), ca. 1967. Collage, 20.5 x 16.5 cm. Institut fr Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart. 443

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7.17 Hannah Hch, Hommage Riza Abasi (Homage to Riza Abasi), 1963. Photomontage, 35.5 x 17.7 cm. Institut fr Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This dissertation would have not been possible without the generous support of the Art History Department at Case Western Reserve University. I am grateful to Tirza True Latimer, whose insight and suggestions helped me to develop my thesis in its early stages. I would like to thank my committee members Catherine Scallen, T. Kenny Fountain, and above all, my advisor Anne Helmreich, whose intellectual clarity helped me to structure my argument. I am especially indebted to my second reader Ellen G. Landau, whose invaluable assistance in the final stages of the writing process enabled me to complete this dissertation. I would like to thank the staff of the Kelvin Smith Library and Inter Library Loan for their professional and friendly assistance. I am indebted to Sabine Balke of the Berlin Spinnboden Lesbenarchiv who generously allowed me to acces Weimar materials and Ralf Burmeister of the Berlinische Galerie who was never too busy to locate information and provide valuable advice. I am grateful to my parents and my sisters and the many friends and accomplished individuals who have inspired, encouraged, and generously supported me throughout the years. These include Mary Christine LeBlanc, Sr. Mary Regis Flannery, Isa Hesse, Verena Loewensberg, Valerie Hylton, Trixie Rosen, Mary T. OConnor, Dana Deville, Ekkehard Kaemmerling, Bob Ciofani, Jeannette Hug, Sabine Richebcher, Katja Gantenbein, Diane Scillia, Susan Furrer, and Cathy Egloff.

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Hannah Hch, Til Brugman, Lesbianism, and Weimar Sexual Subculture Abstract by JULIE NERO

Hannah Hch was an avid collector of Weimar print media and her signature medium was the photomontage. Because of this, her work is generally explored within the context of mainstream media and, to a degree, this is adequate. Yet this dissertation questions the completeness of this path of enquiry and newly examines Hchs oeuvre within an expanded context of media generated by sexology, ethnography, medicine, and sexual subculture. Furthermore, while diverse contemporary media were integral to Hchs oeuvre, the close correlation between her artistic themes and her intimate relationships has yet to be fully examined. In her early photomontages, Hchs engagement with gender largely reflected her relationship with Raoul Hausmann and her difficult status as the sole woman among the Berlin Dadaists. Her engagement with gender grew and became more focused after 1926 when Hch entered into a ten year lesbian partnership with the Dutch writer Mathilda Til Brugman. While this relationship has received cursory scholarly attention, it was arguably the artists most significant personal bond and influenced her oeuvre considerably. Moreover, during her years with Brugman, Hchs photomontages clearly reflected lesbian subculture, as this dissertation will definitively establish. Hch and Brugman collaborated on a number of creative projects that satirically and critically
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addressed social and political issues, particularly those related to concepts of gender identity. Knowledge of Weimar sexual and medical discourse found expression in both womens work and indicates that they were familiar with vanguard surgical procedures. Although the two women separated in 1936, Hchs exploration of the social construction of gender remained a key theme in her photomontages and continued to occupy her well into the 1970s.

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INTRODUCTION

As a young woman, Hannah Hch (1889-1978) was affiliated with the Berlin Dadaists, a loosely federated group of artists known for their oppositional and anarchic aesthetics and activities. The Dada movement, which began in Zrichs Cabaret Voltaire in 1916, was launched in Berlin by Richard Huelsenbeck with an artistic soire at the Gallery Neuman in 1918. 1 In his Dadaist Manifesto (1918), Huelsenbeck attacked Expressionism, stressing the immediate experience of reality in the street, as opposed to the soul-searching anguish of the Expressionists. 2 In accord with his polemic, the Dadaists embraced urban experience and set themselves apart from their Expressionist predecessors who had found the city an oppressive and disturbing space. 3 In early twentieth-century Germany, the media represented a major aspect of urban experience and included newspapers, posters, shop signs, and advertisements. The Dadaists engaged with these media both as a raw material in their art, and as publishers. 4 Unsurprisingly, the group is primarily known for their photomontages. In their hands, the photomontage, composed from contemporary media fragments, constituted a politically and culturally disruptive act. Like her colleagues, Hch deployed

Matthew Gale, Dada and Surrealism (London: Phaidon, 1997), 121. Gale, Dada and Surrealism, 121. 3 Gale, Dada and Surrealism, 127. Referencing Expressionist artists E.L. Kirchner and Ludwig Meidner, Gale remarks that when they engaged with urban themes, they were generally depicted as alienating or as apocalyptic visions. 4 Wieland Herzfeldes Berlin-based publishing venture Malik Verlag was launched in 1917 when he acquired the magazine Die Neue Jugend. The Malik Verlag served as a political platform for pacifist and communist-informed texts and satirical illustrations.
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the photomontage, yet her artistic style, her engagement with the figure, and her focus on gender set her decidedly apart from her fellow Dadaists. Hch was employed at the Ullstein Press, a major Berlin publishing company, from 1916 through 1926, and because of this, her photomontages are generally examined in close conjunction with Weimar print culture. Maud Lavins seminal and unrivaled monograph represents the most complete exploration of Hannah Hchs Weimar era oeuvre. In her study, Lavin foregrounds the artists critical, satirical, and frequently humorous engagement with popular print culture. 5 This methodological focus is supported by Hchs biography; her part-time employment at Ullstein placed her at the epicenter of popular Weimar print culture and provided access to a large reservoir of graphic materials. Indeed, Ullstein magazines served as raw materials for a number of the artists collages. 6 Yet, and central to the following discussion, scholars have been unable to trace more than half of the graphic material Hch used in her collages to mainstream sources. While this may be attributed to the vast Weimar publishing industry, it also reflects the artists interest in alternate media, which will be discussed later.

Maud Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife: The Weimar Photomontages of Hannah Hch (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993). 6 For a discussion of Hchs Scrapbook, see Melissa A. Johnson, On the Strength of my Imagination: Visions of Weimar Culture in the Scrapbook of Hannah Hch (Ann Arbor: UMI, PhD dissertation, Bryn Mawr, 2001), 11-12. Johnson identifies Jula Dechs 1978 masters thesis as the first attempt to locate the mass media sources for Hchs collage materials. See also Lavin, Hannah Hchs Mass Media Scrapbook: Utopias of the Twenties, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 71-123; Maria Makela, By Design: The Early Work of Hannah Hch in Context, in The Photomontages of Hannah Hch, Peter Boswell, Maria Makela and Carolyn Lanchner (Minneapolis: Walker Art Center; New York: The Museum of Modern Art; Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1997), 49-79.

As Melissa A. Johnson writes, after the war a glut of illustrated magazines hit the newsstands. 7 Weimar was literally saturated with mass-media and over 2,000 magazine titles circulated in Berlin alone during the 1920s. 8 Hch had continual and easy access to an unfathomable amount of print media; thus, in addition to Ullstein magazines, it is likely she looked to other sources. This suggests that Hchs oeuvre merits critical examination beyond the context of mainstream publications. 9 Hchs photomontages demonstrate a highly personal engagement with contemporary print culture. As art historian Peter Boswell observes, the complex interplay between public and private that permeates Hchs photomontages confounds our historical associations with the medium. However, he continues, other factors intrinsic to Hchs production, such as her disconcertingly uneven output in a variety of media, make it difficult to present a concise view of her artistic personality. 10 As the following study will reveal, Hchs artistic production was shaped by the discourses of Weimar print culture, but above all, her biography, and her intimate relationships informed, and to a large degree, determined the tenor of her oeuvre. Notable among those experiences that influenced Hchs artistic production was her affair with Raoul Hausmann (1886-1971). The Berlin Dadaist was Hchs first love
Johnson, On the Strength of my Imagination, 62-63. Hanne Lorek, Auch Greta Garbo ist einmal Verkuferin gewesen: Das Kunstprodukt Neue Frau in den zwanziger Jahren, Frauen, Kunst, Wissenschaft 9, no. 10 (1990): 18, cited in Barbara Kosta, Unruly Daughters and Modernity: Irmgard Keuns Gilgi-eine von uns, The German Quarterly 68, no. 3 (Summer 1995): 284n18. 9 Hchs Album contains 429 images. Johnson has identified the sources of 201 images; however, the sources of the remaining 228 images have yet to be determined by Johnson, or others. 10 Peter Boswell, Hannah Hch: Through the Looking Glass, in Peter Boswell, Maria Makela, and Carolyn Lanchner, The Photomontages of Hannah Hch (Minneapolis: Walker Art Center; New York: The Museum of Modern Art; Los Angeles; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1996), 8.
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and her intimate partner from 1915 through 1922, yet her experience with him was bittersweet. When they met, Hausmann was married and had a seven year old daughter. He wanted to have a child with Hch; however, she refused because he was married. In 1916, and again in 1918, Hch decided to terminate two pregnancies by abortion, then an illegal and potentially fatal procedure. 11 Hchs identification with the New Woman figure (to be discussed in a later chapter) and her turbulent affair with Hausmann appear to have inspired what became a lifelong engagement with gender issues. Indeed, upon closer examination, a number of Hchs early works already appear to explore the commodification and victimization of women in patriarchal culture. As will be seen, these themes reflected aspects of Hchs personal experience and remained significant to her throughout her life. 12 Hchs stormy liaison with Hausmann, combined with the sexism of the Dadaists, 13 sensitized her to womens reproductive rights and gender issues and clearly informed her artistic sensibilities. However, Hchs lesbian relationship with the Dutch writer Mathilda Til Brugman (1888-1958) was undoubtedly the most transformative experience in her life. The artists intimate partner for nearly a decade (1926-1936),

Ralf Burmeister, Hannah Hch: Aller Anfang ist DADA! (Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz; Berlin: Berlinische Galerie, Landesmuseum fr Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur, 2007), 163-64. 12 Cara Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit fr Hannah Hch: Das Leben einer Knstlerin, 18891978 (Berlin: Osburg Verlag, 2011), 147. Having experienced two illegal abortions likely prompted Hch to participate in the 1931 Berlin exhibition Frauen in Not (Women in Need). Organized by the international Arbeiterhilfe (Workers Assistance), Kthe Kollwitz played a central role in the marketing and planning of the exhibition. Frauen in Not was intended to raise awareness for the plight of women faced with unwanted pregnancies with no alternatives but illegal and medically risky procedures, or suicide. Friedrich Wolfs 1929 controversial drama Cyankali-Paragraph 218 (Cyanide- Paragraph 218) thematized this serious problem. Before the play went on tour in 1930, Hch saw it in Berlin. Cyankali was shut down by Nazi eugenicists in 1931. 13 Boswell, Through the Looking Glass, 8. As Boswell remarks, In short, she was not one of the boys.

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Brugman shared and encouraged Hchs artistic engagement with a variety of themes and the couples complementary sensibilities are patently evident in their collaborative works. During Hch and Brugmans years together, Hchs photomontages accrued clarity and salience, and, as will be seen, similar developments are evident in Brugmans writing. Her travel reportage Von Hollands Blumenfelder (Hollands Flower Fields) (1933) and short-story collection Scheingehacktes (Mock-mincemeat) (1935) are illustrated by Hch and demonstrate the couples mutual pursuit of social and political criticism. Importantly, these projects also represented Brugmans introduction to a broader reading public and attest to her growing professionalism. Hchs subject matter and artistic style markedly changed during her years with Brugman. From the mid 1920s, as Boswell points out, her work became more focused on gender roles and the relationship between the sexes. 14 Similarly, Lavin observes a conspicuous increase in Hchs depictions of same-sex couples after 1926 and claims that her relationship with Brugman seems to have intensified and expanded gender concerns already evident in work. 15 Like them, Maria Makela writes that during this period, Hchs oeuvre underwent a subtle metamorphosis marked by an increase in the appearance of same-sex couples. 16 The unanimous tenor of these observations confirms how art historians have observed that, during her years with Brugman, Hchs sensibilities and her art significantly changed. This dissertation suggests that the artists
Boswell, Through the Looking Glass, in Boswell, Makela, and Lanchner, 12. Maud Lavin, Androgyny, Spectatorship, and the Weimar Photomontages of Hannah Hch, New German Critique, no. 51 (Autumn 1990): 67. 16 Makela, By Design, in Boswell, Makela, and Lanchner, 66.
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oeuvre, especially after 1926, merits increased consideration in relation to her lesbian sexuality. Furthermore, and central to the following discussion, Hchs lesbian partnership with Brugman fortuitously coincided with Weimars thriving sexual subculture and the advent of lesbian media. 17 Weimar lesbian books and periodicals were instrumental in enabling, influencing, and augmenting the contemporary perception of lesbianism and, as will be argued, significantly informed Hchs oeuvre. Hannah Hchs engagement with Weimar print culture was central to her oeuvre and will provide a starting point for this discussion. Yet, unlike other studies, the primary focus of this one will not be popular, i.e. heteronormative, media. Instead, her oeuvre will be newly considered in relation to publications that, while available to the average reader, nevertheless fell at the fringes of Weimar culture. These materials include sexological publications and, because Hch lived in a lesbian partnership from 1926, lesbian books and magazines. Depictions of women in the Weimar media were generally informed by patriarchal heterosexism, yet lesbian print culture offered an alternative to this model. However, as will be seen, on occasion, and somewhat ironically, lesbian publications reflected or appropriated popular representational tropes: a phenomenon also evident in Hchs contemporary oeuvre. As this study newly reveals, mainstream and lesbian print media were often, for all practical purposes, interchangeable. Understanding these similarities and subtle differences is crucial to an expanded
Heike Schader, Virile, Vamps und wilde Veilchen: Sexualitt, Begehren, und Erotik in den Zeitschriften homosexueller Frauen im Berlin der 1920er Jahren (Knigstein: Helmer, 2007), 42. Lesbian journals newly emerged in Weimar and were regularly published and distributed in Berlin between 1924 and 1933.
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comprehension of Weimar media, and will establish the basis for a new discussion of Hchs oeuvre. As will be shown, Hchs 1928 photomontages Russische Tnzerin (Russian Dancer) (fig. 2.1) and Englische Tnzerin (English Dancer) (fig. 2.2) reference both. The artists photomontages Liebe (Love) (1931) (fig. 3.10) and Auf dem Weg im F. Himmel (On the Way to F. Heaven) (1934) (fig. 3.18) will also be analyzed in the context of Weimar lesbian materials. Visual evidence suggests that Hchs contemporary depictions of same-sex female couples were much like those in the lesbian media, influenced and informed by popular ethnographic and political discourses. The chapters in the following study will be organized thematically and chronologically and begin with an overview of Hchs life and art that establishes a contextual frame for the more specialized and in-depth discussions in later chapters. An analysis of Hchs early biography and career will consider the influence of her upbringing, her artistic training, and her relationship with Hausmann upon her creative production. Hannah Hchs status as the sole woman among the Berlin Dadaists naturally raises issues of sexism, and the misogyny of the early-twentieth century avant-garde. Just as history attests to the sexism of her male colleagues, by todays standards, Hch may be classified as a feminist. 18 Importantly, however, Hch distinguished herself from the Dadaists in ways that had nothing to do with her gender: a comparative examination

Teresa de Lauretis, Technologies of Gender (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1987), 113. De Lauretis lists the following elements as essential to feminism: a critical reading of culture, a political interpretation of the social texts and of the social subject, and a rewriting of our cultures master narratives.

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of her photomontages and theirs reveals key differences in style and content and attest to Hchs originality and artistic independence. While Hchs relationship with Brugman represents her most significant intimate bond, any discussion of Hchs oeuvre must consider the influence of her affair with Hausmann and her Nazi-era marriage (1938-1944) to Kurt Heinz Matthies (1910-?). 19 Despite her marriage, after Hch separated from Brugman, she was often alone and led a solitary life. In 1942, Hch officially separated from her husband and it was then that she turned away from figural representation and increasingly pursued nature studies and abstraction. Generally, Hchs focus on the figure was most pronounced when she was involved with others; this suggests the strong influence of personal relationships, or lack thereof, upon her artistic production. During the 1950s, as Hch began to renew contacts that had been disrupted or severed by the war, figures and gender-related themes resurfaced in her oeuvre. Hannah Hchs lifelong interest in gender and sexual identity began during the late teens and is evident in her Dada-era photomontages. While the grotesque figures in Hchs early works often overwhelm more subtle aspects of human representation, they nonetheless signal and, as will be seen, anticipate Hchs engagement with morphology and sexual identity that flowered during her years with Brugman. Hch and Brugmans significant, yet underexplored, joint artistic projects will be a primary focus of this dissertation. The couples collaborative works humorously and

The date of Matthies death is unknown. For the last mention of Matthies in Hchs papers, see Burmeister, Aller Anfang ist DADA!, 189. Matthies contacted Hch in 1965 while he was visiting Berlin but she refused to see him.

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critically engage with a variety of social issues including conformity and greed. However, their satire was especially vitriolic when addressing sexism and gender-related themes. In addition, this dissertation will examine collaborative works that, under closer scrutiny, reveal the couples critique of contemporary politics and medical discourse. One of the main aspects of this study will be to foreground Hchs engagement with sexual subculture and the medicalization of Weimar sexology. This line of enquiry was initiated by Maria Makela, who has examined Hchs photomontages in relation to Weimar medical practice and sexual discourse. 20 While plastic surgeries were developed to ameliorate battle wounds, they were soon deployed to shape faces and bodies to conform to Aryan beauty standards. Makela perceptively claims that the influence of endocrinological and sexological discourses upon Weimar surgical practice is akin to the cutting and pasting of Hchs photomontages. 21 While she briefly, and tantalizingly, links Hchs 1926 photomontage Die Ssse (The Sweet One) (fig. 6.7) to early genderreassignment surgery, Makelas focus is, for the most part, discursive, and not visual. As will be shown, Hchs photomontages not only reflect sexual discourse, but importantly, may be linked to medical illustrations. Moreover, as will be seen, this aspect of Hchs oeuvre suggests Brugmans influence; while they were a couple, Brugman translated contemporary medical materials. 22

Maria Makela, Grotesque Bodies: Weimar-Era Medicine and the Photomontages of Hannah Hch, in Modern Art and the Grotesque, Francis S. Connelly, ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 193-219. 21 Makela, Grotesque Bodies, 193. 22 Unfortunately, the exact nature of these materials is unknown.

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Chapter I Dadas Good Girl and her Recurring Obsessions Chapter I, which focuses on Hchs early biography and her Dada-era works, will provide a basis for an extended examination of the artists oeuvre. While Hchs Dada and early Weimar-era oeuvre predates the focus of this study, and arguably, her artistic maturity, Hchs life and art during these years represent a starting point and foundation for her later work. Building upon previous scholarship, this study will train a new focus on Hchs oeuvre in relation to her sexual identity. 23 Hchs psycho-sexual biography, which included an illicit liaison with Hausmann, a ten-year lesbian partnership with Brugman followed by a brief marriage to a man twenty-three years her junior, attests to the radically unconventional nature of her intimate bonds. Importantly, it will be shown, these relationships found reflection in Hchs treatment of gender. Likewise, the artists wartime oeuvre, which is often abstract or devoid of figures, documents what Hch later described as a period of radical loneliness. 24

For the most complete discussion of Hchs work, see, Lavins monograph, Cut with the Kitchen Knife. For the most developed biography, see Cara Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit fr Hannah Hch: Das Leben einer Knstlerin, 1889-1978 (Berlin: Osburg Verlag, 2011). For a discussion of Hchs Dada-era artistic production, see, Ralf Burmeister, Hannah Hch: Aller Anfang ist DADA! (Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz; Berlin: Berlinische Galerie fr moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur, 2007); see also, Boswell, Makela, and Lanchner, The Photomontages of Hannah Hch. 24 Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 193-370. Hch made this statement in a 1958 interview. The artists radikale Vereinsamung (radical loneliness), which Schweitzer dates from 1935-1945, had much to do with the rise of Nazism; even before Hch separated from Brugman in 1936, many of her friends were compelled to leave Germany or go underground. The subsequent war only exacerbated the process.

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Chapter II Weimar Lesbian Representation and Hchs Russian Dancer and English Dancer This chapter will set the tone for a new reading of Hchs photomontages in the context of Weimar lesbian print culture. Detailed analysis will reveal that the artists Russian Dancer (2.1) and English Dancer (fig. 2.2) (both 1928) reflect the artists intimate relationship with Brugman and include a number of clues that clearly reference lesbian subculture. During the 1920s (for the first time in history), Weimar lesbians expressed themselves via public media, especially with magazines and books. However, the women involved in the authorship of these materials were faced with the task of representing what had traditionally been represented by men, 25 and often within a prurient or pornographic context. 26 Moreover, lesbians had to navigate and distinguish themselves in the midst of a number of popular feminine tropes. Staple media representations included dancers, show girls, nudists, and New Women (a term that will be expounded upon later). As will be seen, these same figures graced the covers of Weimar lesbian periodicals and featured prominently in Hchs photomontages and

Susan J. Wolfe and Julia Penelope, eds., Sexual Identity/ Textual Politics: Lesbian {De Com} positions, in Sexual Practice/Textual Theory: Lesbian Cultural Criticism (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1993), 10. For centuries, men have produced literature about Lesbians, about how men think lesbians think, how men imagine Lesbians behave as Lesbians, how men imagine it might feel to be a Lesbian. But these are not works within a Lesbian literary tradition. Emphasis original. 26 Merriam-Webster defines pornography as follows: 1. the depiction of erotic behavior (as in pictures or writing) intended to cause sexual excitement; 2. material (as books or photographs) that depicts erotic behavior and is intended to cause sexual excitement; 3. the depiction of acts in a sensational manner so as to arouse a quick intense emotional excitement. http://www.merriamwebster.com/pornography (accessed December 10, 2011).

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Album, the artists personal scrapbook-style collection of magazine imagery. 27 Evidence based on contemporary lesbian codes suggests that the Russian Dancer and English Dancer comprise a double portrait and represent the artist and her partner. While the two works, cannot, with absolute certainty, be characterized as a pair, as this chapter will argue, they may nevertheless be situated firmly within Weimar lesbian subculture. Chapter III Lesbian Representation, Weimar Ethnography, Politics, and Hannah Hch This chapter will identify discursive intersections between popular, sexological, and ethnographic materials in Weimar. It will trace their reflection in lesbian representational codes and in the work of Hch and her contemporaries. As will be shown, Hchs early engagement with lesbian themes in her photomontages, evident in the Russian Dancer and English Dancer, was soon followed by patently unambiguous depictions of lesbian sex and partnership. This suggests that Hchs years with Brugman enabled her to more freely engage with lesbianism; a development evident in the artists photomontages Auf dem Weg im F. Himmel (On the Way to F. Heaven) (1934) (3.17), which depicts a female couple and, Liebe (Love) (1930) (fig. 3.10) an image that evokes lesbian lovemaking. As stated, Hchs representations of female couples reflected changing imagery in contemporary lesbian periodicals; as Weimar lesbian print media was inventing new ways to represent lesbianism, Hch, too, was engaged in a similar process. While Hchs
Lavin, Hannah Hchs Mass Media Scrapbook: Utopias of the Twenties, in Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 73. The Scrapbook includes imagery from the 1920s and 1930s and was most probably assembled in 1933. See also Hannah Hch, Album (Scrapbook), Gunda Luyken, ed. (Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz; Berlin: Berlinische Galerie, Landesmuseum fr Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur, 2004); and Johnson, On the Strength of my Imagination.
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straightforward depictions of female couples have much in common with late Weimar lesbian magazines and contemporary ethnographic discourse, as will be shown in this chapter, after 1929, and especially after Adolf Hitler assumed power in 1933, repressive politics and the rise of censorship in Germany had a substantial impact on both Hchs photomontages and the representation of lesbians in the media. Chapter IV Hannah Hch and Til Brugman: Creative Collaboration, Social Critique, and Political Resistance This chapter examines the creative collaboration between Hch and her partner Til Brugman. While Brugmans extant literary oeuvre is somewhat patchy, 28 evidence linking her texts to Hchs oeuvre confirms the couples joint artistic production. 29 An indepth study of Hch and Brugmans creative collaboration has not yet been undertaken. As noted, their joint publications include a Dutch-themed travel-reportage, Von Hollands Blumenfelder (Hollands Flowerfields) (1933), and the 1935 volume Scheingehacktes (Mock-mincemeat). Both are satires: Hollands Blumenfelder is a thinly veiled polemic aimed at eugenic and racial discourse, while the short story Scheingehacktes parodies the blind pursuit of fads, advertising, consumer-culture, and sexism. As will be discussed at length, Hch, who critiqued and illustrated Brugmans texts, played a major role in expressing these themes.
Marion Brandts study represents the most complete discussion of Til Brugman. See Brandts Til Brugman: Das vertippte Zebra, Lyrik und Prosa (Berlin: Hoho Verlag Hoffmann, 1995), 160. Brandts book includes 17 poems, and 20 literary grotesques. Brandt writes that her choice of less than half of a possible 47 extant texts is purely subjective yet representative of Brugmans oeuvre. 29 See, Mineke Bosch and Myriam Everard, guest eds., Til Brugman and Hannah Hch, special issue Lust en Gratie 18 (Fall 1988); Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife; Maria Makela, Grotesque Bodies: Weimar-Era Medicine and the Photomontages of Hannah Hch, in Modern Art and the Grotesque, Frances S. Connelly, ed. (Cambridge: University of Cambridge, 2003), 193-219.
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Contemporary politics will be central to the discussion in this chapter. By 1930, the National Socialists (Nazis) had become so powerful that they dominated Weimar politics. Hch, who began her artistic career with the revolutionary anarchist Dadaists, and her partner Brugman, a foreign national who worked in an experimental literary genre, felt the brunt of repressive sanctions. Yet, despite these developments, each woman continued, either in her art or writing, to courageously resist Nazi policy and politics. Along with their political engagement, as this chapter will demonstrate, the couples joint and individual works worked to expose the sexism of patriarchal culture and its deleterious social and psychological effects. Hchs satirical, and often disturbing, late Weimar bride-themed photomontages reflect, or directly engage with Brugmans texts, particularly, as will be seen, the writers 1927 grotesque, Himilia. 30 Thematic similarities suggest the couples shared intellectual concerns in an ongoing, yet largely undocumented, creative partnership. Chapter V Hannah Hchs Tamer, Sexology, and Weimar Sexual Subculture While chapters one through four provide a largely linear, chronological framework for the discussion, which moves from Hchs Dada-years, the influence of lesbian subculture on the artists photomontages, and the effect of National Socialism upon her creative collaboration with Til Brugman, the subsequent chapters of this study will focus on thematic concerns in Hchs 1920s and 1930s oeuvre and support claims of

30

Til Brugman, Himilia, in Brandt, Vertippte Zebra, 141-150.

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the significance and centrality of Weimar sexual discourse and subculture upon Hchs visual expression. Hannah Hchs 1930 photomontage Dompteuse (Tamer) (fig. 5.1) (one of the most gender-ambiguous images ever created) is the focus of this chapter. The dual and ambiguously gendered Tamer will be shown to reflect, in a significant way, contemporary sexological publications and Weimar sexual subculture. Hchs Tamer, which combines oscillating 31 and unresolved male and female elements, attests to the artists ease with gender ambiguity, which was largely inspired by her lesbian relationship. Importantly, the Tamer speaks to, and, somewhat radically, anticipates late twentieth and early twenty-first century queer theory which argues for the elasticity of gender beyond a binary model. 32 And while queer theory, much like gender itself (at least according to its advocates) resists definition, it nevertheless debunks the concept of stable sexual identity and considers gender a shifting and contextual phenomenon. 33 Along with the artists own lesbian relationship, Weimar sexological discourse was also crucial to Hchs artistic development at this time. This chapter will present an overview of the nineteenth-century theorists whose research laid its foundations. Weimar sexology was largely based upon the work of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825-1890), Carl Westphal (1833-1890), and especially Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing (18401902). Westphals model of homosexual pathology was adopted by the Austrian

Lavin uses this term often to characterize Hchs representations of gender. See, Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 190-97, 200-03. 32 Annamarie Jagose, Queer Theory: An Introduction (New York: New York University Press, 1996), 1. 33 Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (New York: Routledge, 1999), 15.

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physician and psychiatrist Krafft-Ebing, the most widely published and influential nineteenth-century European sexologist. 34 While Krafft-Ebings work provided the basis for Weimar sexology, his research methods were altered and greatly improved by the leading Berlin sexologist, and homosexual, Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935). Hirschfelds ideas, and above all, the illustrations from his many publications, suggest a critical visual context for situating Hchs photomontages. Contemporaneous popular debates surrounding the New Woman figure will also play a key role in Chapter V. The concept of the New Woman revolutionized the gender status quo and is central to understanding Hchs photomontages and Brugmans literary oeuvre. Both artists may be characterized as New Women; they were economically and sexually independent and lived in an urban environment. The New Woman was an international phenomenon largely generated by historical events. After World War I, in what has been described as the feminization of the city, vast numbers of women flocked to European urban centers in search of employment. 35 These developments, and the masculine fashions that their lifestyle inspired, were widely, and rightly, perceived as a threat to the stability of bourgeois social tradition. The resultant destabilization of sexual roles generated by this phenomenon is suggested in a number of Hchs photomontages. The artists Tamer, to a degree, references the New Woman,

Harry Oosterhuis, Stepchildren of Nature: Krafft-Ebing, Psychiatry, and the Making of Sexual identity (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2000). 35 For a discussion of the New Woman in Weimar, See, Katharina von Ankum, ed., Women in the Metropolis: Gender and Modernity in Weimar Culture (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997); Katharina Sykora, et al. eds., Die Neue Frau: Herausforderung fr die Bildmedien der Zwanziger Jahre (Marburg: Jonas Verlag, 1993).

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yet, even more so, as will be seen, engages with sexual discourse and the practice of cross-dressing in Weimar sexual subculture. Chapter VI The Wonders of Weimar Endocrinology: Hchs gender-hybrids and Brugmans literary Grotesques Continuing the thematic approach, this chapter will explore ways in which Hch and Brugman engaged with Weimar endocrinology and the medicalization of gender. Along with the Tamer, Hchs photomontages Die Starken Mnner (The Strong Men) (1931) (fig. 6.4) and Die Ssse (The Sweet One) (1926) (fig. 6.7), to be discussed in this chapter, can be linked to both discourses. In addition, these photomontages suggest the artists interest in and knowledge of hormones and gender reassignment surgeries that these discourses inspired. While Tamer, Strong Men, and The Sweet One disrupt stereotypical representations of gender, above all, the latter two imply its increasing medicalization. Hchs Strong Men depicts the legendary boxer Max Schmeling (1905-2004) and addresses the conflated cultural and political concepts of strength and masculinity at the time. Beginning in the 1920s, the boxer and boxing became a favorite and frequent motif among artists. However, unlike her contemporaries, who celebrated the boxer as a virile hero, Hchs Strong Men presents a disrupted masculine avatar. Furthermore, the inside/outside view of the subjects body suggests Weimar medical illustrations and gender-altering procedures. Like Hch, Til Brugman engaged with the newly interrelated discourses of sexology and endocrinology. For the first time, a detailed analysis of their efforts along
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these lines will be presented in tandem. Brugmans literary grotesques Revision am Himmel (Revision/Adjustment in Heaven) and Warenhaus der Liebe (Department Store of Love/Sex) (1931-33) satirize sexology, endocrinological research, and vanguard surgical practice. Hchs exploration of the medicalization of sexology in her art is clearly suggested in the 1926 photomontage Sweet One, in which she cut, altered, and recombined male and female components. While the artists rough-hewn Sweet One rather crudely implicates surgical gender reconstruction, it nonetheless reflects vanguard medical practice and efforts to remedy what sexologist Hirschfeld classified as extreme transvestism. Extreme transvestites, like Einar Wegener (1888-1931), were not content to cross-dress or to change their names legally, but longed to physically alter their sex. Correlations between the illustrations and, above all, the dust-jacket of a book about Wegener and Hchs photomontage oeuvre will be made clear: both combine and redeploy fragments from the popular media and represent gender as a construction. Conclusion Examining Hannah Hchs photomontages within the context of her personal biography allows new readings of key works in the artists oeuvre. Arguably, Hchs unconventional personal relationships had an impact on her sensibilities and artistic production. As will be shown, a closer examination of Hchs intimate biography reveals important, yet, frequently overlooked information. Crucial details regarding the artists unhappy liaison with Raoul Hausmann, and the odd circumstances of her short-lived
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marriage to Kurt Matthies, which ended her partnership with Brugman, are often buried in footnotes. Most notably, details surrounding her Nazi-era marriage, which have only recently found their way into the scholarship, overturn unfounded speculation pertaining to Hchs sexuality in the years following her lesbian relationship. 36 This information is important and enables a fuller understanding of Hchs sensibilities and her artistic production. Moreover, this dissertation will establish how Hchs photomontages engage with salient aspects of Weimar lesbian print culture and gender discourse, a topic not fully explored in previous scholarship. It will trace in much greater detail than ever before exactly how selected works, both before and after her years with Brugman, were influenced by the dynamic discourse of gender and sexual identities in Germany. As will be argued, Hchs photomontages reflect her intimate biography, but, echoing diverse contemporary dialogues, also suggest the intersection of sexual subculture, scientific practice, and the popular imagination.

Cara Schweitzer, Der Fall Kurt Heinz Matthies, in Schrankenlose Freiheit fr Hannah Hch: Das Leben einer Knstlerin, 1889-1978 (Berlin: Osburg Verlag, 2011), 212-46.

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CHAPTER I Dadas Good Girl and her Recurring Obsessions Introduction Hannah Hch (fig. 1.1) reinvested the photomontage, a key artistic medium associated with the Berlin Dadaists, with new associations and meanings. In Hchs hands, the photomontage, deployed by leading members of this male-dominated movement to further their own radical artistic and political agendas, became a tool with which she explored gender and the representation of women. In his memoirs, the Berlin Dadaist Hans Richter described Hch as a good girl who served sandwiches and coffee during dada-meetings. 37 Hch understandably balked at this oft-cited remark; it confined her to the margins of the movement and rendered her a Dadaist by default: married into the radical clan rather than a member by right. 38 Richters characterization of Hch as a helpmate lessened and belittled her status as an artist, and is symptomatic of the misogynism of the early twentieth-century avant-garde. Because she was a woman, Hch was only begrudgingly included in Dada activities. Nevertheless, as will be seen, these experiences appear to have inspired her lifelong engagement with gender-related themes. Unlike her male cohorts, whose ridicule and satire was most often directed toward contemporary political and

Lora Rempel, The Anti-Body in Photomontage: Hannah Hchs Woman without Wholeness, in Sexual Artifice: Persons, Images, Politics, Ann Kibbey, Kayann Short, and Abouali Farmanfarmaian, eds. (New York: New York University Press, 1994), 155;169n6; See also, Hans Richter, Dada, Art, and Anti-Art (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1965), 132. See also, Ruth Hemus, Dadas Women, Hannah Hch: The good girl and the Dada club, in Dada Women (Yale University Press, 2009), 92, 221n7; 101. 38 Rempel, The Anti-Body, 155.

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advertising culture, 39 Hochs oeuvre suggest a more personal engagement with her key themes, most notably, sexism and the artifice of gender. This chapter will begin with an overview of Hchs early life, and examine her association with the Berlin Dadaists and intimate relationship with artist Raoul Hausmann, whom Hch met in 1915. This will be followed by a discussion of photomontage, a medium characterized by the cutting and recombining of photographic and other readymade graphic imagery. 40 The photomontage and collage were central to the Dadaists, however, as will be seen, Hch deployed these mediums much differently than her colleagues. 41 While Hchs photomontages are on occasion akin to those of her colleagues, unlike theirs, hers more fully explore the cultural construction of gender and the commodification of women. Hchs engagement with gender and sexuality grew significantly during her lesbian relationship with the Dutch author Til Brugman, which lasted from 1926 through 1936. Brugman clearly supported Hchs engagement with gender in her photomontages, which, after they met, became increasingly audacious. Active within international avant-garde circles, Brugman (fig. 1.2) was known for her sound poems and literary grotesques which often parodied bourgeois social conventions, including sexism and patriarchy. Brugman was clearly not afraid of controversy, yet her forceful personality was at times a liability. Above all, male artists with whom she was affiliated rejected and feared her bold critique and sarcasm, which was often at their expense.
Sherwin Simmons, Advertising Seizes Control of Life: Berlin Dada and the Power of Art and Commerce, Oxford Art Journal 22, no. 1 (1999): 121-46. 40 Dawn Ades, Photomontage (London: Thames and Hudson, 1976), 7-8. 41 Unless otherwise noted, the terms photomontage and collage will be used interchangeably throughout this discussion.
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Initially, when Hch and Brugman met, Hch was charmed by the writers unfettered manner, yet later, she too felt overwhelmed by Brugmans dominant nature. Hchs relationships, especially those of an intimate nature, informed her oeuvre. She claimed that lived experiences were einverleibt (became a part of ones body) and that they were integral and vital to her character and her creativity. As she wrote, I am convinced of this through my work; much lives in me latently, but is always readily awakened. 42 Hchs oeuvre confirms this claim; a number of works appear to revisit important personal themes from her past. Images from the 1920s and 1930s, especially those depicting children, for example, suggest that she had not yet fully come to terms with her terminated pregnancies which took place in 1916 and 1918. 43 Hchs oeuvre similarly reflects the solitary years following her separation in 1936 from Brugman. From the mid 1930s, figures all but disappear from her work and her brief marriage with Matthies seems to have had little influence on this development. Until 1960, Hchs oeuvre is dominated by nature studies and abstraction. While the many plant and garden themed works from this period attest to the artists perennial interest in nature, they also suggest her isolation in a rural

Cara Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit fr Hannah Hch: Das Leben einer Knstlerin, 18891978 (Berlin: Osburg Verlag, 2011), 354-55; 423n538. This c. 1942-1943 statement is an excerpt from an unsent letter to her then estranged husband Kurt Matthies. 43 Notable among them is the artists oil painting Symbolische Landschaft III (Symbolic Landscape III) (1930). In the foreground, the bodies of two children emerge from the open belly of a nude woman whose face bears a striking resemblance to Hchs.

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environment. 44 As Hch later claimed, these years represented a time of radical loneliness. 45 Hchs pursuit of nature studies and abstraction was supported by her move to the suburb of Berlin Heiligensee in late October 1939 with Matthies, her husband, who intermittently lived with her until 1942. From the mid 1930s until the late 1950s, Hchs oeuvre also reveals a shift away from photomontage to other media such as ink, gouache, or oil. In part, this may be attributed to dramatic changes in the German publishing industry. During the teens and twenties, popular magazines, Hchs primary source of artistic materials, were abundant. However, under Nazi rule, censorship, and, especially after 1939, war-related shortages and disrupted distribution channels curtailed the availability of print media. Central to her earlier oeuvre, the female figure played only a peripheral role in Hchs art after 1936, although it would eventually reemerge during the late 1950s. Her later reintroduction of the figure may, in part, be explained by the renewed availability of color print media in postwar Germany. Following the culturally conservative hiatus of the 1950s which emphasized marriage, domesticity, and childbearing, the next decade coincided with a renewed feminist thrust advocating womens civil and reproductive rights. During the 1960s, women, much as they had in the 1920s, sought greater economic opportunities yet, unlike their predecessors, they now gained a significant measure of sexual independence through contraceptive drugs. These combined developments inspired a
Heinz Ohff, ed. Hannah Hch: Ein Leben mit der Pflanze (Gelsenkirchen: Stdtisches Museum Kunstsammlung Gelsenkirchen-Buer, 1978). 45 Hannah Hch, Lebensberblick 1958, in Hannah Hch: eine Lebenscollage, Eberhard Roters, et al. (Berlin: Kunstlerarchiv der Berlinische Galerie, Landesmuseum fr Moderne Kunst; Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz, 1995), vol. 2, 199.
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new generation of New Women that seems to have roused Hch to revisit key artistic themes of her youth: gender and female representation. Hannah Hchs early life and career Hannah Hch was born Anna Therese Johanne Hch on November 1, 1888 in Gotha, a small city in the German province of Thuringia and was the oldest of five children in a well-situated bourgeois family. Hannahs father Friedrich was an insurance inspector. Her mother Rosa, born Sachs, was interested in music, literature, and painting, which, in the late nineteenth-century, was not uncommon among women of her class. In 1904, Hannahs education was interrupted when her parents removed her from school so she could tend to her younger sister Marianne. 46 Hch cared for her sister until 1910, and in 1911, began to work in her fathers office. In 1912, at the age of 23, Hch left Gotha for Berlin to study art. 47 Hch wanted to pursue fine art, but her parents insisted her course of study be practical and enable gainful employment. Hch accepted this compromise, and enrolled in the Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Applied Arts) in Berlin Charlottenburg where she studied ornamental graphic design. In August 1914, due to the outbreak of World War I, the Kunstgewerbeschule was closed, and Hch returned to Gotha where she was compelled to work for the Red Cross for a number of months. 48 In 1915, Hch returned

Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 13. Kristin Makholm, Chronology, in The Photomontages of Hannah Hch, Peter Boswell, Maria Makela and Carolyn Lanchner (Minneapolis: Walker Art Center; New York: The Museum of Modern Art; Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1997), 185-210. Hchs studies were interrupted in 1914 when the Berlin School of Applied Arts was closed due to the outbreak of war. She was forced to return to Gotha and work for the Red Cross. In 1915 she resumed her education and in 1916 began working as a graphic artist in Berlin for the Ullstein Press. 48 Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 18.
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to Berlin and enrolled at the Unterrichtsanstalt des Kunstgewerbemuseums (School of the Museum of Applied Arts) where she pursued graphic and Buchkunst (Book-arts). The school was located in the Kunstgewerbemuseum, which housed the object-based portion of the monarchys official collection. 49 The Museum School also had a library, and it was there, in April 1915, where Hch met her first love, Raoul Hausmann. 50 By the end of April, the two had become intimately involved and although turbulent, their relationship would prove highly influential upon Hchs artistic development. Emil Orlik, Hchs teacher at the Museum School, had learned woodcut techniques in Japan and brought his expertise into the German classroom. 51 Soon, Hch was working as Orliks assistant and cutting blocks according to his designs. In 1916 Hch was hired as a part-time graphic artist in the handicrafts department at the Ullstein Press, at the time Germanys largest newspaper and magazine publisher. Hchs duties there included designing knitting and embroidery patterns, then an integral rubric in periodicals geared to the female reader. In addition to her designs, Hch compiled short texts for the Ullstein fashion magazine and Paris Vogue equivalent, Die Dame (The Lady), as well as Die praktische Berlinerin (The practical Berlin-woman), a publication geared to the domestic tasks of a 1920s housewife. 52

Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 19. In late 1914 or early 1915, a portion of the School had been transformed into a makeshift military clinic and, as a result, the war was always present. The emergency shelter unit at the hospital was managed by Richard Cassirer, the brother of the Berlin gallery owner Paul Cassirer. 50 Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 20. 51 Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 20. George Grosz was also in Orliks class, but Hch had little contact with him while at school. 52 Ralf Burmeister ed., Biografie, in Hannah Hch: Aller Anfang ist DADA! (Berlin: Berlinische Galerie; Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2007), 16e; See also, Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 30. See also, Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 10.

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Hchs sexual and economic independence and her professional ambition epitomized salient aspects of the New Womans lifestyle. While the neue Frau (New Woman) informed and inspired countless young German females, their hopes were often dashed by the harsh realities of surviving in urban Weimar where they earned much less than their male counterparts. 53 As a self-supporting young woman, Hch was undoubtedly aware of the gulf between dreams and reality and, on occasion, as will be seen, her oeuvre reflects this discrepancy. Through her work at Ullstein, Hch came to value the textile arts and regard them as viable artistic forms which she herself would ultimately pursue. In a 1918 article for a womens handicraft magazine, Hch appealed to her readers by claiming As modern women who believe to be engaged in intellectual work, you must recognize that your needlework documents your experience. 54 Indeed, the artists early engagement with applied textile arts found reflection in a number of doll figures she constructed between 1916 and 1918. Made from a combination of cloth and other materials, these figures also reflect a revived contemporary interest in puppets and dolls. 55 Merging handicraft, dance culture and theater arts, dolls were a favorite motif

Katharina von Ankum, ed. Women in the Metropolis: Gender and Modernity in Weimar Culture (Berkeley; Los Angeles; London: University of California Press, 1997), 3-5. Von Ankum claims that the economic disadvantages woman faced were largely responsible for a reactionary trend in late Weimar to idealize more traditional, and ergo, financially more secure, female roles of marriage and motherhood. 54 Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 29. This article appeared in the Darmstadt magazine Stickerei-und Spitzen Rundschau, in September 1918. See also, Bettina Schascke, Schnittmuster der Kunst: Zu Hannah Hchs Prinzipien der Gestaltung, in Hannah Hch: Aller Anfang ist DADA!, Ralf Burmeister, Ausstellung Katalog, Berlinische Galerie Landesmuseum fr Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur (Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz Verlag; Berlin: Berlinische Galerie, 2007), 120. 55 Juliet Koss, Bauhaus Theater of Human Dolls, Art Bulletin 85, no. 4 (December 2003): 728. Koss locates the historical sources of the early twentieth-century fascination with the doll among the artistic avant-garde, and their frequent substitution of the human with the puppet, in the German Romantic literary imagination. As she claims, works of E.T.A. Hoffman and Heinrich von Kleist influenced

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among many early twentieth-century avant-garde artists and writers. During the teens, Hch made six dolls, but only two have survived. 56 German artist Charlotte Lotte Pritzel was famous for her Knstlerpuppe (Artists-dolls), for example, and, in 1921 the poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote the text for a book that featured Pritzels wax dolls. 57 Two of Hchs lost dolls were briefly featured in the 1923 film Die Pritzelpuppe (The Pritzeldolls/puppets). 58 Hchs 1919 Dada-Puppen (Dada-Dolls, or Puppets) (fig. 1.3), while whimsical and humorous, were not playthings, nor precious like Pritzels decorative and highly prized figures. 59 Instead, Hchs dolls are irreverent and grotesque: their costumes were partially made of cheap cardboard and mismatched buttons, and their facial features are grossly simplified. In addition, they are among Hchs first works to engage with the female couple. Their exaggerated breasts foreground Hchs perennial interest in the cultural construction and fetishization of femininity, which was reiterated visually a half a century later in the artists 1969 collage Entartet (Degenerate) (fig. 1.4), the title of which most likely references the 1937 exhibition Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art).

developments in nineteenth-century theatre and ballet and inspired a number of later works including Oskar Schlemmers 1922 Triadic Ballet. 56 Janina Nentwig, Dada-Puppen, in Burmeister, Aller Anfang ist DADA!, 58. 57 Rainer Marie Rilke and Lotte Pritzel, Die Puppen (Munich: Hyperion Verlag, 1921). See also, Ren Schickele et al., Das Puppenbuch (Berlin: Erich Reiss, 1921). Schickeles volume discusses the dolls of Pritzel and Erna Pinner. Schickele was a member of the original Dada group in Zrich. See, Antje Olivier, Die Sammlung gehrt in die Charit! Hannah Hch: die einzige Frau unter den Berliner Dadaisten, in Anpassung oder Verbot: Knstlerinnen und die 30er Jahre, Antje Olivier and Sevgi Braun (Dsseldorf: Droste Verlag, 1998), 82. 58 Nentwig, Dada-Puppen, 58n7. Directed by Ulrich Kayser, the film was produced by Universum Film AG (UfA) and featured the popular dancer Niddy Impekoven, a figure Hch also referenced in Cut with the Kitchen Knife. Hch is not credited in the film. 59 Lotte Pritzels (1887-1952) Knstlerpuppe (Artist-puppets/dolls) were prized among collectors and later served as templates for a series of porcelain figurines.

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Hchs creative interest in textile design and her sense of political irony are equally reflected in her 1922 collage Entwurf fr das Denkmal eines bedeutendes Spitzenhemdes (Sketch for a Monument to an Important Lace-Shirt) (fig. 1.5). Made from paper embroidery pattern scraps, the humble materials and irreverent title of Sketch suggest the mocking tone of the Dadaists. However, the works geometric composition also indicates the influence of Russian Constructivism. 60 Maud Lavin notes that the collage may have been intended as an ironic reference to Vladimir Tatlins Monument to the Third International. 61 Although never built, Tatlins grandiose architectural testimonial to Soviet Communism (1919-20) represented the melding of politics and art that characterized and inspired a number of European artists in the late teens and early twenties. Links between Hch and Tatlin are feasible when one considers that the Dadaists and the Russian Constructivists organized a joint Berlin exhibition in 1922 and shared similar political and aesthetic goals. 62 While Hch was invited to participate in this exhibition, she was unable. 63 However, she later remarked, I did not want to define myself as a Constructivist at all. 64

Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 41. 1922 marked the year Hch left Hausmann, and, in the art world, a shift of interest from the anarcho-communism of much of Dada to the more concrete political ideals of Soviet Constructivism. 61 Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 224n57. 62 Here, Raoul Hausmanns photomontage Tatlin lebt zu Hause (Tatlin Lives at Home) (1920), which prominently features Tatlins face, also comes to mind. 63 Susanne Meyer-Bser, ed. Die Andere Seite des Mondes: Knstlerinnen der Avantgarde (Dsseldorf: Kunstsammlung Nordrhein Westfalen; Cologne: Dumont Verlag, 2010), 276. Hch was invited to participate but received the invitation too late; it reached her Berlin studio while she was traveling in Southern Germany. Artists represented in the exhibition included El Lissitzky, Lszl Moholy-Nagy, Theo and Nelly Doesburg, Hans Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp. 64 Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 104; 397n296. Heinz Ohff, Hannah Hch (Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 1968), 27.

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Hch and the Dadaists Hannah Hchs early contacts with the Berlin art scene were made through her schoolmate Maria Uhden. 65 Like Hch, Uhden was a Gotha native and studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule. Uhden introduced Hch to the Berlin gallery of Herwarth Walden, around which the Expressionist and proto-Dada Der Sturm group had gathered. 66 It was through her lover, Raoul Hausmann, that Hch came into close contact with the Berlin Dadaists, a group united by an ironic cynicism and a desire to provoke. 67 Hch met Hausmann (fig. 1.6) in 1915, and, despite his marriage and child, the two quickly became romantically involved. Like Hch, Hausmann was raised in a sheltered bourgeois milieu; however, art, merely a tasteful hobby in the Hch household, was an integral part of the Hausmann family. Hausmanns father, Victor, was a native of Hungary and studied art in Vienna, where he soon established a reputation as a history and portrait painter. In 1900, Victor Hausmann was invited by Kaiser Wilhelm II to come to Berlin and work for him as a court painter. After the Hausmann family relocated, Victor no longer forced his unruly fourteen year-old son to attend school. Instead, as Raoul Hausmann later reported, he spent his time riding a bike or painting, and, unlike Hch, who pursued formal art training, he was an autodidact. 68 When Hch and Hausmann met, his relationship with his parents was strained. Shortly
Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 20. Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 20; See also, George Heard Hamilton, Painting and Sculpture in Europe 1880-1940 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1967), 474. Herwarth Walden [born Georg Levin] (1878-1941?), musician, composer and man of letters, was the best known as the energetic proprietor of the activities embraced under the title Der Sturm (The Storm). These consisted of a publishing house and journal, founded in 1910, to which Walden added a gallery two years later. 67 Maud Lavin, The Berlin Dada Photomontages, in Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 14. See also, Hemus, Hannah Hch: The good girl in the Dada Club, 91-127. 68 Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 23; 388n5.
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after the First World War, in 1920, his mother and father committed suicide together. 69 No references in the Hausmann/Hch correspondence address this tragic event. However, as scholars suggest, the runaway inflation and collapse of the Hapsburg monarchy after the war destroyed the court painters livelihood and devastated his sense of social identity. 70 As they reported, Hch and Hausmann jointly developed the technique of photomontage while vacationing in 1918. 71 Scholars define photomontage as the piecing together of photographic media and typographic sources, usually cut from printed mass media. 72 However, their colleagues Heartfield and Grosz also claimed to have invented the medium. 73 While this debate has never been put to rest, the artists involved in the purported invention of the photomontage greatly relied uponindeed appropriateda popular mid-nineteenth-century practice in which the cutting and pasting of disparate photographic elements was used to create fanciful scenes or comic

Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 23. Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 23; 388n7; See also, Karoline Hille, . . . ber den Grenzen, mitten in Nchternheit: Prothesenkrper, Maschinenherzen, Automatenhirne, in Phantasmen der Moderne, ed. Pia Mller-Tamm and Katharina Sykora (Cologne: Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, 1999), 41. 71 Ralf Burmeister, et al., Hannah Hch, 1889-1978: Ihr Werk, Ihr Leben, Ihre Freunde (Berlin: Berlinische Galerie; Argon Verlag, 1989), 17. In August 1918, during a vacation in Heidebrink, a fishing village on the island of Wollin, they report inventing photomontage. They claim that this technique was inspired by popular German Erinnerungsbltter der Regimentszeit, souvenir prints that feature pasted portrait heads of soldiers onto pre-printed figures in uniform. 72 Peter Boswell, Maria Makela, Carolyn Lanchner, and Kristin Makholm, The Photomontages of Hannah Hch (Minneapolis: Walker Art Center; New York: The Museum of Modern Art; Los Angeles; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1996), 2. 73 Brandon Taylor, Collage: The Making of Modern Art (London: Thames and Hudson, 2004), 4041. The use of photographic fragments marked a watershed-semantically, aesthetically, politically. We can well believe John Heartfields claim that he began cutting and pasting photo-images in the trenches as early as 1915this is a slightly different version than George Grosz tells: In 1916 . . . Johnny Heartfield and I invented photomontage in my studio.
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postcards. 74 While the Dadaists may have invented the term, they did not invent the technique: photomontage is as old as photography itself. 75 The Dadaists integration of the word montage to describe the technique was significant to them and derived from the French, Monteur (assembler). 76 They chose this term over the too dainty and too French papier coll, to signal their political identification as workers, rather than fine artists, and their desire to disrupt existing cultural and political hierarchies. 77 Photomontage: Conflict and Rupture The paradox of photomontage, as Dawn Ades writes, enables a distortion of reality deploying the medium of photography which is its truest mirror. 78 In the same vein, the photograph, Jonathan Crary claims, is a mechanical, mass-produced form of exchangeable truth. 79 The question whether a photograph is a slice of truth, or whether it is a manner of representing that tags onto the tradition or genre of pictorial realism, Lora Rempel concludes, verges on the metaphysical. Suffice it to say that, broadly speaking, photomontage undermines the concept of empirical truth. 80 In 1925, the German art historian and photographer Franz Roh recognized this discrepancy when he insightfully characterized the photomontage as a precarious synthesis between the pictorial techniques of modernist abstraction and the realism of
Makela, By Design: The Early Work of Hannah Hch in Context, in Boswell, Makela, and Lanchner, 59. 75 Ades, Photomontage, 7. 76 Before the Nazis came to power, French terms were commonly used in Germany. The Nazis were instrumental in the systematic Aryanization of the German language, i.e, expunging Fremdwrter (Foreign language words) from usage. 77 Taylor, Collage, 41. 78 Ades, Photomontage, 19. 79 Jonathan Crary, The Techniques of the Observer: On Vision and Modernity in the NineteenthCentury (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1990), 99. 80 Rempel, The Anti-Body, 153-54.
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the photographic fragment. 81 Rohs formal observations referencing the fragment resonate with similar remarks made by cultural theorists who symbolically linked photomontage and film to the fractured experience of everyday life in urban Germany. 82 Yet, the experience and characterization of modern urban life as fragmented and fractured was not limited to contemporary Germany. In a 1934 interview, Hch claimed that photomontage happened independently after the war in a number of diverse countries simultaneously. 83 She attributed this to strides in modern photographic techniques, the proliferation of film, and the common practice among graphic artists of cutting-up and/or reconfiguring photographs to manipulate and enhance advertising imagery and journalistic reportages. 84 Hch, who was familiar with both commercial and fine art practice, was able to bridge the two. In 1921 her photomontage of a carnivorous potted plant leaning over a dinner plate was published by Ullstein as an April Fools joke (Aprilscherze). This

Carolyn Lanchner, Later Adventures of Dadas Good Girl: The Photomontages of Hannah Hch after 1933, in The Photomontages of Hannah Hch, Peter Boswell, Maria Makela and Carolyn Lanchner (Minneapolis: Walker Art Center; New York: The Museum of Modern Art; Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1997), 130. 150n7; See also, Christopher Phillips, Introduction, in Montage and Modern Life, 1919-1942, exh. Cat. (Boston: Institute of Contemporary Art, 1992), 26; Franz Roh, Nachexpressionismus (Leipzig: Klinckhardt und Biermann, 1925), 45-46. 82 In his seminal 1903 essay Die Grossstadt und das Geistesleben (The Metropolis and Urban Life), German cultural theorist Georg Simmel characterized urban experience as fractured. Simmel claimed that the accelerated pace of the city led to the intensification of emotional life due to swift and continuous shift of external and internal stimuli. See, The Metropolis and Mental Life, On Individual and Social Forms: Selected Writings, ed. Donald N. Levine (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971), 325; See also, Barbara Kosta, Unruly Daughters and Modernity: Irmgard Keuns Gilgi-eine von uns, The German Quarterly 68, no. 3 (Summer 1995): 272. 83 Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 219-20, cites Hchs statement in the Czech journal, Stredisko 4, no. 1, (Brno, Czechoslovakia, 1934). In the article, Hch mentions Switzerland, Russia and Germany. 84 Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 220. Stredisko 4, no. 1. Translated from the original German into Czech by Frantiek Kalivoda. Translated from Czech into English by Jitka Salaguarda.

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demonstrates Hchs ability to navigate between commercial and artistic production. 85 Hch dismissed her work at Ullstein as a Broterwerb (job-for-bread), and reportedly remained there only out of financial necessity; however, it nonetheless allowed her to successfully reconcile art and commerce. 86 Later, she would support herself by designing book-jackets. 87 Hch, however, distinguished between the commercial and journalistic use of photomontage and its fine art application when, in 1934, she spoke of free-form photomontage which she described as an art form that grew from the soil of photography. The peculiar characteristics and its approaches have opened up a new and immensely creative field for a creative human being: a new magical territory, for which freedom is the first prerequisite; but not a lack of discipline, however. Even these newly discovered possibilities remain subjects to the laws of form and color. Hch concluded by observing, wherever we want to force this photomatter to yield new forms of discovery, we must start without any preconceptions: most of all, we must be open to the beauty of fortuity. Here more than anywhere else, these beauties,
Pictured in Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 60. The image was published on two occasions. The first time it was captioned Interessante Neuwerbungen des Botanischen Gartens (Interesting new acquisitions at the Botanical Garden) and was printed in BIZ 30, no. 14 (April 1, 1921): 200. The same image was published again in 1925 as a Fleischfressende Pflanzen, (Meat-eating Plant) in Uhu (April 1925): 96. While the 1921 version appears on a neutral blank background, in 1925, the plant is surrounded by text. Interestingly, the text addresses the theme of photographic manipulation: a fragment reads, selbst die Straussennrennen, die der Photograph im Jahre 1907 nur durch khne Retouche konstruieren konnte, wrden im vergangenen Sommer nicht nur ehrlich photographiert, sondern auch mit allen Zwischenfllen . . .gefilmt. (An Ostrich-race which in 1907 could only be reconstructed by boldly retouching the photograph was honestly photographed this Summer [1925] and even filmed with all its ups and down.) This commentary implies that by 1925, the public had grown accustomed to images enhanced through photomontage. In addition, it also suggests that they could appreciate the increased veracity of unadulterated photographic and filmic reportage made newly possible through technical advances. 86 Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 61; 229n56. Kurt Schwitters apparently liked Hchs carnivorous plant so much that he reproduced the image as a postcard sometime in the 1920s; See also Ohff, Hannah Hch, 43. 87 Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 160-61. All in all, Hch would earn significantly more as a graphic rather than fine artist throughout her career. In 1932, she began to work in a freelance capacity for her friend, the Dutch publisher Anthony Tony Bakels. Bakels and his wife Miek lived in Berlin until political developments forced them to leave in the late 1930s.
85

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wandering and extravagant, obligingly enrich our fantasy. 88 Hchs statement, and especially her remark regarding wandering and extravagant fantasy, gains added significance when we consider that it was made during the fascist era when, to many, fantasy was an indispensable tool of subversion and survival. Hch and her Contemporaries: Aesthetic and Technique Hannah Hch foregrounded the artistic possibilities of the photomontage and clearly distinguished her creative intentions from those of her politically motivated colleagues. 89 The rise of Berlin Dada coincided with that of the radical political left, and significantly informed and colored its production. Dada represented and provided a voice of opposition when the leftist revolution was suppressed by the Weimar government. 90 As Sabine Hake has observed, the creative possibilities of photomontage to thematize conflict and rupture were immediately recognized and eagerly adopted by the German Dadaists to express their political agenda. 91 Like them, Hch deployed the medium as an instrument of social criticism, yet, her emphasis on the beauty of fortuity and the enrichment of fantasy it made possible implied a different sensibility. Hchs unique sensibility is even more apparent when we consider her distinctive representation of the human figure, her unmediated technical practice, and her minimal deployment of textual elements. As will be discussed below, these

Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 220. Hchs statement appeared in the Czech magazine Stredisko 4, no. 1 (1934). 89 Magdalena Dambrowski, Photomonteur: John Heartfield, MoMA, no. 13 (Winter-Spring 1993): 13. 90 Gale, Dada and Surrealism, 135. 91 Sabine Hake, Imagining the New Berlin: Modernism, Mass Utopia, and the Architectural Avant-Garde, in Legacies of Modernism: Art and Politics in Northern Europe, 1890-1950, eds., Patrizia C. McBride, Richard W. McCormick, and Monika agar (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), 113.

88

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characteristics link Hchs oeuvre to that of her acquaintance, Surrealist Max Ernst (1891-1976). Hannah Hchs associations with Dada and, to a lesser degree, with Surrealism, suggest that her oeuvre may be considered in relation to the work of those artists affiliated with these early-twentieth century artistic movements. While many of Hchs photomontages are easily distinguished from those of her contemporaries, on occasion, they are almost interchangeable. For example, the large typographic elements in Hchs photomontage Oz, der Tragde (Oz, the Tragic Actor) (1919) (fig. 1.7) are echoed in Hausmanns ABCD (1923-24) (fig. 1.8). Commonalities between the two works suggest a similar visual aesthetic, which is understandable when one considers that Hch and Hausmann were intimately involved for seven years. However, a closer comparison of Hausmanns ABCD and Hchs Oz reveals significant differences. Hausmanns ABCD suggests an anxious exploration of self and personal identity. Arguably, the early 1920s was a difficult emotional period for Hausmann; he had lost both parents to suicide in 1920, and Hch broke off her seven-year relationship with him in 1922. Framed by typographic elements, one of which is his own name, Hausmanns face dominates the image. These bold acts of self-reference suggest that, at the time, Hausmanns identification as a Dadaist anchored both his art and his concept of self. The claustrophobic visual quality of ABCD is underscored by Hausmanns alarmed, yet frozen, expression. Near the bottom of the image, a medical illustration depicting a cross-section of a female torso with two fingers penetrating a vaginal canal and pushing toward a uterus may simultaneously reference birth, his mother, or
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intimate sexual relations. Yet the intensity of the filial or sexual intimacy that this image suggests is relativized by the two hemispheres of a globe pictured nearby. In the early decades of the twentieth-century, the globe was a symbol of expansion, and, among Western European colonial powers, a visual cipher for spaces and lands to be conquered. Here, the dual hemispheres, pasted over with meaningless letters snipped from a cheap newspaper, suggest the rootless emotional state of the orphaned emigrant artist, Raoul Hausmann. While large typographic elements in Hausmanns ABCD echo those in Hchs Oz, the Tragic Actor, unlike Hausmanns anxiously self-referential image, Hchs Oz suggests playfulness and humor. In her photomontage, Hch whimsically combines a female dancers body with a male head. The head pictured is that of Groszs brother-in-law Otto Schmalhausen. Schmalhausen, an Antwerp native whose nickname was Oz, exhibited on occasion with the Berlin Dadaists. 92 This photomontage attests to Hchs pronounced interest in morphology and reiterates configurations in Cut with the Kitchen Knife. In addition to a dual-gendered figure, in the lower right corner of the image, the body of a fat baby is capped by the tiny face of an old man, another provocative composite. Similarities between Hchs oeuvre and that of her Dada-colleague Kurt Schwitters (1887-1949) are also evident. The tight geometric patterning of Schwitters 1923 Merz collage Miss Blanche (fig. 1.9) 93 is easily linked to, and may have even

Gale, Dada and Surrealism, 121-22; See also Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 37. Gale, Dada and Surrealism, 153. His version of Dada, Schwitters one-man-movement Merz was named after a fragment of the German Kommerzbank (Commerce-bank). Schwitters launched Merz
93

92

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inspired Hchs Collage (Dada) (1922-24) (fig. 1.10). However, parallels between the two artists works are not surprising; neither Hch nor Schwitters ever allowed politics to overcome their aesthetic. Furthermore, Kurt and his wife Helma were her good friends; Hch joined the Schwitters on vacation on the German island of Rgen in 1923. 94 A Hanover native, Schwitters stored material and worked in Hchs studio when he was in Berlin, 95 and in 1923, hosted an artistic soire there. 96 Hch also assisted Schwitters in the construction of his legendary Merzbau, an architectural installation in his own home which he began sometime between 1919 and 1923. 97 Words not Pictures: Language and Sexism? A penchant for the photomontage medium and a program of social criticism clearly links Hch to the Dadaists. Yet, viewed against the heavy-handed politicizing of her Berlin colleagues, who routinely deployed words, phrases and letters to express anarchic or satirical political commentary, Hchs photomontages, which rely on visual instead of textual clues to convey meaning, are easily distinguishable from theirs. As evident in Raoul Hausmanns ABCD, and as will be seen in George Groszs and John Heartfields Sonniges Land (Sunny Land) (1919) (fig. 1.11), the Dadaists generally

in January 1919 after unsuccessful attempts to join the Berlin Dadaists. He was excluded from the group because Huelsenbeck and especially Grosz were not convinced of his political commitment. 94 Burmeister, Aller Anfang ist DADA!, 169. 95 Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 46. Indeed, Hchs studio served as a meeting and storage place for a number of her colleagues who stuffed things under the slanted roof of her Bsingstrasse studio. Artist Hans Arp also worked in Hchs studio while in Berlin in 1923. See, Heinz Ohff, ed., Hannah Hch: Ein Leben mit der Pflanze, Ausstellungs Katalog Stditisches Museum Kunstsammlung GelsenirchenBuer (Gelsenkirchen: Kunstsammlung, 1978), 10. 96 Burmeister, Aller Anfng ist DADA!, 170. 97 Boswell, Hannah Hch: Through the Looking Glass, 22n3. While visiting Schwitters in Hanover, Hch helped in the construction of two grottoes in his Merzbau sculpture. For a discussion of the Merzbau, see, Elizabeth Burns Gamard, Kurt Schwitters Merzbau: The Cathedral of Erotic Misery (New York: Princeton university Press, 2000).

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foregrounded textual elements in their images. This common practice is evident in such diverse works as Hausmanns Pome phontique affiche (1918), 98 Theo van Doesburgs Dada Poster (1922), 99 and Russian artist Ivan Punis watercolor La Fuite des Formes (1919), 100 all of which are comprised solely of letters. While these images often convey meaning, they are on occasion unintelligible. Nonetheless, the primacy of letters and textual fragments in these images emphasize the aesthetics of typography: an indication that a number of the Dadaists were formally trained and professionally active in the graphic arts. 101 In contrast, and despite her formal training as a graphic artist, Hch deployed textual elements only minimally and, with rare exceptions, they disappear from her photomontages entirely by the mid-1920s. This suggests that if Hch intended to express political or social messages in her work, these were not to be literally conveyed. The significance of typography and language among male avant-garde practitioners, as correspondence suggests, was a contentious issue between Hch and Hausmann. 102 While Hchs original critique cannot be reconstructed, in a 1918 letter to her, Hausmann rebuked what he felt to be an insult on her part, and wrote, You think the woodcut is good except for the many letters. In his defense, Hausmann explained, The

Two of these Pomes are pictured in Gale, Dada and Surrealism, 127. Gale, Dada and Surrealism, 160. Van Doesburg came into contact with the German Dadaists through his close friend Kurt Schwitters. Van Doesburgs Dada Poster is pictured in Gale (162). 100 Gale, Dada and Surrealism, 157. Ivan Puni was a Russian Constructivist who moved to Germany during the 1920s to escape Soviet oppression. His watercolor La Fuite des Formes is pictured in Gale (160). 101 Hch was trained as a graphic artist, as were John Heartfield, his brother, Wieland Herzfelde, and George Grosz. 102 See, Marion Brandt, ed., Til Brugman: Das vertippte Zebra, Lyrik und Prosa (Berlin: Hoho Verlag Hoffmann, 1995), 161; 213n3.
99

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Dadaist uses letters because he wants to distinguish himself from typography that is purely mechanically-generated . . . and call attention to this small, difference that is larger in realm of art. 103 Here, Hausmann was not only defending his aesthetic choices, but also using them to support his claim of artistic superiority based on the culture of language. 104 Furthermore, he masculinizes language by symbolically equating it with the male sex, and, in the process, makes no effort to concealindeed he uses--this very argument to rationalize his sexism. Hausmanns emphasis on der kleine Unterschied, der eben in der Kunst grosser ist, or the small difference that is clearly larger in the realm of art, clearly references a popular German expression used to describe the anatomical difference between men and women. As feminist scholars maintain, early twentieth-century European modernism was clearly gendered masculine. 105 Literary theorist Monika Faltesjskova writes, The modernist redefinition of culture was a strongly selective process of an exclusionary nature and as such was often conducted in the form of sex war metaphors. 106 This
103

Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 49. Cites letter from Hausmann to Hch, May 5, 1918, reproduced in Eberhard Roters, et al. Hannah Hch: eine Lebenscollage (Berlin: Kunstlerarchiv der Berlinische Galerie, Landesmuseum fr Moderne Kunst; Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje Cantz, 1995), vol. 1, 394. 104 Monika Faltesjskova, Djuna Barnes, T.S. Eliot and the Gender Dynamics of Modernism (New York: Routledge, 2010), 132. The inherent paternalism of language was thematized by Jacques Lacan. According to Lacan, the pre-oedipal child is not yet formed as subject and identifies with the mother as one. The interruption of this unity comes in the form of speech from the father. Hence, language removes the child from his mother and substitutes this bond with the law of the father, and relatedly, of the culture; See also Jacques Lacan, The Mirror Stage as formative of the function of the I, in crits: A Selection, trans. A. Sheridan (London: Tavistock, 1977). 105 Gill Perry, Gender and Art (New Haven: Yale University Press; London: The Open University, 1999), 196. Perry writes, Despite their technical radicalism, many forms of avant-garde practice in fact perpetuate and privilege a predominantly masculine or patriarchal value system. See also, Carol Duncan, Virility and Domination in early-twentieth-century Vanguard Painting, in Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard, eds. Feminism and Art History: Questioning the Litany (New York: Harper and Row, 1982), 292313; Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, No Mans Land: The Place of the Woman Writer in the Twentieth Century, 2 vols. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988), vol. I, The War of the Words, 227. 106 Faltesjskova, Engendering Modernism, 18.

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suggests that Hausmanns comments were both symptomatic and representative of the sexism embedded in the misogynistic rhetoric of the modernist avant-garde that sought to diminish and exclude women. Even though he supported her at times, as Antje Olivier observes, Hausmann was jealous of Hchs professional success and that whenever Hchs name was included in a Dada publication, he made sure that it was misspelled. 107 As Cara Schweitzer remarks, sexism and misogynistic attitudes (frauenfeindliche Haltung) were even evident in progressive contemporary art journals such as Simplicissmus and Jugend. In these publications, Malweiber (a derogatory, disrespectful, and sexist term for female painters) were often portrayed standing next to easels sporting beards and wearing mens clothing. As will be seen in a later chapter, images of bearded women were deployed in the Weimar media as an intimidating and powerful anti-feminist tool. However, with regard to women artists, the message was clearly aimed at discrediting them. If they should ever achieve anything beyond being a dilettante, they would mutate into men. 108 Because the misogyny of the early twentieth-century European avant-garde will be more thoroughly addressed later, I will forego an extended discussion here and, instead, continue my analysis of Hchs Dadaera photomontages and those of her contemporary colleagues. The 1920 Dada Fair and Hchs Cut with the Kitchen Knife Hchs 1919 photomontage Schnitt mit dem Kchenmesser Dada durch die letzte weimarer Bierbauchkulturepoche Deutschlands (Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada through the last Weimar Beer Belly Cultural Epoch of Weimar Germany) (fig. 1.12) is one of the
107 108

Olivier, Die Sammlung gehrt in die Charit, 88. Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 17; 388n19.

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artists best known works. One of her earliest collages, it represents a baseline for examining Hchs continued critical engagement with gender stereotypes. Cut with the Kitchen Knife was included in the Erste Internationale Dada Messe (First International Dada Fair), a legendary 1920 exhibition held in a backroom of the Berlin gallery owned by Dr. Otto Burchard. 109 An incident leading up to the Dada Fair demonstrates the blatant sexism of her colleagues at that time. John Heartfield (18911968) and George Grosz (1893-1958) initially refused to let Hch be in the show; it was only due to the efforts of Hausmann, who threatened to withdraw from the exhibition if they did not allow her to participate, that her work was shown. 110 Ultimately, Hch was represented in the show with eight works. However, Heartfield and Grosz, the organizers of the Dada Fair, exacted revenge in the exhibition catalogue by writing that Hch and Hausmann were the Dolls parents. 111 Intended primarily to humiliate Hausmann, their sarcastic remarks also rather cruelly alluded to Hchs terminated pregnancies. Cut with the Kitchen Knife hung prominently at the 1920 Dada-Fair and not only represents the artists hard won participation in the activities of the Berlin Dadaists, but, as will be seen, is significant to her oeuvre in other ways. Hchs deployment of industrial imagery and her irreverent depictions of powerful men in this collage once
Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 72. The exhibition ran from June 30 through August 25, 1920. The initiative and organization of the Dada-Fair largely reflected the efforts of George Grosz who convinced Burchard, a dealer who specialized in Chinese porcelain, to support the project and provide an exhibition venue. Unsurprisingly, Groszs works dominated the show. The Dada-Fair brought together the Berlin Dadaists Hausmann, Hch, Grosz, Wieland Herzfelde and his brother John Heartfield with the Cologne-based Max Ernst, Johannes Baargeld, and Hans Arp. Francis Picabia, Rudolf Schlichter and Otto Dix also participated in the exhibition. 110 Meyer-Bser, Die Andere Seite des Mondes, 275. 111 Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 75.
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again have much in common with the work produced by the other Dadaists. Yet, as will be seen, subtle differences, such as Hchs use of textual elements, and her unique treatment of the human figure, set her work apart from theirs. Cut with the Kitchen Knife is easily linked to other Hch photomontages, and taken together provide a context with which to frame other works. Photomontages from Hchs Dada-and early Weimar-era oeuvre, such as Die Mdchen (The Girls) (1921) (fig. 1.13) and Da-Dandy (1919) (fig. 1.14), which will be discussed later, attest to her aesthetic and, in some cases, erotic appreciation of the female body. Furthermore, these photomontages indicate a critical engagement with reproductive rights and the commodification of womens bodies. As stated, Hannah Hchs photomontages were comprised largely of images gleaned from the mainstream media and reflected the publications at Ullstein press where, as an employee, she had access to numerous magazines. Unsurprisingly, Hchs works resonate with diverse popular themes such as dance, fashion, industry, politics, and current events. While Cut with the Kitchen Knife visually references an array of female types such as actresses, dancers, and the graphic artist and teacher Kthe Kollwitz (1867-1945), women were even more prominently featured in her later works. Hchs photomontages Dada-Ernst (Dada-Serious) (1920-21) (fig. 1.15), Da-Dandy, and Die Mdchen, emphasize the sexualized, eroticized, and/or commodified female body and clearly anticipate later works such as Sweet One (1926), Russian Dancer (1928), English Dancer (1928), Tamer (1930), and Liebe (Love) (1931) that will be the focus of this dissertation. Indeed, often the primary difference between Hchs early and late
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Weimar oeuvre is the clarity and salience of their visual narratives: after 1926, the year she met Brugman, extraneous visual elements such as peripheral figures, consumer objects, or industrial imagery increasingly fall away. This key distinction served to isolate and amplify themes which were often obfuscated by the visual clutter that characterized the artists earlier photomontages. Indeed, the visual crowding typical in Hchs Dada-era oeuvre appears to mirror the work of the artists Berlin colleagues and reflect her early artistic affiliations with them. Salient thematic, compositional, and technical disparities between Hchs photomontages and those of her Dada colleagues can be exemplified by examining two previously mentioned 1919 works: Hchs Cut with the Kitchen Knife, and Heartfield and Groszs collaborative work, Sonniges Land (Sunny Land) (fig. 1.11). While both photomontages include textual elements and human figures, a closer comparison of the two works reveals key differences based on content, iconography, and technique. In Sonniges Land dozens of textual references in the form of political headlines dominate the image. 112 Hchs Berlin colleagues redeployed graphic elements from popular print culture, and because of this, their photomontages often have the appearance of commercial advertisements gone awry. As Lora Rempel observes, superimposed slogans and captions are often all that separate the collages of Hchs male colleagues from straight photographs. The reliance on words, she continues, to convey, confuse, or complete a narrative meaning . . . places these works solidly within

112

Taylor, Collage, 41.

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the indexical, symbolic realm of language. 113 However, in contrast to her colleagues, rarely does Hch employ textual language in her photomontages. 114 Hch herself claimed, in a 1976 interview, that she did not rely on words to convey meaning but instead was more comfortable making her pronouncements and criticisms through the medium of art. 115 Furthermore, a number of Hchs photomontages are untitled, or were only given titles years after they were made. 116 Hchs reluctance to deploy text or to name her works enabled her to avoid the limitations automatically imposed when words are affixed to an image. This practice renders Hchs photomontages open to interpretation, and, as a result, more evocative. Moreover, her emphasis on imagery rather than language served to distance Hch even further from the sexist tenets of early twentieth-century avant-garde; zealous advocates of masculinist modernism strove to break away from figurative representation which they conflated with the inferior feminine principle. 117 Furthermore, despite their blaring identification as radical avant-gardists, Hchs Dada colleagues often deployed conventional representational formats. Indeed, the figures in Grosz and Heartfields Sonniges Land appear much as they might have in a Weimar daily newspaper. With the exception of one cleanly severed head floating at an angle (a visual configuration that also evokes the millennial tradition of a monarchs
Rempel, The Anti-Body, 159. Rempel, The Anti-Body, 159. 115 Rempel, The Anti-Body, 157; Suzanne Page, Hannah Hch (Berlin: Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, 1976), 23. 116 Karoline Hille, Der Faden, der durch alle Wirrnisse das Leben hielt: Hannah Hch und Max Ernst, in Burmeister, Aller Anfang ist DADA!, 101-02. 117 The masculinist and misogynistic conflation of materiality and femininity runs like a thread through early twentieth-century avant-garde artistic manifestos and is evident in Futurist, Constructivist, and De Stijl materials.
114 113

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head on a coin) the figures in Sonniges Land appear in quotidian full-length, head-totoe or bust formats. While one could hardly dispute the dynamic visual quality of the image, which is underscored by rows of densely packed and obliquely placed headlines that disrupt horizontal reading practice, Sunny Land does not upset viewing conventions in the same way as Hchs photomontages. Admittedly, Hchs Cut with the Kitchen Knife has one of the longest titles in the history of art, yet unlike her colleagues who often relied primarily on textual elements to convey their messages, the literary quality of Cut with the Kitchen Knife seems to end with its extended appellations that reference Dadaism. Words and phrases randomly affixed to the montage appear to have been cut from Dada-generated rather than mainstream print materials. Woven throughout the image, they indicate that Hch too, like her cohorts, deployed textual elements for compositional purposes, and, on occasion, to convey a message. However, while a smattering of political and cultural references in Cut with the Kitchen Knife were clearly intended to satirize aspects of Weimar society; Hch was perhaps also poking fun at her self-involved colleagues. German words and phrases strewn throughout the image include (in translation) Hey young man, Dada isnt really art, Come along, as well as, Invest your money in Dada! 118 Along with an invitation to Join the great anti-art movement dada, these directives reflect the noisy self-promotion and aggressive marketing of the Dadaists. Unlike her colleagues, Hch rarely engaged in self-promotion, nor did she participate in

The texts read, He He, Sie junger Mann, Dada ist keine Kunstrichting, (hey young man, Dada is not an art movement) Komm, (Cmon) Tretet Dada bei (Join Dada) and Legen Sie ihr Geld in Dada an! (Invest your money in Dada).

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raucous public spectacles. This suggests that, in some ways, she considered her fellow Dadaists as not unlike the horn-blowing politicians they themselves so vehemently disdained. Beyond Berlin: Hch and her Contemporaries While Hchs limited deployment of language clearly distinguishes her from the long-winded Berlin Dadaists, it aligns her more closely with the visually evocative practice of the Cologne-based artists Max Ernst and Johannes Baargeld (1892-1927). 119 Ernsts 1920 collage Le Cygne est bien paisable (The Swan is quite Peaceful) (fig. 1.16) frames the heads of small children over an image of a biplane and, similar to Hchs contemporary photomontages, combines images of modern technology with figural fragments. Like Ernsts Swan, Baargelds 1920 self-portrait, Typical Vertical Misrepresentation as a Depiction of the Dada Baargeld (fig.1.17) is devoid of textual referents. In addition, the seamless elegance and disarmingly simple combination of a mans head and a female torso in this image might easily have served as a template for Hchs 1930 Tamer (fig. 5.1), a later focus of this study. While Hch was acquainted with the Cologne Dadaists, it is unclear to what extent she was familiar with the work of her Parisian contemporaries. In 1924, Hch visited Theo and Nelly van Doesburg in Paris and her notebook from this trip includes the addresses of Man Ray, Constantin Brancusi, Fernand Lger, Sonia Delaunay, Pablo

Gale, Dada and Surrealism, 141. Born Alfred Grnwald, Baargelds pseudonym is derived from Bargeld, or the German word for cash. Gale claims it was chosen in mocking reference to his banker father, but was also a teasing provocation in times of rampant inflation.

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Picasso, and Max Ernst (who relocated to Paris in 1922). 120 Although, Schweitzer claims that Hch never met many of these artists, through Nelly and Theo van Doesburg she was able to visit a number of studios. 121 Among them were Brancusis, and, importantly, the atelier of Tristan Tzara, to whom she gave a number of photomontages; one of these was later exhibited in New York in the legendary 1936 exhibition Fantastic Art, Dada and Surrealism at the Museum of Modern Art curated by Alfred H. Barr, Jr. 122 After 1920, Max Ernst was likewise drawn to Paris and forged a relationship with the French rather than German sensibility. 123 As already stated, Hch avowedly valued the work of this Cologne native, who later became a Paris-based Surrealist. 124 In 1951, she testified to the kinship she felt with Ernst: Through all phases of development, he has been my closest relative. It began with Dada. 125 Both Hch and Ernst deployed mass-mediated materials. However, unlike Ernst, who often utilized entire catalogue pages for his collages, as in Jean Hatchet and Charles the Bold (1929) (fig. 1.18), Hch radically dismembered and reconfigured her graphic sources. 126 While the photomontages of Hch and Ernst suggest a related and on occasion comparable
Gale, Dada and Surrealism, 148. Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 100. 122 Maria Makela, Dadadame und Urfeministen, in Ralf Burmeister et al., eds., Hannah Hch: eine Lebenscollage, vol. III, (1946-1978) (Berlin: Knstler-archiv der Berlinischen Galerie, Landesmuseum fr Moderne Kunst, Fotografie, und Architektur, 2001), 202. Hchs Collage (1920) was included in the exhibition. 123 Taylor, Max Ernst and Collage in Surrealist Paris, Collage, 55-58. 124 For a discussion of their personal and artistic relationship, see, Karoline Hille, Der Faden, der durch alle Wirrnisse das Leben hielt, in Burmeister, Aller Anfang ist DADA!, 84-107. 125 Boswell, Hannah Hch: Through the Looking Glass, in Boswell , Makela, and Lanchner, 15. 126 Taylor, Collage, 58. Emphasis Taylor. Moreover, as Taylor claims (57), this practice endows Ernsts work with a pseudo-psychoanalytical effect, which prominent Ernst scholar Werner Spies rejects. Spies has long maintained that discussions of Ernsts oeuvre have been somewhat lost under the weight of recent art historical scholarship which has tried to retrieve the psychoanalytical determinants of Ernsts. . . scenes . . . but few, if any, of these interpretations reflect prevailing patterns of viewing and reading at the time (emphasis mine). Werner Spies, The Return of La Belle Jardinire, Max Ernst 19501970 (New York: Abrams, 1971), 46.
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aesthetic, Hchs deployment of visual fragments shatters uncomplicated readings and instead suggests contingent and supplementary meanings. 127 Hchs photomontages may be further distinguished from those of her Surrealist colleague in other ways. While Ernsts works, and especially his depictions of the human figure, often rupture the unity of an image, they ultimately uphold the ruling tradition of rational, empirical vision and much that is concomitant with that way of seeing. 128 In this aspect, Ernsts collages may be linked to a popular Surrealist parlor game, the cadavre exquis (exquisite corpse) (fig. 1.19). 129 Played by two or more, each participant adds an element to a pre-folded sheet of paper that serves to conceal previous markings. When the paper is unfolded, surprising visual configurations are revealed. Generally the genus and scale of the figures generated rarely find semiotic resolution. However, while the unconventional manner in which these images are generated suggests that the game was an extension of Dada-like practices, cadavre exquis requires a high degree of procedural rationality such as symmetrical folding and strict linear demarcation of heads, torsos, and legs. 130 In contrast, Hch did not adhere to these restrictions and, as a result, her photomontages often disrupt the tenets of rational or empirical vision. Hch and the Human Hybrid Another way in which Hchs representation of the figure differs from that of the more conventional representational modus of her Surrealist and Dada contemporaries is
127

Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 23-24. Rempel, The Anti-Body, 154; 168n5. 129 Taylor, Collage, 69. 130 Taylor, Collage, 69.
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revealed in Cut with the Kitchen Knife by a number of petit grotesqueries embedded in its densely layered surface. Much like the mechanical objects with which they are surrounded, these grotesque figures are dismantled and recombined to create monstrous hybrids, including the aforementioned babys body topped with the face of a bearded man, and a ballerina with three heads. The grotesque typically characterizes a class of imagery that does not fit comfortably within the boundaries traditionally set by aesthetics or art history. 131 Both the grotesque and, relatedly, the monstrous, rupture the Enlightenment underpinnings of modernism to suggest those fears and anxieties inspired by what French Surrealist Georges Bataille characterized in 1929 as the informe (formless), or that which falls beyond the boundaries of reason and control. 132 While the grotesque, the monstrous, and relatedly, the abject, provoke anxiety, their transgressive power generates new perspectives. Peter Fuss argues that although the grotesque is generally regarded with trepidation, it is an indicator of, and an active agent of cultural change. 133 The disturbingly funny figures in Hchs Dada-era photomontages are evident throughout her entire oeuvre and, hence, early works such as Cut with the Kitchen Knife, Die Mdchen, and Da-Dandy, are easily linked to the artists collages well into the 1960s. The monstrous quality of figures that conjoin and/or cross gender and age in any

Frances S. Connelly, ed., Modern Art and the Grotesque (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 5-6. 132 For an overarching discussion of these closely related concepts, see Nina AthanassogluKallmyer, Ugliness, in Robert S. Nelson and Richard Shiff, eds. Critical Terms for Art History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003), 291; See also, Yves-Alain Bois and Rosalind Krauss, Formless: A Users Guide (New York: Zone Books, 1997). 133 Peter Fuss, Das Groteske: Ein Medium des kulturellen Wandels (The Grotesque: A Medium for Cultural Transformation) (Cologne: Bhlau Verlag, 2001), 12-14.

131

49

number of Hchs Weimar-era images attests to a critical and sustained engagement with, and rejection of, Krperkultur (Body-culture), a 1920s movement focused on the body (to be addressed at length in chapter two). Running like a thread throughout Hchs oeuvre, these grossly mismatched hybrids clearly anticipate photomontages such as Englische Tnzerin (English Dancer) (1928) (fig. 2.2) and foreshadow the artists 1963 Grotesque (fig. 1.20). Comic and horrific, the cobbled figures in these works satirize beauty standards, disrupt social order, and perennially confound the modern mania to impose classification. 134 Much like her handling of the human figure, Hchs technical practice also differed significantly from that of her colleagues. The Dadaists generally rephotographed their photomontages to create a smooth and seamless surface. 135 In contrast, Hch never re-photographed her work, a practice which Thomas Haakenson attributes to her refusal to engage with photographic artifice or to assume that visual representations conveyed truths. 136 This, he argues, demonstrates and confirms that Hch accepted and preferred evidence of hand-cutting over the creation of a seamless image. 137 Furthermore, in leaving these evidentiary traces, Hch reminded the viewer

Connelly, Modern Art and the Grotesque, 14. Thomas O. Haakenson, Science, Art, and the Question of the Visible: Rudolph Virchow, Hannah Hch, and Immediate Visual Perception, in Legacies of Modernism: Art and Politics in Northern Europe, 1890-1950, Patrizia C. McBride, Richard W. McCormick, and Monika agar, eds. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), 102. 136 Haakenson, Science, Art, 102 137 Haakenson, Science, Art, 102; See also, Boswell, Makela, and Lanchner, The Photomontages of Hannah Hch, 2.
135

134

50

that her images had been manipulated and, implicitly, of the material limitations of the medium of photography. 138 Der Vater and Dada-Ernst: Hch and Female Sexual Agency Hchs photomontages Der Vater (The Father) (1920) (fig. 1.21) and Dada-Ernst (Dada Serious) (fig. 1.22) (an interestingly titled work of 1920-21), are highly personal images in which the artist even more boldly engaged with sexuality and gender. The dynamic centrifugal composition of Der Vater is anchored by a dual-sexed father with an infant on his lap. His immobility contrasts sharply with the female dancers leaping joyously around him and supports Lavins observation that Hchs images frequently oscillate between pleasure and anger, ironic distance and intimate identification. 139 In Der Vater, many future gender themes are already stated. The artist polarizes, yet conjoins gender: the mans head is connected to a womans torso, extended by a pair of ill-fitting legs ending in fashionable high-heeled shoes. While feminine components and attributes serve to emasculate the male head, the figures twisted posture and unhappy expression suggests the burden of child-rearing then commonly perceived as a womans exclusive and primary duty. A boxer, the largest of the figures surrounding the seated Father, is the only figure that actively engages with the infant. A symbol of heroic masculinity in Weimar, the boxer in The Father punches the baby on the cheek. This aggressive act, coupled with the feminized and helplessly immobile Father, suggests anger and frustration. It also connotes an inability or a reluctance to assume a paternal role. Hch was clearly disappointed with Hausmann; he refused to leave his wife and
138 139

Haakenson, Science, Art, 102. Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 29.

51

marry her when she became pregnant in 1916 and again in 1918. This played a decisive role in the artists subsequent childlessness; although Hch wanted to have children, she refused to bear them out of wedlock. Another densely packed and personally resonant image, the artists photomontage Dada-Ernst more definitively foregrounds the female body. Hch created Dada-Ernst about a year before she finally broke off her relationship with Hausmann. Close examination of the image suggests that it is an expression of Hchs growing independence and emotional and artistic maturity. Dada-Ernst engages with and articulates Hchs interest in popular representations of women and prompts general questions concerning the mediated depiction of the female body. The image, as Lavin observes, suggests violence, alienation, and anger, yet also aligns the modern woman with signs of physical pleasure signaled by a gymnast and a dancer. 140 The commodification of women is also a central theme in Dada-Ernst, and is implied by two gold coins positioned near the groin area configured by two female legs that dominate the image. 141 Lavin argues that the coins suggest the runaway inflation of early Weimar and the looming threat of poverty, which, at the time, rendered prostitution a frighteningly real possibility for many. 142 Did Hch embed a commentary on prostitution in Dada-Ernst? Perhaps she did; however, in 1920-1921, Hch was gainfully

Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 6-9. Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 6-9; See also Ruth Hemus, Dadas Women, Hannah Hch: The good girl and the Dada club, in Dada Women (Yale University Press, 2009), 109. 142 Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knfe, 6-9. Lavin writes that the theme of prostitution as a last-ditch chance for survival found expression in Georg Wilhem Pabsts 1925 film, Die freudlose Gasse, starring Asta Nielsen and Greta Garbo. While this is an interesting suggestion, it folds the image into much broader social issues, and deflects from Hchs personal experience and arguably her artistic intention.
141

140

52

employed and poverty did not represent an issue of pressing personal concern. 143 Instead, as will be seen, Hchs Dada-Ernst more powerfully suggests themes of sexual agency and reproductive rights. In 1920-1921, Hch, an unmarried and sexually active woman, was painfully aware of the contemporary discrepancy between a liberalized awareness of the body and female sexuality and the unavailability of contraceptives which lagged far behind sexual practice. 144 In her discussion of Dada-Ernst, Lavin writes that the juxtaposition of metal with flesh is violent and potentially anger-producing in the feminine viewer, 145 and describes the image as an allegory of pleasure and anger. 146 Dada-Ernst may reference the artists two unwelcome pregnancies (suggested by the two coins?) and the trauma of their subsequent termination through illegal and potentially fatal procedures. 147 Hch obtained the first of two abortions in May 1916 and the second in January 1918. 148 Lavin ventures that the works title may reference her colleague Max

Maria Makela, The Misogynist Machine: Images of Technology in the Work of Hannah Hch, in Women in the Metropolis: Gender and Modernity in Weimar Culture, Katharina von Ankum, ed. (Berkeley; Los Angeles; London: University of California Press, 1997), 107. An employee of Berlins Ullstein Press as a graphic artist in the late 1910s and early 1920s she not only supported herself and her lover [Hausmann] with her salary as a handiwork designer, she simultaneously produced prodigious amounts of artwork and maintained her own apartment in Berlin. 144 Kosta, Unruly Daughters, 277. 145 Lavin. Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 6, and reiterates her reading, 8: [C]lusters of allegorical fragments suggest violence, alienation, and anger. 146 Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 6. 147 Kosta, Unruly Daughters, 277. Paragraph 218 criminalized the intentional termination of pregnancy and Weimar women were subject to immense dangers of back alley abortions. See also, Willem Melching, A New Morality: Left-wing Intellectuals on Sexuality in Weimar Germany, Journal of Contemporary History 25, no. 1. (Jan., 1990): 74, who discusses the double-standard in the enforcement of paragraph 218 in Weimar Germany; there were 4,000 abortion-related convictions compared to an estimated yearly total of 800,000 abortion procedures. Also see, Renate Bridenthal, Beyond Kinder, Kche, Kirche: Weimar Women at Work, Central European History 6, no. 2 (June 1973): 148-66. 148 Kristin Makholm, Chronology, in Boswell, The Photomontages of Hannah Hch, 187-88.

143

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Ernst, 149 yet Hchs punning use of the German word Ernst (grave and/or serious), if tied at all to Dada activities, is also plausibly linked to the magazine Der blutige Ernst, the title of which, much like an illegally terminated pregnancy in Weimar, translates as Bloody Serious. 150 Indeed, themes of conception and violence are closely intertwined in this image. In the background of Dada-Ernst, two boxers closely engage in physical struggle. Their combative physicality, much like the aggressive boxer in the artists 1920 photomontage Der Vater, allegorizes the intensity and violence of passionate sexual exchange. Moreover, they suggest a nod to the pugilists contemporary popularity among Weimars avant-garde artists, and foreshadow Hchs later engagement with the legendary Max Schmeling in her 1931 photomontage The Strong Men (fig. 6.4), to be discussed extensively in connection with Weimar sexology and endocrinology. 151 Dada-Ernst incorporates other noteworthy iconographic signs. Along the length of Dada-Ernsts left side, a partially draped heraldic figure blowing a trumpet balances a vase of flowers located on the other side of the collage. Both iconographic elements are common in Northern Renaissance Nativity and Annunciation images and suggest the interrelated themes of childbirth and conception. In the center of Dada-Ernst, hovering above a heavy wooden cross (a Christian symbol reminiscent of a grave-marker), a large bow-like technical object is positioned near the womans open legs to suggest the invasiveness of a surgical tool. The similarity of this mysterious oversized object with
Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 8, 221n12. Gale, Dada and Surrealism, 126. In 1919, critic and writer, Carl Einstein launched the periodical Der blutige Ernst (Bloody Serious). The publication regularly featured cartoons by George Grosz. 151 See, David Bathrick, Max Schmeling on the Canvas: Boxing as an Icon of Weimar Culture, New German Critique 51 (Autumn 1990): 113-36.
150 149

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contemporary

Abtreibungsinstrumente

(Abortion

Instruments),

pictured

as

photograph in a 1928 police manual and later reproduced as a drawing in Hirschfelds 1931 publication Sexualkunde (Sexual Science) (fig. 1.22), strengthen these associations. The instruments, much like the strange bowlike object in Hchs collage, connoted illegal and dangerous medical procedures. 152 Hch was obviously painfully familiar with such tools, experiences that may have inspired her to integrate an overt or subtle attack on paragraph 218 of the German penal code, which prohibited abortion, when she was conceptualizing Dada-Ernst. Although first and foremost a highly personal image, Dada-Ernst may also be read as a larger political statement that addresses a womans right to control her reproductive fate. From the outbreak of the First World War, Hch stated that, she too lived in a very conscious political way. 153 Hch was committed to womens issues and participated in the 1931 Berlin exhibition, Frauen in Not (Women in Need), which, as previously noted, was intended to raise public awareness and garner support for the legalization of abortion. 154 At a time when reproduction was increasingly controlled and

E. Wulffen, Encyklopdie der Kriminalstik. Der Sexualverbrecher: Ein Handbuch fr Juristen, Polizei-und Verwaltungsbeamte, Mediziner und Pdagogen (Encyclopedia of Criminalogy: A Handbook for Jurists, Police and Government Officials) (Berlin: Dr. P. Langenscheidt, 1928), 642-43. A photograph of these instruments is prominently pictured in Wulfflen as a double-page spread. The image was later replicated as a slightly altered drawing in, Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, vol. 4, Bilderteil of Geschlechtskunde auf Grund dreissigjhriger Forschung und Erfahrung bearbeitet (Stuttgart: Julius Pttmann, 1930), 341. 153 Hemus, Dadas Women, 101-02, She [Hch] participated in numerous exhibitions of the November Group but also maintained a critical stance, signing an open letter to the Group published in Der Gegner (The Opponent) in 1920. This letter appealed for more revolutionary aims: for commitment to a radical aesthetic and social changes and closer alignment of the artist with the average worker. It effectively criticized the groups stance as having become too commercial and too concessionary to bourgeois norms. 154 Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 146-49. Kthe Kollwitz played a large role in the organization of this Berlin exhibition and formally launched the show with an opening speech. Frauen in

152

55

restricted by eugenically-inspired Nazi mandates, Frauen in Not represented a bold show of organized political resistance. Dada-Ernst, even more so than Hchs laconic commentary on Hausmanns inability to assume paternal responsibility in Der Vater, implies the artists growing disillusionment with her self-centered lover. Furthermore, a number of references to the female body in Dada-Ernst signal an increasing engagement with gender and sexuality, themes that would soon become central to Hchs oeuvre. The theme of sexuality in Dada-Ernst is most strongly suggested by a prominent eye placed between the two legs near the center of the image. While the position of the eye suggests the beaver-shot (a staple of pornographic imagery) in which the dominant trope is the disappearance of the womans face or for that matter, the rest of her body, 155 this eye disrupts and counteracts these obvious associations. In contrast to Gustave Courbets LOrigine du Monde (1868) (fig. 1.23), commissioned by the Turkish diplomat Khalil Bey for erotic delectation, Hchs substitution of the vagina with a large eye that looks back and obstructs the unimpeded objectification of the womans sex, in effect transforms a sexually passive female body into an active subject. In addition, the likelihood that Dada-Ernst was at least in some measure an expression of Hchs sexual agency and her growing emotional independence is further supported by the eyes tradition as an iconographic staple in apotropaic imagery primarily meant to frighten men.
Not featured the work of a number of prominent international male and female artists. See also, Burmeister, Aller Anfang ist DADA!, 173. 155 Abigail Solomon-Godeau, The Legs of the Countess, in Fetishism as Cultural Discourse, Emily Apter and W. Pietz, eds. (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press), 297.

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Historically, spiritual leaders deployed vaginal imagery to incite respect and fear in their enemies; later, however, with the spread of patriarchal culture and resultant loss of womens status and her sexual objectification, the vagina was increasingly depicted more in an erotic or pornographic context. Yet, in Dada-Ernst, the eye functions much like a talisman and suggests the vaginal imagery of the mysterious Sheela-na-gig figures found throughout Northern Europe (Fig. 1.24). 156 Feminist scholars characterize these figures, along with the related eyes of the mythical Medusa, as antidote[s] to the male gaze, and an avenue of women reclaiming their own sexuality. 157 As Susan R. Bowers observes, the conflation of the vagina with the eye demonstrate[s] how the same image that has been used to oppress women can also help set them free. 158 Hchs bold appropriation of a theme which had long been depicted by men radically disrupted cultural tradition. Her use of female genitalia differs in significant ways from that of Ernst, whose painting, Les Hommes nen Sauront Rien (Of this Men Shall Know Nothing) (1923) (fig. 1.25) is steeped in esoteric alchemical references, yet

A post-Romanesque era Sheela-na-Gig style carving of a woman holding and exposing her genitals is located at Marienhafe, in Ostfriesland Germany. Hch may have known of this object. See, Barbara Freitag, Sheela-na-Gigs: Unravelling an Enigma (London: Routledge, 2004), 1-12. Sheela-na-gig figures may be ancient goddesses, vestiges of pagan cults, [or] protective talismans. While they are generally found on medieval buildings, they are often undatable. Generally, Sheela-na-Gigs are ancient high-relief style stone carvings which were re-set onto later faades that replaced earlier churches or pagan places of worship. See also, Anthony Weir and James Jerman, Images of Lust: Sexual Carvings on Medieval Churches (New York: Routledge, 1986); See also, H.C. Lawlor, Two typical Irish Sheela-nagigs, Man, vol. 31 (January 1931): 5. Lawlor claims that the etymological basis of the term Sheela-na-gig cannot be traced. 157 Susan R. Bowers, Medusa and the Female Gaze, NWSA Journal 2, no. 2 (Spring 1990), 217. More recently Francesca Woodmans (1958-1981) placement of a mask at the pubis in a series of 1977-79 photographs diverts and returns the viewers gaze. Similar to Hchs Dada-Ernst, the eyes in Woodmans photographs suggest the apotropaic gaze of the Medusa and the mysterious Sheela-na-gig. 158 Bowers, Medusa, 218.

156

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clearly suggests an abstract and highly symmetrical depiction of sexual intercourse and foregrounds what appears to be a vagina penetrated by a penis. 159 During the 1920s, male artists were more readily sanctioned to represent a womans nudity, and in particular her sexual organs, than their female counterparts. 160 Thus, Hchs depiction of vaginal imagery comprised a remarkable and groundbreaking proto-feminist act. In addition, Hchs emphasis on female genitalia in Dada-Ernst suggests the symbolic reappropriation of her own physically ravaged femininity, perhaps an early signal of the artists budding sexual independence. Much like a talismanic eye or like a monocle, a single lens worn as a visual aid, which, as will be shown, was critically significant in lesbian representation--the eye in Dada-Ernst emphasizes the gaze. Despite its placement between a womans legs, its presence resists (visual) penetration. As Lavin has observed, in general, the eyes of women in Hchs photomontages draw attention to vision, and problematize its representation. These eyes lack a controlling gaze and often suggest a subjective position that is frustrated or disoriented, 161 a situation exemplified by the mismatched eyes in Hchs Da-Dandy (1919), and the cockeyed gaze of the protagonist in her 1928 photomontage English Dancer (fig. 2.2). However, unlike the frustrated or disoriented eyes in these works, the vaginal eye in Dada-Ernst is a masterful and remarkable addition that subverts and reverses the viewers searching gaze so that he or she

For a discussion of this painting, see, Geoffrey Hinton, Max Ernst: Les Hommes nen Sauront Rien, Burlington Magazine 117, no. 866 (May 1975): 292-297+299. 160 For a discussion of male artists representations of female nudity as a cultural reflection of masculinist privilege, see, Duncan, Virility and Domination. 161 Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 154.

159

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becomes its object. 162 Indeed, despite the impending menace of physical violation suggested by the large technical instrument and by the tip of a pointed cap from below, the eye in Dada-Ernst boldly returns the observers view and thwarts sexual objectification of the female body. In this aspect, Dada-Ernst also anticipates the artists emphasis on the eye in her 1928 photomontage Russian Dancer (fig. 2.1), a critical point to be discussed later. The single eyes suggestion of the monocle in Dada-Ernst may have been meant to lampoon the artists soon-to-be ex-lover Raoul Hausmann (fig. 1.9), who generally sported this form of visual correction. 163 Hausmann was nearly blind from childhood in his left eye, and, as Hch was to remark, I think he was born wearing a monocle. 164 The monocle was an important Weimar accessory synecdochic with patriarchal and military power, as a photograph of German actor and silent-film villain Eric von Stroheim confirms (fig. 1.26). 165 However, despite these masculinist associations, as we have seen, the single eye in Dada-Ernst also strongly suggests a womans appropriation of scopic power, active looking, and independent sexual agency. 166 Both the single eye and

Hemus, Dadas Women, 109. Extant contemporary images of Hausmann, including Conrad Felix-Muellers 1920 painted portrait, depict him with a monocle. Certainly Hch was not beyond poking fun at Hausmann; her ca. 1920 short prose narrative Der Maler (The Painter) is generally recognized as a satire of Hausmann. Der Maler is reprinted in English translation in Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 216-18. 164 Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 21. See also, Hannah Hch, Erinnerungen an DADA: Ein Vortrag 1966, in Berlinische Galerie e.V. Museumspdagogischer Dienst, Cornelia Thater-Schulz and Armin Schulz, eds. Hannah Hch, 1889-1978: Ihr Werk, ihr Leben, ihre Freunde (Berlin: Berlinische Galerie, 1989), 201. 165 For related comments regarding actor Eric von Stroheims monocle, see, Lucy Fischer, Enemies, a love story: Von Stroheim, women and World War I, Film History 6 (Winter 1994): 522-34. The Kriegsnummern [War Issues] of the Lustige Bltter magazine published from 1914-1918, are a case in point. Soldiersand especially ranking superiors--are generally depicted wearing monocles. 166 As stated, the power of this visual constellation has retained its impact; the similarity between this salient detail and Woodmans series Providence Rhode Island (1976) is striking: See also
163

162

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the monocle emphasize the act of looking, which, in Weimar, was a privilege associated with the patriarchal gaze. But, perhaps unsurprisingly, the monocle became a recognized sexual fetish in Wilhelmine Germany and, by the 1920s, was a popular lesbian accoutrement. 167 A close examination of Dada-Ernst reveals therefore a dark and disturbing narrative, one that suggests Hchs growing frustration and anger. While this photomontage may be a response to the inequities Hch suffered at the hands of Hausmann and her sexist Dada colleagues, it seems also to have initiated a series of images in which she began to engage seriously with feminist issues. The Lighter Side of the New Woman: Hchs Da-Dandy and Die Mdchen In contrast to Dada-Ernst, other contemporary photomontages that foreground women, such as the artists Da-Dandy and Die Mdchen (The Girls), appear more lighthearted. In these alluring images, Hch explored fashion and feminine beauty. Hchs 1919 photomontage Da-Dandy (fig. 1.7) conflates objects of adornment and the female body and signals a growing engagement with the commodification of women. Die Mdchen (The Girls) of 1921 (fig. 1.6) references dance and mobility and depicts a number of young women engaged in physical activity. Even more so than Da-Dandy,
Ohff, ed., Hannah Hch: Ein Leben mit der Pflanze, 6-7. Hch revisited the theme of the eye several years later in her 1965 collage Strauss (Bouquet), an image that emphasizes the eye/gaze yet conflates it with her well-documented love of gardening. 167 R. K. Neumann, Das Monokel als erotischer Fetisch, (The monocle as an erotic Fetish) Zeitschrift fr Sexualwissenschaft 1, nr. 10 (January 1915): 393. Neumann closes his discussion with the following words: The ladies that wear monocles fall into an emancipated group, and the few with which I am acquainted, are either homosexual, or live in companionate marriages with men. While Hirschfeld does not discuss this, I have observed several pictures of homosexuals [both male and female] wearing monocles in his publications. Translation mine. For a discussion of the monocle as a sexual fetish and lesbian accessory, see, Marjorie Garber, Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing and Cultural Anxiety (New York: Routledge, 1992), 152-55.

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which largely confines its imagery to womens faces and extremities, Die Mdchen foregrounds Hchs fascination and aesthetic appreciation of the female body. Hchs Da-Dandy, the title of which conjoins the words Dada and Dandy, again pokes fun at the Dadaists. Much like the artists Cut with the Kitchen Knife of the same year, the use of text, albeit in different ways, sarcastically references the vanity of her colleagues, who considered themselves superior to women and belittled Hchs artistry. However, Da-Dandy is dominated by female figures and hence, as Lavin points out, also evokes the twenties version of a female dandy, upscale and flamboyant. 168 Da-Dandy foregrounds the more pleasurable aspects of contemporary female commodification and feminine beauty. The fashionable and expensive accessories pictured in it include turban-like hats, pearls, fancy shoes, a ring and gold bracelets. All objects that Hch herself may have desired, these accoutrements signaled superior economic status and, to a large degree, the social position of the women who wore them. The visual repetition of the figures in Da-Dandy, and the close-ups of their accessories clearly reflect a way of seeing inspired by the new medium of film. As Lavin has observed, Da-Dandys depiction of fragmented images of fashionable women suggests an overlapping film montage. 169 At the time, cinema was a new medium, one in which Hch was clearly interested. 170 Hch loved going to the movies and was a member of both the Rotterdam and Berlin sections of the Filmliga (Film-group), an
Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 37. Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 37. 170 Ralf Burmeister, Das statische und das dynamische Bild: Hannah Hch und der Film, Museums Journal 14 (July 2000): 11.
169 168

61

international European collective that supported independent film practice free of commercial interests. 171 Hch clearly recognized the similarities between the two media and characterized photomontage as a close neighbor of film, while her Dada-era partner Raoul Hausmann described the medium as static film.
172

Indeed, during the 1920s,

photography, film, and photomontage were so close culturally that artists working with these media often shared exhibition venues, the most prominent example of which was the exhibition Schau der Deutschen Werkbunds Film und Foto (Exhibition of the German Film and Photo Workers Alliance) (FiFo). Held in Stuttgart, the May 1929 Fifo brought together the work of international photographers, photomontage artists, and filmmakers. 173 Initially reluctant to participate in the Fifo, at the bidding of her friend, artist Lszl Moholy-Nagy, Hch agreed and exhibited 17 photomontages, 174 including Russian Dancer and Da-Dandy. 175

171

Burmeister, Das statische und das dynamische Bild, 10. Photographers included Berenice Abbot, Eugene Atget, Herbert Bayer, Cecil Beaton, Anton Bruehl, Francis Brugire, Florence Henri, George de Hoyningen-Huen, Andr Kertsz, Germaine Krull, Man Ray, Moholy-Nagy, Paul Outerbridge, Renger-Patsch, Hans Richter, Maurice Tabard, Jan Tchichold, Edward Weston, and Edward Steichen. Photomontages were contributed by Marianne Brandt, Lajos von bneth, George Grosz, John Heartfield, El Lissitzky, Kurt Schwitters, Karel Tiege, Otto Umbehr (Umbo). 174 Gustav Stoz et al., Film und Foto (Stuttgart, 1929: repr., New York: Arno Press, 1979), 62-63. Hch is identified in the Fifo catalogue as a resident of Den Haag, and her first name is misspelled as Hanna. Hchs 1923-25 photomontage Die Kokette (The Coquette) is pictured in the catalogue (30). The catalogue does not list all of Hchs works by name. Works identified with titles include Russische Tnzerin, Die Gymastiklehererin, Negerplastk, Von Oben, Die Soubrette, Die Kokette, Amerika balanciert Europa, Vagabunden, Die Sngerin, Das Schne Mdchen, Brgerliches Brautpaar, Der Vater, and, Der Dandy (possibly Da-Dandy). Two works are listed as Portraits, and another as a Fotomonage. See also Burmeister, Das statische und das dynamische Bild, 10. See also, Boswell, Through the Looking Glass, 10, who discusses Maholy-Nagys role in Hchs participation. 175 Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 135. Launched in Stuttgart in May, in July 1929, the Fifo travelled to Zrich, Danzig, Vienna, Agram, Tokyo, and Osaka. Before Fifo left Stuttgart, Hch removed Russian Dancer, and six other photomontages from the show so they could be exhibited in the Fall of
173

229n1.

Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 118-119; See also Burmeister et al., Lebenscollage, vol. 2,

172

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Whereas the visual fragments that dominate Da-Dandy are limited to depictions of womens faces and their adorned extremities, Hchs focus on feminine physique is more apparent in her 1921 photomontage Die Mdchen. The work celebrates popular representations of women and features three scantily clad figures engaged in dance. Like them, other girls pictured in the photomontage are not fully dressed, rather, they are shown in sports attire or bathing costumes. Like Da-Dandy, the visual overlapping of figures in Die Mdchen also appears to have been inspired by cinematic techniques. In addition, the dynamism of these figures reflects Weimar Krperkultur (Body-culture), a major trend celebrating the healthful benefits of outdoor exercise. 176 The many visual references to movement in Die Mdchen are underscored by a car pictured in the lower left corner. The ultimate contemporary symbol of personal mobility, the car became a cipher for freedom and independence and a requisite accessory of liberated and wealthy Weimar New Women. 177 Hchs fluid sexual identity? Hannah Hchs status as the least known member 178 of the loosely federated short-lived Berlin Dada movement, is clearly undeserved. 179 While in recent decades, Hch has rapidly gained in art historical status, before Heinz Ohff published a biography
1929 at the Galerie dAudretsch in Den Haag. While Fifo guaranteed international exposure, Schweitzer suggests that Hchs decision to pull works for another show was a financial one; the Haag exhibition, unlike Fifo, represented a chance for the artist to sell her work. 176 For a study of German Krperkultur, see Eric N. Jensen, Body by Weimar: Athletes, Gender, and German Modernity (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010). 177 Here, the 1925 Autoportrait (Self-portrait in Green Bugatti) of Polish artist Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980) comes to mind. The image, later a cover illustration for the leading German fashion magazine Die Dame (July 1, 1929), depicts an elegant woman at the wheel of a car. While very different, both Hchs and Lempickas images conflate the automobile, female beauty and independence with fashion culture. 178 Rempel, The Anti-body, 155. 179 Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 14.

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of the artist in 1968, 180 she was best known as the partner of fellow artist Raoul Hausmann and self-proclaimed Dadasoph (a dada-play on the German word Philosoph or philosopher). 181 Hchs affair with Hausmann was, mildly stated, turbulent, and she herself characterized their relationship as a difficult and painful learning experience. 182 As we have seen, while with him, Hch underwent two psychologically and physically traumatic abortions. 183 Fearing for her life at the hands of the abusive Hausmann, she finally ended the relationship in 1922. 184 Hchs affair with Hausmann and her marriage to Kurt Matthies during the war years suggest that, both before and after her relationship with Brugman, she identified as heterosexual. However, while the facts of Hchs biography support this classification, such a superficial assumption deserves reconsideration. 185 As a young woman, Hch was undoubtedly in love with Hausmann, with whom she conducted a protracted and passionately sexual affair. However, in 1926, after she met Til Brugman,

Heinz Ohff, Hannah Hch (Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 1968). Rempel, The Anti-body, 155; See also, Hemus, Dadas Women, 91-93. In a similar play on words, Johannes Baader was dubbed the Oberdada (the Chief-dada). See, Alexis, A Visit to the Cabaret Dada, The Drama Review 18, no. 2 (June 1974): 128. 182 Gtz Adriani et al., Collagen: Hannah Hch, 1889-1978 (Stuttgart: Institut fr Auslandsbeziehungen, 1984), 74, 85n10. Adriani cites Hchs characterization of her affair with Raoul Hausmann to Pag as a harte und schmerzliche Lehrzeit. See also, Susanne Pag, Interview mit Hannah Hch, in Hannah Hch, Paris-Berlin, 1976, 30; See also Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 27. Hausmann was violent; he hit Hch on several occasions. 183 Makholm, Chronology, in Boswell, Makela, and Lanchner, 187-88. Hch had two abortions: one in May 1916 and another in January 1918. 184 Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 53. With regard to Hausmanns escalating physical abuse, Hannah wrote to her sister Grete, April 8, 1918, Es ist eine Schreckliche Zeit fr mich, ich komme aus der Todesangst nicht heraus. (It is a terrible time for me and I fear for my life.). This letter is also cited in Burmeister, et al., Hannah Hch: eine Lebenscollage, vol. 1, p. 356. 185 For a discussion of phallocentric bias and the resultant assumption of heterosexuality unless proven otherwise, see, Linda Garber, Necessity is the Invention of Lesbians, in The Lesbian Premodern, Noreen Giffney, Michelle M. Sauer, and Diane Watt, eds. (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2011), 187-92; Terry Castle, The Apparitional Lesbian: Female Homosexuality and Modern Culture (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993); Lillian Faderman, Surpassing the Love of Men (New York: Morrow, 1981).
181

180

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Hch declared to her sister that she had definitively finished the chapter men. 186 While Hchs correspondence should be enough to convince any skeptic with regard to her shifting sexual orientation, it is curious that she nevertheless married in 1938. However, Hchs marriage to Kurt Matthies, a convicted pedophile who was castrated before the couple lived together, was evidently companionate in nature. Hch, whose health had long been weakened due to thyroid problems, met Matthies in the autumn of 1935 while she was vacationing alone in the Dolomite Mountains and recuperating from an operation. 187 Matthies was twenty-five and Hch was forty-six. After the vacation, Matthies visited Hch in Berlin, but Brugman did not welcome the young mans interest in her partner. He was, however, persistent, and in early 1936, Hch, who had begun to grow weary of Brugmans dominant personality, convinced Til to consider a temporary separation. Brugman reluctantly agreed, and, in April 1936, she traveled to Holland for a week. By the time she returned, Hch had decided to leave her for Matthies. Brugman did not accept the situation passively and attempted to win Hannah back; she was, however, unsuccessful, and in May 1936, Brugman moved out. 188 Hch and Matthies shared a love of travel and undertook a number of road trips. 189 During the 1930s, owning an automobile in Germany was a luxury and Matthies, who had studied jurisprudence but worked as a traveling salesman, was often on the
Letter, Hannah Hch to Grete Hch Konig, Den Haag, October 14, 1926, Hch Archive Murnau, cited in Lavin, Cut, 241n17. 187 Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 195. 188 Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 198-99. Brugman and Hch remained friends, spent Christmas together in 1938 when Matthies and Hch were estranged, and met sporadically until Brugmans death in 1958. 189 Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 202-12.
186

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road for extended periods. On November 7, 1937, while Hch and Matthies were in Nrnberg, he was arrested for registering under a false name at a hotel. While this infraction was slight and carried a one Mark penalty and a maximum two day jail sentence, bureaucratic pursuit of this matter revealed that a German-wide search warrant for Matthies had been issued the previous month by the Munich police. 190 Matthies was charged with exposing himself and masturbating in front of two prepubescent girls while in Munich on business in May 1937. He had been arrested and jailed for similar incidents earlier in 1932 and in 1936. 191 While Matthies had discussed his sexual compulsions with Hch before this incident, he apparently did not reveal their true extent. Matthies was transferred from Nrnberg to a Berlin jail on November 21, 1938 where he remained until July 21st. During his incarceration, Matthies was subjected to extensive medical and psychological evaluations. 192 His physicians agreed that he was untreatable and that only castration would diminish his sexual compulsions. Under the 1932 Erbgesundheitgesetze (Hereditary Health Laws), eugenically motivated laws instituted to curtail the transmission of hereditary weaknesses and diseases, castrations

Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 213. As Schwetzer claims, Matthies used a false name for a reason; he knew the police were looking for him. The police had sought him unsuccessfully for questioning at his employers place of business on July 15, and again on August 3, 1937. In October 1937, the police issued a nationwide warrant for him. 191 Schweitzer, Der Fall Kurt Heinz Matthies, in Schrankenlose Freiheit, 212-46. Matthies was a pedophile and was arrested for indecent exposure for the first time in Berlin in 1932 and again in 1936. The first time he was arrested he was fined 100 RM (Reichsmark) and ordered to undergo hypnosistherapy, which, as medical expert Viktor Mller-Hess later claimed in 1938, had been unsuccessful. 192 Until Schweitzer published the details regarding the circumstances surrounding Matthies incarceration, this episode was described in the scholarship as several months of hospitalization due to emotional illness. See Burmeister, Aller Anfang ist DADA!, 177.

190

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were routinely performed on incurable sexual criminals and male homosexuals. 193 Matthies consented to a castration, which was performed at the prison hospital Berlin Moabit on March 29, 1938. Although, as Cara Schweitzer remarks, Hch was hopelessly overwhelmed in her role as Matthies partner, mother, and psychoanalyst, she remained supportive of him throughout the ordeal. 194 Hch petitioned for Matthies release and submitted letters to the police on his behalf in May and again in July 1938; the latter was influential in obtaining a suspended sentence and his release on parole. 195 After Matthies was freed, the couple vacationed and, in mid-August, registered to be married. Matthies and Hch were joined in a small civil ceremony in Berlin on September 16, 1938, Brugmans fiftieth birthday. 196 Matthies sexual proclivities and his castration suggest that Hchs relationship with him probably did not include conventional heterosexual intimacy. And, while some physical contact is indeed possible, the evidence presented above, coupled with the artists lesbian history, suggests that the complexities of her sexual orientation deserve more than cursory consideration. Hchs relationship with Matthies clearly reflects her fascination, both in her life and in her art, with non-normative gender. While this was
Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 236-37. Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 225. 195 Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 245-46. Matthies would remain on parole for three years until July 30, 1942. Matthies served only nine months and avoided the remainder of his three year sentence by subjecting himself to castration and arguing that he wanted to marry Hch. 196 Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 246-48. The honeymoon did not last very long. While the couple fought during the 1938-39 New Year holidays, Hch was enjoying the financial advantages of the Jewish Pogrom. Beginning April 26, 1938, the net value of Jewish-owned businesses could not exceed 5000 Reichsmark. Matthies, who was employed by the Jewish-owned company Schnthal, purchased the company car in August 1938, and by December 1938, the Schnthals grand piano stood in Hchs apartment.
194 193

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patently obvious as she lived openly with a female lover, Matthies dysphoric sexuality was not necessarily visible to others. However, his castration rendered him, at least to those with whom he was physically intimate, sexually ambiguous. For awhile, and especially during their many short trips together, Hch and her husband enjoyed each others company. Hch, however, often remained in Berlin while Matthies was away on business. In 1941, she spent most of the year alone in Heiligensee working in the garden of her rural Huschen (small house), while he was in Italy for business. 197 The last time the couple traveled together, Matthies friend Hubert came along and Hch felt left out; she spent most of the time by herself collecting plants and taking photographs, while the two men went mountain-climbing. 198 In September of 1942, Hchs old friend, Nell von bneth, a concert violinist (and the estranged wife of Hungarian artist Lajos von bneth) came to Berlin and was a guest in Hchs house. While Nells musical engagement in Berlin was brief, she stayed for over a month. In a strange twist of events, it would again transpire that Hchs intimate relationships were oddly intertwined with hers: In 1926, Hch had met Til Brugman while vacationing at bneths seaside home in Kijkduin. In November 1942, Matthies took back Hchs diamond wedding ring and abruptly left her for Nell. Hch and Matthies were officially divorced in 1944. 199 While Hch and Matthies later saw each other sporadically, Heinz Ohff reports that, while he was compiling Hchs biography, she quietly crossed her ex-husbands name from the manuscript and later commented,
197 198

datebook.

Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 340. Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 344-45. The artist noted these impressions in her Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 346-47.

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Ich brauchte ein Kind, er brauchte eine Mutter (I needed a child, he needed a mother). 200 It is not difficult to argue that Hchs unconventional intimate relationships informed her aesthetic and political choices and found reflection in her art. Moreover, they may in part explain the artists radical visual treatment of the human body and her critical--and somewhat cynical--distance from acceptable gender-based social conventions. Hchs oeuvre reveals a marked emphasis on the female body and the feminized male, but also suggests that she viewed patriarchal and heterosexist institutions--among them courtship and marriage--with irony. These impressions are perhaps predictable in light of Hchs difficult relationship with Hausmann and the curious circumstances of her six year marriage to Matthies, a castrated pedophile twenty-two years her junior. Considered in tandem, Hchs oeuvre and her intimate biography, which includes lesbianism at a critical juncture in her artistic career, support related and complementary claims that her personal life strongly informed her artistic production. Carefully analyzing Hchs oeuvre supports a key finding in this dissertation: although she was clearly interested in gender themes before she met Brugman, Hchs lesbian relationship was most instrumental in transforming her artistic sensibilities and visual production. While with Brugman, Hchs feminist sensibilities and her erotic
Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 378; See also Heinz Ohff, Heiligensee, in Ralf Burmeister, et al, Hannah Hch: Eine Lebenscollage (Berlin: Knstlerarchiv der Berlinischen Galerie, Berlinischen Galerie, 1995), vol. 2, 306. See also, Burmeister, Aller Anfang ist DADA, 176. Matthies contacted Hch in 1965 while he was in Berlin, but she refused to see him.
200

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appreciation of the female body were more emphatically expressed. This suggests that, in particular, this relationship heightened the artists sensitivity to gender issues.

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Chapter II The Lesbian in Weimar and Hannah Hchs Russian Dancer and English Dancer Hannah Hchs photomontages generally exhibit compositional variety, yet the 1928 Russian Dancer (fig. 2.1) and English Dancer (2.2) are nearly identically configured. Both depict over-sized heads perched on tiny legs against empty backgrounds. Due to their similarity, the two are often discussed in tandem. 201 Mineke Bosch and Myriam Everard correctly claim that the two photomontages constitute a double portrait of Hch and her partner Til Brugman. 202 However, along with reflecting her current relationship, as this chapter reveals, the Russian Dancer and English Dancer also suggest the artists engagement with lesbian media. Maud Lavin has undertaken the most in-depth analysis of the Russian Dancer and English Dancer to date, offering possible readings informed by Hch and Brugmans relationship. Foregrounding their physical characteristics she remarks, Brugman had a slightly fuller face and was more stout, while Hch was lithe and wiry. 203 Many observers, she continues, have recognized the Englische Tnzerin as a montage selfportrait, and it seems likely that (as some have speculated) the Russische Tnzerin was

Mineke Bosch and Myriam Everard, guest eds., Redactioneel in Til Brugman en Hannah Hch special issue, Lesbisch Cultureel Tijdschrift Lust en Gratie 18 (Fall 1988): 8; See also Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife: The Weimar Photomontages of Hannah Hch (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), 143-47. 202 Bosch and Everard, Lust en Gratie, 8. The two photomontages illustrate the front and back covers of their 1988 discussion: Afbeeldingen van werk van Hch in Kleur en aan omslag bestaande uit de Englische Tnzerin (voor) en de Russische Tnzerin (achter) maken het dubbelportret complet. (The English Dancer (front) and the Russian Dancer (behind) make this double-portrait complete). 203 Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 146.

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meant to represent Brugman. 204 Hchs portrayal of herself and her lover as dancers, each balancing delicately on one foot, suggests a desire for equilibrium . . . or grace in the midst of instability. 205 Moreover, she claims the Dancers complementary poses take up the theme of doubling (the couple, the other as self), 206 both visually and psychologically. 207 Echoing Lavin, Matthew Biro writes, The two dancers evoke a sense of human identity formation. The various signs of shadowing or doubling suggest an intimate and interactive practice in which two women mirror and change one another. 208 While these readings are perceptive, they fail to address well-worn conventions of lesbian representation (i.e. visual contrast). Moreover, both ignore the Russian Dancers monocle, in Weimar, the defining lesbian accessory. 209 Myriam Everard astutely recognizes that the Russian Dancers monocle positions the image in a lesbian context. 210 Furthermore, she claims that the Russian
Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 146; Lavin notes that in his 1968 Hannah Hch catalogue, art historian Gtz Adriani places the Englische Tnzerin opposite the painted self-portrait Selbstbildnis, 1929, whose features it resembles, 146, 236n26. 205 Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 147. 206 Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 146. Lavins remark regarding the other as self, calls to mind Bonnie Zimmermans observation that the tendency to interpret pairs of female characters as aspects of the self sometimes serves to mask a relationship that a lesbian reader [viewer] might interpret as bonding or love between women. See, What Has Never Been: An Overview of Lesbian Feminist Criticism, in Sexual Practice, Textual Theory: Lesbian Cultural Criticism, Susan J. Wolfe and Julia Penelope, eds. (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1993), 36. 207 Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen knife, 146; See also, Cassandra L. Langer, Transgressing Le Droit du Seigneur, 311. This theme dovetails with lesbian theorists who identify a twinning and doubling of the self as [one of] the archetypal patterns of lesbian love. 208 Matthew Biro,The New Woman as Cyborg: Gender Race and Sexuality in the Photomontages of Hannah Hch, in The Dada Cyborg: Visions of the New Human in Weimar Berlin (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009), 237. 209 Ruth Roellig, Berlins lesbische Frauen (1928), reprinted in Adele Meyer, Lila Nchte: die Damenklubs im Berlin der zwanziger Jahre (Berlin: Edition Lit. Europe, 1994), 17. Emphasis Roellig; See also Lavin, Cut with the kitchen Knife, 146. While Lavin discusses the Russian Dancers monocle, she curiously regards it as a sign often associated in Hchs work with Dada despite its contemporary currency as a lesbian marker and the near decade that separates the heyday of Berlin Dadaism from 1928. 210 Myriam Everard, Man lebt nur einmal in Patchamatac: Die groteske Welt von Til Brugman, Lebensgefhrtin von Hannah Hch, in Jula Dech and Gertrud Maurer, eds., Da-da zwischen Reden zu
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Dancers monocle constituted a cross-cultural sapphic signal link to Romaine Brooks 1923 painting Una, Lady Troubridge (fig.2.3), an iconic example of early twentiethcentury lesbian representation. 211 In Brooks austere portrait, the subjects monocle clearly identified her as a stylish interwar lesbian. Troubridge was the partner of Marguerite Radclyffe Hall (1880-1943), the British author of the infamous lesbianthemed novel The Well of Loneliness (1928), which was available in German translation in 1929 and marketed in Berlins lesbian periodicals. 212 Scholars recognize the importance of the dancer in Weimar culture and its key role in Hchs oeuvre; they often symbolized female empowerment and the freedom women newly enjoyed. 213 In Weimar, as in the artists collages, the dancer was powerful, active, and attractive, and also represented an athletic and desirable modern type of woman. 214 Hchs fascination with dance and dancers is obvious in a number of her works; dancers feature prominently in the artists photomontages, and her

Hannah Hch (Berlin: Orlanda Frauenverlag, 1991), 94. Die Russische Tnzerin, in der sich der Knstlerin mit dem Attribut des virile preuischen Offiziers dem Monokel (mein Double), um sich so -ironisch, doch immerhin in eine lesbische Kontexte stellt. 211 Everard, Patchamatac, 97n31; Cassandra L. Langer, Transgressing Le Droit du Seigneur: The Lesbian Feminist Defining Herself in Art History, in New Feminist Criticism: Art, Identity, Action, Joanna Frueh et al. eds. (New York: Harper Collins, 1991), 306-26. See also, Joe Lucchesi, Romaine Brooks Portraits and the Performance of Lesbian Identities (PhD. diss., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2000); Joe Lucchesi, The Dandy in Me: Romaine Brooks 1923 Portraits, in Dandies: Fashion and Finesse in Art and Culture, Susan Fillin-Yeh, ed. (New York: New York University Press, 2001), 153-84. 212 Liebende Frauen 4 Jg., no. 47 (1929): 7. Quell der Einsamkeit, the German title of Halls infamous publication, was available in paper or hardcover through the Berlin publisher Bergmann. Written in large font, the advertisement for Quell emphasizes that the scandalous book was publically burned. 213 Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife. Lavin stresses Hchs symbolic investment in the figure of the female dancer (23), describing the dancer as an active, empowered woman, or as a symbol of postwar modernism . . . and the myth of the bohemian artist (32). Moreover, Lavin conflates the New Woman and the dancer: The makeup and large earring identify the subject as a New Womanaccording to Hch, a dancer (128). 214 Biro, The New Woman as Cyborg, 236.

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Scrapbook contains dozens of dance and dance-related images. 215 As Lavin observes, Hchs pleasurable and largely uncritical association of dance with exoticism 216 reflects popular Weimar representations. 217 While Hch might have easily chosen other figures to depict a female-female couple, the artists portrayal of herself and her lover as dancers reflects common associations between women in the performing arts and lesbianism. By contemporary standards, this automatically lent Hchs Dancers a homoerotic subtext. In 1927, the Weimar sexologist Dr. Leo Perry declared, Its a well known fact that women active in the theatre are often lesbians. 218 Like him, prominent British sexologist and Hirschfeld colleague Havelock Ellis (1859-1939) claimed, passionate friendships among girls, from the most innocent to the most elaborate excursions in the direction of Lesbos, are extremely common in theatres, both among actresses, and chorus and ballet girls. 219 This suggests that while Hch redeployed mainstream materials in her photomontages, similar to her Weimar lesbian contemporaries she infused them with subcultural signals.

Hannah Hch, Album, ed. Gunda Luyken (Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz; Berlin: Berlinische Galerie, Landesmuseum fr Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur, 2004); See also Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 147. 216 Hchs Album includes numerous images of African and Asian women dancing, as well as a photograph of African American dancer Josephine Baker performing in a grass skirt. 217 Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 96. 218 Dr. Leo Perry, Auf diesem nicht mehr ungewhlichen Wege . . .: Der Liebesmarkt des Zeitungs-Inserates (Vienna; Leipzig: Verlag der Kulturforschung, 1927), 179. Die Tatsache, dass Theaterdamen nicht selten der andere Fakultt angehren regte den Versuch an, Lesbos und Theatre zu kombinieren. Perrys Sappho (179-194) is included in the chapter Die Abseitigen (The Abject) (153219), which clearly reflects the contemporaneous illicit status of lesbianism in Weimar. 219 Havelock Ellis, Studies in the Psychology of Sex: Sexual Inversion, vol. 2. (Philadelphia: F.A. Davis and Company Publishers, 1908), 130. Similar remarks were also made by Edward Carpenter. See, The Intermediate Sex: A Study of some transitional types of Men and Women (1908; repr., New York: AMS Press, Inc., 1983), 155.

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Representations of Lesbians in Weimar Before Hchs Russian and English Dancers are more closely examined within a subcultural context, Weimar lesbian media must first be discussed. The history of Weimar lesbian subculture can be most effectively reconstructed and investigated through print media. Not only did lesbian magazines and lesbian-themed books leave a tangible trace that can still be accessed today, but they were a key means by which the subculture was expressed. Weimar lesbian media served to interrupt representational conventions in which the lesbian was invisible, the object of male fantasy, or a sidebar within homosexual subculture. 220 Lesbian media, however, was entrenched in an environment of patriarchal heterosexism, which traditionally subordinates the female. This problematized lesbian expression yet, as history has proven, it was a surmountable challenge. As the following discussion confirms, Weimar lesbian media newly lent the lesbian subject a visible contour and was ultimately effective in extricating it from a heterosexist cultural matrix. Hollis Clayson writes that the recognition that an artworks meaning is not fixed, [and] that its message depends upon the investments of the onlooker, is one of the most fertile discoveries, indeed one of the themes, of post 1970 art-history. 221 The significance of Claysons observation is especially apparent when applied to the weighty gendered tradition of Western European female representation. While images of women are a staple of Western art, they are often produced by men and geared to the
220

25-26.

Carolyn J. Dean, Sexuality and Modern Western Culture. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1996),

Hollis Clayson, Materialist Art History and its Points of Difficulty, The Art Bulletin 77, no. 3 (Sept. 1995): 369.

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male heterosexual viewer. 222 The age-old configuration of the male subject and female object inspired, in part, Laura Mulveys seminal concept of the gaze. The gaze, a central principle of critical feminist theory, explores the process of looking in a genderimbalanced world. In such a world, males assert their power through the subject position of looking, while females are passive, powerless objects of their controlling gaze. 223 This dynamic has perpetrated a tradition in which images of women are created by men for male consumption. A similar, yet hyperbolized (because it involves two female subjects) spectatorial logic informs the representation and reception of lesbianism. A culture of heteropatriarchy empowers masculinist viewing practices and, in effect, weakens or negates lesbian agency. In part, this dynamic explains the subordination of the lesbian figure to the masculine imagination. 224 As Robert Stam elaborates, lesbian scenes are almost always invariably staged in view of the imperious needs of the straight male spectator. 225 Images of lesbians are constructed to embrace the male who is invited to enter and master the scenethat is to dominate the two women, thereby doubling his pleasure. 226

Thalia Gouma-Peterson and Patricia Mathews, The Feminist Critique of Art History, Art Bulletin 69, no. 3 (Sept., 1987): 326-40. 223 Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard, eds. The Expanding Discourse: Feminism and Art History (New York: Harper Collins, 1992), 7. 224 Noreen Giffney and Katharine ODonnell, eds. Twenty-First Century Lesbian Studies (Binghamton, NY: The Haworth Press, 2007), 13. 225 Robert Stam, Subversive Pleasures: Bakhtin, Cultural Criticism, and Film (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1989), 167. 226 Becki L. Ross, Its Merely Designed for Sexual Arousal: Interrogating the Indefensibility of Lesbian Smut, Bad Attitudes on Trial: Pornography, Feminism, and the Butler Decision, Brenda Cossman, et al. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997), 167; 168. The women pictured in lesbian spreads do not attend to each other; they stare out coyly at the male viewer and their bodies are positioned to maximize both his arousal and their own submission to his needs. . . The figuring of lesbians to attract and

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Moreover, in contrast to the male homosexual who is embedded in a culture that privileges men, male experience, and in which phallic agency is the reality denoted by the word sex, 227 sex without a penis, i.e. lesbianism, is generally regarded as negligible and, hence, less threatening than homosexuality. 228 This rationale complements 1929 arguments offered by the minor, yet controversial, Weimar sexologist Franz Scheda who claimed, the reason woman-to-woman love is not given notice is twofold: It is not illegal in Germany, and most people do not find it distasteful. 229 The traditional unimportance and invisibility of lesbians and lesbianism within sexual discourse was also demonstrated by leading sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld, who, in a 1912 study, discussed seventeen cases of transvestites, only one of which was a female. 230 Indeed, as Carolyn J. Dean observes, with some exceptions, historians have included lesbians in larger discussions of homosexuality, which remains primarily a history of men, 231 Clearly, in a heterosexual matrix that privileges masculinity, it is obvious how and why female homosexualitywhatever it might besimply drops out
accommodate the male gaze confirms age-old myths of the gargantuan, ever-ready sapphic appetite best satisfied by horny straight men. 227 Joanne Glasgow, Whats a Nice Lesbian Like You Doing in the Church of Torquemada?: Radclyffe Hall and Other Catholic Converts, in Karla Jay and Joanne Glasgow, eds., Lesbian Texts and Contexts: Radical Revisions (New York: New York University Press, 1990), 243. Glasgow explores the moral arguments that enabled a number of prominent twentieth-century lesbians, including Rene Vivien, Una Troubridge, Radclyffe Hall, and Alice B. Toklas, to convert to and effortlessy embrace Catholicism. 228 This situation is similarly reflected in the historic contrast between the illegality of male homosexuality and the general legality, or what lesbian scholars correctly perceive as a dismissal, or nonacknowledgment of lesbianism. A double-edged sword, the epistemological non-status of lesbians protected them from persecution, but also rendered them culturally invisible. 229 Franz Scheda, Die Abarten im Geschlechtsleben, Band 1: Die lesbische Liebe (Berlin: SchwalbeVerlag, 1929), 8. Scheda regarded lesbianism as a pleasure pursued by overly-stimulated and bored women and as an inferior ersatz for heterosexuality. Alternately, he claimed lesbian practice stemmed from disgust with males (hence, locating it among prostitutes), or common among women in harems compelled to share one husband sexually. 230 Magnus Hirschfeld, trans. Michael A. Lombardi-Nash, Transvestites: the erotic drive to crossdress (Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1991). 231 Carolyn J. Dean, Sexuality and Modern Western Culture, 25-26.

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of the cultural symbolic. 232 Thus, historically, and in accordance with phallocentric cultural tradition, lesbians were either represented within a pornographic context or were relatively invisible. Due to the hegemony of phallocentric culture, before the advent of Weimar lesbian media, lesbians were compelled to transgressive readings of texts and imagery; this strategy enabled them to participate, albeit clandestinely, in an otherwise inaccessible culture. 233 Obviously, lesbian-authored Weimar publications altered this situation to a degree. Nevertheless, lesbian materials, much like those who consumed them, circulated in a subcultural milieu. However, on those rare occasions when lesbianism was addressed in the Weimar mainstream, it was either sensationalized, or, as in the case of the film Mdchen in Uniform (Girls in Uniform), symbolically erased. 234 When it was released in late 1931, the films lesbian theme was either ignored or only circuitously acknowledged. Mdchen in Uniform Mdchen in Uniform was a collaborative project of lesbian film director Leontine Sagan (ne Schlesinger) (1889-1974), and the lesbian playwright Christa Winsloe (1888-

Jodie L. Medd, Extraordinary Allegations: Scandalous Female Homosexuality and the Culture of Modernism (PhD. diss., Ithaca: Cornell University, 2001), 3. 233 Reina Lewis, Looking Good: The Lesbian Gaze and Fashion Imagery, Feminist Review 55 (Spring 1997), 92. Lewis characterizes lesbian reading against the grain of mainstream culture as a subcultural competence which enables pleasurable, yet subversive, reading of heteronormative material. Lewis, writing in the liberated post Stonewall era of the late 1990s, does not lament the repressions of the closet, but detects a mixed response among lesbians to lesbian magazines. Due to their learned habits of subversive reading, she contends that lesbians may actually prefer a marginalized social position because it enables a transgressive mode of reading and the potential to construct fantasy that ensures eroticized pleasures. 108. 234 Mdchen in Uniform, director Leontine Sagan, 1931, 89 minutes, Janus Film.

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1944). Mdchen in Uniform was also the first film in history to have an all female cast. 235 The film is set in a conservatively-run boarding school for girls and narrates the story of a students crush on her female teacher. Among most Weimar commentators, Mdchen in Uniform was regarded as a critique of Prussian authoritarianism and celebrated for its anti-militaristic message. Although, as Richard W. McCormick comments, the two discourses--anti-authoritarianism and lesbian rights--are intertwined and not only within the text of the film. To separate political struggles is a mistake. 236 While McCormicks remark is certainly valid, it reflects similar claims which have perennially weakened lesbian agency by contextualizing it within larger more important issues. Arguments such as these rationalize and unwittingly sustain the purported minor position of lesbians within gay history and offer additional insight into the muted Weimar reception of Mdchen in Uniform. 237 Lavin comments that ironically, although the film pivots around the crime of publically naming lesbian passion, lesbianism is never spoken of directly. 238 Unsurprisingly, contemporary reviewers also skirted the issue. Weimar critic Hans Wollenberg declared, Filming such a difficult theme convincingly and yet so tastefully is

Rosa Kreische, Lesbische Liebe im Film bis 1950, in Michael Boll, et. al., Eldorado: Homosexuelle Frauen und Mnner in Berlin, 1850-1950, Geschichte, Alltag und Kultur (Berlin: Edition Hentrich, 1984), 193; Mdchen in Uniform (1931) predates George Cukors film The Women by nearly a decade. Based on a play written by Clare Boothe Luce, The Women was produced by Metro Goldwyn Mayer in 1939. 236 Richard W. McCormick, Gender and Sexuality in Weimar Modernity: Film, Literature, and New Objectivity (New York: Palgrave, 2001), 162. 237 For a discussion of Mdchen in Uniform, see Richard Dyer, Less and More than Women and Men: Lesbian and Gay Cinema in Weimar Germany, New German Critique 51 (Autumn 1990): 31-58; B. Ruby Rich, Mdchen in Uniform: From Repressive Tolerance to Erotic Liberation, Jump Cut 24/25 (1981): 44-50. 238 Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 201.

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a remarkable achievement. 239 While others commented that the sensitive subject 240 of a female pupils idealized crush [on her female teacher] is a perverted confusion. 241 Mdchens narrative and dialogue not only renders lesbianism unmentionable, but also represents it as pathological: Immediately after Manuela declares her love for her teacher, she is sent to the schools infirmary. When one of her classmates asks why she is not permitted to visit Manuela there, a long pause truncates the headmistress reply, emphasizing the taboo nature of the young womans social transgression: I cant explain it to you, Manuela is . . . for this you are too young. 242 The dramatic break in the dialogue equates lesbianism with silence, and, in effect, constitutes its erasure, which, as Jodie L. Medd writes, operates to exclude lesbianism as a possible category of desire or identity. 243 Mdchen in Uniforms artistic director, Carl Froelich, 244 was represented in the media as lording over the lesbian film team. Described as der liebe Gott (dear God

Kreische, Lesbische Liebe im Film, in Boll, 194, cites Hans Wollenberg, Licht und Bhne 24, no. 285, November, 28, 1931. 240 Kreische, Lesbische Liebe im Film, in Boll, 195, cites Die Weltbhne Berlin 27, no. 47, December, 8, 1931. 241 Kreische, Lesbische Liebe im Film, in Boll, 195, cites Mein Film, nr. 317, 1932. 242 Kreische, Lesbische Liebe im Film, in Boll, 195. 243 Medd, Extraordinary Allegations, 3. A similar link between lesbianism, silence and the dynamics of narrative is suggested by Shari Benstock who writes: Ellipsis is both a threshold and a place of trespass. Benstock, Textualizing the Feminine: On the Limits of Genre (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991), 139. See also, Benstock, Expatriate Sapphic Modernism: Entering Literary History: Imagination and Identity, in Lesbian Texts and Contexts: Radical Revisions, Karla Jay and Joanne Glasgow, eds., (New York: New York University Press, 1990), 192. The ellipse serves to figure woman-inculture, where she denotes absence (of the phallic signifier), silence, and non-presence . . . I believe that this form of grammatical-rhetorical deviation figures not merely the experimental or avant-garde, but the Sapphic. The ellipsis is an example of a structural term that is unread and unheard in the text: we are trained as readers to skip over it, and as writers (often) take ellipses, dashes, and other marks of punctuation . . . as unverbalized allusions. 244 Obviously the same figure, for unexplained reasons in Das 12 Uhr Blatt, Rich, and Dyer, the directors name is written as Froelich while in Kreische his name appears as Frhlich. For the sake of clarity and consistency, I will use Froelich throughout.

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himself) and as wunderbare weisshaaarig (wonderfully white-haired), Froelich lent this all woman production, at least in the popular press, a traditional (almost biblical) patriarchal authority figure. 245 Froelichs marketing acumen and his close adherence to contemporary cultural conventions, 246 coupled with Mdchen in Uniforms mainstream venue, curtailed the acknowledgement of the films lesbian content. 247 The film premiered in the luxurious newly built Gloria-Palast cinema on the Kurfrstendamm 10, in the heart of Berlins most fashionable and prestigious shopping district. 248 One could argue that had Mdchen, like Richard Oswalds 1919 homosexual-themed Anders als die Anderen (Different than the Others), been launched in an alternate venue and promoted as a plea for sexual acceptance, its lesbian theme would have been more openly discussed. 249 Unlike Oswalds film, Mdchen did not address the theme of sexuality, hence, unsurprisingly; both its narrative and critical reception resonated with Terry

m-s., Christa Winsloe gleich Bollenhagen? Besuch bei Froelichs Film-Studio, Das 12 Uhr Blatt, June 25, 1931. 246 Carl Froelich (1875-1953) was able to continue his work during the culturally tumultuous National Socialist era. In 1939, Froelich was named president of the Reichsfilmkammer (Nazi Film Department), a highly influential position which would have been impossible for him to achieve had he not adhered closely to stringent Nazi directives. 247 Kreische, Lesbische Liebe im Filme, in Boll, 193. Froelich was primarily interested in appealing to the German consumer: He reportedly chose the title Mdchen in Uniform over that of the stage play on which the story was based (Gestern und Heute [Yesterday and Today]). According to Kreische, Froelich thought his title suggested young girls romping around and people would want to come see their legs. 248 Kreische, Lesbische Liebe in Fim, in Boll, 193. Mdchen in Uniform premiered on 27. November 1931 in the Gloria-Palast Theater. Built in 1926 by the Berlin film company UFA, the Baroqueinspired Gloria Palast boasted seven staircases, two elevators, and a telephone free of use to customers making calls within the city. Arguably, the Palast (Palace) venue, at the time, an epithet often reserved for luxurious hotels, did not conjure associations of political activism or sexual subculture, but instead was intended to attract an affluent and respectable bourgeois movie-goer. 249 Oswalds Anders als die Anderen was the first film to critically address the discrimination and persecution of male homosexuals. Conceived as an Aufklrungsfilm ([sexual]-instruction-film), the prominent Berlin sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld participated in the project, playing himself in a cameo-role as The Doctor.

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Castles theory of the apparitional lesbian or, what Tirza True Latimer describes as the lesbians visible invisibility. 250 Due to the repressive contemporary political environment (an overwhelming Nazi dominance in the German parliament), it is, however, not entirely surprising that lesbianism was not named or directly addressed in the mainstream media. Nonetheless, the obscure discussion of the topic in the Weimar lesbian press is rather curious. Even a favorable 1932 review in Die Freundin (The Girlfriend) relies primarily on innuendo. The anonymous author lauded Mdchen in Uniform for tackling such a difficult theme, and the actresses ability to convey through words and gestures, the conflict between impulse and self-control. 251 Certainly, the political atmosphere in 1932 Germany (in contrast to the earlier and more libertine Weimar years) largely explains the films awkward and oblique critical reception in the lesbian press. Despite its circuitous message and muted reception, Mdchen in Uniform was an international success and represented a significant cultural contribution. Now considered a film classic, 252 Mdchen offered a representation of lesbianism which was legitimized and sanitized by its critical reception and was of tremendous importance

Terry Castle, The Apparitional Lesbian: Female Homosexuality and Modern Culture (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993); Tirza True Latimer, Women Together/Women Apart: Portraits of Lesbian Paris (New Brunswick; London: Rutgers University Press, 2005), 12. 251 Die Freundin, 8 Jg., no. 3, January 20, 1932, unpaginated. 252 Kreische, Lesbische Liebe im Film, in Boll, 194; To date there have been two remakes, one in Mexico, Muchchachas de uniforme, 1950, and another in Germany, 1958. The 1931 version of Mdchen in Uniform was resurrected from historical oblivion by German feminists in the 1970s and is now considered a lesbian cult film. Unlike Oswalds Anders, the lesbian content of Mdchen was only circuitously acknowledged. While this weakened lesbian agency, the films circuitous message ultimately spared it from censure and saved it for posterity. Unlike Oswalds film which was banned and almost completely destroyed by the Nazis, Mdchen was not considered morally subversive.

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for the identity of lesbian subculture. 253 Mdchen in Uniform gratified contemporary lesbians who longed to see themselves (even if their presence was somewhat obscured) mirrored in the media. While the critical reception of Mdchen in Uniform rendered lesbianism, to a degree, invisible, Weimar lesbian print culture demonstrated the contrary. Lesbian Books and Magazines and Popular Weimar Culture In contrast to their near invisibility prior to World War I, and later cultural erasure due to Nazi prohibitions, 254 lesbians enjoyed unprecedented freedom and public presence in Weimar. 255 As stated, print media was a crucial factor in this process; lesbian periodicals marketed books with lesbian themes (as opposed to lesbianthemed pornographic materials geared to heterosexual male consumption). 256 In contrast to earlier depictions of lesbianism as an illness or as an indication of moral depravity, Weimar authors created likable lesbian figures. Anna Elisabet Weihrauchs The Scorpion reflected the progressive contemporary theory of the third sex; her
Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 200; Similarly, Kreische, Lesbische Liebe im Film, in Boll, 196, comments, The women who made the film were able to counter Froelichs intentions and salvage the films lesbians message . . . this may be explained because even today, homosexuals are versed in cloaking their messages so they are only visible to those in the know. 254 Katharina Vogel, Zum Selbstverstndnis lesbischer Frauen in der Weimarer Republik: Eine analyse der Zeitschrift Die freundin, 1924-1933, in Eldorado: Homosexuelle Frauen und Mnner in Berlin 1850-1950, Geschichte, Alltag und Kultur, Michael Boll et al. (1984; repr., Berlin: Edition Hentrich; Berlin: Verlag rosa Winkel, 1992), 162. The last issue of the lesbian magazine Die Freundin appeared on March 8, 1933. 255 Harry Oosterhuis, Stepchildren of Nature: Krafft-Ebing: Psychiatry, and the Making of the Sexual Identity (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 206-07. In contrast to male homosexuality, female homosexuality largely remained a muted discourse . . . For women there were no public meeting places or an established sexual underground . . . In Germany and Austria, a self-defined lesbian identity did not emerge until the 1920s. See also Lillian Faderman and Brigitte Ericksson, Lesbians in Germany: 1890s-1920s (Tallahassee: Naiad Press, 1990), xx-xxi. 256 The Berlin Radzuweit publishing house regularly advertised mail-order books in lesbian magazines. A typical list of titles, as advertised in Die Freundin 3 (1927): 7, includes a variety of wellknown erotic classics by Diderot, Oscar Wilde, Sacher-Masoch as well as a number of lesser known works which thematize all manner of obscure sexual practice and deviancy.
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protagonist was a happy, well-adjusted young woman whose sexuality was inborn and natural. 257 Lesbians were not only newly represented in a positive way in lesbian-authored novels, but lesbian magazines were publically posted. These periodicals were instrumental in establishing a lesbian cultural network and offered new possibilities for social identification. 258 As one Weimar lesbian claimed, it was through the magazines that I received valuable enlightenment about my own nature and also learned that I am not, by any means, unique in the world. 259 The magazines reported social events in Berlins lesbian bars, of which at the time there were about fifty. 260 In addition, numerous organizations and meeting places facilitated social exchange and kindled a sense of group identity, lending this heretofore invisible figure a visible contour. 261 Available at every newsstand in the city, lesbian periodicals were marketed alongside

Anna Elisabet Weihrauchs Der Skorpion (The Scorpion) is a trilogy of novels that narrate the life and loves of a young lesbian woman. It was serially published as three separate volumes in 1919, 1921, and 1931. Der Skorpion See, Weirauch, The Scorpion, Vol. 1, 1919; Vol. 2, 1921; Vol. 3, 1931 (1919; 1921; 1931, repr., New York: Arno Press, 1975). See also Claudia Schoppmann, Ein Lesbenroman aus der Weimarer Zeit: Der Skorpion, in Michael Boll, et al., Eldorado: Homosexuelle Frauen und Mnner in Berlin, 1850-1950, Geschichte, Alltag und Kultur (Berlin: Edition Hentrich, 1984), 197. Weihrauchs novel was highly popular in homosexual circles and a film version was planned, but for unexplained reasons, never realized. 258 Katharina Vogel, Zum Selbstverstndnis lesbischer Frauen in der Weimarer Republik: Eine Analyse der Zeitschrift Die Freundin, 1924-1933, in Boll et al., Eldorado, 162-68; See also, Angeles Espinaco-Virseda, I Feel that I belong to You,: subculture, Die Freundin, and Lesbian Identity in Weimar, spacesofidentity 4, no. 1 (2004), 93. 259 Espinaco-Verseda, I Feel that I Belong to You, 93, 100n72, cites Halb-transvestiten, (Halftransvestites) Die Freundin, 16 September 1931: 5. 260 Ilse Kokula, Lesbische Leben von Weimar bis zu Nachkriegszeit, 104, in Meyer, Lila Nchte. Ruth Roelligs lesbian 1928 guide to Berlin, Berlins Lesbische Frauen, highlights only a fraction of these. Presented as short chapters, Roelligs book devotes a few pages each to fourteen of the most popular locales. See also Faderman and Eriksson, Lesbians in Germany, xx-xxi. Before the rise of fascism during the 1930s, Berlins lesbian subculture was unmatched anywhere in the world and boasted roughly sixty locales where lesbians could meet and socialize. 261 Ilsa Kokula, Lesbische Leben von Weimar bis zu Nachkriegszeit, in Adele Meyer, Lila Nchte: die Damenklubs im Berlin der zwanziger Jahre (Berlin: Edition Lit. Europe, 1994), 101-23.

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mainstream periodicals, and represented a site at which subculture and mass culture intersected. 262 Readers could also choose from at least two magazine titles weekly. 263 Importantly, however, in many ways, a number of conspicuous visual and thematic similarities existed between lesbian print media and the popular press. A cursory examination of Weimar materials reveals that lesbian print media borrowed from the mainstream; the cover photographs of lesbian journals often reflect popular discourses. Indeed, when one disregards their titles, Weimar lesbian magazines are often indistinguishable from mainstream publications. This, potentiated by the lesbians visible invisibility, makes lesbian imagery somewhat difficult to detect. While contemporaries could obviously recognize subtle visual signals more easily than early twenty first-century art historians, I would suggest that this state of affairs is most responsible for the inability or reluctance of present-day scholars to discuss Hchs photomontages in a lesbian context. Hence, a familiarity with both popular and lesbian print media is indispensable to fully comprehend Hchs oeuvre. Weimar Lesbian Representations of Female Nudity An untitled magazine cover image depicting three nude women (fig. 2.4) compellingly illustrates how Weimar lesbian media appropriated mainstream visual
Heike Schader, Virile, Vamps und wilde Veilchen: Sexualitt, Begehren, und Erotik in den Zeitschriften homosexueller Frauen im Berlin der 1920er Jahren (Knigstein: Helmer, 2007). 61. Certainly, not all women felt comfortable purchasing lesbian periodicals, and some reported buying them in an area of town where they were less likely to be recognized, hiding them from others, or reading them in secret (62-63); See Kokula, Lesbische Liebe, in Adele Meyer, Lila Nchte, 106-08. While public lesbian culture ended with the Nazis, sanctions had begun earlier. In 1925, an unsuccessful attempt was launched in the German parliament to criminalize lesbians and include them under Paragraph 175 (which outlawed male homosexuality). In 1926, the lesbian magazines Die Garonne and Frauenliebe (Women-love) were temporarily banned, but resumed publication only to be permanently banned later in 1931. Finally on February 23, 1933, under the new pornography laws, all public homosexual activities and related publications, including lesbian periodicals, were declared criminal and prohibited by law. 263 Schader, Virile, Vamps, 61.
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motifs. In addition, the anonymous 1927 photograph also demonstrates how lesbian representation could be easily confused with the male dominated genre of the female nude, 264 which, as Patricia Mathews remarks, historically frames representations of the female body and female sexuality. 265 Although the magazines title and subtitle Liebende Frauen (Loving Women) clearly announce the publication as lesbian, 266 the nudity of the women pictured potentially attracted non-lesbian or prurient interest. Moreover, the realist mode of the photograph presents the illusion of unmediated access to the bodies they display. 267 (As we shall see, this observation may also be applied to the majority of lesbian cover images which, almost without exception, were photographs, and often depicted nude women.) Pictured from behind, two of the three women pictured, somewhat coquettishly, render their breasts visible in profile, underscoring their status as accessible sexual objects. Their heads turned, the eyes of the subjects do not meet those of the viewer; their lack of scopic agency emphasizes their passivity. All three are pictured, somewhat artificially, with their arms raised. This, coupled with an exaggerated contrapposto, suggests the mannered and frozen artistic poses of early twentieth-century dance imagery. Printed on the cover of a lesbian magazine, the photograph obviously represents Weimar lesbian subculture. Yet, it may

Patricia Mathews, Returning the Gaze: Diverse Representations of the Nude in the Art of Suzanne Valadon, Art Bulletin 73, no. 3 (Sep., 1991), 415. 265 Mathews, Returning the Gaze, 417. 266 The complete title of the journal is as follows: Liebende Frauen: Wochenschrift fr Freundschaft, Liebe und sexuelle Aufklrung (Loving Women: Weekly journal for Friendship, Love and sexual Education). 267 Ann Millet-Gallant, The Disabled Body in Contemporary Art (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 12.

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also be linked to Weimar dance culture, pornography, or historical Western European themes. The three nude women in the photograph easily suggest the Three Graces, or the Judgment of Paris. Similar to the Judgment of Paris, the women symbolically invite the viewer to mentally offer a golden apple to his or her favorite; a narrative which perpetuates the myth that women compete amongst themselves to garner male attention and favors. 268 Moreover, this narrative accommodates patriarchal tradition and, perhaps for this reason, is a perennial one. 269 While the photograph in question is emblematic of the intersection between mainstream and lesbian print culture, it also suggests a hetero-patriarchal narrative which is intrinsically antithetical to lesbian agency. Yet, as Mathews observes, the conventional meanings associated with traditional allegorical themes can be at odds with other meanings derived from other narratives that intrude upon the initial allegory. 270 I would argue that the lesbian appropriation of the Judgment of Paris (a theme that foregrounds the primacy of male scopic and sexual agency) disrupts heteronormative viewing conventions and represents an eloquentand successful--example of what Mathews describes as intruding upon the initial allegory. Along with

Paris was asked by Zeus to decide who was the most beautiful of the three Olympian goddesses, Aphrodite, Athena, and Hera. His prize to the most beautiful goddess was a golden apple. The contest, however, inspired strife and later led to war. 269 It has generated a number of significant works which include paintings by Lucas Cranach (1512-1514), Peter Paul Rubens (1639), Suzanne Valadon (1909-1912), and a plaster-relief by PierreAuguste Renoir (1914). 270 Mathews, Returning the Gaze, 419. Mathews references Suzanne Valadons The Judgment of Paris (1909-1912).

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appropriating historical themes, Weimar lesbian print media also reflected Krperkultur (Body-culture), at the time, a dominant mainstream discourse. Lesbian Subculture and Weimar Krperkultur Krperkultur, a mass movement devoted to improving the physical health of the German population, was inspired by diverse late nineteenth-century social reform, health, and hygiene movements, and burst upon the scene after World War I. 271 The rise of Korperkultur was reinforced by Germanys stunning military defeat [which] prompted demands for a complete overhaul of society, culture, government, and even the body itself. 272 A powerful overarching national impulse to improve and reform fostered the rise of health and fitness movements with diverse and sweeping agendas, most of which promoted some idea of remaking ones body and oneself. 273 While the focus of Krperkultur was the improvement and glorification of the body, the movement, and subsequently, the body itself, became analogous to social progress and modernity.

The Dresden native Heinrich Pudor (Heinrich Scham 1865-1944) was instrumental in launching Krperkultur and nudism in Germany. It is understandable and somewhat ironic that Pudor, born Scham changed his name: Scham means shame in German and was obviously antithetical to his message of liberated nudity. Pudors writings illustrate the close interrelationship of popular themes such as health, hygiene, Dress Reform, and nudism. His bestselling book Nacktende Mensch: Jauchzen der Zukunft (Naked People: The Happy Cry of the Future) (Dresden: Verlag der Dresdner Wochenbltter, 1893), was followed by Die Frauenreformkleidung: Beitrag zur philosophie, Hygiene und Aesthetik des Kleides (The Clothing of Womens Dress Reform: a contribution to the Philosophy, Hygiene, and Aesthetic of Dress) (Leipzig: Seemann, 1903). Pudor also published Nackt-Kultur (Nude-culture) (Berlin, Steglitz, 1906), and Hygiene durch Bewegung (Hygiene through Movement) (Langensalza, D: H. Beyer & Shne, 1906). 272 Erik N. Jensen, Body by Weimar: Athletes, Gender, and German Modernity (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 4. The growing interest in Volkshygeine (public health and hygiene) led to the emergence of Krperkultur (Body-culture). Contemporary movements with a focus on achieving a healthy body included nudism, vegetarianism, temperance, and all manner of sexual and familial reform. 273 Jensen, Body by Weimar, 6.

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Due to the focus on the body in Krperkultur, nudity became naturalized and publically acceptable in Germany. 274 This generated a unique environment in which depictions of nudity were ubiquitous in a variety of contemporary materials. 275 The force of the movement, strengthened significantly by the vast Weimar publishing industry, swept away any lingering vestiges of prewar Wilhelmine prudery. 276 Nude or nearly nude outdoor activities were a hallmark of Krperkultur and the related nudist movement Freie Krper Kultur (Free Body-culture, or FKK). Relaxed Weimar attitudes toward nudity clearly facilitated lesbian representation: Nude female couples were a visual staple of Krperkultur and also routinely pictured on the covers of Berlin lesbian magazines. 277 Hannah Hchs interest in Krperkultur is evident in her Album (Scrapbook) and in her contemporary photomontages. 278 While a number of photos in her Scrapbook depicting attractive nude men and women are in step with Krperkultur (2.5), in sharp contrast, her photomontages--among them, Hchs ironically titled Equilibre (1925) (2.6), depicting two ambiguously-sexed figures engaged in what appears to be athletic training--suggests neither balance, nor physical health. Instead, their ill-fitting parts
Albert Moll, Polizei und Sitte (Berlin: Gersbach & Sohn Verlag, 1926), 30-40. Moll discussed the cultural processes that eventually led to the naturalization of nudity in Germany during the 1920s. 275 Toepfer claims that by the late 1920s, books on nudism outnumbered books devoted to sports. 276 Karl Toepfer, Nudity and Modernity in German Dance, 1910-1930, Journal of the History of Sexuality 3, no. 1 (Jul., 1992), 68. The most popular promoters of Nacktkultur were Adolf Koch (18941970) and Hans Suren (1885-1972), both Berlin natives. Nude culture, as Toepfer claims, was an invention of the big city, with Berlin providing by far the largest number of club members. Berlin was also the contemporary publishing center and this also explains the popularity of Krperkultur in the Weimar press. 277 Moll, Polizei und Sitte, 36. Moll claims that when Krperkultur began in the 1890s, it was largely practiced by males in secluded wooded areas on the outskirts of Berlin. 278 Hannah Hch, Album (Scrapbook), Gunda Luyken, ed. (Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz; Berlin: Berlinische Galerie, Landesmuseum fr Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur, 2004).
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stuck together with humorous awkwardness lampoon the tenets of Krperkultur which celebrated the body as a well-oiled machine. 279 Among the most representative, influential and popular expressions of Weimar Krperkultur is Wilhelm Pragers 1925 film, Wege der Kraft und Schnheit (Paths to Strength and Beauty). 280 Wege der Kraft und Schnheit was primarily a propaganda vehicle designed to promote the movement and the countless nude and nearly nude figures depicted in the film clearly contributed to the films popularity. 281 A well known still-photograph from Wege der Kraft (fig. 2.7) depicts two women mirroring each others poses and was obviously intended to promote Krperkultur and FKK. 282 A similar photograph on the cover of a contemporary lesbian periodical captioned Tnzerinnen (Female Dancers) (2.8), with a title referencing dance culture, appears to have been inspired by Pragers image. However, in contrast to the statuesque formality of the figures in Pragers photograph, the nude bodies of the Dancers pictured on the lesbian magazine cover are touching and imply sexual intimacy. Bearing these intersecting contemporary visual contexts in mind (Krperkultur,

Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 147. Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 197, 242n30, notes that stills from Pragers film Wege der Kraft und Schnheit infiltrated fashion magazines and health pamphlets. 281 Wege der Kraft und Schnheit is interspersed with educational commentary, but is predominantly comprised of a string of cinematic vignettes depicting men and women performing athletic and dance-inspired gymnastic activities. The films action is alternately located in the gymnasiums of ancient Greece and in the streets and landscape of modern day Germany. Many scenes take place outdoors in natural surroundings. 282 See Moll, Polizei und Sitte, 31. This photo was immediately recognizable by contemporaries and apparently so popular that neither Prager, nor the film Wege zur Kraft und Schnheit, is mentioned in the caption. Instead, the photograph is labeled Nachtkultur im Film. Aus der Zeitschrift: Schnheit. (Nude-culture in film. From the magazine: Beauty). In addition to its popular currency, the caption also ties the photo to a fashion magazine, which links it further to consumerism and advertising culture.
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dance, lesbian subculture) we recognize that lesbian print media was often nearly indistinguishable from other Weimar materials. The influence of Krperkultur and FKK upon lesbian representation is evident in a photograph of three nude women relaxing on a beach in what appears to be a dune landscape in a northern German seaside location (fig. 2.9). Much like Krperkultur materials depicting nude figures in idyllic outdoor settings, the women in this lesbian magazine photo are enjoying the healthy benefits of sunlight and sea air. 283 Significantly, the photo depicts three women instead of two (which would suggest a romantic couple) and reflects and emphasizes the importance of group identity and political organization among Weimar lesbians. 284 While bar culture was integral to their networking systems, a range of other venues fostered social opportunities. 285 Just as lesbian representation was influenced and inspired by Krperkultur and FKK; it also mirrored key aspects of Weimar entertainment culture.

Karl Toepfer, Nudity and Modernity in German Dance, 68, 68n21. For a typical FKK publication, see Hans Suren, Der Mensch und die Sonne (Stuttgart, 1924), which contains a number of photographs depicting nude people romping outdoors. An English edition (Man and Sunlight, trans. David Arthur Jones) was published in London in 1927. As Toepfer claims, Der Mensch und die Sonne, was so popular in Germany that it ran through sixty eight printings (250,000 copies) in its first year of publication. Suren joined the Nazi party in May 1933 and made changes in subsequent editions of the book during the 1930s to accommodate Nazi ideology; despite the disruptive effects of war on the German publishing industry, Surens Der Mensch und die Sonne remained in print without interruption until 1945. 284 Vogel, in Adele Meyer, Lila Nchte, 162. Founded in 1919, the Bund fr Menschenrecht (BfM, or (Alliance for Human Rights) rallied both male homosexuals and lesbians to fight for civil liberties. Along with the lesbian periodical Die Freundin, the BfM also published Bltter fr Menschenrecht (Pages for Human Rights), Das Freundschaftsblatt (Friendship Page), and Die Insel (The Island), which was geared to a male homosexual public. The BfM had a Damenabteilung (Ladies Section) which represented the specific concerns of both the prewar feminist generation and a younger lesbian public. Gay and lesbian leaders in Weimar continually emphasized the centrality of the Gemeinschaft (Group) over the individual in their efforts to establish and strengthen gay culture and rights. 285 Announcements for lectures, river cruises and group outings were advertised in the periodicals. See also Katharina Vogel, Zum Selbstverstndnis lesbischer Frauen in der Weimarer Republik, in Adele Meyer, Lila Nchte, 162; In her study of the lesbian periodical Die Freundin, Vogel writes that these announcements routinely fill one entire page per issue.

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Berlin Lesbians and Weimar Entertainment and Dance Culture Germanys wartime Tanzverbot, a law prohibiting public dancing, was repealed shortly after the end of the war on New Years Eve of 1918 and significantly informed and influenced developments in Weimar lesbian subculture. The lifting of the Tanzverbot, combined with the optimism and cultural momentum following the war, unleashed a collective dance craze (Massenwahn) in Germany which continued throughout the following decade. 286 As Weimar contemporary Renate Berger later claimed, Dance was the hallmark of the 1920s, 287 and Germany became the dynamic epicenter of an international modern dance movement. 288 The cultural vibrancy of Weimar Berlin and the modern dance movement generated a flourishing cabaret scene of countless bars, clubs, and revue-theatres. 289 A number of Berlins lesbian bars were modeled after the contemporary cabaret scene

Schader, Virile, Vamps, 27. An Silvester 1918/19 wurde das Tanzverbot der Kriegszeit aufgehoben. Tanzen wird zur Massenwahn. Immer neue, immer wildere, immer skandalose Tnze werden kreiert. 287 Renate Berger, trans. Martin Davies, Moments can Change your Life: Creative Crises in the Lives of Dancers in the 1920s, in Visions of the Neue Frau: Woman and the Visual Arts in Weimar Germany, Marsha Meskimmon and Shearer West, eds. (Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1995), 77. 288 Isa Partsch-Bergsohn, Modern Dance in Germany and the United States: Crosscurrents and Influences (Chur, Switzerland: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1994). The New Dance in Europe had been set in motion before the war by the American Isadora Duncan with her performance at the Imperial Theatre in St. Petersburg in 1904, where she met luminaries of the Russian ballet Diaghelev, Bakst, Benois, Anna Pavlova and Stanislavsky (2). Her free-flowing quality particularly impressed Michel Fokine. Later, dancers of succeeding generations, including such diverse figures as Emile-Jacques Dalcroze, Vaslav Nijinsky, Rudolf Laban and Mary Wigman, opened a number of schools throughout Europe. Alone, Dalcroze launched schools in Hellerau, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Vienna, Prague, Frankfurt, Breslau, Nrnberg, Warsaw, London and Kiev by 1914. Laban opened the Schule der Bewegungskunst (a school for artistic-movement) in Zrich and a dance colony in Monte Verit, Switzerland; the Wiesenthal sisters were active in Vienna and Mary Wigman disseminated new dance as a performer and teacher in Germany, 1-48. 289 Berger, Moments can change your life, 78.

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and hosted elaborate events with live entertainment. 290 Cross-dressed women in tuxedos performed for lesbian audiences in the Monokel-Diele (Monocle-Room) and the Manuela Club. 291 Ruth Margarete Roelligs 1928 guide to lesbian Berlin, Berlins lesbische Frauen (Berlins Lesbian Women), describes lesbian nightlife and includes addresses and detailed descriptions of the dcor and clientele of fourteen of the roughly fifty social clubs and venues that catered to the citys lesbians. 292 Roelligs celebratory guide contributed to Berlins reputation as an international hub of sapphic subculture. 293 Roellig made this clear when she wrote, the days of Berlins lesbians emulating the London and Paris scene are gone; the Berlin scene has long since surpassed the others. 294 As Ilse Kokula confirmed, during the 1920s, Berlin, even more so than Paris, was a pulsating center of the lesbian world. 295 The prominent Berlin sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld wrote the Introduction to Roelligs guide, a contribution boldly announced on its cover. To the contemporary reader, Hirschfelds participation in the volume automatically lent Roelligs voice an aura of legitimacy. Moreover, it also attests to his active support of sexual subculture.

Every Weimar lesbian periodical included multiple addresses of lesbian bars and meeting places and large advertisements for women-only balls. 291 Adele Meyer, Lila Nchte, 33. Lea Manti performed in both clubs wearing a tuxedo and monocle. 292 Ruth Margarete Roellig, Berlins lesbische Frauen, mit einem Vorwort von Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, 1928; reprint in Lila Nchte: die Damenklubs im Berlin der zwanziger Jahre, ed. Adele Meyer (Berlin: Edition Lit. Europe, 1994), 11-55. 293 Roellig, Berlins lesbische Frauen, mit einem Vorwort von Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, 1928. Reprint in Meyer, 11-55. 294 Und whrend man frher, oft aus blosser Nachahmungssucht, von London und besonders von Paris als von der Stadt geheimnissvoller Freuden sprach- hat Berlin ihnen lngst den Rang abgelaufen. Roellig, in Adele Meyer, Lila Nchte, 25-26. 295 Kokula, in Adele Meyer, Lila Nchte, 106.

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The cross-dressed woman pictured on the cover of Roelligs guide (fig. 2.10) appears to have been inspired by the citys thriving cabaret milieu. The anonymous image depicts a slender woman in a tuxedo jacket on a shallow stage. She is holding a cane and surveys her public like a haughty ringmaster. Much like Hchs Russian Dancer, the figure pictured on Roelligs volume has closely cropped black hair and a gleaming monocle in her eye, both of which define her as a sexually aggressive vamp. 296 The monocle and the shallow stage on which she is positioned visually link the image to Hchs 1928 Russian Dancer. While the sexually aggressive monocle-sporting vamp, a figure often pictured alone, was frequently featured in lesbian publications (fig. 5.7), the motif of the dancing female couple was wildly popular among Weimar lesbians and the general public alike. As dance theorist Karl Toepfer explains, female couples enjoyed special appeal in Weimar because they dramatized competing models of femininity and exposed conditions under which one model of femininity dominated or achieved equilibrium with another. 297 Indeed, it comes as no surprise that the homoerotic dimension of this imagery was not negligible in supporting their appeal. 298 Otto Hahns dancing female couple (fig. 2.11) attests to the popularity of this visual motif. Hahns drawing appeared on the dust-jacket of Marie Rene Dumas 1924 novel Die klugen Jungfrauen: eine Sittenbild aus Berlin. W. (The clever maidens/virgins: a moral tale from West
296

Schader, Virile, Vamps, 168. The slender legs of Roelligs figure end in a pair of red pumps. Among WEimar lesbians, red clothing and accessories denoted feminine passion, while red and black combined characterized the worldly, feminine woman who was also passionate and sensual. 297 Karl M. Toepfer, Empire of Ecstasy: Nudity and Movement in German Body Culture, 1910-1935 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997), 216. 298 Toepfer, Empire, 216.

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Berlin). 299 The novels title, paired with Hahns illustration, suggests the free-wheeling independence and sexual adventurousness of the modern New Woman. However, despite the close embrace of the women pictured, lesbianism is not the novels theme. This illustration, much like the 1929 photograph, Die Tnzerinnen Schwestern Karolewna (The Dancing Karolewna Sisters) (fig. 2.12), which was printed in Die Dame, at the time, the most popular German fashion magazine, are only two examples of countless contemporary images of dancing female couples that suggest, but were not intended to represent, lesbianism. Images such as these used the female couple as enticing and, on occasion, erotically suggestive visual decoration, which, to a degree, degraded and negated lesbian agency. One could argue that the proliferation of popular imagery in Weimar depicting female couples weakened lesbian expression. Nonetheless, these same images also represented an image bank that significantly enabled and supported contemporary lesbian expression. Clearly, the producers of Berlins lesbian periodicals deployed images such as these to enhance sales and promote their public agenda. Berlin lesbian periodicals deployed images depicting female couples to delight and lure the lesbian reader. These images, however, did not delight all lesbian readers. Professionally published, lesbian periodicals were produced and written largely by amateurs, 300 and contemporaries, such as the professional writer Ruth Roellig, openly

Marie Rene Dumas, Die klugen Jungfrauen: eine Sittenbild aus Berlin. W. (Leipzig: Wilhelm Borngrber, 1924). 300 On occasion, articles by guest columnists were reprinted in serial-form on their pages, as in the case of Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, ber den Fetischismus (About Fetishism) Liebende Frauen, 4 Jg., no. 31 (1929).

299

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criticized their lack of artistic and literary niveau. 301 She particularly disapproved of cover photographs that depicted nude women, because, in her opinion, they attracted and fueled a prurient non-lesbian readership. 302 While Roelligs criticism fell on deaf ears, her misgivings anticipate key issues and debates that would resurface much later in the century. 303 The production of erotically suggestive [lesbian] imagery remains a contested theme among lesbian feminists who take issue with the trafficking of lesbian images from a non-lesbian [i.e. heterosexual male voyeur] standpoint. 304 Yet, as Becki L. Ross remarks, it is important to remember that in lesbian-made imagery, the protagonists are women, hence the gender-based inequities that pervade commercial pornography (and society in general) are neither represented nor reinforced. 305 While Ross late twentieth-century rationale resonates with Weimar lesbian representation, it only minimally reflects the historical reality of 1920s Berlin. Indeed, this issue, which has retained much of its volatility into the present-day, enhances our appreciation of Weimar lesbian cultural agency and the fragility of its production.

Publisher and homosexual activist Friedrich Radzuweit (1876-1932) was prominent in the homosexual and lesbian emancipation movement. Radzuweit was head of the Deutsche Freundschaftsbund (German Friendship Alliance), which, in 1923, was renamed the Bund fr Menschenrecht (Alliance for Human Rights). While Radzuweits name is well known, many of the women involved in the production of lesbian magazines chose to protect their identities and remain anonymous; some signed their articles with their first name only, while others adopted pseudonyms. 302 Roellig, Berlins lesbische Frauen (reprint 1928) in Adele Meyer, Lila Naechte, 21. In contrast, Roellig praised male homosexual publications for their quality content and professional appearance. 303 For a related discussion of the female nude as a site of gendered cultural production, see Lynda Nead, The Female Nude: Pornography, Art, and Sexuality, Signs: Journal of Women and Culture and Society 15, no. 31 (1990): 323-35. 304 Ross, Its Merely Designed for Sexual Arousal, 169. 305 Ross, Its Merely Designed for Sexual Arousal, 168.

301

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Pornography, Sexual Depravity, and Lesbian Representation As stated, images of nude female couples in Weimar lesbian magazines often reflected diverse mainstream discourses. Nude female couples, however, were also a major motif in contemporary pornography. For obvious reasons, the visual intersection of (heterosexist) pornographic materials with feminist-informed lesbian selfrepresentation constituted an awkward juncture for Weimar lesbians. Due to an overwhelming visual tradition based on phallocentric hegemony, Weimar lesbians clearly faced significant challenges in establishing their own visual vernacular independent from the hegemonic parameters of patriarchal culture. Their appropriation and redeployment of erotically-charged female-female imagery is nothing less than remarkable, and compels brief consideration. As stated, before the advent of Weimar lesbian print media, lesbians were largely represented by male-authored, and often pornographic, materials. The following discussion will explore lingering discursive associations which, at the time, continued to conflate lesbianism, sexual depravity, and pornography. As Toepfer observes, Weimar Germans tended to perceive modernity and freedom in relation to expanded capacities for ecstasy. 306 Toepfer qualifies this observation with another of equal significance: Ecstasy is only possible through the perpetration of excess, 307 a claim which resonates strongly with contemporary attitudes regarding sexuality. This discursive link is also evident in sexological materials. For example, the title of Ludwig Levi Lenzs planned

306 307

Toepfer, Empire, 384. Toepfer, Empire, 384.

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publication, Genuss, Rausch, Ekstase (Pleasure, Rapture, Ecstasy), explored the byways of sexual deviance. 308 Despite a self-conscious sense of modernity, perceptions of sexuality in Weimar were not entirely free of historical influences. They were determined largely by earlier medical and moralizing discourses that privileged biological determinism before sexual pleasure. 309 As a result, if sexual activity contributed to procreation and was connected to marriage, it was applauded; but if sex was illicit, excessive, or motivated by lust, it was considered subversive. 310 Moreover, the fundamental difference between male and female physiology was central to this paradigm. Accordingly, male sexuality was regarded as a powerful independent force that built within the body until it was released through ejaculation. 311 Women, in contrast to men, were defined as essentially asexual. 312 Well into the early decades of the twentieth century, dominant medical opinion held that motherhood and domesticity made such vital demands on women that their sexual desire was basically extinguished. From this, many doctors concluded that female sexual desire was intrinsically unnatural, and hence, established a sharp distinction between respectable (i.e. asexual) women and the depraved prostitute, whose choice of profession was regarded as driven by unnatural desire
Ludwig Levi Lenz, The Memoirs of a Sexologist: Discretion and Indiscretion (New York: Cadillac Publishing Co. Inc., 1951), 469. For years, Lenz was a gynecologist at Hirschfelds Berlin Institute of Sexology. Lenzs manuscript was unfortunately destroyed in May 1933 during a Nazi raid on the Berlin Institute. 309 Harry Oosterhuis, Stepchildren of Nature: Krafft-Ebing: Psychiatry, and the Making of the Sexual Identity (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 26. 310 Oosterhuis, Stepchildren of Nature, 26. 311 Oosterhuis, Stepchildren of Nature, 30. Oosterhuis links this paradigmatic concept of male sexuality, or what he describes as the drive model, to the Romantic understanding of human selfexpression as well as the materialist-mechanical view of the body as a steam engine or motor. 312 Oosterhuis, Stepchildren of Nature, 30.
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rather than financial need. 313 Thus, the prostitute and the lesbian, who similarly pursued sexuality outside the confines of procreation, were considered depraved. Above all, as Dean writes, the lesbian embodied the excessive pursuit of pleasure. 314 Clearly, these correlations are irrational, yet this line of reasoning was largely responsible for the stubborn conflation of sexual excess, ecstasy and lesbianism in modern European discourse. 315 Because Weimar attitudes towards sexuality were informed largely by nineteenth-century models, it comes as no surprise that male sexologists gained control of the definition of the lesbian. 316 Otto Weiningers 1903 Sex and Character set the tone for a number of subsequent publications regarding female sexuality. 317 In Sex and Character, the twentythree year old Weininger portrayed women as soulless creatures who . . . were eternally in a state of arousal, receiving pleasure from every object with which they came into contact. 318 Steeped in the language of fin-de-sicle decadence, Sex and Character influenced and informed sexual theorists well into the new century. In 1927,
Oosterhuis, Stepchildren of Nature, 30-31. Dean, Sexuality and Modern Western Culture, 28. 315 As Medd, Extraordinary Allegations, observes, unrelated or irrational chains of association such as these served to link lesbianism to a realm of inarticulate but potent affects. In England, it enabled symbolic links between sexual excess and political subversion. By early twentieth-century standards, lesbianism increased the potential of the nations downfall (109). Medd also cites Lucy Bland, Trial by Sexology?: Maud Allan, Salome and the Cult of the Clitoris Case, in Bland and Doan, Sexology in Culture, 184, 195n3. In 1918, the British press, warning of the potential political dangers of lesbianism, contended that In lesbian ecstasy the most sacred secrets of the state were betrayed. These remarks, made during the 1918 libel trial of the English dancer Maud Allan, appeared in The Imperialist, 26, January, 1918 (184, 195n3). 316 Marilyn R. Farwell, The Lesbian Subject: A War of Images, in Heterosexual Plots and Lesbian Narratives (New York: New York University Press, 1996), 63. 317 Ignaco-Virseda, I Feel that I belong to You, 91. Espinaco-Virseda laconically characterizes Weimingers sex and Character as unfortunately, but indicatively influential. Otto Weininger (18801903), Geschlecht und Character: eine prinzipielle Untersuchung (Sex and Character: a Study of basic principals) (1903; repr. Vienna and Leipzig: Wilhelm Braumller, 1908), 4th printing. 318 Eric Naiman, Historectomies: On the Metaphysics of Reproduction in a Utopian Age, in Costlow, 262-63.
314 313

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the Swiss psychiatrist and sexologist Auguste Forel, echoing Weininger, wildly claimed that among lesbians orgasm follows orgasm, day and night almost without break, 319 and a womans intrinsic sensuality makes it easy for a lesbian to seduce a normal girl. 320 At the time, remarks such as these would not necessarily be surprising had they been expressed in a non-scientific or popular venue. 321 However, Forel was a respected member of the European medical community, and a colleague of Hirschfeld. 322 Forel and others similarly reasoned that because lesbian sexuality involved two women, it doubly indicated insatiable female desire and atavistic depravity. 323 Due to attitudes such as this, it comes as no surprise that lesbianism is the core of the cultures fear of womens sexuality, for it is ultimately unregulated by men or by reproduction. 324 As Dean claims, this fear, compounded with the related notion of womens sexual insatiability, compelled early twentieth-century sexologists to attribute female homosexuality to vice, that is, to moral turpitude and the apparently irresistible quest for pleasure rather than to congenital instinct. 325 The conflation of lesbianism with vice

Naimann, Historectomies, in Costlow, 262; 344n25. Auguste Forel, Die Sexuelle Frage (Erlenbach Zrich: E. Rentsch Verlag, 1927), 257. 321 Associations such as these were common. For a seminal discussion of the discursive relationship between decadence and lesbian sexuality, see, Bram Dijkstra, Idols of Perversity: Fantasies of Feminine Evil in fin-de-siecle Culture (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986). 322 Forel and Hirschfeld, along with the prominent British sexologist Havelock Ellis, co-presided over the World League for Sexual Reform. The World League for Sexual Reform was created on the occasion of the Sexual Reform Congress in Copenhagen, 1928. Its international advisory board also included the German-native and naturalized American Harry Benjamin (1885-1986), and the Russian Socialist, Alexandra Kollontai (1872-1952). The League met in London in 1929, in Vienna in 1930, and in Brno in 1932. Due to the combined historical influences of the Great Depression and the rise of fascism, the League dissolved during in the 1930s. 323 Carolyn J. Dean, Sexuality and Modern Western Culture, 28. 324 Farwell, Narrative: The Elastic Project, in Heterosexual Plots and Lesbian Narratives (New York: New York University Press, 1996), 33. Farwell writes, Female sexuality is a source of cultural fear, for an uncontrolled female sexuality spells chaos and destruction in the patriarchal mind. The myth of the vagina dentata is only one locus of this fear. 325 Carolyn J. Dean, Sexuality and Modern Western Culture, 27.
320

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was reflected in representations of prostitutes, who were frequently portrayed as lesbians because they allegedly engaged in their trade less for money than for love of vice. 326 This perception was commonly held in Weimar and confirmed by a Flicien Rops illustration (fig. 5.11) of a cross-dressed prostitute in a sexological publication which will be discussed in chapter five. 327 Weimar sexologist Franz Scheda claimed that women are easily seduced into lesbianism because they are by nature more sensual than men. 328 Schedas sensationalistic and controversial 1929 study of lesbianism largely subscribes to what can only be described as the lesbian vice model. 329 Scheda linked lesbianism (and male homosexuality) to prostitution and criminality. Furthermore, he uncritically adopted the tenor of like-minded authors who claimed lesbianism appeals to rich, bored, and elegant women that have exhausted all other pleasures and can only be thrilled by the unnatural and the abnormal. 330 Such women, he wrote, are driven by a brutal, fiery sensuality and frequent brothels where they recruit 10 to 15 year old girls for their tribadic pleasures. 331 In addition to these ridiculous claims, he remarked most lesbians are either writers or prostitutes, and 50% of Berlins prostitutes are lesbians. 332

326 327

Franz Scheda, Die Abarten im Geschlechtsleben, Band 1: Die lesbische Liebe (Berlin: Schwalbe Verlag, 1929), 14. 329 Scheda, 14. Lesbian love, he wrote, is an unbridled culmination that is preceded by, yet exceeds, different forms of masturbation. Der andere Endpunkt ist das zgellose lesbische Liebesleben und dazwischen anderen Formen der Selbstbefriedigung. 330 Scheda,Die lesbische Liebe, cites Dr. Erik Hoyers Das Lusterne Weib, and Eulenberg, 32. 331 Scheda, Die lesbische Liebe, 32. 332 Scheda, Die lesbische Liebe, 30; While Scheda does not explain why female writers are so often lesbian, he writes that because prostitutes do not find love (etwas frs Herz) through their customers, if given the choice between a pimp and a girlfriend, they will choose lesbianism.

1926), 22.

Dean, Sexuality and Modern Western Culture, 28-29. Rops illustration appears in Albert Moll, Polizei und Sitte (Gersbach & Sohn Verlag, Berlin,

328

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Scheda added, however, that Dr. [Magnus] Hirschfeld, who both knows and vigorously defends members of the third sex, estimates that only 20% of Berlins prostitutes are lesbians. 333 Schedas claims are emblematic of the sensationalized and perverted representations of lesbianism in Weimar. Understandably, contemporary activists defensively asserted the moral rectitude of lesbians and distanced them from prostitution. 334 Lesbian Ecstasy The following analysis explores the uneasy, yet significant, discursive intersection between Weimar pornography and lesbian representation. Ecstasy (fig. 2.13), a 1930 photograph attributed to Heinz von Perckhammer, depicts two women locked in an explicity sexual embrace. 335 The nature of the image is obvious; the figures are nude, lying on a bed, and one woman has her mouth on the others breast. During the Weimar years, von Perckhammer was best known for monographs featuring nude, yet decorously posed, pubescent Chinese girls (fig. 2.14). 336 In contrast, the subjects of

Scheda, Die lesbische Liebe, 31. Ignaco-Virseda, I Feel that I belong to You,: Subculture, Die Freundin, and Lesbian Identities in Weimar Germany, spacesofidentity 4, no. 1 (2004), 100n71. In a rare front page editorial (printed in Die Freundin (Berlin) 4. June, 1930), gay publisher and homosexual rights activist Friedrich Radzuweit (18761932) refuted Schedas claims. He argued that a distinction should be made between homosexual women and prostitutes in the same way that one does not automatically assume that heterosexual women are prostitutes. The prominent lesbian social organizer, political activist, and frequent contributor to Berlins lesbian journals Charlotte Lotte Hahm organized a lecture entitled Are Female Homosexuals Prostitutes? as a rebuttal to Schedas outrageous claim that 50% of Berlins prostitutes were lesbians. See also, Else Meissner, Sind die Weiblichen Homosexuelle Prostituierte? (Are female homosexuals prostitutes?) Die Freundin, March, 1930, 5. 335 Pictured in Toepfer, Empire, 162. Austrian native Heinz von Perckhammer (1895-1965) was active in Germany and was able to sustain his career throughout the politically tumultuous 1930s. During the NS era he produced appealing photographs of nude Aryan women posed heroically in beautiful farm lands and wheat fields. 336 Heinz von Perckhammer, Edle Nacktheit in China: mit 32 originalaufnahmen (Tasteful Nudity in China: with 32 Original Photographs) (Berlin: Eigenbrdler Verlag, 1928); See also, von Perckhammer,
334

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Ecstasy are clearly European, and their sexual exchange is unmistakably lesbian. However, the sexually graphic nature of the photograph suggests that it was not intended for broad dissemination or publication. Despite extensive research, I have been unable to determine if, and in what venue, this image circulated. 337 Nonetheless, considered within the contexts of von Perckhammers published oeuvre and contemporary visual culture, it seems likely that in 1930, Ecstasy would have been regarded as shocking and most probably circulated as pornography (if at all). In sum, images of female couples in Weimar might easily suggest a number of visual discourses that included Krperkultur, advertising, dance culture, lesbian subculture, or pornography. Depicting Lesbianism: Doubling and Mirroring Weimar depictions of lesbian couples can be generally divided into two types of visual configurations: One is based on similarity, while the other is based on contrast and will be addressed in chapter three. Mirroring is a well-established trope that deploys sameness or symmetry to identify female partners. Jungians tersely characterize doubling and mirroring as the like to like model. 338 As Cassandra L. Langer confirms, theorists identify a twinning and doubling of the self as [one of] the
Peking (Berlin: Albertus, 1928); Von Perckhammer, Von China und die Chinesen: 64 Bilder mit Text (China and the Chinese: 64 Pictures with Text) (Zrich: Orell Fssli, 1930). 337 A less explicit von Perckhammer photograph depicting nude lesbian lovers is pictured in Ulrich Domrse, ed., Bilderlust: erotische Photographien aus der Sammlung Uwe Scheid (Berlin: Altes Museum Berlin; Heidelberg: Edition Braus, 1991), 106. 338 Claudette Kulkarni, Lesbians and Lesbianisms: A post-Jungian Perspective (London: Routledge, 1997), 105. Kulkarni repudiates what she characterizes as internalized heterosexism, and taking fellow Jungians to task queries, Why introduce the masculine at all? If lesbians do not need men for individuation, why do we need the masculine? If we argue . . . that love between women is an attraction of like to like, why not simply declare that complementarity and contrasexuality are irrelevant to lesbians?

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archetypal patterns of lesbian love. 339 Mirroring often depicts two stereotypically feminine women together; a representational trope cultural theorist Melissa Solomon labels lesbian symmetry. 340 Due to its familiar currency, mirroring was frequently deployed in Weimar lesbian periodicals. Two scantily clad revue-dancers striking the same pose pictured on the cover of Frauen-Liebe (Womens Love) (1928) (fig. 2.15) attest to the suggestive power of this motif. Like them, the nude Badenden (Bathers) (1928) (fig. 2.16) pictured on a Freundin cover who closely mirror each others bodies imply lesbianism. Moreover, similar to the previously discussed photograph suggesting the Judment of Paris, the Bathers references and appropriates (for lesbian purposes) a traditional Western European artistic motif. 341 Much like the mirroring Bathers, the identically configured revue-girls, akin to Hchs Russian Dancer and English Dancer, indicate lesbianism. However, the issue of doubling is also relevant to the Russian Dancer symbolically. Largely because the phrase Mein Double (My Double) is inscribed on the

Cassandra L. Langer, Transgressing Le Droit du Seigneur: The Lesbian Feminist Defining herself in Art History, in Joanna Frueh et al. eds., New Feminist Criticism: Art, Identity, Action (New York: Harper Collins, 1991), 311. See also, Gillian Spraggs, Hell and the Mirror: A Reading of Desert of the Heart, in Sally Munt, ed., New Lesbian Criticism: Literary and Cultural Readings (New York: Columbia University Press, 192), 123; 130n20; 130n21. In 1633, in the work of John Donne (or one of his followers) Sappho proclaims to her lover Me, in my glass I call thee. Like him, in his 1857 poem collection Fleur du Mal, Charles Baudelaire says of the notorious female inhabitants of Lesbos, they engage only with mirrors. 340 Melissa Solomon, The Queer Twin: Sarah Orne Jewett and Lesbian Symmetry, in Nineteenth-Century Literature 60, no. 3, Special Issue: Lesbian Aesthetics, Aestheticizing Lesbianism (Dec. 2005), 356. Solomon defines this as the symmetrical correspondence of size, shape, beauty, proportion, form, or feeling allegedly visible or operative between, and in turn supposedly the result of, corresponding bodies of lesbians, lesbians, ever and always illustrating symmetry of form, of one kind or another. 341 Like it, an anonymous photograph of a nude Ruhende Venus (Resting Venus) appropriates and redeploys a traditional artistic motif. See, Die Freundin 4. Jg., no. 4 (Feb., 20, 1929).

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mount, the photomontage is often discussed as a self-portrait. 342 This double, Lavin claims, could refer to either her lover (Brugman) or another side of herself. 343 Similarly, Matthew Biro writes, Hch subtitles the Russian Dancer my double, an appellation that suggests the figure is like her in many ways. 344 Like them, Everard ventures that my double may indicate that the Russian Dancer is a self-portrait. 345 While these arguments are fascinating, they are informed by theories that did not circulate at the time. In 1928, the phrase my double did not automatically conjure the psychoanalytic associations that it does in late twentieth, and early twenty-first century culture. In 1936, the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan initiated a theory that proposed the self as a decentered subject. 346 Lacans theory of the mirror-stage newly formulated the subject as uncertain, shifting, and in the process of becoming 347 and ushered in a period in which the idea of a sovereign self came under attack. 348 During this period, psychiatrists, psychoanalysts and Surrealists, all, in various ways, theorized and constructed the self out of a new and changing interest in the other and, in so

Myriam Everard, Man lebt nur einmal in Patchamatac: Die groteske Welt von Til Brugman, Lebensgefhrtin von Hannah Hch, in Dech and Maurer, 83, 94. Everard considers the image as both a portrait of Brugman, and a Hch self-portrait; it is also titled Mein Double (My Double). Hch scholar Maud Lavin writes, Many observers have recognized Englische Tnzerin as a montage self-portrait and it seems likely (as some have speculated) that Russische Tnzerin was meant to represent Brugman. Cut with the Kitchen Knife: The Weimar Photomontages of Hannah Hch (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), 146, 236n26. 343 Lavin, Cut with the kitchen Knife, 146. 344 Biro, The New Woman as Cyborg, 237. 345 Myriam Everard, Patchamatac, 94. 346 Carolyn Dean, The Self and its Pleasures: Bataille, Lacan, and the History of the Decentered Subject (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992), 2. 347 Caroline Evans, Masks, Mirrors, and Mannequins: Elsa Schiaparelli and the Decentered Subject, Fashion Theory 3, no. 1 (March, 1999), 8. 348 Evans, Masks, Mirrors, and Mannequins, 18.

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doing, unraveled it. 349 While Hchs reference to doubling, Surrealism, and Lacans mirror-stage are roughly contemporary, Lacans theory (and to a degree Surrealism, which was inspired by early psychoanalytic discourse) should not be confused with lesbian representation at the time. Weimar lesbian imagery was not based on psychoanalytical models, but rather clearly redeployed well-established visual tropes. 350 Based on this argument and on a thorough first-hand examination of Russian Dancer, I would suggest that the photomontage was not intended as a self-portrait, but rather, as a portrait of Brugman. Moreover, the notion that the Russian Dancer is a self-portrait disregards physical evidence indicating that the photomontage was not intended by Hch, at least in 1928, as a self portrait. Russian Dancer and 1928 appear to have been written in black ink with a metal-tipped quill pen and frame the bottom outer edges of the image. In their discussion of what they characterize as the works alternate title, scholars fail to acknowledge that the phrase Mein Double was added much later. Close examination of the work reveals that Mein Double, which is located between what is obviously the original title and date, is written in ball point pen. 351 While Russian Dancer is dated 1928, the ball-point pen was patented ten years

Dean, The Self and its Pleasures, 248-49. Thus, self dissolution is implicit in the construction of some forms of modern (and postmodern) subjectivity (251). 350 At the time, and as will be discussed in subsequent chapters, visual evidence was universally regarded as the most trustworthy form of empirical proof. Nonetheless, while it is improbable that in 1928 images depicting mirroring and doubling were conceived in anticipation of and/or intended to express Lacans [future] psychoanalytic theory, it is feasible that artists may have intuited Lacanian theory long before it was formulated. In retrospect, cultural historians often recognize that artists are among the first to grasp and express the zeitgeist. While this is a compelling possibility, pursuing this line of enquiry exceeds the scope of this study. 351 My personal observation was corroborated by Katja Pylen of the Anton-Ulrich Museums Kupferstichkabinett in August, 2009. Patented in Hungary in 1938, the ball-point pen was initially massproduced in England beginning in 1944. Ball-point pens first became available in Germany after the war in 1950 and was sold for the exorbitant price of 20 Deutsch Marks. No evidence exists to suggest that Hch

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later. 352 Russian Dancer was in the artists possession until 1964 when it was sold to a Braunschweig collector. 353 Most likely, Hch added the words Mein Double many years after its creation. While Hchs practice of modifying an existing work was unusual, it was not unprecedented. 354 This suggests that in 1928, Hchs Russian Dancer was not a self-portrait but instead, a portrait of Brugman. 355 While claims that the Russian Dancer is a self-portrait may, in part, be discounted, Maud Lavin nonetheless offers valuable insight into its status and meaning in relation to the artists English Dancer: Whether or not these two montages are intended as portraits . . . they take up the theme of doubling (the couple, the other as self) in their complementary subjects and poses the English dancer balances on one foot, the Rus sian dancer on the other mirroring her. Allegorically, they reflect each other and they share one identity, the dancer, as if they are two sides of one coin. Tensions existing between individual identity and that of a couple are magically resolved in the shared identity of the dancer. 356 Lavins eloquent description of what reads as a state of blissful emotional fusion not only reflects Weimar models of lesbian intimacy, but also echoes more recent arguments in support of lesbian relationship psychology. 357 Julie Mencher, who

was acquainted with the inventor of the ball-point pen, and even if she was, it would have been impossible for her to have used a ball point pen to write an alternate title on the collage before 1938. 352 See also, Joe Mills and Peter Boswell, Dating the Dompteuse: Hannah Hchs reconfiguration of the Tamer, Photo Review 26/27, no. 4/1 (2003/2004), 19n3. In his discussion of the Dompteuse, Mills writes, H.H. is written in ball point pen, a post-WWII invention. It is therefore no help in securing an early 1930s date for the piece. 353 As a receipt held by the Anton-Ullrich Museum in Braunschweig Germany confirms, Adolf Drries purchased the collage Russian Dancer from the Berlin Galerie Nierendorf in March, 1965. 354 Mills and Boswell, 19n7. Hch dramatically altered the background of the Dompteuse (1930) sometime between March 9, 1959, when the photograph she used from Life magazine was published, and before 1964 when the collage was exhibited in its present state. 355 Gtz Adriani, ed. Hannah Hch (Cologne: Dumont Verlag, 1980), 178-79. 356 Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 146. 357 Julie Mencher, M.S.W. Intimacy in Lesbian Relationships: A Critical Re-Examination of Fusion, (Wellesley, Mass.: Stone Center Colloquium, 1990), 2. Fusion in lesbian relationships is a topic

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challenges the classic psychoanalytic viewpoint that privileges a sharp differentiation between partners in intimate relationships, writes that the lesbian pattern, a more fused pattern, is not inherently disturbed. 358 The psychoanalytic tradition, with its emphasis on difference, she contends, not only privileges heterosexuality, but also has unwittingly pathologized womens ways of being and loving. 359 Mencher argues that the psychoanalytic tradition has falsely cast [lesbian] experiences of union, merger, and self-other harmony as regressive opposites to differentiation and self-other distinction. 360 Menchers characterization of lesbian relationship dynamics, which celebrate lesbian love as the dissolution of self-other distinction, is clearly analogous to Lavins reading of the Russian Dancer and English Dancer and to Weimar lesbian prose. 361 Images of women gazing or engaging with themselves in mirrors indicate the traditional Vanitas genre and suggest a subtext of lesbianism. Pictured on the cover of a Weimar lesbian periodical in 1928, a photograph of a young woman lovingly gazing at
which has received much air timeIn the relatively small body of literature on lesbian couples, at least fourteen articles have appeared in the last ten years which feature fusion as the prominent issue; it is rare to find an analysis of lesbian couples which does not address fusion. 358 Mencher, Intimacy, 8. A number of feminist scholars repudiate the male bias of traditional theoretical frameworks which emphasize separation and autonomy as the hallmarks of healthy human development. 359 Mencher, Intimacy, 8. As Mencher notes, this may merely reflect his personal emotional attitude; writing to a colleague, Freud claimed he frankly couldnt relate to the concept of oceanic feeling. 360 Mencher, Intimacy, 8. 361 The vocabulary used by Weimar lesbians to express feelings of love, resonate with Menchers oft-used terms union and merger. For example, see Schader, Virile Vamps, 131, 272n102, who quotes Tppsdrill, Die Alternde, Freundin, no. 14 (1932): In dieser Nacht schenkte ich mich ihr ganz. (That night I gave myself to her entirely.); See also, Espinaco-Virseda, I Feel that I belong to you, 87, 98n33. This mode of expression is also evident in early nineteenth-century German lesbian correspondence. See, Christiane von Lengerke, Homosexuelle Frauen, Tribaden, Freundinnen, Urninden, in Boll, Eldorado, 133. Von Lengerke quotes an excerpt from an 1818 lesbian love letter: Ihre Laune, Ihre Sinne. Die Dinge zu hren, zu sehen, zu fhlen, wie ich. Ihr Leben, unser Leben. . . (Your moods, your senses. To hear the things you hear, you see, you feel, like me. Your Life [is] our life. . .

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her reflection in a hand mirror clearly represented lesbianism. This reading, however, is somewhat complicated by the caption, Ideale Schnheit (Ideal Beauty) (fig. 2.17); it may suggest the lesbians ideal partner, or the woman pictured may embody a type of beauty to which a lesbian aspired. In any case, the womans reflection in Ideal Beauty, limited to a hand-mirror, is unlike the full body mirroring common in contemporary pornographic imagery. Often, in pornographic representations that include mirrors, the subject(s) appear to simultaneously engage with an off-stage, yet implied, heterosexual male viewer. Hence, this anonymous erotic postcards from the 1920s (fig. 2.18), and countless others like it, are generally understood as erotic invitations. 362 Moreover, because the subjects body is doubled, mirror images such as these stubbornly persist in representations of lesbian desire. 363 As if in a trance, the female subject of the Belgian Symbolist Fernand Khnopffs (fig. 2.19) drawing Avec Gregoire le Roy. Mon couer pleure dautrefois (Along with Gregoire the King. My heart cries once again) (1889), kisses her reflection in morbid selfabsorption, but also suggests lesbian doubling. 364 Roughly four decades later, Bauhaus photographer and art critic Franz Roh (1890-1965) took up the theme of a woman at a mirror. While the subject of Rohs Greeting Oneself (Selbstbegrssung) (1927-33) (fig.
Images of women who appear to erotically engage with mirrors are not limited to popular or pornographic representations. A painting depicting a partially clothed woman kissing a mirror, Antoine Magauds (1817-1899) A Kiss in the Glass, ca. 1885, is printed in Bram Dijkstra, Idols of Perversity, 148. 363 A cursory internet search of erotic postcards 1910-1930 at delcampe.de reveals countless, and by contemporary early twentieth-century standards, pornographic images of fully and partially nude women posing before mirrors. Similary configured images continued to suggest lesbianism well into the twentieth century. Paul Raders (1906-1986) painting of a bare-breasted woman pressing her body to a mirror appears on the cover of March Hastings (pseud. Sally Singer) 1963 lesbian pulp novel, Her Private Hell: Lesbian Love, Can a Hunger so Strong be wrong? (Brooklyn, NY: Midwood, 1963). 364 For a brief discussion of this image, see, Lynne Pudles, Fernand Khnopff, Georges Rodenbach, and the Dead City Bruges, The Art Bulletin 74, no. 4 (Dec., 1992): 647.
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2.20) engages with her mirror reflection, the photograph suggests much more than a mere greeting. The kiss the subject directs toward her own reflection clearly implies lesbian eroticism. The erotic subtext of the images discussed above is clear when they are considered in relation to a photograph by Claude Cahun (1894-1954) (fig. 2.21) that incorporates a mirror, yet resists enticing desire. Cahun generally staged her photographs in close collaboration with her female partner Marcel Moore, ne Suzanne Malherbe (1892-1972). Moores 1930 photograph pictures Cahun in a corner of their shared domestic space. In contrast to the sexually suggestive or pornographic images discussed above, Cahun is fully clothed and does not flirtatiously engage with her reflection, but instead, looks directly toward her partner/photographer. Although similarly configured, Cahuns photograph cogently demonstrates the difference between images that deploy mirrors and are designed to erotically entice, and those in which the subject resists sexual objectification. The Contribution of Weimar Lesbian Print Media Despite the contemporary claims of sexual theorists linking lesbianism to vice and womens epistemological status as the object of male scopic privilege, Weimar lesbian print media resisted and reversed womens primary cultural status as an object for male definition and consumption. Images of female couples were ubiquitous in the Weimar media, but were also deployed by lesbians and pornographers to represent lesbianism. While female couples in mainstream and pornographic materials alike automatically implied heterosexism or male voyeurism, self-generated lesbian media
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wrested depictions of female couples from these contexts. The public and unapologetic nature of Weimar lesbian media represents a radical disruption of gendered visual production and reception. Through the appropriation of well-worn motifs, Weimar lesbians subverted and dislodged the hegemony of heteronormative viewing practices, gained independent cultural agency, and established a lesbian visual vernacular. Conclusion Hchs 1928 photomontages Russian Dancer and English Dancer clearly suggest a lesbian couple. The two photomontages may convincingly be linked to a variety of contemporary discourses, most notably Weimar dance; inarguably, a theme in which the artist was perennially interested. However, as I have shown, in accordance with lesbian visual codes, the English Dancer and the Russian Dancer represent Hch and her partner Til as feminine (English Dancer) and virile (Russian Dancer) partners. The two photomontages not only indicate Hchs engagement with Weimar lesbian subculture, but, largely because they ironize and disrupt visual conventions adopted uncritically by the producers of lesbian print media, also demonstrate the artists sophistication and humor.

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Chapter III Lesbian Representation, Weimar Ethnography, Politics, and Hannah Hch Visual Contrast and Lesbianism As shown, among lesbians and non-lesbians alike, mirroring, doubling, and visual symmetry traditionally denoted the lesbian couple. Yet, as this early twentieth-century postcard implies (fig. 3.1), sartorial and color-coded contrasts were also well-established conventions that signaled female-female couples. 365 Among Weimar lesbians, sexual roles were associated with sartorial signals and, relatedly, linked to ethnicity. 366 This chapter will examine contemporary sartorial and ethnic codes, and explore their reflection in the work of Hch and her Weimar contemporaries. It will also identify and trace changes in Hchs photomontages that indicate the shifting political climate of late Weimar and early Nazi Germany and examine parallel developments in the lesbian print media. Among Weimar lesbians, dark-skinned brunettes were considered more passionate than their fairer blonde counterparts and their sensuality was symbolically intensified with black hair and eyes. As German scholar Heike Schader writes, almost without exception, the predatory seductive figure of the femme fatale or virile vamp

For a historical discussion of these representational tropes, see, Dorothy M. Kosinski, Courbets Sleeper: The Lesbian in nineteenth-century French Art and Literature, Artibus et Historiae 19, no. 18 (1988): 187-99. 366 Heike Schader, Virile, Vamps und wilde Veilchen: Sexualitt, Begehren, und Erotik in den Zeitschriften homosexueller Frauen im Berlin der 1920er Jahren (Knigstein: Helmer, 2007), 135.

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was depicted with black hair. 367 In contrast, blondes suggested femininity; the whiter the skin, the more feminine the figure. 368 Apparently, in Weimar these codes were so widely recognized that even male authors claimed that the phrase blonde preferred in a lesbian personal ad signaled a desire for a sexually submissive partner. 369 In accordance with these codes, Hchs blond, blue-eyed (i.e. feminine) English Dancer clearly contrasts with the virile Russian Dancer. 370 Jeanne Mammen and Weimar Lesbian Representation Lesbian artist and Berlin resident, Jeanne Mammen (1876-1976), created a number of works that celebrate lesbian subculture. 371 Yet, due to the ubiquity of mainstream images in Weimar portraying female couples, and an unfamiliarity with
Schader, Virile, Vamps, 174. Die femme fatale oder Vamp hat fast ausnahmslos schwarzes Haar. Among Weimar lesbians, dark, fiery eyes, or dark burning eyes were considered both fascinating and frightening, and symbolized a passionate nature and implied sexual willingness. 368 Heike Schader, Virile, Vamps, 173. 369 Schader, Virile, Vamps, 173, 278n55, cites Heinz Martenau, Sappho und Lesbos (Leipzig, 1931), 44. See also, Franz Scheda, Die Abarten im Geschlechtsleben, Band 1: Die lesbische Liebe (Berlin: Schwalbe-Verlag, 1929). 35-36. Scheda discussed the use of code-words [Stichwrter] in lesbian personal ads: Quite often, one can assume that the phrase Blonde preferred indicates an active lesbian looking for a passive lover. He muses that because these ads appear in such significant numbers in the daily newspapers, they force one to reflect upon how lesbianism has infiltrated the higher social classes. 370 The virile/feminine sartorial model was not limited to female same-sex couples, but is also evident in contemporary photographs of male homosexual couples. See, Hirschfeld, Berlins Dritte Geschlecht (1904), and Volume four (1930) of Geschlechtskunde. Abundant evidence confirms that crossdressing was widespread in gay and lesbian circles. Furthermore, the deployment of stereotypical masculine and feminine sartoria to construct and express gendered difference within a same sex couple is neither chronologically nor geographically limited to Weimar Germany. For a discussion of early twentieth-century dress codes among British lesbians, see Katrina Rolley, Love, Desire and the Pursuit of the Whole: Dress and the Lesbian Couple, in Chic Thrills: A Fashion Reader, Juliet Ash and Elizabeth Wilson, eds. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 30-39; For a discussion of mid twentiethcentury lesbian dress codes, see Joan Nestle, Butch-Femme Relationships: Sexual Courage in the 1950s, in A Restricted Country (Ithaca: Firebrand Books, 1987), 100. Nestle defends and supports this relationship model rejected by many lesbian feminists who she claims erroneously consider it a phony heterosexual replica. During the 1980s, the butch-femme model was a contentios theme among lesbians and, as the books back cover declares, typified the hot headed feminist sex wars of today. In the wake of Butlerian performativity and Queer theory, however, recent lesbian scholarship no longer automatically or flatly rejects the butch/femme dyad. 371 Jrn Merkert, ed., Jeanne Mammen 1890-1976: Monographie und Wekverzeichnis (Cologne: Wienand Verlag, 1997).
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Weimar lesbian codes among present-day art historians, this content does not generally receive the acknowledgement it merits. 372 Analyzing visual references to lesbian subculture in Mammens ouevre enables a fuller recognition and understanding of similar signals deployed and embedded by Hch in her photomontages. During the 1920s, Mammen worked as a graphic artist. She created fashion plates and contributed illustrations to the Ullstein publications Die Dame, Simplicissismus, Lustige Bltter, Ulk, and Uhu. 373 Between 1928 and 1933, Mammen often published four or more drawings per week and was compared to George Grosz and Otto Dix. 374 She created a number of images depicting independent New Women as flappers or butch types who lived without men. 375 A significant portion of Mammens oeuvre portrays the interactions of women, usually in pairs, pursuing exclusively female activities or womens club-meetings and the festivities in Berlins lesbian bars. 376 Based on the sheer volume of images she created depicting lesbian couples, we may assume that Mammen was a lesbian. 377 Clearly, her familiarity with lesbian

An exception to this is Marsha Meskimmon, who claims that Mammens watercolor Masked Ball (1928) epitomized the variety of performative masquerades which women in the lesbian underground were exploring in developing their own perspectives on the issue of female sexual identity in the Weimar Republic. See, Masquerade, Performance, and Multiplicity, in We werent Modern Enough: Women Artists and the Limits of Modernism (Berkeley: University of California Press), 216. 373 Katharina Sykora, Jeanne Mammen, Womans Art Journal 19, no. 2 (Autumn 1988-Winter 1989): 28. 374 Sykora, Mammen, 29. 375 Sykora, Mammen, 29. 376 Sykora, Mammen,29. Mammen was especially fascinated with the extreme third gender type best exemplified by the strong, hard lines and severe look of women with plain outfits and masculine haircuts. 377 Notable among Mammens lesbian-themed images is a lithographic suite of eight (or ten lithographs, according to Sykora WAJ, Jeanne Mammen, 29) commissioned in 1931/32 by Wolfgang Gurlitt (owner/manager of Fritz Gurlitt gallery) to illustrate Pierre Louys poetic celebration of sapphism

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subculture was no secret; in 1931, Leipzig social scientist Curt Moreck asked Mammen to create lesbian-themed illustrations for his book, Fhrer durch das Lasterhafte Berlin (A Guide to Scandalous Berlin). 378 While Mammens work is obviously very different from Hchs, like her, she deployed coded lesbian signals. However, they often remain undetected in the work of both artists: While coded lesbian references in Hchs ouevre are frequently obfuscated by the mainstream (i.e. heterocentric) graphic source materials she redeployed in her photomontages, the lesbian content in Mammens work is embedded in, and on occasion overshadowed by, the broader representational matrix of the Berlin streets or Weimar nightlife. Yet, as will be seen, well-established subcultural visual signals to convey lesbian themes are evident in the work of both artists. Jeanne Mammens 1928 watercolor Two Women Dancing (fig. 3.2) depicts an elegant female couple in what appears to be a stylish nightclub. The image may or may notrepresent a lesbian couple; its title does not define them specifically as such, moreover, it was not uncommon for two women to dance together in a social setting during the 1920s. Nonetheless, the image clearly reflects Weimar lesbian codes. The bodies of the two women are closely entwined and both sport the signature garonne

Les Chansons des Bilitis (1894). Nazis, however, banned publication and the lithographs never circulated as an edition; See also Britta Jrgs and Ingrid Herrmann, Leider hab ichs fliegen verlernt: Portraits von Knstlerinnen und Schriftstellerinnen der Neuen Sachlichkeit (Berlin: Aviva, 2000); Annelie Ltgens, The Conspiracy of Women: Images of City Life in the Work of Jeanne Mammen, in von Ankum, Women in the Metropolis, 89-105; Annelie Ltgens, Jeanne Mammen, in Three Berlin Artists of the Weimar Era: Hannah Hch, Kthe Kollwitz, Jeanne Mammen (Des Moines: Des Moines Art Center, 1994); Louise R. Noun, et al., Jeanne Mammen: Kpfe und Szenen, Berlin 1920 bis 1933 (Kunsthalle in Emden; Bonn: VG Bildkunst, 1994), 92-127. 378 Sections of Morecks book devoted to male homosexuality include illustrations by Christian Schad (1894-1982).

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coif. 379 In addition, the contrasting color of their hair and clothing suggests virile/feminine roles. While Mammen does not identify the club where they are dancing as a lesbian locale, the figures surrounding them appear to be female or ambiguously gendered and easily suggest the women-only clubs and balls that were a cornerstone of Weimar lesbian nightlife. Similar to Two Women Dancing, Mammens watercolor Zeebrugge (1920s) (fig. 3.3) deploys coded visual signals to configure sexual roles within a female-female couple. The contrasting dress of the two women positions them at opposite ends of the virile/feminine spectrum. The smaller and, ostensibly, more feminine of the two has long blonde hair and is wearing a trench coat that reveals a skirt below. Both her hair and attire define her as more feminine than her companion. Her companions hair is darker and shorter (i.e. more masculine) and she is wearing trousers which squarely place her in the lesbian role of the Bubi (short for Buben, or Boy). 380 The two windswept figures appear somewhat aloof. They stare cooly outward in opposite directions and seem estranged. Yet, despite what may be emotional tension, or perhaps merely boredom, the figures overlap and appear to be touching. Taken together, their physical proximity and the coded gender contrasts signaled by their hair and clothing indicate that they are a lesbian couple.

The Garonne was a female type popularized by Viktor Marguerittes 1923 novel of the same name, and also the namesake of a Weimar era lesbian magazine. 380 Schader, Virile, Vamps, 109.

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Weimar Ethnography and Lesbian Representation Similar to Mammens Two Women Dancing and Zeebrugge, Hannah Hchs photomontages Russian Dancer and English Dancer reflect Weimar lesbian codes. As in Mammens watercolors, Hchs Dancers are consistent with sartorial and ethnic colorcoded virile/feminine binary constellations. 381 While the Russian Dancers virility, as previously stated, is signaled by her black hair, eyes, and monocle, the English Dancers flowers and blonde hair clearly indicate femininity, 382 and lend the figure an aspect of lightness. 383 The following excerpt from a Weimar lesbian magazine includes a number of coded references which symbolically define the subject as feminine and might easily double as a poetic description of Hchs English Dancer: Ein zartes duftiges Sommerkleid mit frohem, bunten Blumengesichtern umgab ihre schlanke Figur, auf ihrem blonden Haar spielten die Sonnenstrahlen und ihre blauen Augen gingen in unendlichen auf. 384 A fluttery sweet-smelling summer-dress with a gay and colorful floral pattern [flower-faces] lightly drapes her lithe figure. Sunbeams playfully glisten on her blond hair and her blue eyes open into eternity. As this text suggests, in accordance with Weimar lesbian codes, everything about the English Dancer signals femininity. 385 In sum, the striking visual contrast between the

Schader, Virile,Vamps, 173. Schader, Virile, Vamps, 175. In the Weimar Republic, flowers generally symbolized womanliness (Weiblichkeit). 383 Maud Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife: The Weimar Photomontages of Hannah Hch (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), 144. 384 Claere Angel, Mara, Garonne, no. 6 (Berlin, 1932), cited in Schader, 173. 385 Schader, Virile,Vamps, 173. While blonde hair as an incarnation of the German-Aryan type increasingly gained popularity, terms such as Germanic or German were absent in Weimar lesbian magazines. The blond German woman, so central to the National Socialists, in no way represented the ideal of an attractive homosexual woman among lesbians. The type of woman popular among the National Socialists was healthy and her body was geared to reproduction. This ideal contrasted with the body type popular among lesbians; a boyish figure (often combined with virile qualities), or a tender feminine body type.
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ethereal pastel-colored English Dancer and the swarthy Russian Dancer represents a feminine/virile couple and eloquently illustrates lesbian sexual desire. However, Hchs intentions with regard to their nationalities must be largely conjectured. Moreover, these mysterious titles are particularly puzzling when one considers that Hch was generally reluctant to name her works, or only did so when pressed. Nonetheless, an examination of Weimar materials offers insight into contemporary perceptions of nonGerman ethnicities and races. Exoticism and Eroticism Weimar lesbian associations that linked dark hair and eyes to a sexually passionate nature reflected commonly held stereotypes. Moreover, at the time, ethnically and racially exotic others were generally regarded as sexually exotic (i.e. non-normative), a perception evident in a broad range of scientific, popular, and subcultural materials. 386 In 1930, Berlin sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld included an image of the African American dancer Josephine Baker in his opus Geschlechtskunde (Sexual Knowledge) (fig. 3.4). 387 Baker, pictured in a modern revue-costume, is visually configured with two tribal women: a juxtaposition that tellingly indicates the extent of racial stereotyping among contemporary scientists. The faces of the Arizona Indian woman and Sudanese Haussa tribe member pictured opposite Baker are adorned with paint (fig. 3.5) and their
For general discussions of the discursive link between racial and sexual exoticism in Western European culture, see, Mark Antliff and Patricia Leighton, Primitive, in R. Nelson and Richard Schiff, eds. Critical Terms for Art History (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1996), 170-84; Jody Blake, Le Tumulte Noir: Modernist Art and Entertainment in Jazz-Age Paris, 1900-1930 (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. 1999); Edward Said, Orientalism (New York: Pantheon Books, 1978); 387 Magnus Hirschfeld, Bilderteil, Geschlechtskunde auf Grund dreissigjhriger Forschung und Erfahrung bearbeitet (Stuttgart: Julius Pttmann, 1930), Vol. 4, Plate 51.
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designs echo the geometry of the dancers beaded costume. Clearly Hirschfeld intended these images, one generated by mass culture (Baker) and the others (non-Western natives) in an ethnographic context, to empirically reinforce links between exotic race and exotic sexuality. In addition, their juxtaposition illustrates the discursive proximity indeed, intersection--of popular culture and science in Weimar. While Magnus Hirschfeld was undoubtedly a progressive figure, as the discussion above indicates, he clearly subscribed to racial stereotypes. 388 Be that as it may, Hirschfeld was not alone, and, as will be seen, at the time, the conflation of exoticism with non-normative (or heightened) sexuality was not only prevalent in Germany, but common throughout Western Europe. Like Hirschfeld, in a discussion of Josephine Baker, Weimar critic Fred Hildenbrandt focused on the race and linked the dancer to non-Western culture. 389 Baker, he lamented, has confused Europe. 390 She was marvelous for a time, but now, exposed and polished by European culture, she has lost her [primitive] appeal. 391 Similar to Hirschfelds volume, Hildenbrandts 1931 review confirms that the concept of intrinsic racial difference was deeply embedded in Weimar culture. Weimar lesbians were not immune to the cultural hegemony of racial and ethnic stereotyping; a 1928 Freundin headine rhetorically asked Wie Nackt tanzt die Baker? (How nude does [Josephine] Baker Dance?) and attests to their fascination with darkThis statement is in no way intended as a negative critique of Hirschfeld, nor does it suggest he was a racist. 389 Fred Hildenbrandt, Tnzerinnen der Gegenwart: 57 Bilder (Zrich: Orell Fssli, 1931), 8. The author links Baker to Negerinnentnze (Female-Niggerdances) of the South Seas and Honolulu, Hawaii. 390 Fred Hildenbrandt, Tnzerinnen der Gegenwart, 8. 391 Hildenbrandt, Tnzerinnen der Gegenwart, 8-9. Josephine Baker [hat] Europa durcheinander gemacht, nicht? . . . [S]icher war sie herrlich eine Zeit lang. Dann kam mit Europa allmhlich der Schliff. Vorbei.
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skinned others. 392 Yet despite their allure, romantic relationships between nonCaucasian beauties and German women were rarely a theme in lesbian materials. 393 Instead, sexual attraction between two women was (analogous to gender-coded sartorial contrast) indicated by inter-ethnicity, as demonstrated in the case of Hchs Russian and English Dancers. Ethnic contrasts such as these constellated erotic interest and lent the non-German woman an aura of exoticism. However, in Weimar, as Schader explains, to be perceived as exotic (and automatically as sexually adventurous), a woman merely had to be from another world, i.e., not from Berlin; and comments laconically, a French accent was enough. 394 The most common exotic clichs among Weimar lesbians were the mysterious dark-eyed Gypsy and the lonely melancholy of the Russian soul. 395 Weimar Ethnography and the Russian Russias geographical position has traditionally placed the countrys inhabitants in an ethnic and anthropological grey area between Western Europe and Asia. Historically, this has informed the Western European perception of the not quite European, nor Asian, Russian. Weimar ethnographers commonly held that the Russian was racially distinct from other European peoples and Hans F. K. Gnthers The Racial
Wie nackt tanzt die Baker? Die Freundin 4 Jg., no. 9, April 30, 1928. Schader, Virile, Vamps, 134-35, 272n115, however briefly discusses J. Schrders novella, Braune Nuela (Brown Nuela) which was published in the lesbian periodical Ledige Frauen (Single Women) in January 1928. Braune Nuela narrates the story of a German businesswoman who imports coffee from Java. She falls in love with the beautiful Javanese Nuela, a person of an uncultivated race, and brings her to Germany. 394 Schader, Virile, Vamps, 118. 395 Schader, Virile Vamps, 136; 118, discusses the exotic Arab and Gypsy. Es fiel ein Reif in der Frhlingsnacht (A frost Fell in the Spring Night) is a short story about a young Russian woman Ilonka and was printed in Garonne, no. 7 (1931), unpaginated. See also, Die Augen der Ljnbiza (Ljnbizas Eyes), Die Freundin 4. Jg., no. 3 (Feb., 6, 1928). Italian women were regarded as equally exotic, see, Fiametta: eine rmische Novelle (Fiametta: a Roman Short Story) Die Freundin 4. Jg., no. 5, March 5, 1928.
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Elements of European History, reflects this. 396 Gnther, Germanys most influential racial theorist of the Weimar era, 397 claimed Europeans are comprised of five distinct races and classified the central Russian Caucasus as an area on the whole predominantly settled from Asia [where] Europeans and Asiatics meet. 398 He classified the short, mesocephalic, dark-haired, brown-eyed people, south and south-east from Moscow . . . and their flat, broad foreheads and cheekbones set at an outward slant . . . as Asiatic . . . and proto Mongoloid. 399 Indeed, the dark hair and eyes, low forehead, and slanted skull of Hchs Russian Dancer visually conform to the physiognomy that, according to Gnther, characterized the Russian type. In addition to being perceived as racially other, the Russian was generally touted as vigorous and sturdy. 400 However, as James L. Rice explains, this stereotype was inspired by historical events tainted by nihilism and aggression 401 and these latent, yet

Hans F. K. Gnther, The Racial Elements of European History, trans. G.C. Wheeler (London: Methuen and C. Ltd., 1927). 397 Maria Makela, Grotesque Bodies: Weimar-Era Medicine and the Photomontages of Hannah Hch, in Modern Art and the Grotesque, Frances Connelly, ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 202; 217n28. 398 Gnther, 102. 399 Gnther, 101-02. 400 James L. Rice, Russian Stereotypes in the Freud-Jung Correspondence, Slavic Review 41, no. 1 (Spring 1982), 19, 19n1. In a 1909 letter to Jung, Freud refers to the Russian race, and not Russian ethnicity. See, The Freud Jung Letters, ed. William MacGuire, trans., Ralph Mannheim and R.F.C. Hull (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 226; See also, Anonymous, Anthropologist Sees Russian Becoming One Physical Type, Science Newsletter 36, no. 10 (2. Sept. 1939): 155. In 1939, Dr. Ales Hrdlicka of the Smithsonian Institution claimed that the Russians are becoming one physical type, marked by sturdiness. 401 Rice, Russian Stereotypes, 30. The romantic capstone to these clichs of national character may be found in the familiar phrase coined by Bakunin in 1842, which still enjoyed a . . . free-floating currency as the ultimate Russian aphorism: Die Lust der Zerstrung ist auch eine schaffende Lust (The desire to destroy is also a creative one. This statement from Bakunins essay The Reaction in Germany, was quoted in S.L. Frank in Etika nigilizma (Vehki, p. 194) with the ironic remark that the word also (auch) had long since vanished from the aphorism (29; 29n43).

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threatening, undertones should not be ignored. 402 Moreover, the label of Russian vigor (as construed by correspondence between Freud and Jung) was infused with an archaically unbridled libido. 403 These associations were exacerbated by early twentiethcentury political developments; among many Western Europeans, the Russian embodied elements considered perilous and antithetical to modern civilization. 404 Especially after the Bolshevik Revolution, Russians were often characterized as a dangerous horde: 405 a perception reiterated in popular, eugenic, and ethnographic discourse. 406 While stereotypical Russian strength carried a sexual, and, on occasion, a negative brutish subtext, it nonetheless was also greatly admired in Weimar as it was in keeping with the tenets of Krperkultur.

Anonymous, Anthropologist Sees Russian Becoming One Physical Type, Science Newsletter 36, no. 10 (2. Sept. 1939), 155; Hrdlicka is quoted as describing the stockiness and vigor of the present day Russian. See also Rice, Russian Stereotypes, 33, 33n52. In 1930, Sigmund Freud mused, One only wonders, with concern, what the Soviet will do after they have wiped out the bourgeoisie. Sigmund Freud, Civilization and its Discontents, ed. J. Strachey (New York: W.W. Norton), 61-62. 403 Rice, Russian Stereotypes, 30. 404 Michael Schwartz, Proletarier und Lumpen,: Sozialistische Ursprnge eugenischen Denkens, Vierteljahreshefte fr Zeitgeschichte 42, Jhg. 4 (Oct., 1994): 537-70. 405 H. Dennis Bradley, Socialism The Nation and The Atheneum (July 1, 1922), 479. In an editorial-like advertisement for the Bond St. Military and Naval Tailors Pope and Bradley, the author writes, What is Socialism? It is a disgustingly sordid level to which the muddy majority, in their impotent jealousy, seek to drag down all refinement; a degrading plain of thought . . . a blank illusion, a mirthless myth, a momentary nightmare . . . If it were conceded . . . it would rapdly accomplish the destruction of the arts, the negation of all joys of life, the annihilation of all incentive to progress . . . Personally, the Socialist, the Bolshevist, and the Communist leave me chillingly amused. See also, David Schimmelpenninck Van der Oye, Russias Asian Temptation, International Journal 55, no. 4 (Autumn 2000): 603. A contingent of radical Russians identified with this stereotype and represented themselves as an imminent threat to European civilization. In 1918, the Russian poet Alexandr Blok wrote: You have your millions. We are hordes, and hordes, and hordes./ Just try it! Take us on!/ Yes We are Scythians! Yes, we are Asians too with slanting eyes bespeaking GreedTriumphant yet in sorrowAwash in dark blood 406 Weiss, The Race Hygiene Movement, 212, 212n57. In a paper presented at the First International Eugenics Congress in London in 1912, the leading German eugenicist Alfred Ploetz (18601940) indicated that the Slavic threat was biological as well as political: while Western Europeans and Americans exhibited a decline in fertility, Ploetz lamented, the "Poles, Hungarians, Russians, and South Slavs-nationalities with strong Asiatic traits-have an extremely high birth rate such that they are everywhere successfully pushing westward. . . The preservation of the Nordic race," he argued, "is severely threatened as a result."

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In addition to perceiving the Russian as racially other and physically strong, Russia was seen as a locus of exotic sexuality, a hot bed of vice, and a country of sexual . . . excesses. 407 Due to Western European associations linking exotic sexuality to exotic environs, lesbianism was often considered endemic to Asia, the Near East, and . . . Russia. 408 The projection of non-normative sexuality upon ethnic or racial others supports the claim that there is a tendency in all cultures to locate homosexuality far away from themselves in foreign countries. 409 Hence, as Diana Burgin Lewis writes, Lesbian love got its name from a small island . . . cut off, so to speak, from the mainland of human love and sexuality. 410 A sexually suggestive 1928 photograph captioned Sent Marona, orientalische Tnzerin (Sent Marona, oriental dancer) (fig. 3.6) attests to the contemporaneous discursive link between ethnic exoticism and eroticism. Moreover, the anonymous photograph, which appeared on a lesbian magazine cover, suggests that Weimar lesbians generally subscribed to and accepted these associations. The bare breasts and Bugatti-inspired costume of the oriental dancer scandalously imply a hyper-sexualized

Jane T. Costlow, Stephanie Sandler, and Judith Vowles, Introduction, Sexuality and the Body in Russian Culture, Jane T. Costlow, Stephanie Sandler, and Judith Vowles. eds., (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993), 8. 408 Diana Lewis Burgin, Laid out in Lavender: Perception of Lesbian Love in Russian Literature and Criticism of the Silver Age, 1893-1917, in Sexuality and the Body in Russian Culture, Jane T. Costlow, Stephanie Sandler, and Judith Vowles. eds. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993), 177; Here, Virginia Woolfs Orlando (1928) also comes to mind. Dedicated to her lesbian lover Vita Sackville West, portions of her four-hundred year biographical narrative are set in the exotic locales of Russia, Persia and Constantinople. 409 Barbara Fassler, Theories of Homosexuality as Sources of Bloomsburys Androgyny, Signs 5, no. 2 (1979), 237-57; paraphrased by Burgin, Laid Out in Lavender, 324. 410 Burgin, Laid Out in Lavender, 177.

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vamp. 411 By contemporary standards (inferred through the figures exotic name and near nudity), the sexual implications of the photograph are clear. Significantly, it worries the boundaries of lesbian agency and contemporary pornography and may easily be linked to phallocentric pornography. Yet, one could nonetheless argue that Weimar lesbians boldly deployed images such as this for their own erotic enjoyment. In accordance with contemporary associations linking ethnic others and eroticism, Hchs Russian Dancer and Rudolf Koppitzs photograph Study of Russian Dancers (1926) (fig. 3.7) potentially imply lesbianism, yet the two works operate much differently. 412 In contrast to Koppitzs nude couple, Hchs Russian Dancer is a lone clothed subject. While the two bodies in Koppitzs photograph intimate female-female sexual exchange, the Russian Dancers monocle--even more audaciously than Koppitzs intertwined nudes--links Hchs photomontage to lesbian subculture. For example, two infamous lesbian bars took the monocle as their namesake: the Berlin lesbian bar, Monokel, and the Parisian lesbian haunt Le Monocle, immortalized in a suite of early 1930 Brassa photographs. An examination of photographs of Gertrud Liebherr, a Berlin photographer more fully discussed in chapter five, offers clear evidence of the monocles popularity among Weimar era lesbians. Indeed, every cross-dressed female

Obviously a stage name, the lesser known Sent Marona suggests the well-known Weimar dancer Sent Mahesa (ne Elsa von Carlsberg [1883-1970[). The pseudonyms of both dancers were clearly intended to conjure exotic oriental associations. The fascination with oriental exoticism was not limited to Weimar or Western Europe but also evident in Hollywood. The Sheik, a successful 1921 film starring Italian actor and screen legend Rudolf Valentino was celebrated in the popular American song Sheik of Araby (1921) and spoofed in Fanny Brices The Sheik of Avenue B, (1922). In a similar fashion, Cincinnati native Theodosia Goodman gained fame as Hollywood screen vamp Theda Bara. 412 Rudolf Koppitz (1884-1936) was born in Austria, and active in Germany. Study of Russian Dancers appears in Toepfer, Empire, figure 79, unpaginated, and in Monika Faber, Tanzfoto: Annhrungen und Experimente 1880-1940 (Vienna: sterreiches Fotoarchiv im Museum moderner Kunst, 1991), 61.

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subject in Liebherrs photographs has short hair, is wearing elegant masculine dress, and a monocle. 413 This confirms Ruth Roelligs 1928 observation that the lesbian who strongly identified as masculine wore an Eton crop, a tuxedo, and a monocle. 414 Similar to the monocles worn by Liebherrs subjects as well as other women portrayed in lesbian print culture, Hchs Russian Dancer importantly includes this significant accessory. When worn by a woman in 1928, the monocle disrupted the femininity of the wearer and the sartorial expression of patriarchal authority. 415 Like Hchs Russian Dancer, the face of the anonymous woman pictured on the lesbian magazine cover (fig. 5.14) is dominated by a black-rimmed monocle. Yet, unlike her earnest investment in replicating masculine sartoria, Hchs ludicrous and ironic tagging of a ballerina with a gentlemans monocle offers evidence of her resistance and perennial humor in the face of gender roles. Returning to Rudolf Koppitzs Study of Russian Dancers, an image that may be linked visually to a similarly configured photograph on a Weimar lesbian magazine cover (fig. 3.8), insight may be gained into how the investments of the onlooker can structure and determine an images reception. Moreover, the two photographs illustrate visual links between the discourses of dance, lesbian subculture, and pornography. The lesbian
While the cross-dressed woman pictured in Figure 5.11, does not wear the monocle on her face, it nonetheless dangles as an accessory on a chain. 414 Ruth Roellig, Berlins lesbische Frauen (repr. 1928), in Lila Nchte: die Damenklubs im Berlin der zwanziger Jahre, Adele Meyer, ed. (Berlin: Edition Lit. Europe, 1994), 42. Roellig describes die stark vermnnlichten Typen mit Etonkopf, smoking und Monokel. 415 The same anonymous photograph of a cross-dressed woman was printed in lesbian journals on two separate occasions. It is captioned Der moderne Frauentyp (The modern Type of Woman) in Frauen Liebe und Leben (Women: Love and Life) no. 2 (1928): 19, and later, the same photo appears uncaptioned on the cover of Liebende Frauen, no. 18 (1929). Admittedly Liebherrs name does not appear on either photograph, yet based on the Weimar lesbian periodicals held in the Berlin Spinnboden lesbian archive, and Liebherrs avowed professional dedication to modern types, it seems highly likely that she is also responsible for this image.
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magazine photo (similar to Koppitzs Dancers) portrays two nude women embracing (fig. 3.8), a highly legible visual configuration that conveys sapphism. 416 While the photograph in the lesbian magazine is uncaptioned, we may assume that it represents a sapphic embrace because of its context in a journal aimed at a specifically lesbian audience. However, the photograph, Koppitzs, and countless others like them, reintroduce the murky issue of differentiating lesbian-generated images from those intended to sexually arouse heterosexual male viewers (i.e. pornography). In accordance with the conventions of Western European viewing tradition, the female body is generally regarded as an object of male scopic pleasure. Yet, in the absence of a caption or authorial context, how do we interpret images of nude women? (Clearly an issue doubly challenging when we consider images that portray [nude] women engaging with each other sexually.) As stated, Weimar lesbian periodicals were largely created and controlled by lesbians, yet, photographs of nude female couples, much like those appearing on their covers, are often indistinguishable from contemporary pornography. The Russian Ballet In Weimar, representations of dance helped to fuel concepts of ethnic difference and supported common cultural perceptions linking exotic ethnicity and exotic (i.e. non-normative) sexuality. The Russian Ballet was not immune to the cultural dynamism of the early twentieth-century and played a leading role in the rejuvenation of European

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dance culture. 417 While German dancers were responsible for the theoretical formulation and dissemination of the modern dance movement, Russian dancers inspired an almost mythical fascination in Weimar. Their reputation was so great that a series of collector cards entitled Das Tanzgenie der Russen (The Dance Genius of the Russians) were distributed in German cigarette packages. 418 This, coupled with the contemporary fascination with everything exotic, guaranteed the companys mass appeal. 419 Because the Russian Ballet toured extensively, it was influential in the construction of Russian national character beyond the countrys borders. However, evidence suggests that every aspect of the Russian Ballet was carefully crafted to project and reaffirm a desired public impression. Ulla Holt claims that Diaghilev's artists assumed double identities, posing as the East to the West, while displaying a Eurocentric attitude towards Russia's non-European ethnic groups. 420 A 1926 British advertisement, with the heading Exhausting Work and Virol-and-Milk reflects this (fig. 3.9). In a purported behind the scenes interview, Lydia Sokolova characterizes the members of the company as supreme actors and perfect acrobats and describes the

D. L. Murray, The Future of the Ballet, Music and Letters 7, no. 1 (Jan., 1926), 36. According to Murray, under the creative influence of Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929), the company was infused with a modern spirit, which, according to contemporary observers, was implemented later by choreographer Michel Fokine (1880-1942). Fokine, as Murray commented in 1926, was powerfully influenced by Isadora Duncan, and had a profound effect upon the Ballets Russes. 418 Dresdens Orami cigarette company issued the cards in the early 1930s. 419 Popular in Germany, the legendary fame of the Ballet Russes was international. The company performed throughout Europe and the United States. See, Lynn Garafola and Nancy von Norman Baer, eds., The Ballet Russes and its World (New Haven: Harvard University Press, 1999). 420 Ulla Holt, Style, fashion, politics, and identity: The Ballets Russes in Paris from 1909 to 1914 (PhD., diss., Brown University, 2000).

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company as a little self-contained village moving about Europe.

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Posed in a Lenare

photograph much like Hchs Russian Dancer, Lydia Sokolova The Queen of English Dancers balances on one leg with her hand extended. 422 The odd, yet emblematic, story of how Sokolova got her name attests to the contrived exoticism of the Russian Ballet. Sokolova, ne Hilda Munnings (1899-1972), was born in the London suburb of Wanstead and joined the Ballet Russes in 1913, becoming the companys first English member. Diaghilev himself renamed her Sokolova to strengthen associations between Russian ethnicity and dance prowess. 423 Munnings adoption of a Russian name was, however, not unique; at the time, a number of dancers did the same. During the interwar period, it was not uncommon for Western European artists to boost their appeal by assuming exotic or Russian-sounding stage names. 424 Ballet and Weimar Eugenics The words of British dance critic D. L. Murray indicate significant contemporary correlations between dance culture, Weimar Krperkultur, and eugenic discourse in Western Europe. Murrays 1926 characterization of ballet as a mainstay of Western European culture offers insight into growing discursive trends (especially in Germany)

Exhausting Work and Virol and Milk, The Illustrated London News, Oct., 6, 1926, p. 638. 683. We do not go much into society. We have to save ourselves for our art. The advertisement is dominated by Lenares photograph Lydia Sokolova-Queen of English Dancers. 422 Lenare (Leonard Green) (1883-?) opened the portrait studio Lenare in 1924. Later, maintained by his assistant Jim Cawthorne, the Lenare studio closed in 1977; See, Nicholas de Ville, Lenare: The Art of Society Photography, 1924-1977 (London: Allen Lane, 1981). 423 Lydia Sokolova, Dancing for Diaghilev: The Memoirs of Lydia Sokolova, ed. Richard Buckle (New York: Macmillan, 1961), 68-69. 424 During the years she performed in England, the Dutch dancer Lil Green assumed the Russiansounding name Vallya Lodowska, while, Berlin native, dancer Else von Carlberg (1893-1970), adopted the Egyptian pseudonym inspired Sent Mahesa. Toepfer, Empire, 148-49. See also, Frank-Manuel Peter, Valeska Gert, Tnzerin, Schauspielerin, Kabarettistin: Eine dokumentarische Biographie, mit einem Vorwort von Volker Schlndorff (Berlin: Frlich und Kaufmann, 1985), 36.

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which ultimately rejected anything at odds with classical aesthetic principles. 425 Murray described ballet as a normal love of bodily fitness and grace and located its basis within the Pheidian canon. 426 In words that resonate with Krperkultur, a movement that found its inspiration in ancient Greek ideals, he wrote the art that produced the Parthenon frieze is the art with which those who are seeking the measure and grace of human movement must always be primarily concerned. 427 It is certain, Murray continued, that no dancer will enjoy a wide and lasting popularity except by satisfying our instinctive and normal love of bodily fitness, strength, and grace. 428 These words are indicative of the contemporary discursive interface between dance practice, Krperkultur, and eugenics, associations even more apparent when he declares, If you reject the canons, ballet will fall into eccentricity, feebleness, and chaos. 429 In 1926, eccentricity, feebleness, and chaos were key terms within volatile debates that crosscut cultural, political, medical, and eugenic discourses. 430 Murrays description of

D.L. Murray, The Future of Ballet, Music and Letters 7, no. 1 (Jan., 1926): 25-37. Murray, The Future of Ballet, 36. 427 Murray, The Future of Ballet, 36-37. 428 Murray, The Future of Ballet, 36. Murrays words link dance discourse to concepts associated with art. The dancer will never realize the square lines of archaic sculpture . . . or the whirring synthesis of a Futurist canvas. He will only appear what he is, a man making himself uncomfortable. 429 D. L. Murray, The Future of Ballet, 37. Murrays emphasis on the Pheidian canon also significantly resonates with links between classical Greek culture and contemporary homosexual discourse at the time. This theme will be more fully explored later in my discussion of sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld. The title of Hirschfelds first publication in support of homosexuality (published in 1896 under the pseud. Theodore Ramien), Sappho und Sokrates: Oder Wie erklrt sich die Liebe der Mnner und Frauen zu Personen des eigenen Geschlechts? (Sappho and Socrates: Or, how do we Explain the Love of Men and Women for their own Sex?), foregrounds ancient Greek figures. 430 Weimar discourse and rhetoric routinely linked racial inferiority and/or otherness to the artistic avant-garde and positioned it negatively in relation to ideal models as represented by the classical Greek canons. While the socio-cultural implications of these arguments are too great to be enumerated or examined here, their association with subsequent political developments should not be ignored. See, Sheila Faith Weiss, The Race Hygiene Movement in Germany Osiris, 2nd Series, vol. 3 (1987): 193-236. See also, Alfred Werner, Hitler's Kampf against Modern Art: A Retrospect The Antioch Review 26, no. 1 (Spring 1966): 62. Before the Munich opening of the 1937 Degenerate Art Exhibition, thirty thousand,
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ballet as an instinctive love of bodily fitness, strength, and grace, contrasts sharply with Hchs Russian Dancer, a work, which, in addition to its Russian reference implicating exotic sexuality and lesbian subculture, clearly resists canonical aesthetics. Her blatant disregard of classical principles in the photomontage lent an additional subversive and ironic subtext to this monstrously non-Pheidian ballerina. The Healthy Weimar Lesbian: the ultimate New Woman Remaining physically fit was a matter of particular concern among selfsupporting Weimar women. As Barbara Kosta explains, the modern womans early morning gymnastics were intended to improve her marketability; 431 and her pursuit of physical fitness was reflected in contemporary popular fiction. The morning gymnastics and cold showers described in Irmgard Keuns pulp-novel Gilgi, the story of a Berlin office-worker modeled after the New Woman reflect, almost verbatim, the directives of Weimar lesbian feminists. 432

packing the huge square on Prinzregentenstrasse, heard Hitler thunder against works of art that "cannot be understood but need a swollen set of instructions to prove their right to exist and tortured canvases find their way to neurotics," and also against those "degenerate halfwits who on principle see blue fields, a green sky, and sulphurous clouds." True to form, he added a sharp warning: "If they really paint in this manner because they see things that way, then these unhappy persons should be dealt with in the department of the Ministry of the Interior, where we sterilize the insane." Hitler contrasted the "conspiracy of Jews and Bolsheviks with noble Aryan artists who were seeking after the true and genuine quality of our national being and after a sincere and upright expression of the inwardly-divined law of life." The posters announcing the Degenerate Art exhibition foregrounded terminology derived from Nazi-informed eugenic discourse. The phrases spiritual decay, sick visionaries, and lunatic incompetents negatively characterized both avant-garde art and artists. See also, Wolfgang Willrich, Suberung des Kunsttempels: Eine kunstpolitische Kampfschrift deutscher Kunst im Geiste nordischer Art (Munich: J.F. Lehmanns Verlag, 1937). 431 Barbara Kosta, Unruly Daughters and Modernity: Irmgard Keuns Gilgi-eine von uns, The German Quarterly 68, no. 3 (Summer 1995), 272. 432 My research of lesbian periodicals has revealed conspicuous thematic correlations between popular figures, such as Keuns Gilgi and the contemporary lesbian print media. These similarities attest to the infiltration of mainstream discourses in Weimar lesbian print media and subculture. See also Irmgard Keun (1905-82), Gilgi-eine von uns (Gilgione of us) (1931; repr., Munich: Deutsche Taschenbuch Verlag, 1990). This popular novel was filmed in 1932, with actress Brigitte Helm in the starring role.

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Herta Laser, a regular contributor to the lesbian periodical Frauen Lieben und Leben (Women Love and Life), stressed the importance of a daily gymnastic routine to her readers. In a 1928 article, she declared it is especially important for homosexual women to remain youthful, because they must engage in a fight for professional survival 99% of their lives. 433 For homosexual women, she continued, youthful appearance is especially necessary in todays industrial circles where there is a fear of aging employees. 434 Of particular relevance with regard to Hchs Russian Dancer is Lasers recommendation that manly women practice a leg exercise often performed by Russian dancers. 435 Lasers essay was published the same year Hch created the Russian Dancer. Whether Hch was familiar with the essay, or acquainted with its author, cannot be determined; however, Lasers remarks regarding manly women and Russian dancers, implicate Hchs photomontage. An additional reference linking lesbian subculture, a Russian dancer, and Hchs photomontage of the same name, may be found in Ruth Roelligs previously mentioned guide to lesbian Berlin. 436 In her description of a typical night in the exclusive bar Monbijou, Roellig wrote, occasionally . . . a young, interesting Russian girl will be in the mood to perform a folkloric dance-to which the easily animated women enthusiastically

Herta Laser, Richtiges Lften und Frauenturnen, (Correct Ventilation and Womens Exercise) Frauen Liebe und Leben: Organ des Deutschen Freundschafts-Verbandes (Women Love and Life: Representing the German Friendship Union [an early homosexual organization]) no. 2 (Berlin 1928): 5. 434 Laser, Richtiges Lften, 5. 435 Laser, Richtiges Lften, 7. 436 Ruth Roellig, Berlins lesbische Frauen: mit einem Vorwort von Sanittsrat Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld-Berlin (Leipzig: Bruno Gebauer Verlag fr Kulturprobleme, 1928).

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respond. 437 As these examples confirm, in Weimar, Russian stereotypes were commonplace in mainstream, scientific, and lesbian materials and represent a rich additional context for Hchs photomontage. The dark-eyed Russian Dancer, whose sexual virility is emphasized by a tell-tale lesbian monocle, reflects the vigorous, artistic, and soulful Russian subject depicted in diverse Weimar media. Hannah Hchs Liebe Hannah Hchs late Weimar photomontage Liebe (Love) (1931) (fig. 3.10) reflects the artists new found ease with the uncoded visual expression of lesbian intimacy. Yet, upon closer examination, Liebe obliquely references the Russian Ballet, contemporary decorative and graphic arts, and juvenile literature. In the early decades of the twentieth-century, the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova (1881-1931) was one of the most prominent dancers in the world and was renowned in Berlin for her signature piece, Die Libelle (The Dragonfly). 438 An undated early twentieth-century German postcard of Pavlova as the Libelle (fig. 3.11) portrays the legendary ballerina, much like the hybrid flying figure in Hchs Liebe, as a woman wearing wings. Pavlova died in 1931, the same year Hch created the photomontage. And while Liebe, above all, implies lesbian sexuality; it may also be a tribute to Pavlova; her fame, recent death, and signature Libelle costume may have inspired Hch to integrate a winged-insect in the work.

Roellig, Berlins lesbische Frauen (1928), 62. Zuweilen gibt es ein sentimentales Lied, gesungen zu vorgerckter Stunde von irgendeinem Operetten Star, oder eine junge, interessante Russin ist in der Stimmung, einen heimatlichen Tanz aufzufhren, der diese leicht zu entflammenden Frauen so begeistert. 438 Viennese composer Josef Strauss (1827-1870) wrote the Libelle, also known as Opus 204, a polka mazurka for orchestra in 1866. Pavlova premiered the piece in St. Petersburg in 1914.

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Nonetheless, whether or not Liebe references Anna Pavlova, the two interacting nude females in the photomontage clearly suggest lesbianism and, because of this, it is considered part of Hchs love series. 439 Named by scholars, the photomontages from the series examine courtship, marriage, and sexuality and are highly psychologically charged-something that is not surprising, given their focus on human emotion and interpersonal relationships. 440 After Hch became involved with Brugman (1926), the photomontages in the artists love series began to include representations of lesbianism. 441 Yet Hchs Liebe is significant in other ways; unlike photomontages from the series that present a sardonic view of human relations, Liebe is positive. It depicts a hybrid female/insect hovering above a recumbent nude woman, and its straightforward depiction of lesbian sexuality suggests that by 1931, the artist had largely abandoned any previous inhibitions she may have had engaging with the theme. Because it clearly implies lesbianism, scholars regard Liebe as Hchs most radical engagement with contemporary Weimar debates regarding sexuality. 442 According to Maria Makela, Liebe is unique in its portrayal of homosexual love. 443 She claims that it focuses on the underbelly of human relationshipsin this case a homosexual liaison, and describes
Makela, By Design, in The Photomontages of HH, 66, and 77n88. The series includes Die Kokette I (1923-25), Die Kokette II (1925), Liebe (1926), Liebe (1931), Platonische Liebe (Platonic Love)(1930), Liebe im Busch (Love in the Jungle) (1925), and Vagabunden (Vagabonds) 1926. I would, however, suggest, that Hchs 1934 photomontage, Auf den Weg in den Siebten [F.] Himmel (On the Way to Seventh [F.] Heaven), which depicts a smiling, hand-holding female couple levitating above a landscape, and is nearly identical to Hchs earlier photomontage Vagabunden (Vagabonds) (1926), may also be considered part of the artists love series. 440 Biro, The New Woman as Cyborg, 246, 302n49; See also, Boswell, HH, 12; Makela, By Design, 66, 69; and Lavin, Cut, 124-5, 136. 441 Biro, The New Woman, 246. 442 Matthew Biro, The New Woman as Cyborg, 250. 443 Makela,By Design, in The Photomontages of HH, 66.
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the scene as unmistakably ominous. 444 Makela writes that it is unique for the level of anxiety that it generates in the viewer, and that only the most unusual viewer would feel no discomfort at the sight of the drowsy female reclining on pillows at the bottom of the picture, who is either unaware of or undisturbed by the bug-headed, winged pair of legs that hovers directly above her. 445 This unusual viewer disagrees. The harmonious colors and configuration of the two figures suggest a tender romantic exchange. The warm ochre background and closely framed figures the ambient lighting of an intimate space; while the line of the horizon, possibly suggesting a bed, is perfectly level. The over-sized silk pillows supporting the recumbent figures torso conjure the exotic accoutrements of a luxurious oriental boudoir. Combined, these details indicate that Liebe is a lyrical and undisguised depiction of lesbian sexual intimacy. However, in addition to its lesbian theme, Liebe may also be linked to the artists personal papers which include a noteworthy reference to a dragonfly. In 1924, the artists colleague and admirer, Mynona, sent Hch an erotically charged love poem in which he likens her tender manner to the wings of a Libelle (dragonfly). 446 Insects, especially dragonflies, were not uncommon in late nineteenth and early twentiethcentury romantic imagery and a frequent motif in jewelry, and the decorative and

Makela, Exhibition Plates 26-75: The Interwar Period, The Photomontages of HH, 115. Makela, By Design, in The Photomontages of HH, 66. 446 Gtz Adriani, Hannah Hch, 1889-1978: Collagen (Stuttgart: Institut fr Auslandsbeziehungen, 1984), 44. Salomon Friedlnder (1871-1946), aka Mynona, (anonym [German anonymous] spelled backwards) specialized in literary grotesques. He sent the sexually graphic poem, Verzckung in Dich (Charmed by You), to Hch in 1924. He writes, Du bist ein Phnomen. Ausserdem zart wie ein Libellenflgel See also, Ellen Otten, ed., Mynona: Rosa die schne Schutzsmannsfrau und andere Grotesken (Arche Verlag: Zrich, 1989), 201.
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graphic arts. As a number of contemporary images confirm (and as seen in Pavlovas Libelle), winged females did not automatically inspire anxiety in early twentieth-century viewers. Instead, as in the case of the postcard Libellule (fig. 3.12), they were sexually suggestive, or, as in this depiction of a pubescent girl (3.13), might have implied innocence and/or an affinity to nature. The contemporary popularity of romantic and whimsically humanized insects is further evidenced by a dragonfly motif on a Weimar era postcard (fig. 3.14). The image, perhaps designed to appeal to children, depicts a mermaid sitting on lotus leaves being approached by a friendly dragonfly. Strikingly similar to Liebe; one must merely reverse it and substitute the lotus petals with overstuffed pillows to evoke Hchs photomontage. 447 Like Liebe, the simplicity of the postcards narrative and composition suggests one of Hchs lesser known projects: the 1945 childrens book, Bilderbuch (Picture-book), and features a number of non-threatening animal/insect hybrids. 448 Indeed, cross-genus figures are ubiquitous in Hchs oeuvre. As Matthew Biro comments, the insect/human hybrid in Liebe suggests a blending of different species an implication that could equally imply an evolutionary or a devolutionary

According to information verso, card was published by Korn Knstlerkarte nach einem original von H. [Herta] Wasserkampf. Nr. 816, Verlag Felix Korn, Stuttgart. akpool.de/ansichtskarten/ 82074-ansichtskarte-postkarte-nixe-sitzt-auf-rosenblatt-libellefisch [accessed January 9, 2012]. 448 Hannah Hch, Bilderbuch, 1945, Hans Marquardt and Manfred Hamm, eds. (Dsseldorf: Claasen Verlag, 1985). Hchs whimsical hybrid creatures include Boa Perlina, Schnippeldebonchen, and Der Schwanzgemsen. After World War II, both Hch and Til Brugman wrote childrens books. Til Brugmans many publications include, Wiben en de Katten (Amsterdam: Wereld-Bibliothek, 1951): Maras Puppe: eine Puppe erzhlt aus ihrem Leben (Reutlingen: Ensslin und Laiblin, 1952); Kinderhand (Amsterdam: De Boeuk, 1954); De avonteren van Korreltje Zondervan (Amsterdam: Ploegsma, 1956); Noes is niet voor de poes (Amsterdam: C.P.J. van der Peet, 1956); Penny: het geheim van de jonk van de vriendlijke oostenwind (s-Gravenhage: G.B. van Gloor, 1957); Wat de pop wist (Den Haag: H.P. Leopold, 1963). Brugman collaborated with her lesbian partner Hans (Johanna) Mertineit on Maras Puppe, Penny, and, Noes is niet.

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development. 449 Yet, he remarks, It is not clear how the photomontages various main lines of association . . . connect with one another. 450 I would suggest that the connection Biro seeks may, in part, be found in Hchs 1927 statement in which she rejected Western European androcentrism. Amply demonstrated throughout Hchs oeuvre, plants, insects, and animals often dwarf humans and emphasize mans relative unimportance. 451 Furthermore, racially exotic African and non-human [insect] elements in Liebe do not indicate that Hch subscribed to contemporary perceptions that linked exotic race to sexual depravity, or considered lesbianism devolutionary. While lesbians were often represented as primitive and/or sexually depraved in Weimar, all evidence confirms that Hch rejected these associations. 452 Instead, as Biro ventures, because the eyes of the recumbent figure in Hchs Liebe are closed, she could also be read as asleep and dreaming of the figure above her and imagining a utopian form of love. 453 Certainly the

Biro, The New Woman, 252. Biro, The New Woman, 252. 451 Excerpt from catalogue Kunstzaal De Bron exhibition, Den Haag, 1927, later translated from Dutch into German and reprinted in Cara Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 127. lch mochte die festen Grenzen auswischen, die wir Menschen mit einer eigensinnigen Sicherheit um alles, was in unseren Bereich kam, gezogen haben. Ich male, um diesem Wunsch Form zu geben und ihn anschaulich zu machen. Ich will aufzeigen, dass klein auch gross sein kann und gross auch klein ist; allein der jeder Begriff Begriff seine Gultigkeit und all unsere menschlichen Gesetze verlieren ihre Gultigkeit. Ich wurde heute Standpunkt, von dem wir bei unserem Urteil ausgehen, muss anders gewahlt werden und sofort verliert die Welt aus der Sicht einer Ameise wiedergeben und morgen, so wie der Mond sie vielleicht sieht. 452 Kelly Hurley, The Gothic Body: Sexuality, Materialism, and Degeneration at the fin-de-sicle (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 1996), 71-72. As Hurley explains, deviant sexuality could be classified as degenerate in four senses: its recapitulation of the less evolved sexuality of so-called primitivism, its hereditability, its deteriorative effect on mind and body, and its general corrupting influence on public morals . . . deviant sexuality . . . constituted a sort of behavioral recapitulation of some ancestral state, and a betrayal of the socioevolutionary process that distinguished the modern Caucasian from the present-day non-European primitive. 453 Biro, The New Woman, 252-53.
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sleeping woman and the unreal figure hovering over her indicate a dream or dreamlike state of mind: a state of mind regularly evoked in Weimar lesbian print media. Dreams and Utopia: Hch, Lesbian Representation, and the Rise of Nazism In Weimar, Maud Lavin observes, images associated with dancers and flight abound. 454 However, because the horizon is often cropped from contemporary dance photographs, dancers appear to be flying and this illusion propels the figures into idealized realms. Lavin elaborates, this seems to dissolve the distinction between material and the utopian. 455 A number of dance photographs in Hchs Scrapbook (fig. 3.15) confirm Lavins observations and also resonate visually with a number of Hchs photomontages in which female couples appear to be suspended above the ground in utopian realms. These include Liebe, Vagabunden (Vagabonds) (fig. 3.16) (1926), Von Oben (From Above) or Two Children above a City (1926) (fig. 3.17), and Auf dem Weg im F. Himmel (On the Way to F. Heaven) (fig. 3.18) (1934). Moreover, symbolic correlations link these images and Hchs attitudes regarding her lesbian relationship. In a 1926 letter to her sister Grete, Hch described her partnership with Til Brugman in spiritual terms: To be closely connected with another woman . . . means being taken by the spirit of my own spirit. 456 Lavin claims that in an effort to express her unorthodox sentiments, Hch (like other contemporary lesbians) adopted a

Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 96. To illustrate this point, she discusses a female dancer touted in the popular press as a Human Butterfly. The dancer, leaping with outstretched veils/wings, appears to be suspended in space was pictured in the Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung 32, no. 15 (15. April 1928): 288. The dancer is juxtaposed with drawings of bird anatomy and captioned: A Human Butterfly: The American Dancer Lada doing dance exercises in her garden. 455 Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 96. 456 Lavin, Cut with Kitchen Knife, 189. Hchs letter to her sister Grete Knig (14. Oct., 1926), Hch Nachlass, Murnau. See also, Lavin, 241n17 for original German text.

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German vocabulary of spirituality. 457 This, Lavin writes, was not necessarily meant to mask the physical side of lesbian attachments, but rather an attempt to express them as intense and viable love relationships. 458 Hchs characterization of lesbian love in spiritual terms also reflects aspects of Weimar lesbian print culture: The extended title of Die Freundin reads Ideale Freundschaftsblatt (Ideal Friendship Paper) and Halbmonatschrift fr Aufklrung ber Ideale Frauenfreundschaft (Bi-monthly periodical for the Understanding of Ideal Womens Friendship). Emphasizing lesbianism as ideal, this principle is also reflected in other ways. An FKK-inspired photograph of three nude women in an outdoor setting pictured on a 1931 Freundin cover positions them in a utopian context. Although the image is uncaptioned, it appears next to the poem Mrchenland (Fairy-Tale Land) (fig. 3.19). 459 Idealism is similarly implied by H.W. Magers cover image Traumbild (Dreampicture) (fig. 3.20). Both its title and medium infer fantasy: the photomontage (rarely deployed in the Weimar lesbian print media!) depicts a recumbent woman with open eyes dreaming of three beauties floating above her. 460 Their Egyptian-inspired poses, similar to the previously discussed cover photograph of Sent Marona (fig. 3.6), imply exoticism and sexual excess. Moreover, the floating figures are akin to the suspended female couples in Hchs Liebe, Vagabonds, Two Children, and Auf dem Weg. Much like the sleeping subject in Hchs Liebe, the women hovering above the recumbent figure in Traumbild appear to come to her as if in a dream.
457 458

Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 237n32. Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 237n32. 459 Die Freundin 7 Jg., no. 43 (28. Oct., 1931). 460 Photograph by: H. W. Mager, Berlin, Traumbild, Die Freundin 4 Jg., no. 9 (30. April 1928).

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As one Weimar contemporary fondly reminisced, in the 1920s, heaven was not a place somewhere way up above us, but here on earth, in the German capital, Berlin. 461 However, as the political atmosphere in Germany darkened towards the end of the decade and Berlin grew less hospitable, the lesbian print media increasingly evoked dreamlike, bittersweet utopias. While magazine headings such as I wait alone, Goodbye, The Lonely One, Left Behind, Together!, Like it was before, and Just One Glance, reflected the romantic fantasies (and realities) of the lesbian reader, illustrations conjured imaginary realms in which they could interact freely. 462 Much like her lesbian contemporaries, Hchs photomontages at the time portrayed female couples in utopian or otherworldly spaces. Beginning in 1930, lesbian magazine covers with the added bold title Diese Zeitschrift darf berall aufgehngt werden! (This magazine may be legally displayed anywhere!), reminded both the vendor and the reader that despite a repressive political atmosphere, it was not illegal to display or purchase lesbian magazines. 463 However, in 1933, under newly instituted Nazi pornography laws, all public expressions of homosexuality were officially banned and punishable by law. 464

This statement was made by Weimar dancer Charlotte Wolff in her memoirs, Augenblicke verndern uns mehr als die Zeit: Eine Autobiographie (Frankfurt: Fischer Verlag, 1986), 81-82. Cited in, Renate Berger, trans. Martin Davies, Moments can change your life: Creative Crisies in the lives of dancers in the 1920s, in Marsha Meskimmon and Shearer West, eds., Visions of the Neue Frau: Women and the Visual Arts in Weimar Germany (Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1995), 78. 462 Ich warte einsam (I wait alone); Abschied (Goodbye), Frauen Liebe, 3 Jg., no. 5 (1928); Die Einsame (The Lonely One), Liebende Frauen, 3. Jg., no. 41 (1928); Werde wie einst (Like it was Before) Liebende Frauen, 2. Jg., no. 49 (1927); Verlassen (Left Behind); Vereint! (Together!), Liebende Frauen, 2. Jg., no. 36 (1927); Ein einziger Blick (Just one Glance), Liebende Frauen, 4 Jg., no 31 (1929). 463 One such headline appears in Liebende Frauen 5 Jg., no. 16 (Berlin, 1930). 464 Ilse Kokula, Lesbische Leben von Weimar bis zu Nachkriegszeit, in Adele Meyer, Lila Nchte: die Damenklubs im Berlin der zwanziger Jahre (Berlin: Edition Lit. Europe, 1994), 106-08. Public lesbian culture ended with the Nazis, but sanctions had already begun during the Weimar era. In 1925,

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Similar to Liebe, Hchs photomontage Auf dem Weg im F. Himmel attests to a shift in the contemporary political atmosphere and the artists changing treatment of lesbian sexuality in her photomontages. Auf dem Weg (On the Way) unambiguously implies female-female partnership and may be linked to contemporary lesbian print media. As Lavin writes, the title probably refers to [F.]rauen Himmel [Womans Heaven, or Sky]. Moreover, as with the English and Russian Dancers, one's face is light and the others dark. It immediately suggests itself as another double-portrait of Brugman and Hch. 465 It should, however, be mentioned here that Makela labels this photomontage differently as Auf dem Weg im Siebten Himmel (On the Way to Seventh Heaven). 466 While both titles indicate a heavenly place, I am more inclined to accept Lavins. Makelas description of lesbian love as the underbelly of human relationships, does not suggest that she would entertain the happy possibilities of a celestial realm populated solely by women. Nevertheless, either label may be correct: In European script the letter F and the number 7, which is always crossed, are similarly written and almost interchangeable. Hchs smooth configuration of the composite bodies in Auf dem Weg is typical of her late Weimar oeuvre and indicates a newfound ease depicting same-sex couples. The fashionably draped bodies of the two women pictured lean toward each other in near mirror symmetry (a traditional lesbian visual trope) and imply harmony. The two
attempts were made to criminalize lesbians and include them in paragraph 175 of the German penal code which outlawed male homosexuality. In 1926 the lesbian magazines Die Garonne and Frauenliebe (Women-love) were temporarily banned, only to be later banned completely in 1931. A new pornography law, which prohibited all public homosexual activities and publications, was enacted on February 23, 1933. 465 Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 236n27. 466 Makela, in Boswell, Makela, and Lanchner, 124.

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figures appear to float above a mysterious landscape against a variegated sky. Here, as in Liebe, Hch positions the couple in an otherworldly and perhaps utopian context. The two women in On the Way are elegantly clothed, which, during the Nazi era and the Great Depression, was a fantasy few German women could actually enjoy. Suggesting costly silk stockings, the topless figures perfect legs shimmer while her goggle-eyed companion wears an extravagant ruffle, a shiny corset, and glamorous open-toed shoes. The improbable elegance of Hchs 1934 figures is confirmed by the infamous Italian fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli who, in her memoirs, discussed the rather shabby people who populated Berlin during the 1930s. 467 While the utopian spaces of the artists 1926 Vagabonds and Two Children above the City can be linked to contemporary lesbian media, they also importantly reflect the early honeymoon phase of Hch and Brugmans relationship. Both photomontages imply the couples extended travels during their first year together. Somewhat differently, Hchs Nazi-era portrayal of a female couple in On the Way (1934) is dominated by clouds; and although both women are smiling, their exaggerated clownlike expressions suggest that they may have found themselves in a strange and uncomfortable world. In contrast to Vagabonds, Two Children, and Auf dem Weg, a sense of restless urgency is conveyed in Hchs late Weimar photomontages Flucht (Flight) (1931) (fig. 3.21) and the Nazi-era Siebenmeilenstiefel (Seven-League-Boots) (1934) (fig. 3.22). In
Evans, Mirrors, Masks, 14, cites Elsa Schiaparelli, Shocking Life (London: Dent, 1954), 107. Schiaparelli (1890-1973) recalls attending a party in Berlin in the 1930s: As I mounted the imposing staircase, surrounded by mirrors, I saw in the centre of a rather shabby people one who reminded me of Paris. [Here, she relates misrecognizing her own smart reflection.]
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addition, the also seem to indicate the political upheaval in contemporary Germany. The wing-headed figure in Flucht appears to be hastening (along with a grimacing uncomfortably limping man) over a downwardly sloping blue ground into an abyss. Similar to these harried and unfortunate figures, the subject of Siebenmeilenstiefel implies an uncertain and hasty escape. Unlike other Hch photomontages that feature couples and emphasize partnership, Siebenmeilenstiefel depicts a sole figure (comprised only of two legs) soaring high above a German hamlet, and may reflect tensions between the artist and her partner at the time; in 1934 Hch and Brugman briefly considered separation but soon reconciled. When considered in the context of current German politics, Siebenmeilensteifel automatically suggests flight and immigration; yet, the large shell, prominently placed between a womans legs (similar to the vaginal eye in Hchs Dada-Ernst) boldly and humorously alludes to the German word Muschel (shell), a colloquial epithet used with affection to label a womans sex. Ironically, however, and, emblematic of Hchs oeuvre in general, the shell is not analogous with intimate female anatomy; instead, it protrudes starkly and, much like a dildo when worn by a woman, masculinizes her. The disrupted femininty of the figure implies sexual agency (lesbian virility?) and renders her gender ambiguous. The artists 1940 photomontage Nur nicht mit beiden Beinen auf der Erde stehen (Dont Stand with both Feet on the Ground) (fig. 3.23) depicts a group of ballerinas in a celestial blue space. While its narrative (and level composition) does not convey the sense of frantic urgency seen in Flucht or Siebenstiefel, it nonetheless implies a longing
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to be elsewhere. Drawing on one of her perennially favorite themes, the female dancer, the artist transports her subjects far beyond war-torn Germany into a peaceful otherworldly realm. While Flucht and Siebenmeilenstiefel suggest anxiety and distress, the subjects of Vagabonds, Liebe, Auf dem Weg, and Nur nicht mit beiden Beinen auf der Erde Stehen, hover happily in utopian realms and implicate fantasy narrative. In lesbian fantasy narrative the laws of nature and causality often do not work; magical ability is commonplace and the unexpected turns out to be the norm. 468 Moreover, the floating figures in Hchs photomontages (comparable to those in the Weimar lesbian print media) resonate with A.H. McNarons claim that Stepping through the firmament, suggests escaping patriarchal constraints. 469 Much like the Fairy-Tale Lands and Dreampictures celebrated in contemporary lesbian print media, Hchs Weimar

photomontages Vagabunden, Liebe, and subsequent Nazi-era works Auf dem Weg, and Nur nicht mit beiden Beinen auf der Erde stehen, evoke idealized spaces wherein romance thrives and lesbian love triumphs.

See Phyllis M. Betz, In a Kingdom Faraway: Lesbian Fantasy, in The Lesbian Fantastic: A Critical Study of Science Fiction, Paranormal, and Gothic Writings (Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company Inc., Publishers, 2011), 103. 469 Toni A.H. McNaron, Mirrors and Likeness: A Lesbian Aesthetic in the Making, in Sexual Practice/ Textual Theory: Lesbian Cultural Criticism, Susan J. Wolfe and Julia Penelope, eds. (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1993), 300. McNaron discusses the lesbian implications of Emily Dickinsons poem #533: Two butterflies went out at Noon/ And waltzed upon a Farm/ Then stepped straight through the Firmament/ And rested, on a Beam/ And then together bore away/ Upon a shining Sea/ Though never yet, in any Port/ Their coming, mentioned be. McNaron writes, How do I know that the two butterflies are female? Partly because I have read thousands of poems by heterosexual white men for whom celebrating equality is not a major theme.

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CHAPTER IV Hannah Hch and Til Brugman: Creative Collaboration, Social Critique, and Political Resistance Introduction Lesbian partners, Hannah Hch and Til Brugman were inspired by, and explored, similar themes and this suggests their artistic collaboration. Largely undocumented, the couples joint projects were first examined by Mineke Bosch and Myriam Everard in 1988 in the Dutch lesbian cultural magazine Lust en Gratie. The special issue, Til Brugman and Hannah Hch, presented an overview of their collaborative projects, and previously unpublished materials regarding their relationship. 470 Boschs and Everards seminal study significantly linked the creative oeuvre and emotional lives of Hch and Brugman, and represents a starting point for the following discussion. Together as a couple from 1926-1936, Hch and Brugman collaborated on two known published projects, both were Brugman texts illustrated by Hch. Brugmans Von Hollands Blumenfeldern (Hollands Flower Fields) was published in the cultural journal Atlantis in 1933, 471 and Scheingehacktes (a German word invented by Brugman which roughly translates as Appearing cut-up, or Mock-mincemeat), a thin volume printed by a small Berlin art press in 1935. 472 Unfortunately, and partially due to the contemporaneously tumultuous and politically repressive times in which they lived,
470

Mineke Bosch and Myriam Everard, guest eds., Til Brugman and Hannah Hch, special Issue Lesbisch Cultureel Tijdschrift Lust en Gratie 18 (Amsterdam) (Fall 1988). These materials include previously unpublished personal correspondence and a number of private photographs. 471 Til Brugman, Von Hollands Blumenfldern, Atlantis: Lnder, Vlker, Reisen 5 (1933): 429-32 472 Til Brugman, Sheingehacktes, mit Illustrationen von Hannah Hoech (Berlin: Verlag der Rabenpresse, 1935).

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additional Brugman/Hch projects were interrupted, while others can merely be conjectured. 473 This chapter begins with a discussion of Til Brugman and will establish her pivotal, yet under acknowledged, role within the interwar European avant-garde. Brugman openly identified as lesbian, however, clearly, the negative perception of lesbianism at the time adversely influenced her creative production and reception. As a lesbian in the early twentieth century, Brugmans cultural situation was in no way unique, and she, like other lesbian artists of her generation, was compelled to develop creative and professional strategies to compensate for this challenge. 474 Lesbian feminist scholars convincingly argue that largely due to the liminal status of lesbian sexuality at the time (and even today), Brugmans writings have garnered only modest critical attention and appreciation. 475 The discussion of Brugmans biography and early work is followed by an overview of diverse, yet interrelated, contemporary discourses that inspired and influenced Hch and Brugmans individual and joint artistic production. A deeper understanding of the contemporary cultural and political backdrop will provide insight

Myriam Everard, Man lebt nur einmal in Patchamatac: Die groteske Welt von Til Brugman, Lebensgefhrtin von Hannah Hch, in Da-da zwischen Reden zu Hannah Hch, Jula Dech and Gertrud Maurer, eds. (Berlin: Orlanda Frauenverlag, 1991), 91. During the 1930s, the couple collaborated on Brugmans unfinished novel, Gewchse (Plants). Hch executed a title drawing for an unpublished collection of Brugmans grotesques Sonderbare Himmelschlsel, and created illustrations for two additional Brugman manuscripts. 474 For a general discussion of womens strategic circumvention of masculinist modernism, see Katy Deepwell, ed. Women Artists and Modernism (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998); Bridget Elliot and Jo-Ann Wallace, Women Artists and Writers: Modernist (im)positionings (London: Routledge, 1994). Marion Brandt, ed., Til Brugman: Das vertippte Zebra, Lyrik und Prosa. Berlin: Hoho Verlag Hoffmann, 1995), 160; See also, Everard, Patchamatac, 84.
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into their joint creative projects. The extraordinary and dynamically shifting atmosphere of late Weimar and early Nazi Germany undoubtedly informed Hch and Brugmans themes and genres. Due to the cultural complexity of the era, however, the couples engagement with timely, and controversial, gender-related and political themes was often a clandestine and a potentially dangerous undertaking. This analysis will offer new readings of individual and jointly produced works and enhance our appreciation of Hch and Brugmans mutual interest in similar themes. Til Brugman Born in Amsterdam in 1888, Mathilda Maria Petronella Brugman, or Til, was the oldest of nine children in a Roman-Catholic family. Her father dealt in wine and spirits and owned vineyards in the South of France and Spain. 476 Brugmans parents encouraged their daughters gift for languages from an early age. Her mother taught her to read, and Tils father taught her to speak French by the time she was three. 477 In contrast to her fathers easy-going cosmopolitanism, Brugmans mother was closeminded, which Til attributed to her mothers staunch Catholicism. This alienated the young Brugman and caused her to leave home in anger. In 1911, Til rented a room in Amsterdam and supported herself as a secretary and translator. In 1917, Brugman moved to Den Haag and set up residence with her first lesbian partner, the Dutch concert singer Sienna Mastoff (1892-1959). Brugman lived with Mastoff until she met Hch in 1926.
Marleen Slob, De mensen willen niet rijpen, vandaar: leven und werk van Til Brugman (Amsterdam: VITA, 1994), 12. Tils father was Hermanus Johannes Brugman (1852-1931), and her mother was Adriana Geertruida Johanna Zoons (1859-1939). 477 Slob, De mensen, 15.
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Til Brugman and the avant-garde Til Brugmans earliest contacts with the artistic avant-garde were through Piet Mondrian (1872-1944), whom she met in Amsterdam at dance lessons in 1908. 478 Soon, Brugman became acquainted with a number of writers, architects, and artists affiliated with Dutch Dada and De Stijl circles. Many years later, Hch would describe Brugman as a contemporary Eulenspiegel, and as friends with half of the world, and acquainted with the other half. 479 Indeed, Brugmans many social contacts and her creative versatility confirm Hchs remarks. As scholars claim, Brugman co-authored Dutch Dada manifestos and translated a number of articles for the magazine De Stijl, but was rarely acknowledged or credited by contemporaries for her contributions. 480 Til Brugman managed Kurt Schwitters magazine Merz in Holland, and helped her colleagues sell their work, finding buyers for Schwitters, Hans Arp (1886-1966), El Lissitzky (1890-1941), and Piet Mondrian. 481 Til Brugmans sound poems, which she began to write in the teens, and her use of experimental typographic techniques, reflect her proximity to notable avant-garde figures. Moreover, they cogently represent theories regarding the roots of avant-garde typography, which are entwined with those of twentieth-century painting, poetry, and

Brandt, Vertippte Zebra, 180. Heinz Ohff, Hannah Hch (Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 1968), 25. Till Eulenspiegel is a folkloric German trickster said to have died in 1350 in Braunschweig (Brunswick). Anecdotes first surfaced in 1500, and the figure was later the subject of musical and literary works. Composer Richard Strauss symphonic poem Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche (Till Eulenspiegels Merry Pranks) was written in 1894-95. The popular German writer Gerhart Hauptmann (1862-1946) wrote the epic poem Till Eulenspiegel in 1928. Both Brugmans nickname, Til, and her reportedly irreverent sense of humor support Hchs association. 480 Everard, Patchamatac, 84; See also Brandt, Vertippte Zebra, 160, 481 Brandt, Vertippte Zebra, 160.
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architecture. 482 In addition to reflecting her ties to leading international avant-garde figures, Brugmans early artistic production also demonstrates her remarkable linguistic abilities. Fluent in more than a dozen languages, 483 Brugmans sound poems were published in Dutch, German, and French magazines. W was published in De Stijl and Merz in 1923, 484 and, in 1924, Engin dAmour was printed in the Lyonnaise magazine Manomtre, positioning Brugman among other avant-garde artists who engaged with the theme of mechanized sexuality and love. 485 Til Brugmans English and French language poem SHE HE (fig. 4.1) not only offers evidence of her playful command of foreign languages, but, like Engin dAmour, also deploys sophisticated typographic techniques. Through contrasting masculine and feminine coded words, SHE HE

Rick Poynor, intro. to the 2nd rev. ed. of Pioneers of Modern Typography, by Richard Spencer (London: Lund Humphries, 1982), 11. Early twentieth-century sound poems playfully, yet radically, reincorporated the decorative two-dimensional graphic potential of individual letters and words into poetry. Typically the typographic organization of sound poems suggest movement across the page that disrupts the traditional Western left to write progressive reading and writing modus. Sound poems frequently feature obliquely written words, or individual letters, which are isolated from their context and defy conventional formatting practice. The sense of motion suggested by sound poems also resonates with the then revolutionary new medium of cinema which disrupted the Newtonian space-time continuum. Similar modes of typography used in sound poems were deployed by the Dadaists. Due to their similar radicalism, Dada and sound poems are easily, yet erroneously confused. While their techniques are related, the Dadaists routinely generated texts based on random composition and/or accident. These techniques are distinct from the compositional and contextual organization and unity typical of sound poetry. See also, Matthew Gale, Dada and Surrealism (London: Phaidon, 2002), 63, 76. Gale discusses Hans Arps use of chance in his dada poetry. This clearly contrasts with Francis Picabias more organized technique in his 1919 poem Mouvement Dada. 483 Jula Dech Til Brugman oder Eine Liebe in Holland, in Sieben Blicke auf Hannah Hch, Jula Dech, ed. (Hamburg: Nautilus, 2002), 56, She learned her first foreign language at three, and later learned another twenty languages. See also Bosch and Everard, Lust en Gratie, 52. Brugmans extant business cards advertise her services as a language teacher and offer reading courses in Dutch, French, German, English, Spanish, Danish, Norwegian, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Latin, and Greek. 484 Brandt, Vertippte Zebra, 181; 198-99; Til Brugman, W, in Merz 6 (Oct., 1923) Hannover, 61. 485 Brandt, Vertippte Zebra, 181. Brugmans poem Engin dAmour was published in Manomtre (August 6, 1924): 102. Based on the manuscript, however, Brandt dates the poem to 1918 (202). This places Engin dAmor much closer to other avant-garde artists working in a related mode. Examples include Francis Picabias Portrait dune jeune Fille amricain dans ltat de nudit (1915) and Fernand Legers film Ballet mcanique (1924). Lyon-based Manomtre was a sophisticated international Dada-Surrealist revue with a Dutch constructivist component and was in print from July 1922 through January 1928.

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suggests the social and sartorial exchange of men and women at a fashionable th dansant. 486 Furthermore, SHE HE, written sometime between 1917 and 1922, anticipates Brugmans later Himilia (1927) and Warenhaus der Liebe (1931-33), both of which critically address gender and sexual identity and will later be discussed at length. Soon after she met Hch in 1926, Brugman began writing in German; moreover, it is likely that Hch was instrumental in inspiring her to take up the literary grotesque genre. While affiliated with the Berlin Dadaists, Hch had experimented in this genre. Although Hchs graphic oeuvre far outweighs her literary production, the artist wrote grotesques and presented one of them during a Grotesken-Abend (Grotesque-Evening) in 1921 at the Berlin Secession. According to a poster for the event, the Abend featured readings by Hannah Hch, Salomo Friedlaender (alias Mynona), and Raoul Hausmann. 487 The literary Grotesque The rise of the literary grotesque in Weimar Germany parallels the rapid expansion of the publishing industry following World War I. The popularity of the genre also attests to the growing sophistication of the German reading public; its production and erudite appreciation began where the appeal of quotidian popular journalism ended. Ellen Otten characterizes the literary grotesque as a quintessentially

Til Brugman, SHE HE, in Brandt, 9, 200. Brandt writes SHE HE was first published in 1981 in Til Brugman, ed. W. de Graaf, 5 Klankgedichte (5 Sound poems) (Heemstede, NL: Lojen Deur Pers, 1981). The typewritten manuscript of SHE HE is reproduced in Bosch and Everard, Lust en Gratie, 77. 487 Eberhard Roters, ed., Dada- Ausklang und Nachhall, in Hannah Hch: eine Lebenscollage, vol. 2.1 (Berlin: Berlinische Galerie, 1995), 25-29. Hch read Italienreise (Italian-Travels) and a favorable review of this unabashedly spirited performance appeared in the 8-Uhr Abendblatt on Feb. 10, 1921.

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expressionist form. 488 While literary critic Wolfgang Kayser claimed that the literary grotesque is neither caricature nor parody and, while satire may be its starting point, it is not limited to poking fun at imperfection. 489 Instead, as he explained, it lent expression to an untrammeled imagination which results in a higher nonsense. 490 Thomas O. Haakenson offers a succinct and recent definition of the genre: Through the questioning of knowledge based on habit . . . the grotesque humorist encourages the modern subject to question judgments not only of aesthetics but also of logic and reason. The grotesque humorist, in other words, uses his or her medium to engender a contemplative and critical engagement with habituated sensorial responses to the empirical world. 491 While Hch revisited it sporadically throughout her career, the literary grotesque eventually became Til Brugmans signature genre. Its mutual appeal to both women, however, comes as no surprise. As Brandt and Slob comment, it is a perfect for addressing the body or human sexuality, themes in which both artists were obviously and perennially interested. 492 Hchs knowledge of and personal interest in the literary grotesque most certainly facilitated her partners creative production; despite Brugmans exceptional linguistic abilities, she was a native Dutch speaker and relied on Hch to edit and correct grammatical errors in her German manuscripts. 493

Mynona [pseud], Rosa, Die Schne Schutzmannsfrau und andere Grotesken, ed. Ellen Otten (Zrich: Arche Verlag, 1965), 238. Die expressionistische Groteske ist erwachsen aus dem Bewusstsein ihres Schpfers, ein Allewesen zu sein, erwachsen aus einem unendlich gesteigerten Selbstbewusstsein des Denkens, aus dem Reinheitsbewussteins des schpferischen Geistes. 489 Wolfgang Kayser, The Grotesque in Art and Literature, trans., Ulrich Weisstein (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1963), 150-1. 490 Kayser, Grotesque, 150-1. 491 Thomas O. Haakenson, Grotesque Visions: Art, Science, and Visual Culture in Early TwentiethCentury German (PhD diss., University of Minnesota, 2006), 177. 492 Brandt, 170; See also Slob, De mensen, 50. 493 Slob, De mensen, 48; See also Brandt, Vertippte Zebra, 197.

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While only a fraction of Brugmans grotesques have been published, those that have attest to her distinctive literary contribution. Brugman engaged with a variety of themes exposing and examining the dangers of capitalism, consumer culture, sexism, and the unfortunate plight of sexual minorities. The author addressed the ruthless control and exploitation of womens bodies and embedded a powerful feminist subtext in her 1927 grotesque Himilia. Brugmans Schaufensterhypnose (Shop-window Hypnosis) satirizes capitalist-driven consumerism. In Warenhaus der Liebe (Department Store of Love) Brugman lampoons, yet simultaneously praises, Magnus Hirschfelds Institute for Sexual Science. In all three texts, Brugmans voice counters that of the uncritical mainstream with satire and dark humor. Gender and the Avant-garde Despite Brugmans prolific artistic production and professional contact with prominent members of Dutch and German avant-garde communities, she remains a little known figure. 494 Brandt attributes Brugmans obscurity to the common sexist assumptions of the avant-garde which, almost without exception, consider women as translators, interpreters (dancers and actresses) and mediums for their art, rather than as independent creators. 495 Similarly, Everard reminds us that sexism and Frauenfeindlichkeit (hatred for women) were conceptually anchored in the De Stijl movement. Artists Theo van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian, for example, integrated

Brandt, Vertippte Zebra, 159, 212n1, 212n2; Til Brugman 5 Klankgedichte (5 Sound poems) (Heemstede, NL: Lojen Deur Pers, 1981); Til Brugman, Even Anders: Vier Rabbelverzen, W. de Graaf, ed., (Woubrugge NL: Avalon Pers, 1989); See also Pamela Pattynama and Inge Polak, Dadandy Til, Lover 10 (Amsterdam) (1983): 4, 182-88; Myriam Everard, Graven: De Dood is de humor von het leeven, Diva 3 (Amsterdam) (November 1984): 24-27, 35. 495 Brandt, Vertippte Zebra, 160.

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sexism into their artistic manifestos. 496 According to Everard, the contempt for women in both life and art is evident in the futurist infused ideals of De Stijl that reject the feminine principle. 497 The words of prominent De Stijl members confirm Everards claims; Mondrian believed that the only true artist was a man. He wrote, The male artist is man and woman simultaneously: for this reason, he does not need a Frau [woman/ wife]. The female artist is never a complete artist. 498 To the men of De Stijl, the world was divided between inferior feminine and superior masculine principles. The feminine stood for everything weak, sentimental, unclear, individual, and physical. In contrast, the male principle was characterized as strong, fresh, pure, hard, spiritual, universal, and abstract. 499 Within this gendered hierarchy natural representation (natrlichen Abbildung), in all of its manifestations, was considered feminine, and inferior to pure masculine abstraction. Perhaps even more damaging than the conceptually anchored sexism of the European avant-garde was Brugmans rejection by the most influential member of the De Stijl movement, Theo van Doesburg, who actively aimed to destroy her career. In 1924 he wrote to the Dutch architect J.J.P. Oud:
Everard, Patchamatac, 84. Everard, Patchamatac, 84; See also, Christina Ujma, Masculine Territories? Women and the Theories of the Avant-Garde, in Practicing Modernity: Female Creativity in the Weimar Republic, Christiane Schnfeld, ed. (Wrzburg: Knigshausen & Neumann, 2006), 21. The avant-garde concept is to blame for the misogynist culture in high arts during the Weimar Republic, something that has been repeatedly pointed out by feminist critics; See also Whitney Chadwick, Women, Art, and Society, 3rd Ed., 262. Futurist attitudes towards feminism were deeply compromised from the beginning by their cult of virility, and are exemplified in this excerpt from their manifesto: We want to glorify war the only cleansing act of the world . . . and the contempt of women . . . We want to destroy museums . . . and combat moralism, feminism and all such opportunistic and utilitarian acts of cowardice. 498 Everard, Patchamatac, 84; 95n5. Everard cites an excerpt from Mondrians sketchbook, printed in Robert P. Welsh and J. M. Joosten, eds., Two Mondrian Sketchbooks 1912-1914 (Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, 1969), 34. 499 Everard, Patchamamtac, 84.
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In Den Haag there lives a little monster that says its homosexual-but its as womanly as a young wet-nurse. Its name is Brugman and has the habit of daily rubbing me with Dirt, Shit and perfumed sperm. It writes volumes about crowing roosters, and turning mountains-Trouble! Her trash-verse has no place in De Stijl. 500 Van Doesburgs scathing attack of Brugman was more than an expression of antipathy. His dehumanization of Brugman and his characterization of her as a monster (Ungetm) suggest that he was overwhelmed and frightened by her. One wonders what compelled him to refer to her repeatedly as a gender-neutral and non-human it, yet ascribe her extraordinary physical capabilities. In van Doesburgs words, Brugman is a hermaphroditic being, who is able to nurse children and wield perfumed sperm. These comments suggest that with regard to Brugman, van Doesburg had encountered his perceptual and imaginative limits. Theo van Doesburg has been described as the dominant personality in the [De Stijl] movement. 501 As George Heard Hamilton writes, he, together with J.J.P. Oud and Jan Wils, determined the formal vocabulary of the De Stijl movement. 502 Furthermore, Hamilton contends, van Doesburgs powers of persuasion made him an irresistible

In Den Haag wohnt ein kleines Ungetm, das vorgibt, homosexuell zu sein, doch die so weiblich ist al seine frischgeborene Amme, es heist Brugman. Es macht es sich zur tglichen Gewohnheit, mich mit Dreck, Scheisse und parfmierten Spermatozoen einzuschmieren. Es schreibt Bnde ber krhende Hhne und kreissende Berge-Zank. Ihre Schundverse fanden kein Platz in De Stijl. Cited in Everard, Patchamatac, 86; 95n6., Theo van Doesburg an den Architecten und Stijl-Mitarbeiter J.J.P. Oud (1890-1963) from Nov. 11, 1924. The letter is cited in Evert van Straaten, ed., Theo van Doesburg 18831931: een documentaire op de basis van material uit de schenking Van Moorsel (s-Gravenhage: Staatsuitgeverij, 1983), 128. See also, Dech, Til Brugmann oder Eine Liebe in Holland, 53-54. 501 George Heard Hamilton, Painting and Sculpture in Europe, 1880-1940 (New Haven; Yale University Press, 1993), 322. 502 Hamilton, 321.

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proselytizer. 503 His rejection and openly expressed hatred for Brugman, coupled with his influence, most likely had an adverse effect on her career. Van Doesburgs characterization of Brugman was not only hateful, but an inaccurate account of her sensibilities; she was in no way a proponent of hyperbolized materiality, nor did her work reflect an exaggerated engagement with the feared and hated feminine principle. On the contrary, Brugman actively supported avant-garde literature, art, design, and architecture and championed and collected the work of her colleagues. In 1923, her friend, Kurt Schwitters dedicated a sculptural relief to Brugman and gave it to her. 504 Everard notes that Brugmans unfinished novel, Rood, Geel, Blauw (Red, Yellow, Blue), references a 1922 Mondrian composition of the same name which she owned. 505 Brugman commissioned the Hungarian artist and co-founder of De Stijl, Vilmos Huszr to create a color-scheme for her Haag apartment and her good friend, architect Gerrit Rietveld, to design its furniture. 506 Slobs and Brandts observations regarding the sexism of male avant-garde leaders echo Dechs claim that van Doesburgs negative commentary about Brugman is representative of the deep-seated defensivenesseven among the most progressive male artists--against women like Til Brugman who do not fit in any traditional role,
Hamilton, 322. Everard, Patchamatac, 84, Schwitters relief is inscribed, Fr Tilly 505 Everard, Patchamatc, 96n17. 506 Everard, Patchamatac, 84; See also, Museumspublicity.com, Rijksmuseum acquires 20thcentury Masterpieces- White Chair by Rietveld and Reliefs by Schoonhoven, (31 Aug., 2010). Brugman commissioned the chair in the spring of 1923 from Rietveld. It was intended for her girlfriend Siena Masthoffs music room located in their shared apartment on the Ligusterstraat 20. Brugman, who died penniless, sold the chair shortly before her death to an unknown buyer in 1958. The chair was sold in a Christies Amsterdam auction to Leigh Keno of American Antiques in 2007 for 264,000 Euros. Through expert Marcel Bouwer, the chair was resold for an undisclosed sum to the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum in October, 2010. The chair will be placed on permanent display at the new Rijksmuseum in 2013.
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even those ascribed to the modern woman. 507 As Dech convincingly argues, Brugmans extreme intelligence, her genius for language, her talent to make light of everything, and the biting wit, from which no one was secure, deeply upset men. 508 Brugman was economically, financially, and sexually independent from men; but, it was above all her sexual independence that made her into a female monster. 509 Brugman, as Everard observes, was confronted with a group of bachelors (Jungesellen) in whose world there was no room for a homosexual woman. 510 Brugman, however, was also difficult to define; her outfit offered few signals that pointed to her lesbianism; tie and vest, cigarette, flat shoes-but no monocle; no self-conscious attitude of otherness. 511 Contemporary photos of Brugman bear out Dechs claim and alternately depict her in feminine attire or in masculine garb. Til Brugmans lesbian identification is, however, unmistakably evident in an undated mid1920s photograph (fig. 4.2). In the photograph, the crop-haired Brugman is dressed in male attire and holding a cigarette. By contemporary standards, Brugmans hair and clothing would have automatically defined her as a lesbian transvestite, while her cigarette would have defined her as a New Woman. Brugmans dress and demeanor conspicuously reflect that of Charlotte Lotte Hahm (fig. 4.3), a social activist and president of the Berlin lesbian bar and social club, Damenklub Violetta (Violetta Ladies

507 508

Dech, Til Brugman oder Eine Liebe, 54. Dech, Til Brugman oder Eine Liebe, 54. 509 Dech, Til Brugmanoder Eine Liebe, 54, emphasis Dech. 510 Everard, Patchamatac, 84. 511 Dech, Til Brugman oder Eine Liebe, 54.

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Club). 512 The striking similarity between the two photographs indicates that by the mid 1920s, Brugman, like Hahm, clearly identified as a virile lesbian. The professional difficulties Brugman faced within the male-dominated and sexist avant-garde community were somewhat hidden by her brilliance and creative versatility. Brugmans biography suggests that her talent and flexibility allowed her to remain productive despite adverse circumstances. When faced with difficulties, she took up work in another country, another language, or in another genre. Importantly, Brugmans decade with Hch represents a period of sustained literary production and professional success for both partners. Hannah Hch and Til Brugman: A Lesbian Couple Hch and Brugman lived openly as lesbians and were acknowledged as a couple by a wide circle of shared personal and professional acquaintances (fig. 4.4). 513 During their years together, correspondence sent to Hchs Berlin Atelier was generally addressed to them both. A 1926 postcard from their mutual friend Kurt Schwitters jointly addresses Hannah and Til, but also playfully reconfigures their names. Schwitters wrote, Liebe Hannah, liebe Tillit, liebe Hanlit, liebe Tilhan, liebe Hchmann, liebe Brug. 514 The reconfiguration of their names is not unlike Hchs photomontages or Brugmans signature medium the grotesque wherein fragments are joined to create new, and, as yet, unrepresentable identities.
The photograph of Halm (1890-1967) appeared in the Damenklub Violetta advertisement/announcement in Frauenliebe (Womens Love) no. 49 (1927): 12. 513 Hchs longest intimate relationship was her ten year partnership with Brugman. Everard, Patchamatac, 95n8. Everard disputes the Hch literature that generally dates them as a couple from 1926-1935. Instead she cites Hchs 1936 journal entry, 4. May, Til leaves. Matthies moves in. 514 Hannah Hch Archiv, Berlinische Galerie, 26.25. The postcard is also signed by the Dresden art-collector Ida Bienert.
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Lavin comments that no written evidence exists to confirm that Hch identified as a lesbian or that either partner was active in homosexual organizations. 515 I would, however, qualify these remarks by suggesting that identifying as a lesbian in Weimar Germany was expressed somewhat differently than it is commonly today in the form of declarations and the coming-out process. It must also be noted that at the time, for bourgeois women, sexuality was generally a taboo and embarrassing theme. 516 Despite this, Hchs papers reveal that she was comfortable with her sexuality, and was socially acquainted with two contemporary openly lesbian cultural luminaries. While in Paris in 1925, Hch spent a very nice day visiting art exhibitions with modernist doyenne and publisher of the avant-garde literary magazine The Little Review, Jane Heap. 517 In 1932, in the midst of escalating sanctions against homosexuals and Jews, Hch corresponded with German-Jewish lesbian journalist, and quintessential Weimar New Woman immortalized in Otto Dixs 1926 portrait, Sylvia von Harden (1894-1964). Hch and von Harden met in late August in the artists Berlin studio. 518 It should also be mentioned here, that in Holland after World War II, Brugman actively participated in organized gay and lesbian politics. 519

Maud Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife: The Weimar Photomontages of Hannah Hch (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), 188. [O]utside a small circle, Hch apparently had no public identity as a lesbian. 516 Christiane Leidinger, Keine Tchter aus gutem Haus: Johanna Elbertskirchen, 1864-1943 (Konstanz: UVK Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, 2008), 10; Fr brgerliche Frauen war Sexualitt zunaechst generell ein unaussprechliches, gerade zu peinliches Thema. 517 HH Archiv BG, 25.51, Reisetagebuch England-Frankreich, 1925, See also Hannah Hch: eine Lebenscollage, vol. 2.2, Dokumente, 233, Netter Tag mit ihr 518 HH Archiv BG, 32.19; See also, Hannah Hch: eine Lebenscollage, vol. 2.2, 458. 519 Marleen Slob, Die mensen, 59-60. Brugman was involved with the Dutch Humanistisch Verbond (Humantarian Union) between 1946 and 1953. She published a lesbian-themed short story Voll Gnade (Full of Grace) in 1949 and in 1953 read excerpts from her novel Spanningen (Tensions) at a special evening organized for lesbian women.

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Hchs biographer Heinz Ohff comments that Hch never denied the sensual nature of her relationship with Brugman. 520 Ohff, however, does not attribute this to the artists emotional commitment or love for her partner. Instead, he somewhat cynically regards Hchs lesbianism as an indication of her desire to experience all that life had to offer, and emblematic for her need to escape the confines of petitbourgeois morality. 521 It was this, Ohff claims, which motivated her to consciously lead an unconventional life. 522 Symptomatic of Ohffs homophobia and antipathy for Brugman is his exclusion of the writer from a short Hch biography in a catalogue he authored in 1978. 523 Despite the fact that Hchs liaison with married Hausmann lasted seven years while the artist lived in a domestic partnership with Brugman for ten, Ohff includes Hausmann and excludes Brugman from her biography. Hchs own words, however, eloquently overturn Ohffs cynical dismissal of Brugman. In a previously mentioned 1926 letter to her sister, Hch wrote, I am and will be very happy with Til, we will be a model of how two women can form a single rich and balanced life. Each day I find out new and wonderful things about Til that enrich me and allow me to see life in a new light. 524 In the same letter, Hch related how emotionally isolated she felt before she met Brugman, and that she had given up on ever having another relationship but that Now, all the gates have been thrown open and I stroll happily

Ohff, Holland, in Hannah Hch: eine Lebenscollage, Band II, vol. 1, 1921-1945 (Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, 1995), 262. 521 Ohff, Holland, in HH: eine Lebensollage, 262 522 Ohff, Holland, in HH: Lebenscollage, BG, 262. 523 Heinz Ohff, Hannah Hch: ein Leben mit der Pflanzen (Gelsenkirchen: Gemeinde Museum Gelsenkirchen, 1978). 524 This, and the following quotes in this paragraph are from Hchs October 14, 1926 letter to her sister Grete. Hch Nachlass, Murnau, cited in Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 188-89; 241n17.

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outside of myself. The artist described her experience of lesbian intimacy as something totally new, yet familiar, and discretely characterized her new partnership as a private love relationship. In 1929, the couple, based in Brugmans Haag apartment from late 1926, set up residence in Hchs Berlin studio. While in Holland, Hch enjoyed professional success and her work was the subject of critical discussion. 525 She participated in the Haag Onafhankelijken (Independent Group) exhibition of 1928 and 1929. 526 In May 1929, with Brugmans help, a traveling solo exhibition of Hchs work was launched at the Galerie de Bron in Den Haag. The show went on to Rotterdam, and had its last station in Amsterdam in mid-October. 527 In contrast, Til Brugman was not successful in her native Holland. 528 Ohff contends that the couples move to Berlin was primarily motivated by Brugmans search for a publisher. 529 Hch, he argues, was probably less enthusiastic about returning to Berlin because she had failed to maintain contacts with her colleagues and art dealers during her absence. In addition, the political atmosphere in Germany had taken a turn for the worse. Even later, Holland would continue to be a positive place for Hch; in 1934 and 1935, just as she was coming under the threat of a

Ohff, Holland, in Hannah Hch: eine Lebenscollage, Band II, vol. 1, 1921-1945 (Berlin: Berlinische Galerie, 1995), 267. 526 Ohff, Holland, in Hannah Hch: eine Lebenscollage, 270. Ohff comments that Hch must have been very proud of her membership in this group: even in old age, she never failed to include these exhibitions in her resum. 527 Everard, Patchamatac, 88. Brugman was influential in landing Hch these exhibition opportunities. She was friends with Galerie De Bron owner Ditte van der Vies, and Dittes intimate partner and permanently represented gallery artist, Chris Lebeau (who painted a portrait of Hch in the early 1930s). For exhibition dates, see Ohff, Holland, 271-73. The Den Haag exhibition was from May 11 through June 7, 1929. The exhibition was then moved to Rotterdam (exact dates unknown) and had its last station from September 28 through October 18 in Amsterdam. 528 Hch was a member of the Group Onafhankelijken (Independents) 529 Ohff, Holland, in Hannah Hch: eine Lebenscollage, 274.

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Nazi Berufsverbot in Berlin (a police order that forbade her to create art), she had an exhibition in Den Haag. 530 Hch announced the couples 1929 return to Berlin with a small linocut which portrays the two women entering the door of her Bsingstrasse 16 Atelier (fig. 4.5). Much like the Russian Dancer and English Dancer, the two figures are depicted in contrasting colors. Both figures sport the Bubikopf (Boys-head) hairstyle, which, by contemporary standards, defined them as emancipated New Women. In contrast to her partner, Hch portrays herself as feminine with sender pink limbs. The torso, a cylinder adorned with two small breasts, underscores her Weiblichkeit (femininity). Hch depicts herself wearing a black and red fringed dress, a color combination that (among Weimar lesbians) defined her as worldly and sensual. 531 Positioned above Til, Hannah appears to be leading her partner by the elbow into the door of their new home. In contrast to Hchs lithe and animated figure, Til is represented as a bulky and slow moving blue cube. Carrying a small travel bag, Brugman clutches a cane under her arm: a standard accessory among virile lesbians. Repression and Censorship Before Hchs and Brugmans artistic collaboration are discussed further, developments that significantly influenced the cultural situation of late Weimar must be addressed. Between 1928 and 1932, the National Socialist (NS, or Nazi) Party transformed itself from an insurgent fringe group into Germany's most potent political
Ohff, Holland, in Hannah Hch: eine Lebenscollage, 274. The exhibition was at the Galerie dAudretsch. 531 Schader, Virile, Vamps, und wilde Veilchen: Sexualitt, Begehren, und Erotik in den Zeitschriften homosexueller Frauen im Berlin der 1920er Jahren (Knigstein: Helmer, 2007), 109.
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force. 532 While the repressive cultural policies of Nazi Germany are legion, it is worth pointing out that the roots of these activities can be traced to the late 1920s when history conspired to generate an atmosphere conducive to political dictatorship. The impact of the international economic collapse of 1929 was perhaps the most important single factor to propel Germanys dramatic shift away from democracy. 533 In a wild admixture of irrational arguments that spoke to a spectrum of political allegiances and crosscut seemingly unrelated issues of race, politics, and culture, Nazi rhetoric conflated racial degeneracy, the threat of socialism and the artistic avant-garde. As Alan Steinweis explains: Conflict between tradition and experimentation on the artistic scene reflected the profound social and ideological cleavages of Weimar Germany. The efflorescence of artistic modernism after World War I had coincided with a profound shake-up of the social relationships and economic structures that had prevailed before the war. Thus, to many Germans, artistic modernism exacerbated a more fundamental disorientation. . . They believed that Germany had lost its traditional bearings, and that the new art functioned as a . . . corrosive force. 534 Nazi propagandists claimed that the threat to German culture emanated from a network of racially, spiritually, and even financially interconnected artistic and cultural movements, led by Jews and Marxists, promoted by feminists, and most conspicuously symbolized by the increasing visibility of Negroes on the art scene. 535 Exacerbated by the economic collapse of 1929, these, and other equally irrational Nazi arguments, grew louder and were soon reflected in mandated policies. While at first, the Nazis merely
Alan Steinweis, Weimar Culture and the Rise of National Socialism: The Kampfbund fr deutsche Kultur, Central European History 24, no. 4 (1991): 402. 533 Steinweis, Weimar Culture, 404. 534 Steinweis, Weimar Culture, 404. 535 Steinweis, Weimar Culture, 404.
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belittled and mocked the artistic avant-garde, as their power grew, legal proceedings and decrees increasingly limited the production and commerce of what they deemed un-Aryan. 536 As Steinweis relates, attacks on culture featured prominently in Nazi propaganda particularly in the latter, decisive phase of their rise to power in the September 1930 Reichstag elections, when the National Socialists gained an overwhelming majority of seats in the German parliament. 537 In what is best described as a landslide, after this fateful election, the number of NS representatives jumped from 12 to 107. 538 This enabled the Nazis, from then on, to dominate and determine national politics and policies. As a result, after 1930, those who produced cultural materials deemed un-Aryan faced even greater problems. These developments preceded Adolf Hitlers appointment as German Reichskanzler (Reichs-Chancellor) in late January 1933. NS officials sought to control all aspects of cultural expression in Germany, and as history reveals, were nearly successful in completely eradicating avant-garde artistic production there. Through a series of progressively restrictive sanctions, artists who did not conform to Nazi-established guidelines were denounced (practically synonymous with a Berufsverbot), and ultimately humiliated as cultural Bolsheviks in the infamous Entarte Kunst (Degenerate Art) exhibition of 1937. Awareness of this slowly, yet ever-growing climate of censure and repression in late Weimar and early Nazi Germany is of no small significance in a
Mary-Margaret Goggin, Decent vs. Degenerate Art: The National Socialist Case, Art Journal 50, no. 4 (Winter 1991): 84. While Nazi attacks on modern art and artists were more systematic after Hitler came to power, they had begun years earlier in Weimar and inspired court cases in 1928, 1929 and 1930. 537 Steinweis, Weimar Culture, 404. 538 Cara Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit fr Hannah Hch: Das Leben einer Knstlerin, 18891978 (Berlin: Osburg Verlag, 2011), 138.
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discussion that explores the radical and less radical aspects of Hch and Brugmans artistic collaboration. In 1933, under the auspices of Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945), the Reichskulturkammer (Ministry of Culture) instituted an Ankaufsverbot prohibiting the purchase of non-Aryan and/or avant-garde artworks. In 1936, those who engaged in unacceptable artistic practice were prohibited from painting through a Berufsverbot. The Berufsverbot and the Ankaufsverbot rendered the production and/or purchase of degenerate or non-Aryan art illegal and punishable by law. 539 Together, they made it virtually impossible for avant-garde artists to survive in Nazi Germany. 540 Shortly after Hch and Brugman returned to Berlin from Den Haag in 1929, Hch found the art scene in Berlin had changed greatly. Much to her dismay, many of her earlier colleagues had been denounced. Later, she would say, those of us who were remembered as Kulturbolschewisten (Cultural Bolsheviks) were all blacklisted and watched by the Gestapo (secret police). Each of us avoided associating with his dearest and oldest friends and associates for fear of involving them in further trouble. 541 While many denounced artists were not specifically forbidden to work (like Hch), being

For a contemporary discussion of degenerate art, see, Wolfgang Willrich, Suberung des Kunsttempels: Eine kunstpolitische Kampfschrift deutscher Kunst im Geiste nordischer Art (Munich: J.F. Lehmanns Verlag, 1937). 540 Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 343, writes, during the war, anyone who wanted to purchase art materials such as paint, canvas, brushes, or paper, had to present an official permit (Bezugsschein) issued from the Ministry of Culture (Reichskulturkammer) to merchants at the time of purchase. 541 Peter Boswell, Hannah Hch: Through the Looking Glass, in The Photomontages of Hannah Hch, Peter Boswell, Maria Makela, and Carolyn Lanchner (Minneapolis: Walker Art Center, 1989), 16, 23n24,22n3, cites, Edouard Roditi, Interview with Hannah Hch, Arts 34, no. 4, (1959): 29.

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mentioned in Willrichs book implied a Berufsverbot. 542 Moreover, Hch, like others in a similar situation, could anticipate that at any time police might unexpectedly arrive and search their studios. 543 Under these circumstances, it was practically impossible to find exhibition venues or sell work. 544 Understandably, this compelled many artists to leave the city, and ultimately the country. 545 Both professionally and personally, 1932 proved to be a challenging year for Hch. An exhibition of her work at the Dessau Bauhaus was planned to run from 12 May to 10 June but cancelled due to adverse political developments. In January 1932, a year before Hitler officially came to power, members of the Nazi Party launched a concerted and sustained effort to close the Bauhaus. This must have been especially disappointing to Hch because plans for the exhibition were well underway. 546 The contentious political situation surrounding steadily escalated; the Bauhaus was eventually searched by the Gestapo and the institutions doors were finally locked by Dessau police in April 1933. 547

Antje Olivier and Sevgi Braun, Die Sammling gehrt in die Charit!, Hannah Hch: die einzige Frau unter den Berliner Dadaisten, in Anpassung oder Verbot: Knstlerinnen und die 30er Jahre (Dsseldorf: droste, 1998), 100. 543 Olivier and Braun, Die Sammlung, 100. 544 The official list of degenerate artists was limited to individuals whose work was displayed in public museums. Hch, while not among them, is, however, mentioned in Wolfgang Willrichs cultural Nazi polemic. See, Wolgang Willrich, Suberung des Kusttempels: Eine politische Kamfschrift zur Gesundung deutscher Kunst im Geiste nordischer Art (Munich: J.F. Lehmanns Verlag, 1937), 42, 52, 168. Hch is listed as member of Die rote Novembergruppe and a fragment of her painting Roma (1925) is visible in a collage illustrating examples of non-Aryan art. See also, Heinz Ohff, Hannah Hch (Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, 1968), 7. In Wolfgang Willrichs Kampf-Fibel gegen die Kunstwird sie ausdrcklich erwhnt. 545 Marleen Slob, De mensen, 40-41. 546 HH Archiv BG, 32.32; Also see Ohff, Die Ausstellungen, Hannah Hch: eine Lebenscollage, 300. Hch sent 46 photomontages to Christoph Hertel, the exhibition organizer, from which to choose, and the posters and invitations to the exhibition had already been printed. 547 Ohff, Die Ausstellungen, in HH eine Lebenscollage, 304n6.

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In January 1932, the couples Bsingstrasse studio and domicile was ransacked and burglarized. Along with some jewelry, Hchs Holland Journal, which contained intimate details regarding her relationship with Brugman, was also stolen. Hch reported the burglary to the police, but on 7 May 1932, the Berlin district attorney notified her that due to lack of evidence, they were abandoning the investigation. 548 Although they could not prove it, Hch and Brugman were convinced that the break-in was politically motivated. 549 This unsettling event prompted them to relocate in 1933 to Rubenstrasse 66/3 in nearby Berlin Friedenau. The oppressive cultural situation in late Weimar worsened dramatically after January 1933. Yet, despite this, Hch and Brugman continued to create art and remained together as a couple until May 1936 (we must remind ourselves here that after February 1933, any expression of lesbianism or homosexuality was illegal and punishable by law). During these difficult years, the couples individual and joint projects attest to their sustained artistic production and active political resistance. Brave or foolish: Hch hides Brugmans Manuscripts The ability to reconstruct Brugmans oeuvre and the extent of her collaboration with Hch in the course of their relationship from 1926 to 1936 depends on the remaining literary and artistic work from this period as well as surviving correspondence. An undetermined portion of Til Brugmans oeuvre is lost, but thanks to

HH Archive BG, pos. 32.8. This information was conveyed to me in August 2009 and in March 2011 during conversations with Ralf Burmeister of the Berlinische Galerie.
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Hch, who hid Brugmans manuscripts during the Nazi era, her literary production between 1926 and 1936 has survived. 550 Brugman and Hch separated in May 1936, and while Brugman remained in Berlin until the war forced her (and her new partner Dutch native Hans Johanna Mertineit) to return to Holland in 1939, she left a number of manuscripts behind with Hch in their previously shared domicile. Hch left Berlin in 1939 and moved to Heligensee, then a rural northern suburb of the city. The move helped her avoid scrutiny by Nazi collaborators active in her urban neighborhood. The blurring of official [police] and public civic duties that had begun in late Weimar became even more pronounced after Hitler came to power. Sace Elder describes this slow development as a transition from a culture of mutual surveillance . . . to a culture of denunciation after 1933. 551 From her time as a Dadaist, and throughout the Weimar years, Hch had amassed a substantial and, after the Nazis came to power, illegal and dangerous collection of avant-garde artistic materials. Later, as she stated, had these materials been discovered by the Gestapo, they would have been enough to send her and all remaining Dada artists living in Germany to the gallows. 552 Years later, Hch would ask herself how she could have been so braveor so foolishto have stored all those

Maria Makela, Grotesque Bodies: Weimar-Era Medicine and the Photomontages of Hannah Hch, in Francis S. Connely, ed. Modern Art and the Grotesque (Cambridge: University of Cambridge, 2003), 218n41. A handwritten and typed list in the HH Archive at the Berlinische Galerie chronicles some ninety grotesques that were once in Hchs possession. Everard writes, based on a handwritten list of Brugman titles composed by Hch (1927-1935, BG-HHA), there were 116 unpublished Brugman manuscripts in 1935; forty-six of these have survived (97n25). 551 Sace Elder, Murder, Denunciation, and Criminal Policing in Weimar Berlin, Journal of Contemporary History 41, 3 (2006): 402. 552 Adriani, Hannah Hch, 58.
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incriminating materials. 553 During what she described as those terrible years (the Nazi-era and war years), Hch hid them in the rafters of her house in an improvised wood and tarpaper construction of her own making. Later, in 1945, when the Russian army began to advance on Berlin, she packed her collection in metal containers and buried them in her yard. 554 Nosy neighbors reported suspicious nocturnal activity in her garden to the Gestapo. 555 Hch was questioned by the police on a number of occasions and her house was searched, but they never discovered anything incriminating. While scholars lament that much of Brugmans oeuvre is lost, that which has survived offers evidence of reciprocal creative inspiration between the writer and her partner. Shared themes link Hchs photomontages and drawings to Brugmans manuscripts and a number of the artists collages might easily double as illustrations for Brugmans texts. 556 Everard writes that between 1926 and 1936, when the two women lived together, Brugmans influence on Hchs work is unverkennbar (unmistakable). 557 Furthermore, evidence supports claims of the couples ongoing, yet often non-specific

Adriani, Hannah Hch, 58. Heute frage ich mich zuweilen, wie ich so mtig oder so tricht sein konnte, dieses Beweismaterial whrend all der schrecklichen Jahre in meinem Haus zu behalten. Der Schrank in dem ich meine Zeichnungen aufhebe, enthielt genug, um mich und alle in Deutschland lebenden frheren Dadaisten an den Galgen zu bringen. Von 1934 an begannen auch die meisten meiner Kollegen, ihre Spuren zu verwischen und dergleichen Erinnerungen an ihre Jugendsnden zu zerstren. 554 Antje Olivier and Sevgi Braun, Die Sammlung gehrt in die Charit!: Hannah Hch, die einzige Frau unter den Berliner Dasdaisten, in Anpassung oder Verbot: Knstlerinnen und die 30er Jahre (Dsseldorf: Droste, 1998), 77. 555 Adriani, 74, Hch buried them or lowered the boxes into a dry well. at night under nut trees or by lowering them into a dry well. This material included Brugmans writings, diverse avant-garde magazines, invitations to exhibitions, and the art of fellow degenerate artists including Kurt Schwitters, George Grosz, Raoul Hausmann and John Heartfield. 556 Everard, Patchamatac, 91, and Brandt, Vertippte Zebra, 160; See also, Ralf Burmeister, et al, Hannah Hch: Aller Anfang ist Dada (Berlin: Berlinische Galerie; Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz Verlag; Basel: Museum Tinguely, 2007), 208. The following drawings BG-G 6791/93, BG-G 6792/93, and BG-G 6793/93 (1930/1935) were intended as illustrations to Brugmans grotesque, Die Javanerin. 557 Everard, Patchamatac,91.

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collaboration. 558 In a 1930 letter, Brugman asked Hch, if she is so inclined to look through her manuscripts and create illustrations for them: If youd like to pick out a manuscript for illustrations, look inside the folder on top of the white cabinet. 559 In another letter, written two days later, Brugmans excitement over their artistic collaboration is expressed in an almost manic burst of optimism: In the mean time, rest and relax. When I get back, well take up our work again! Energetic and bravely forward!!! Then we will send the whole world the spit [Spuke] of our crazy creations (Everything the artist spits is art, Schwitters!). Then we will contact Flechtheim (make, or have photos made of your work!!!) then Nierendorf (photos also necessary!!!) then Dresden (also photos necessary!) then we will send manuscripts with drawings in every direction [in allen Windrichtungen], and everything else!!!! WE WILL MAKE IT WITHOUT A DOUBT!!!!!! 560 This, and other letters confirm, that the two women not only collaborated, but were inspired by similar themes. Shortly before the couple separated in May 1936, in a touching and desperate attempt to convince Hch not to end their relationship, Brugman expressed the pain of losing someone who shared her artistic sensibilities. She wrote, Dont we share that rare connection of a complete and perfect intellectual union? Is not our work one and the same-Dont our impressions move in the same

BG HH Archiv, Hch/Brugman correspondence, Folder III. In an undated love letter to Hch, Brugman wrote, Fr mich . . . sind deine Kritiken die wertvollsten . . . [und] deine Bilder die schnsten. (To me, your critique of my work is the most valuable . . . and your pictures are the most beautiful.) 559 Brugman to Hch (Haarlem, 15/16. 7.1930); HHN, cited in Everard, 88; Solltest du Lust haben, mal ein Manuskript fr Zeichnungen vorzunehmen, dann such dir was aus meiner Mappe auf den weissen Schrnkchen. See also, Everard, Patchamatac, 96n18: Erst krzlich ist eine weitere Illustration von Hch zu einem Text von Brugman aufgetaucht: Schlssel-Blumen, (um 1930, Collage und Tusche) in Hannah Hch: 100 Werke zum 100 Geburtstag. Galerie Remmert und Barth, Dsseldorf 1989, S. 4, Nr. 7. Der erste Brugman-Hchsche Koproduktion war brigens keine Groteske, sondern eine Reiseerzhlung. Siehe Til Brugman, Von Hollands Blumenfeldern, in Atlantis: Lnder, Vlker, Reisen 5 (1933): 429-32. Zeichnungen: Hannah Hch). 560 Letter from Brugman to Hch, 17 July 1930, cited in Everard, Patchmatac, 88.

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way? 561 Although Brugman could not persuade Hch to stay with her, her sustained influence upon the artists oeuvre is patently obvious. In a 1926 letter to Hch, Brugman wrote that she carried one of Hchs letters in her pajama pocket, and read it every night before she went to sleep. Brugman named her Pyamatasche (pajama pocket) the happy imaginary land of Patchamatac. 562 Almost twenty years later in 1945, Hch mentioned Patschamatak in her Bilderbuch (Picture-book), a place Brugman invented in 1926. 563 Hannah Hch and Til Brugman: Joint Commercial Projects Throughout their lives, both Hch and Brugman were compelled financially to work commercially. In addition to her meager income as a writer, Brugman supported herself and Hch as a journalist, translator and language teacher. 564 At the time, Hch exhibited only occasionally and her training as a graphic artist generated her most lucrative income. 565 The couples first known joint commercial project, Von Hollands Blumenfelder (Hollands Flower Fields), was published in 1933 in the German-language journal Atlantis. Established in Leipzig in 1929, Atlantis promoted itself as a magazine for
Brugman letter to Hch (Berlin, 4. May, 1936) Hannah-Hch-Nachlass, Bachnang, Germany. Haben wir nicht das so seltene Band einer vollkommenen geistige Gemeinschaft? Ist unser Arbeit nicht eine Einheit-geht unser Empfinden nicht ber einer Spule? 562 Letter cited in Everard, Patchamatac, 91; 96n20, Brugman to Hch (Den Haag, 12./13. Sept., 1926) Hannah-Hch-Nachlass, Bachnang. 563 Hannah Hch, Bilderbuch 1945 (Picture Book 1945) (Dsseldorf: Claasen-Verlag, 1985), 5. On page five, Hch introduces little Gamma and writes, Im Patschamatak lebte sein Grossmama. (His grandmother lived in Patschamatak.) 564 Bosch and Everard, Til Brugman et Hannah Hch, Lust + Gratie, 52. Brugman distributed de Stijl inspired business cards-apparently designed by Hch in 1928 and 1931-- promoting herself as a language teacher to business travelers and tourists. 565 Heinz Ohff, Die Ausstellungen, BG, Hannah Hch: eine Lebenscollage, vol. 2.1, 295-97. During the 1930s, Hchs most profitable commissions were designing book jackets for her acquaintance, the Dutch publisher Anthony Ton Bakels.
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Lnder, Vlker, und Reisen (Countries, Peoples, and Travel). The magazine reflected Brugman and Hchs cultural interests and complemented their nomadic lifestyle: Travel was an integral part of their relationship from the beginning; Hch and Brugman met while vacationing in Holland and immediately became travel partners. 566 Hch would later tell her biographer Heinz Ohff, Til persuaded me to travel with her to Grenoble, and we remained together for nine years. 567 It therefore comes as no surprise that the couples first documented joint project was an illustrated travel essay. 568 The couples love of travel is suggested in works Hch produced both before and after 1933, but is especially suggested in the previously mentioned 1926 photomontages Vagabonds (fig. 3.16) and Two Children above a City (3.17). The buoyant hand-holding and androgynously-clothed female couple levitating above an open road in Vagabonds indicates travel and probably alludes to her new homosexual relationship with Brugman. 569 Like them, the Two Children above a City in the collage of the same name giddily balance high above an urban landscape and literally have the world at their feet. Von Hollands Blumenfeldern With a focus on distant lands and archeological sites, the editorial program of the cultural magazine Atlantis contrasted with the xenophobic nationalism which, at the
Jula Dech, Til Brugmann oder Eine Liebe in Holland, in Sieben Blicke auf Hannah Hch (Hamburg: Edition Nautilus, 2002), 49. Hchs friends Kurt and Helma Schwitters were staying at the summer home of the Hungarian painter Lajos dEbneth in Kijkduin near Scheveningen. Together with his compatriot friend, Vilmos Huszar, the two men formed a hub around which the Dutch avant-garde gathered. 567 Ohff, Hannah Hch (1968), 25. 568 Marleen Slob, De mensen, 35. During their years together, the couple visited Spain, Italy, France, Norway, Czechoslovakia, Austria and Switzerland. 569 Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 189.
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time, was steadily escalating throughout much of contemporary interwar Europe. 570 Hchs illustrations for Hollands Blumenfeldern are simple, rather conventional line drawings. One is a sketchy rendition of a Dutch farmer (fig. 4.6), while the other is depicts a Tulip Field (fig. 4.7). The two ink drawings are akin to any number of pen and ink sketches that generally accompanied popular travel reportages in contemporary journals, and in no way allude to Hchs signature collage style. 571 First-person travel reportages became a common magazine rubric during the late nineteenth and early twentieth-centuries. A number of adventurous writers, many of whom were women, marketed their first-person travel impressions to popular journals. 572 The travel-reportage resonated with the mid-nineteenth-century

Atlantis was unique among contemporary German publications. It did not reflect xenophobic nationalism nor did it engage with contemporary European politics. Instead articles in Atlantis explored distant lands and archeological themes. As a result, the magazine, unlike hundreds of others which were forced to conform to Nazi regulations or suspend publication during the war, remained in print. However, due to the threat of Allied bombing raids, Atlantis was compelled to move its headquarters from Berlin to Zrich in 1944. Atlantis was eventually consolidated into the Swiss cultural magazine, du, which is still in print. 571 It is likely that other contemporary Hch sketches with Dutch themes, such as Hollander (Dutch Man) (1926) and Zwei Kleine Hollnderinnen (Two small Dutch Girls) (1927), both pictured in Herbert Remmert and Peter Barth, eds., Hannah Hch: Werke und Worte (Berlin: Frhlich und Kaufmann, 1982), 46; may have been intended to complement or illustrate Brugmans text Kleine Existenzen in Amsterdam (Modest Livelihoods in Amsterdam). Brugmans Kleine Existenzen was among Hchs papers and remained hidden until the artists death 1978. Kleine Existenzen is devoid of satire and reads as a conventional travel-reportage. Brandt dates Kleine Existenzen as contemporaneous with Hollands Blumenfeldern. Brandt notes that the manuscript is marked Bsingstrasse, the couples address from 1930-33 (208). See also, Til Brugman, Kleine Existenzen in Amsterdam, in Brandt, Vertippte Zebra, 8290. 572 From 1910 and throughout the 1930s, this genre was especially popular among creative independent women, a conspicuous number of whom were lesbians. Interestingly, these decades also coincide with the international beginnings of lesbian subculture. Arguably, travel reportage was in part inspired by the lesbians general cultural disenfranchisement, which compelled many women, including Hch and Brugman, to travel and explore alternate geographical and creative venues. Djuna Barnes, Janet Flanner, Vita Sackville-West, Ella Maillart, Erika Mann, and Annemarie Schwarzenbach are among those early twentieth-century lesbian writers who marketed their first-person travel accounts to popular journals. These decades also coincide with the wildly popular discourse centered on the related figure of the gypsy. The gypsies characteristic lack of permanent domicile suggests strong contemporary cultural links between travel reportage, the gypsy, and lesbian subculture. For a related discussion of the gypsy

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Baudelairean flneur, a figure who celebrated the pleasures of observation and mobility closely associated with masculine social privilege. By the beginning of the new century, however, women were increasingly free to circulate independently as travelers and observers. 573 Travel-reportage was particularly popular in Weimar, 574 and the contemporary cultural critic Siegfied Kracauer, who likened travel to dance, astutely remarked that both activities represented an ersatz, which compensates for those experiences denied us today. 575 Travel, he claimed, is an experience based in reality

and the figures relationship to early twentieth-century lesbian expression and experience, see Kirstie Blair, Gypsies and Lesbian Desire: Vita Sackville-West, Violet Trefusis, and Virginia Woolf, Twentieth Century Literature 50, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 144-5. Blair astutely observes the tantalizing presence of the gypsy as the antithesis of the familiar and entrapping in queer writing by women at the start of the twentieth century. Gypsies, as Blair convincingly argues, haunt texts about desire between women in this period. Relatedly, Hchs 1926 gypsy-like Vagabonds falls within these contemporaneously conflated discourses. Hchs happy-go-lucky Vagabonds suggest gypsy-inspired travel as the antithesis to the entrapment of patriarchal bourgeois domesticity, which Blair describes above. Relatedly, while written somewhat later during the 1940s, Jane Bowles texts, which center upon her ardent pursuit of her elusive and exotic Moroccan lesbian love interest, Cherifa, fall within this general discourse. See, Carol Shloss, Jane Bowles in Uninhabitable Places: Writing on Cultural Boundaries, in A Tawdry Place of Salvation: The Art of Jane Bowles, Jennie Skerl, ed. (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1997), 112. Shloss claims that Bowles fiction mirrors, with an almost uncanny exactness, the discomfort and estrangement that both Adorno and Kristeva posit as the prerequisite of human transformation. Indeed, they help us to identify her accomplishment as that of a cultural vagabond, for without family, without regular work or customary residence, she writes always from an unhoused and transient position, confronting fixed contents as an unfixed and roving subject. Schloss characterization of the cultural Vagabond as unhoused, transient, and roving strengthen the complementary early twentieth-century discourses described above that link travel writing, exotic environs, and lesbianism. Indeed, the theme of displacement continues to accompany lesbian and gay discourse. See, Cindy Patton and B. SanchezEppler, eds., Queer Diasporas (Durham: Duke University Press, 2000). 573 For a discussion of the relationship between womens limited access to specific environs and its resultant effects upon their cultural contributions, see, Griselda Pollock, Modernity and the Spaces of Femininity, in Vision and Difference, Femininity, Feminism, and the Histories of Art (London: Routledge, 1988), 50-90. 574 A quick glance through any Weimar-era issue of the most widely read German pictorial magazine Berliner Illustrierte will likely reveal a travel-reportage. Travel-reportages were generally written by roving reporters and printed in serial form. They are generally illustrated with simple pen and ink sketches in a style much like Hchs. The sketchy style of these drawings indicates rapid execution, imply spontaneity, and underscore the impression that the author/artist is on the move. 575 Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 93, 233n.20, discusses the popularity of travel-reportages in popular Illustrierte, and cites Kracauers observations.

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that provides an illusionary double existence. 576 Certainly Hch and Brugmans love of travel explains the genres appeal to both women. However, as a closer examination of Brugmans Blumenfeldern and a related Hch illustration reveals, the narrative suggests more than mere travel reportage. Blumenfeldern portrays the Dutch tulip farmer as a respected figure who embodies industriousness, and the texts introduction explains this centuries-old Dutch tradition. Stressing the aspect of family, Brugman claims that each tulip bulb, much like a child, symbolically represents an entire lineage. Every tulip bulb embodies the knowledge and ability, the experiments, the disappointments, and the triumphs of an entire family. 577 Yet Brugmans emphasis on odd and increasingly strange details shifts the tenor of the essay away from Dutch tulip farming into the realm of grotesque metaphor. Brugman relates how the tulip farmer Jansens reputation becomes the object of sensational village gossip when a single yellow bud mysteriously appears in his field of red tulips. The yellow tulip is perceived as highly disruptive and a local scandal soon ensues. Brugman writes, It is unheard of that in a field of blue hyacinths, a single white bloom, or a completely foreign species (artfremd) such as a tulip or daffodil would be found in a strange bed! 578 At the time, and in consideration of contemporary ethnographic discourse, varied flowers could have easily stood for diverse nationalites, ethnicities, and races. Brugman wrote, Since people can remember, only one type of
Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 233n.20, cites Kracauer, Reise und Tanz, (1925) in Das Ornament der Masse (Frankfurt a. M.: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1963), 46. 577 Brugman, Hollands Blumenfeldern, 430. Jede einzelne Zwiebel hier verkrpert das Wissen und Knnen, das probieren, die Enttuschungen, die Triumphe eines ganzes Geschlechts. 578 Brugman, Hollands Blumenfeldern, 431.
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flower may bloom in a field and a mixed field such as this would be totally dishonorable and would disqualify the farmers entire family. 579 Indeed, neighboring villagers immediately call the farmers character and soon his ancestry into question. On the surface, Brugmans satire lampoons the irrational yet dramatic social repercussions inspired by one renegade tulip in a field of thousands, but on a deeper level, it may be read as a critique of contemporary political and eugenic discourses. For example, the gossiping villagers whisper, Do you remember what happened in Jansens grandfathers field sixty years ago?, and, It must be some sort of inherited weakness (erbliche Belastung). Both their terms, and their anxious discussion of Jansens ancestry clearly implicate eugenic discourse. Inherited weakness (erbliche Belastung) was a ubiquitous and incendiary phrase in eugenic, and in the related, and increasingly volatile, discourse of Rassenhygiene (racial hygiene). 580 In 1931, even before the Nazis had assumed total power, one of the leading German eugenicists Fritz Lenz at least half-seriously suggested that it would be better if the bottom one third of the entire population did not reproduce. 581 Lenzs remark reveals the discursive logic that propelled Weimar disciples of racial hygiene to control human reproduction

Brugman, Hollands Blumenfeldern, 431. See, Erwin Baur, Fritz Lenz, and Eugen Fischer, Menschliche Erblichkeitslehre and Rassenhygiene (Munich: J. F. Lehmann, 1927-31). 581 Sheila Faith Weiss, The Race Hygiene Movement in Germany, Osiris, 2nd Series, vol. 3 (1987): 230, 230n112. Of all the various strategies and programs implemented by the Nazis in the interest of improving the racial substrate of the Reich, none reveals the continuity between pre- and post1933 race hygiene better than the sterilization law . . . Nazi law allowed the mandatory sterilization of those individuals who, in the opinion of an Erbgesundheitsgericht (genetics health court), were unfit for procreation. Formally enacted on 14 July 1933, the Gesetz zur Verhtung erbkranken Nachwuchses (Law for the prevention of genetically diseased offspring) was based on a 1932 Prussian proposal. . . Unlike the failed Prussian proposal of 1932, however, the Nazi law allowed the mandatory sterilization of those individuals who, in the opinion of an Erbgesundheitsgericht (genetics health court), were unfit for procreation.
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through legal means. 582 By 1933, the discourses of eugenics and racial hygiene became practically interchangeable and discussions regarding racial intermarriage, or Rassenschande, would soon have juridical consequences with momentous results. In 1935, Nazi leaders mandated the Blutschutzgesetze, or Blood Purity Laws, which officially determined and distinguished the Aryan from the non-Aryan. 583 According to the Blood Purity Laws, Aryans were identified through ancestry; anyone with one nonAryan grandparent was considered racially mixed and, hence, impure and unfit for procreation. 584 Grandchildren were classified according to their grandparents race, or as in the case of Brugmans tulip farmer, held accountable for the impurity of his grandfathers field.

Weiss, The Race Hygiene Movement in Germany, 229. Those individuals deemed unfit were afflicted with, but not limited to, congenital feeblemindedness, schizophrenia, manic depressive insanity, genetic epilepsy, Huntington's chorea, genetic blindness, and genetic deafness. 583 Patricia Szobar, Telling Stories in the Nazi Courts of Law: Race Defilement in Germany, 1933 to 1945, Journal of the History of Sexuality 11, nos. 1/ 2 (January/ April, 2002): 144. The religious allegiance of the grandparents in Nazi racial protocol was central. As Szobar writes, A full Jew was a person with at least three grandparents who adhered to the Jewish religion. Mischlinge (those of mixedrace) of the first degree were individuals with one Jewish parent, while Mischlinge of the second degree had one Jewish grandparent. The legal definition of an Aryan was the absence of Jewish blood. As numerous scholars have noted, this definition of Jewishness ultimately rested on the confessional allegiance of the grandparents, making a mockery of Nazi claims that Jewishness was a biological category unrelated to religion. See also, Lothar Gruchmann, "Blutschutzgesetz und Justiz: Zu Entsehung und Auswirkung des Nrnberger Gesetzes vom 15. September 1935, Vierteljahrshefte fr Zeitgeschichte 31. Jahrg., 3 (Jul., 1983): 420, 420n9, Gruchmann writes, that in 1933, Grau, the Vice president of the Prussian Ministry of Justice, declared Die Juden stellen ein ganz unerhrtes orientalisches Rassegemisch dar, das, wie Geschichte lehrt, berall, wo es hinkommt die Vlker zu sich herunterzieht und die Rassen vernichtet." (The Jews represent an unmitigated oriental racial mixture and, as history instructs us, wherever they go, they pull people down to their level, and destroy the race). 584 Szobar, Telling Stories, 133. Under the Nazi regime race defilement loomed large in the ideological and popular imagination. On 15 September 1935, the Nrenberg Blutschutzgesetze (Blood Protection [Purity] Law) was enacted and forbade mixed marriages between Jews and non-Jews. The new law deemed a mixed marriage between a Jew and a non-Jew [a person of German or related blood] Rassenschande (racial-defilement); see also, Lothar Gruchmann, "Blutschutzgesetz und Justiz: Zu Entsehung und Auswirkung des Nrnberger Gesetzes vom 15. September 1935, Vierteljahrshefte fr Zeitgeschichte 31. Jahrg., 3 (Jul., 1983): 418-442.

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Brugmans absurd tale of the negative repercussions generated by a single yellow tulip in a red field of thousands can be understood as a satire of social uniformity and conformity. However, within the context of contemporary eugenics, it may also be understood as a veiled and potentially dangerous attack of Nazi ideals and, in particular, the concept of racial purity. 585 Brugmans Blumenfeldern was published in April 1933 only months after the Nazis assumed complete control in Germany. Despite the political relevance and uncanny prescience of Brugmans Blumenfeldern, years would pass before Jews were officially mandated to identify themselves in public with a yellow cloth badge. Chillingly, Brugman presages this stigma with her description of the yellow tulip as a lonely, beautiful, and unfortunate flower (Unglcksblume). 586 In Nazi Germany, the Jew, much like the disgraceful yellow tulip in Jansens field, had to be eradicated at all costs. One evening, as Brugman writes, Jansen waits until it is dark and sneaks out into the field and . . . angrily yanks the tulip out of the ground and grinds it to a pulp with one bare callused hand. 587 Brugmans tale of a uniform field of thousands also calls to mind the contemporary fascination with industrial rationalization. This fascination inspired popular representations of people grouped and arranged in aesthetic visual patterns. In 1927, Kracauer dubbed this phenomenon mass ornament, 588 a concept that fittingly describes the tight precision and meticulous choreography of the mass rallies which
See Graus rhetoric in Gruchmann, Blutschutzgesetze, 420, 420n9. Brugman,Hollands Blumenfeldern, 432. 587 Brugman, Hollands Blumenfeldern, 432. 588 Siegfried Kracauer, Das Ornament der Masse, Frankfurter Zeitung (9, 10. July, 1927). The essay originally appeared in nos. 420 and 423 of the Frankfurter Zeitung on 9 June (parts I-II) and 10 June (parts III-IV) 1927. Original publication information for Kracauer essays from Thomas Y. Levin, Siegfried Kracauer: Eine Bibliographie seiner Schriften (Marbach am Neckar: Deutsche Schillergesellschaft, 1989).
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characterized, and, to a large extent, defined Nazi propaganda culture (fig. 4.8). Comprised of thousands of identical red blooms organized in perfect rows, Brugmans tulip field suggests the crowd-filled stadiums of Nazi Parteitage (Party-days). 589 Characterized by the Nazis as grand celebrations, political rallies were designed to demonstrate the insignificance of the individual and to be optically and rhetorically overwhelming. 590 Such rallies were later immortalized by the photographer, filmmaker, and Hitler-protg, Leni Riefenstahl (1902-2003). Riefenstahls film and propaganda tour-de-force Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will) was created in conjunction with the Munich Olympic Games of 1936. Nearly identical to the drawing published in 1933 with Brugmans text, Hchs 1927 drawing of a tulip field, Der Schandfleck im Tulpenbeet (The Disgraceful, or Defiling Stain in the Tulip field) (fig. 4.9) may be described as conventional landscape. 591 While neither drawing demonstrates avant-garde artistic techniques nor alludes to Hchs critical sensibilities, the title of the 1927 drawing is odd and highly suggestive. It was not only given a title (something Hch was generally and notoriously reluctant to do), but includes the term Schandfleck (defiling stain), which unmistakably calls to mind eugenic rhetoric and indicates a subtext of social criticism. The words of Hchs title, Schandfleck in Tulpenbeet, are repeated verbatim in Brugmans text with the added, and, as German

A number of photographs depicting diverse Nazi rallies and parade formations are pictured in Udo Pini, Liebeskult und Liebeskitsch: Erotik im Dritten Reich (Munich: Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1992). 590 Pini, Liebeskult und Liebeskitsch, 36. 591 Hchs drawing Der Schandfleck im Tulpenbeet (1927) is pictured in Hannah Hch: Werke und Worte, Herbert Remmert and Peter Barth, eds. (Berlin: Frlich und Kaufmann, 1982), 47. The dimensions of this ink drawing are given as 213 x 202mm. According to my July 2011 correspondence with Herbert Remmert of Galerie Remmert und Barth, the present location of this drawing is unknown.

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history has proven, weighted adjective yellow: 592 the color of the cloth badge Jews were compelled to wear in Germany beginning in 1941. 593 Comprised of the words Schande (shame, scandal, and disgrace) and Fleck (stain, smudge), in Nazi Germany, Schandfleck, and the related Schandung were practically synonymous with defilement, rape, homosexual relations, or illicit intimacy between a Jew and a non-Jew. 594 As Patricia Szobar writes, race defilement loomed large in the ideological and popular imagination. 595 However, despite the ease with which Hchs Schandfleck may be linked to Nazi racial discourse, and the thinly-veiled subversive tenor of Hollands Blumenfeldern, the couples political intentions cannot be confirmed with certainty. When Blumenfeldern was published in 1933 readers probably regarded it a spoof; the editors of Atlantis would not have sanctioned its publication otherwise. After the Nazis assumed power, all
Brugman, Hollands Blumenfeldern, 432. Claudia Schoppman, Flucht in den Untergrrund: zur Situation der jdischen Bevlkerung in Deutschland 1941-1945, in Nationalsozialismus und Geschlecht: Zur Politisierung und sthetisierung von Krper, Rasse, und Sexualitt im Dritten Reich und nach 1945, Elke Frietsch and Christina Herkommer, eds. (Bielefeld: Transcript, 2009), 285. Der Hhepunkt ihrere Stigmatisierung war mit der Polizeiverordnung vom 19. September 1941 erreicht, die die ffentliche Kennzeichnung aller Juden mit einem gelben Stern anwies. See also Erwin J. Haeberle, Swastika, Pink Triangle, and Yellow Star: The Destruction of Sexology and the Persecution of Homosexuals in Nazi Germany, in The Journal of Sex Research 17, no. 3, History and Sexuality (Aug., 1981), 284. 594 See, Lothar Gruchmann, "Blutschutzgesetz und Justiz: Zu Entsehung und Auswirkung des Nrnberger Gesetzes vom 15. September 1935, Vierteljahrshefte fr Zeitgeschichte 31, year 3 (Jul., 1983): 418. See also, Szobar, Telling Stories, 132, Once in power, Nazi Party members immediately began to appeal to the new regime to enact legislation criminalizing relations between German women and Jews, suggesting that attempted contact should be punished by stripping the woman of her German citizenship and turning her over to the work camp, and by sterilization in cases of actual physical contact. 595 Szobar, Telling Stories, 133. Concerns about intermarriage and miscegenation were to become a central ideological obsession among National Socialists, who even before the demise of the Weimar Republic began to issue calls for measures to prevent the sexual contamination of Aryan women and the birth of mixed race offspring. Indeed, fulminations against race defilement and the sullying of Aryan maidens featured prominently in Hitler's tract, Mein Kampf [1925-1926] and numerous other Nazi ideologists joined him in demanding an end to the mingling of races. Thus, in their 1931 convention, the organization of National Socialist physicians called for a prohibition on marriage between Jews and nonJews (131).
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publishers were compelled to conform to a rigid editorial program through a process known as Gleichschaltung (making-the-same) or face negative consequences which often included suspending or completely relinquishing control of their publications. 596 In light of contemporary Nazi rhetoric and the imminent Blood Purity Laws, it is likely that Brugman and Hch regarded Blumenfeldern as an opportunity to embed a political critique in an otherwise non-critical genre. Artists and intellectuals in Nazi Germany shrewdly recognized that humor and parody were the safest ways to package political dissent. 597 As a number of contemporaries later claimed, even under rigorous Nazi censorship, it was possible to cloak criticism in satire, a strategy infinitely less dangerous than a bold political statement. 598 Brugman, a foreign national, was obviously aware of the potential dangers of political dissidence. Her intimate partner Hch would later recall the threat and fear she felt at being denounced as a cultural Bolshevik. 599 Arguably, Brugman, an alien, and

For a discussion of Gleichschaltung see, Jan-Pieter Barbarian, Literaturpolitik im NS-Staat: von der Gleichschaltung bis zum Ruin (Frankfurt a. M: Fischer Taschenbuchverlag, 2010). 597 Erika Mann, Escape to Life (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1939). In her memoir, Mann (1905-1969) discusses the significance of parody and satire as a vibrant cultural vehicle in which it was possible to cloak resistance and critical political sentiments. Mann was driven out of Germany in 1933 and continued to tour with her cabaret Pfeffermhle (Peppermill) until it was finally halted by Nazi sympathizers in Switzerland. In a later interview, Mann stated that she had a loyal following of political resisters, and although she worked in the cabaret genre as an entertainer, her audiences were well aware that her cabaret performances were anything but frivolous. 598 Wolfgang Brekle, Schriftsteller im antifaschistischen Widerstand 1933-1945 in Deutschland (Berlin: Aufbau-Verlag, 1985). After 1933, a culture of literary activism emerged in Germany. Writers who resisted fascist Nazi policies produced materials in a variety of forms. Flyers secretly produced on printing machines designed as childrens toys were posted in public by night on walls and billboards. Political newsletters that had to be read with a magnifying glass were secretly circulated in match boxes. Anyone discovered engaging with writing or distributing anti-Nazi materials was routinely jailed or sent to a concentration camp. 599 Boswell, Hannah Hch: Through the Looking Glass, in The Photomontages of Hannah Hch, 29. In a 1959 interview, Hch recalled that after 1929, she was forced to avoid her artistic colleagues and oldest friends for fear of implicating them as cultural Bolsheviks.

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a lesbian, was probably even less inclined than Hch, a German native, to voice social or political criticism openly. 600 While Von Hollands Blumenfeldern was most probably motivated by financial necessity, and published in a politically neutralized magazine, it provided Brugman and Hch a vehicle through which they could criticize, albeit covertly, contemporary developments with a minimal fear of repercussions. Nonetheless, despite the sinister political atmosphere in Germany, it is unlikely that either of them could have imagined in 1933 that Blumenfeldern would subsequently resonate so darkly with actual events. In contrast to the cloaked satire of Hollands Flower Fields, the critical tenor of the couples 1935 collaboration, Scheingehacktes, is unmistakable. Scheingehacktes Published two years after Hitler was elected, Brugmans 1935 short-story collection Scheingehacktes boldly expresses social and political criticism. 601 At the time, both its themes and the editorial independence of the books publisher equally demonstrate a risky non-conformity and civil courage. Scheingehacktes is a nonsense word created by Brugman that can be translated as mock-ground-meat or appearingcut-up and infers the unbridled sarcasm of Brugmans preferred genre, the literary

Brekle, Schriftsteller im antifaschistischen Widerstand, 183-91. After Hitler was in power, a number of native born German writers and intellectuals wrote letters to government officials protesting the campaign against Jews. As early as 1905, the Protestant writer Ricarda Huch thematized anti-Semitism in her short story Das Judengrab (The Jewish Grave). Huch wrote a letter protesting anti-Semitism to Hitler himself in April 1933. After the war, she would appropriate Nazi rhetoric and refer to the years of Hitler dictatorship as Jahren der Schande (Years of Disgrace) and the Reich der Hlle (Reich of Hell). A foreign born national would have never attempted this sort of direct activism because he or she would have been either immediately jailed or deported. 601 Til Brugman, Scheingehacktes (Berlin: Verlag der Rabenpresse, 1935).

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grotesque. But, even more so, cutting-up significantly suggests Hchs signature photomontage medium. Brugmans Scheingehacktes explores the nonsensical socio-economic and ecological implications of total vegetarianism. In the same volume, the short story Schaufensterhypnose (Shop-Window-Hypnosis) addresses the economic and

psychological dangers of uncontrolled consumerism. 602 As Lavin remarks, both Hch and Brugman shared a sophisticated critique of commodity culture, mixing explicit humor and implicit irony with an anger at its manipulations. 603 The literary merit of Scheingehacktes and its publisher, Victor Otto Stomps, owner of Berlins Rabenpresse, are cynically dismissed by Hchs biographer Heinz Ohff, who describes Stomp as a helpers-helper of all unrecognized geniuses. 604 Ohffs brusque dismissal of Brugman and her publisher has dissuaded scholars from fully exploring this collaborative project. 605 Yet further investigation of Stomps, as well as Brugmans volume, reveals that both are worthy of analysis and offer insight into artists books as well as Brugmans and Hchs collaborations. Stomps founded his small publishing company, the Rabenpresse, in 1926 and promoted the work of young authors. 606 As Cara Schweitzer writes, Stomps experimented with different papers and

Til Brugman, Schaufensterhypnose, in Scheingehacktes (Berlin: Verlag der Rabenpresse. 1935), 20-31, 603 Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 140. 604 Heinz Ohff, Hannah Hch (Berlin: Gebrder Mann, 1980), 20. 605 An exception to this is Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 190. Schweitzer acknowledges Stomps (1897-1970), unique contribution to Berlin publishing, and newly suggests symbolic correlations between Brugmans Scheingehacktes and Hchs photomontage oeuvre. 606 Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 190. In German, the adjective young when applied to an author does not necessarily reference a writers age, but rather signifies something experimental or new. Brugman was 47 in 1935.

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typography and his publications were typically decorated with original prints and/or hand-colored drawings. 607 Despite financial and political difficulties, until the late 1930s, Stomps did not conform to the strict conventions imposed upon publishers by the Nazis. Unlike other contemporary publishers who were Gleichgeschaltet, Stomps allowed his authors creative freedom. He was, however, finally forced to sell his business in 1937. 608 Hch created three pen and ink illustrations for Scheingehacktes. The volumes cover (fig. 4.10) features her pen and ink drawing of a cows head and the image appears later, somewhat enlarged, within the text. 609 Schweitzer, who discusses Hchs hand-colored copy of Scheingehacktes (fig. 4.11), remarks that its decorations appear to be inspired by the playful linguistic nuances suggested by the books title. 610 However, a copy of Scheingehacktes held in Den Haags Koninklijke Bibliotheek, which I have examined, is not hand-colored or in any way decorated. Scheingehacktes was a small printing of 150 copies and it can no longer be determined how many of them were hand-colored, or if the artist only decorated her own personal copy. Furthermore, scholars have proven that Hch occasionally altered or later changed her work. 611 Of interest here, however, is how Hchs hand-colored embellishments to the drawing suggest the photomontage medium. The segmented design Hch applied over the original cover illustration visually mimics layered graphic elements and has much in common with the artists signature
607 608

Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 190. Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 190. 609 Brugman, Scheingehacktes, (Berlin: Verlag der Rabenpresse, 1935), 9. 610 Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 191. 611 Joe Mills and Peter Boswell, Dating the Dompteuse: Hannah Hchs Reconfiguration of the Tamer, Photo Review 26/27, no. 4/1 (2003/ 2004): 14-19.

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photomontage technique. As Schweitzer observes, the animals head is divided into colored-fields. The eyes and nose are enclosed with colored circles. 612 In this way, she continues, the artist separates the image into individual elements. While Schweitzer does not specifically reference photomontage in her discussion, her perceptive observations regarding the compartmentalization of the image, and how it reflects the linguistic nuances of Brugmans title (i.e. cutting-up), nevertheless unmistakably links Hchs drawing to the photomontage medium. 613 Scheingehacktes In Brugmans Scheingehacktes, the fifth commandment (Thou shalt not kill) inspires a law that makes it illegal to kill for food. Vegetarianism spares animals from slaughter, and they initially rejoice. Chickens are so happy that they lay twice as many eggs, and cows produce double the amount of milk. Cow udders quickly evolve and move to the center of their front legs to accommodate their sole function as milk producers. However, the ensuing overabundance of animals compels farmers to increase their crops in order to feed them. A drawing of two dwarfed figures walking between monstrously oversized cabbages (fig. 4.12) suggests the efforts of farmers to create larger vegetables in order to accommodate the growing need for food. The dramatically oversized cabbages also resonate with a 1927 statement in which Hch expressed a desire to disrupt the convention of scale that regards man as the measure of all things:

612 613

Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 192. Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 191.

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I want to erase the boundaries that we humans have falsely erected around everything that surrounds us. . . I paint in order to give form to this idea. . . I want to demonstrate that small can be large, or large can be small. I will draw the world from the perspective of an ant, and tomorrow, from that of the moon. 614 Eventually, in Brugmans narrative, vegetarianism mutates into militancy, and, as a consequence, no living creature is permitted to eat vegetables. The volumes cover drawing depicts a cow chewing on a daisy and crying; the large tears rolling from the animals eyes likely represent the cows reaction to the sad turn of events in the narrative that banned it from eating grass and flowers. Nhrpillen (food-pills) are invented in the hope of alleviating hunger. 615 However, shortly thereafter food pills are deemed unlawful because they are comprised of organic matter. Vegetarian fanatics discover that, with the help of technical instruments, the screams of organic compounds and chemicals can be heard just as well as the earlier cries of animals being slaughtered; Even germs and bacteria want to live, they argued. 616 Before long, the rule not to kill is carried to such an extreme that sharpening a pencil or tearing a piece of paper is considered a moral transgression. Schweitzer comments that Brugmans
Excerpt from catalogue Kunstzaal De Bron exhibition, Den Haag, 1927, later translated from Dutch into German and reprinted in Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 127. lch mochte die festen Grenzen auswischen, die wir Menschen mit einer eigensinnigen Sicherheit um alles, was in unseren Bereich kam, gezogen haben. Ich male, um diesem Wunsch Form zu geben und ihn anschaulich zu machen. Ich will aufzeigen, dass klein auch gross sein kann und gross auch klein ist; allein der jeder Begriff Begriff seine Gultigkeit und all unsere menschlichen Gesetze verlieren ihre Gultigkeit. Ich wurde heute Standpunkt, von dem wir bei unserem Urteil ausgehen, muss anders gewahlt werden und sofort verliert die Welt aus der Sicht einer Ameise wiedergeben und morgen, so wie der Mond sie vielleicht sieht. 615 Brugmans food-pills resonate with the contemporary invention and commercial production of vitamin pills. See, Alfred C. Reed, Vitamins and Food Deficiency Diseases, Scientific Monthly 13, no. 1, (Jul., 1921): 70. The term vitamins was coined in 1911 by Casimir Funk (1884-1967). Funks study of vitamins was inspired by the earlier experiments of the Dutch physician, and 1929 Nobel-Prize recipient, Christian Eijkman (1858-1930). Brugman, a Dutch native, was likely aware of Eijkmans experiments, who first published his findings in 1889. See also, J. Ernestine Becker, The Vitamins, The American Journal of Nursing 40, Issue 5 (May 1940): 507-14. 616 Brugman, Scheingehacktes (Berlin: Verlag der Rabenpresse, 1935), 16.
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satirical reference to writing implements is difficult to ignore and unmistakably references contemporary literary censorship under Nazi rule. 617 While the theme of vegetarianism is taken to a ridiculous extreme in Scheingehacktes, the text also engages with the issue of sexism. Brugman satirically comments on the unwritten directive that compels women to be physically attractive and the constantly shifting, and perennially unattainable, nature of beauty standards. In Scheingehacktes, because everyone is starving and underweight, corpulence becomes newly fashionable. 618 Brugman takes this opportunity to satirically opine on the causal relationship between a womans physical attractiveness and her professional success; a state of affairs similarly recognized by contemporary social critic Siegfried Kracauer, and Weimar journalist Gabriele Tergit. As Tergit wrote, Everywhere the smart pretty girls have a much easier time of it. The pretty girl sells more, the boss prefers to dictate his letters to a pretty girl, and people prefer to buy hats or take lessons from pretty girls. Its cruel, but thats the way it is. 619 However, despite the unfair situation Tergit describes, she perpetrates it by rounding off her remarks with a conciliatory and motivational suggestion to her readers: Nowadays, pretty isnt something you are, its something you can become. 620

Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 191. Brugman, Scheingehacktes, in Brandt, 102. Stomach-reduction surgery is considered as a possible solution to the problem of mass hunger, but is soon discarded because it is too expensive to be practicable on a large scale. Here, Brugmans prescient fantasy anticipates what has become a routine twenty-first century medical procedure. 619 Mila Ganeva, Women in Weimar Fashion: Discourses and Display in German Culture, 19181933 (Rochester: Camden House, 2008), 3-4. 620 Ingrid Sharp, Gender Relations in Weimar Berlin, in Schnefeld, Practicing Modernity, 3; 11n9. Cited in Jens Brning, ed., Gabriele Tergit, Atem einer anderen Welt: Berliner Reportagen (Frankfurt a. M: Suhrkamp, 1994), 45-46. Translation Sharp.
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Like Kracauer and Tergit, Brugman acknowledged the contemporary correlation between a womans beauty and her success, yet unlike them, her satire critiqued this state of affairs. With sophisticated irony and anglicized jargon, she wrote, Unattainable obesity became synonymous with sex appeal . . . and dominated literature and dramaturgy. According to Brugman, the success of these women was not merely professional; their attractiveness also enabled them to enjoy the undivided attention of men: The fattest women in the world, although now as skinny as darning needles, newly, or rather, once again, attracted the attention of countless bachelors. 621 Obviously Brugman, who was neither heterosexual nor particularly thin, was critically commenting upon sexism and the pressure women commonly face to be, and remain, attractive. In her tongue-in- cheek satire, physical attractiveness not only guarantees professional success, but also assures women the male attention they purportedly crave. Schaufensterhypose Brugmans short story Schaufensterhypnose (Shop-Window-Hypnosis) focuses on the seductive appeal of mass merchandise and parodies the unfortunate chain of events that befall a man who must compulsively buy everything he sees. 622 Brugmans protagonist is overpowered by the volume of so many artfully crafted advertisements

Brugman, Scheingehacktes, in Brandt, 102. Die Schnheitsidealdem unerreichbaren Volldicken Fettliebigkeit war identisch mit sex appealund beherrschte die Lyrik sowie das Drama. 622 Brugman, Schaufensterhypnose, in Scheingehacktes (Berlin: Verlag der Rabenpresse, 1935), 20-31.

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and is helplessly driven to buy. 623 Soon, he cannot sleep. Plagued by an insatiable desire to acquire more and more, he claims, It is fruitless to fight the department store! First, it is futile to fight against the temptation of displays, and secondly, the effects of the resulting hypnotism. Are department stores any less attractive if one is poor? On the contrary! They prey on the harmless and defenseless poor man, and turn him into a greedy craving beast. 624 Eventually he buys so many things that he has to rent the apartment below his own to store them all. Soon his credit is ruined; the stores repossess nearly everything he purchased and his relatives step in and sell the rest. 625 Despite this, he is still overcome with a compulsion to buy, buy, buy, and, finally, must be incarcerated in an insane asylum. Hchs pen and ink illustration for Schaufensterhypnose (fig. 4.13) depicts a male figure among towers of mass-produced articles. His back turned to the viewer, the small figure is dwarfed by the goods before him. Dumbstruck, he is apparently hypnotized by the kaleidoscopic array of objects that surround him. As the narratives in Scheingehacktes indicate, Brugman and Hch mutually critiqued the perils of social and political conformity and consumerism. However, both in individual and collaborative works, the couple was clearly at their vitriolic best when engaging with gender, sexual exploitation, and the inequity of heterosexual relationships.

Brugman, Schaufensterhypnose, (1935), 26. Brugman, Schaufensterhypnose, (1935), 28. 625 Brugman, Scheingehacktes, in Scheingehacktes (Berlin: Rabenpresse, 1935), 31. Brugmans dark humor surfaces when she writes, Everything is gone! all except an ebony coffin decorated with carved angel heads, which, my relatives cant sell because Ive already laid in it, and Im sure I will need it someday.
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Weimar Sexism: Brugmans female victims and Hchs disturbed Brides Til Brugmans literary grotesques Tempora lehren Mores (Time teaches Mores) (undated, 1920s) and Himilia (1927) explore fashion, beauty standards, and rejuvenation from a female perspective. 626 Tempora satirizes youth and beautyobsessed Weimar culture and the social pressure exerted upon women to remain youthful and attractive. Tempora parodies the fanciful claims made by the cosmetic and medical industries that promise eternal youth and beauty. 627 In Tempora, Brugmans unhappy female protagonist wishes for nothing more than to be as attractive as the young women who garner her husbands interest. To this end, she purchases a Wundersalbe (miraculous salve) that guarantees results, but in her greed, smears a whole jar on her body at once. The salve is so powerful that within a day she is transformed into a fetus. Analogous to Brugmans satire, Hchs critical engagement with sexism is expressed in her 1927 painting, Die Braut (Pandora) (The Bride [Pandora]) (fig. 4.14). The painting, obviously modeled after a conventional wedding portrait, depicts a newly married couple. It is, however, radically disrupted by the giant head of the bride with the face of a wide-eyed toddler or baby doll. 628 This suggests the fantastic rejuvenating

Til Brugman, Tempora leren Mores, Die Nieuwe Stern 4 (1949): 688-92, was published in 1949. Everard, however, in Patchamatac, 97n25, convincingly claims the text was most likely written during her years with Hch and certainly before 1935. Makela similarly notes, in Grotesque Bodies, 218n44, that she agrees with Everards dating of the text. 627 Makela, Grotesque Bodies, 218n44, notes that Tempora leren Mores was written in German, but initially published in a Dutch translation in De Nieuwe Stern 4 (1949): 669-88. Despite the publication date, both she and Everard date the text to the 1920s. 628 Maria Makela, By Design, in The Photomontages of Hannah Hch (Minneapolis: Walker Art Center, 1989), 64, 76n87. This painting, Makela observes, is only one of four oil paintings the artist made using the principle of collage. Hch, Makela argues, apparently abandoned this artistic technique because

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effects of the mitacle-salve described in Brugmans Tempora. The substitution of a childs head for that of an adult bride might also indicate the childlike naivet of a young woman who has no idea what awaits her in marriage. In contrast to the stoic groom, the child-brides alienation and fear is evident in her wild and alarming stare. The mismatched couple is surrounded by winged symbols that suggest flight, sadness, and sorrow. Below them, a serpent encircles an apple implying the lost innocence of Adam and Eve. Above the couple, a floating heart is held down by a chain, and a single eye sheds a tear. Brugmans Tempora and Hchs Bride similarly represent women as helpless and powerless in relation to their male partners and bourgeois tradition. Like Tempora, Brugmans 1927 Himilia explores heterosexual romance, the fashion and beauty industry, and their potentially disastrous effects upon women. 629 Brugmans Himilia Brugmans literary grotesque Himilia is a narrative about a young woman who is engaged to be married and automatically suggests Hchs bride-themed works, such as Traum Seines Lebens (His Lifes Dream) (fig. 4.15); The Bride (Pandora); Buerliches Brautpaar (Peasant Wedding Couple) (fig. 4.16); and Die Braut (The Bride) (1933) (fig. 4.17). While Himilia resonates with Hchs shocking late Weimar brides, it also may be linked to her 1928 photomontage, English Dancer.

it made her feel uneasy. Unlike photomontage, she felt that greatly enlarging and transposing clippings of printed photos onto oil paintings was somehow contrary to the rules. 629 Til Brugman, Himilia, in Brandt, Vertippte Zebra, 141-50.

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Himilia revisits the theme of E.T.A. Hoffmanns short story, Der Sandmann (1816). In Sandmann, Hoffmanns protagonist falls in love with the beautiful life-like eyes of the automaton Olimpia. Brugman, however, reverses Hoffmanns narrative and, instead, tells the tale of a man who transforms his human bride into a beautiful automaton. Marion Brandt convincingly claims that Hoffmann (and later Brugman) named Olimpia after the mountain of the gods to symbolically represent the pinnacle of feeling. 630 Yet, unlike Hoffmanns narrative in which the male protagonist falls to his death, Brugmans ends in a womans death. As a result of her partners pursuit of the perfect woman, Himilia is literally operated to death Brugmans narrative satirizes the sexist-based exploitation of women, yet also resonates with the theme of the mechanized bride, a popular motif among early twentieth-century avant-garde artists. Brandt claims that this theme reflects the discursive engagement with industrial rationality and the social effects of industrialization at the time. 631 Like her, Matthew Biro observes that mechanical brides were an indication of the mechanization of both love and sexuality as a result of the modernization of everyday life. 632 In 1915, in the legendary avant-garde magazine 291, Paul Haviland addressed the contemporaneous conflation of female sexuality and mechanization: Man made the machine in his own image. . . . The machine is his daughter born without a mother. That is why he loves her. He has made the machine superior

Brandt, Vertippte Zebra, 167-68, das hchste der Gefhle, 215n13. Brandt, Vertippte Zebra, 167-68, 215n13. 632 Matthew Biro, Berlin Dada, in The Dada Cyborg: Visions of the New Human in Weimar Berlin (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009), 42.
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to himself. That is why he admires her. . . After making the machine in his own image he has made his human ideal machinomorphic. 633 Havilands statement serves to link Brugmans Himilia to the contemporary avantgarde and works including Francis Picabias sparkplug girl, La jeune fille americaine dans letat de la nudit (1915), and Marcel Duchamps The Bride Striped Bare by her Bachelors, Even (Large Glass) (1915-23). 634 Like Brugmans texts, Hchs photomontages criticize heterosexual courtship and marriage through the theme of the physically altered bride. Hoch's commentary on marriage, as Lavin dryly remarks, was acerbic throughout the Weimar years. 635 In her 1920 watercolor, Brgerliches Brautpaar (Bourgeois Wedding Couple) (fig. 4.18), Hchs disdain for this institution is clear. Bourgeois Wedding Couple portrays a wedding couple in front of a church in a cubist-inspired cityscape. The faceless groom stands arm-in-arm with a headless dressmakers dummy. The bride and the groom lack individual agency, yet the bride is obviously in a weaker position than her new husband; he lacks facial features, yet retains his mobility, while the bride has neither head nor limbs. A small coffee grinder isolated in the foreground of Brautpaar curiously resonates with the perpetual grinder of Duchamps Large Glass, a work that similarly addresses themes of frustrated courtship and marriage. Hchs dress-dummy bride also has much in common

Paul Haviland, in 291, no. 2 (February 1915) (unpaginated); Cited in Christine Moneera Laennac, The Assembly-Line Love Goddess, in Bodily Discursions: Genders, Representations, Technologies, Deborah S. Wilson and Christine Moneera Laennac, eds. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997), 83. 634 Gale, Dada and Surrealism, 87. Gale writes of this work, Its central subject is the unconsummated passion of nine uniformed bachelors . . . for their bachelor-machine: the bride floating seductively above. 635 Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 149.

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Man Rays Garderobe (Clothing-Stand) (1920) (fig. 4.19); both of these helpless figures reference womens cultural function as fashion horses. In 1925, a year before she met Brugman, Hch revisited the theme of the bride in The Dream of his Life (fig. 4.15). In the photomontage, Hoch arranged multiple images of a fashionable, yet, by contemporary standards erotically suggestive, bride throughout a grid of overlapping frames that appear to entrap and truncate her body. Ironically, even though her figure is brutally severed, the bride smiles sweetly, and this lends the image a subtext of satire and anger. 636 The bride-cum-dressmakers dummy in Hchs 1920 Bourgeois Bride, and, to a greater degree, the dismembered bride trapped in a grid of bourgeois respectability in Dream of his Life indicates that women relinquish individual agency when they marry. Yet, while Hchs critique of the institution of marriage and the subtext of satire is obvious in both bride-themed works, they are tame in comparison to the scathing, yet wickedly humorous visions of heterosexual coupling which were soon to follow. Easily one of Hchs funniest and shockingly grotesque visions of a heterosexual couple is her 1931 photomontage Buerliches Brautpaar (Peasant Wedding-couple) (fig. 4.16). Lavin regards Peasant Wedding Couple a companion piece to her earlier Bourgeois Wedding Couple (4.18). In the schematized farm landscape of cows and barn, two disembodied arms hold a large milk canister. 637 As Lavin remarks, the Peasant Wedding Couple, comprised of a black mans head floating above a pair of army boots, and his wife, a woman with a gorilla face and blond braids, carry racist
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Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 149. Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 149-51.

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overtones. 638 Makela reads the photomontage as a critique of the types valorized by Nazis and its suggestion of racial degeneracy made at the expense of people of color. 639 Similarly Biro comments that this disturbing couple lampoons the Nazis celebration of the racial purity of the blonde German peasant. 640 Like him, Weimar scholar Eric D. Weitz claims, Peasant Wedding Couple reinforces conventional racial views. 641 Hchs vision of unstable racial and gender identities and of mass society as multiracial and multiethnic, he elaborates was a powerful rejoinder to the racial ideology that prevailed almost everywhere in the Western world of the 1930s. 642 Considered within this context, scholars understandably stress the images racist overtones, yet none have ever considered it as a critique of heterosexuality. Hch created Peasant Wedding Couple in 1931 while living in a lesbian partnership and the same year she produced Liebe, a positive image of lesbian sexual intimacy. This suggests that Peasant Wedding Couple may be more than a critique of Nazi racial ideology. It may also be an ironic commentary aimed at the fascist valorization of procreative heterosexuality (which at the time considered childbearing a patriotic act and rewarded mothers with medals). 643 Viewed within this additional context, Peasant Wedding Couple is wickedly, and politically, subversive.
Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 151. Maria Makela, The Interwar Period, in The Photomontages of Hannah Hch (Minneapolis: Walker Art Center, 1997), 120. 640 Biro, The Dada Cyborg, 308n142. 641 Eric D, Weitz, Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007), 290. 642 Weitz, Weimar Germany, 290-91. 643 Erwin J. Haeberle, Swastika, Pink Triangle and Yellow Star: The Destruction of Sexology and the Persecution of Homosexuals in Nazi Germany, The Journal of Sex Research 17, no. 3, History and Sexuality (Aug., 1981): 277-78. The Nazis embarked on a program of redefining the role of women along traditional lines. Massive propaganda efforts through Nazi organizations for women and teenage girls
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While Hchs Peasant Wedding Couple depicts a male/female pair, her 1933 photomontage Die Braut (The Bride) (fig. 4.17) pictures the bride alone. Reduced to bust size, the Brides unnaturally long reptilian neck supports a strained-looking, composite bi-racial face. The stiff arc of her veil appears to weigh down her head and force it backwards, making it one of Hchs most disturbing bride-themed visions. An examination of Hchs Weimar era bride-themed works reveals that their anxious discomfort appears to increase each time she took up the theme. By 1927, a year after she met Brugman, the artist began to replace her pretty and stylishly docile brides with frightening medusa-like figures. Moreover, her disturbed and unsettling late Weimar brides suggest Brugmans grotesque female inventions. While no evidence irrefutably confirms that Hchs bride-themed works inspired Brugmans 1927 Himilia, or, alternately, that Brugmans text may have inspired Hchs collages, the stiff arc uncomfortably bending the neck of the artists 1933 Bride suggests Himilias veil billowing around her head like an Indian-headdress. 644 Hchs English Dancer and Himilia While Hchs bride-themed works may be linked to Brugmans Himilia it is feasible that the English Dancer (1928) was a creative response or intended to illustrate the 1927 text. As previously argued, the English Dancer comprises half of a lesbian double portrait (the other half of which is Russian Dancer). Yet, a close examination of

cultivated an ideal image of old fashioned German womanhood. Mothers with many children received a government medal, the "German Mother's Cross of Honor," as a reward for their efforts on behalf of a rising birth rate. This policy reflected both a desire to outbreed the European "inferior races" and to provide soldiers for future Nazi conquests. 644 Brugman, Himilia, in Brandt, 149.

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the English Dancer suggests an alternate additional reading: English Dancer may also be linked to Brugmans Himilia. Himilia is a proto-Stepford Wives scenario addressing the disastrous effects of sexism on a womans body. 645 Motivated by a desire for a perfect wife, the nameless narrator orders his fiances complete physical transformation and, in an effort to please him, she cheerfully agrees to a number of painful and fantastic surgical procedures. These procedures, however, ultimately cause her death. The body of Brugmans unfortunate female protagonist Himilia is cut-up, reconfigured, and, much like a photomontage is reconstructed from fragments. Himilias body is an over coded composite woman who confounds corporeal wholeness and illustrates what Lora Rempel characterizes as an anti-body. 646 Both Brugman and Hch addressed the objectification and the commodification of womens bodies and their critical engagement with the theme clearly anticipated significant late twentieth-century debates. Roughly fifty years would pass before the insidious relationship between beauty standards and sexism would be examined by second-generation feminists. 647

Til Brugman, Himilia, in Brandt, 141-50. The original manuscript dated Holland 1927 was first published in 1945, as Hemelia en het Woord, Maanblad voor de nieuwe Niederlandes Letterkunde (Amsterdam 1945/46): 233-40; Ira Levin, The Stepford Wives (New York: Random House, 1972), the movie (1975) was directed by Bryan Forbes. 646 Lora Rempel, The Anti-Body in Photomomtage: Hannah Hchs Women without Wholeness, in Sexual Artifice: Persons, Images, Politics, eds., Ann Kibbey, et al. (New York: New York University Press, 1994), 150. The multitude of referential body partseach loaded with its own message, overcodes and overkills the resulting pastiched composites[and] invokes[s] an abstract, disembodied sense of a womanan anti-body. 647 Susan Orbachs Fat is a Feminist Issue (London: Arrow Books, 1978) is generally recognized as launching a feminist-informed scholarship that examined how beauty standards are conflated with patriarchal oppression and control. The list of authors who have explored this theme is considerable, and beyond the scope of this paper. For an overview of related publications, see, Sylvia K. Blood, References, in Body Work: The Social Construction of Womens Body Image (London: Routledge, 2005),

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Moreover, Weimar works such as theirs eerily presage grotesque aspects of twenty-first century cosmetic surgery. Much like Hchs collage English Dancer, Himalias transformation begins with a new set of eyes. Her new golden glass eyes, are, however, not as attractive as the turquoise eyes in the window the couple discovers as they are leaving the glassmakers Potsdamerplatz shop. 648 But, after Himilias eyes are replaced with turquoise, her hair no longer matches them. This occasions her future husband to have Himilas hair plucked from her head in a painful five-hour process. After Himilias hair is completely removed, a gardener plants charming flowers on her head that bloom every seven years and suggest the oversized blossoms that jut out of the English Dancers head. 649 The quasi-medical procedures described in Brugmans narrative were science fiction in 1927, and their improbability served to hyperbolize patently ridiculous details. True to the grotesque literary genre, however, Brugman interweaves fantastic details with plausible elements. For example, she mentions the manufacturing concern Zeiss, then (as today) a respected German company. Its new product, however, the Kardiometra, a machine that controlled the rate of Himilias heartbeat, is Brugmans invention. 650 At the time, Brugman translated a number of medical texts and was
137-44; Deborah S. Wilson and Christine Moneera Laennac, Bibliography, Bodily Discursions: Genders, Representations, Technologies (Albany: New York State University of New York Press, 1997), 245-62. 648 Schader, Virile, Vamps, 174, 268n64, writes that lesbian scholars claim golden eyes (goldagigkeit) were contemporaneously associated with lesbianism and may have been inspired by Honore de Balzacs scandalous 1834 novel La fille aux yeux dor. In the context of Brugmans tale, it could be that Himilia had to relinquish her golden eyes, i.e. her lesbianism, in order to become the perfect heterosexual bride. See also, Hanna Hacker, Frauen und Freundinnen: Studien zur weiblichen Homosexualitt am Beispeil sterreich, 1870-1938 (Weinheim: Beltz, 1987), 210. 649 Brandt, Vertippte Zebra, 143. Brugman describes them as entzckendes alle sieben Jahren blhendes Gewachs auf ihrem Kopf. 650 Til Brugman, Himilia, in Brandt, Vertippte Zebra, 145.

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perhaps inspired by this. Yet, the authors surgical inventions also uncannily anticipate body-altering procedures which have long since become reality such as breast-implants, cornea-replacements, pacemakers, open-heart, and stomach-reduction surgeries. Brugmans surgical cut-and-paste inventions also clearly reflect the physical improbability of Hchs grotesque photomontaged bodies. During the course of the narrative, Himilias arms and legs are replaced with wooden prosthetics. Lacquered pink, they are set in motion with electric switches. After their wedding ceremony, Himilias husband attempts to adjust the frequency of his new wifes blinking eyelids, but throws the wrong switch and sets her legs in motion. Suddenly Himilia began to kick her legs dangerously high in a cannibalistic can-can. 651 Similar to Brugmans Himilia, the English Dancer frenetically kicks her legs and her head appears to tip helplessly. The bristling drapery that barely covers the English Dancers ankles suggests Himilias frenzy. Due to her wild movement, Himilias husband is unable to approach her, and her legs knock him unconscious. When he comes to, Himilias body has fallen apart. Reduced to a pile of wooden fragments, glass shards, a wax nose, rubber breasts and a prosthetic hand, much like Himilia, Hchs English Dancer looks as if she too might, at any moment, fall into a heap of inchoate pieces. The Fetishization of the Female Body in Weimar and Hchs Marlene In Weimar, the commodification of women, and the expectation that they be physically attractive, was endorsed and fueled by the popular media. Due to the

Brugman, Himilia, in Brandt, 149. [D]enn pltzlich fing Himilia an die Beine gefhrich hoch zu heben und einen kannabalistische Cancan zu tanzen. This detail is uncannily similar to the fatal, outof-control dancing of an automated woman featured in the 1975 movie The Stepford Wives.

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influence of advertising and fashion magazine culture The New Woman was both a commodity and a customer. 652 Even though Weimar advertising images were designed to attract female customers, they were, as Lavin explains, complex representations of . . . anxieties and desires . . . In beauty product ads . . . women often were addressed as "empowered" buyers, but only insofar as their consumer function . . . would enable them to construct themselves through makeup, hair-care items, and clothes as interchangeable products or commodities. 653 Within their closely interrelated roles as consumer and commodity Weimar women were alternately empowered and/or enslaved. Their power, or powerlessness, was largely determined by their ability to purchase products that conformed to massmediated concepts of feminine beauty and lured them with the promise of desirability. Within such an environment it comes as no surprise that in Weimar, a womans appearance went hand-in-hand with her marketability and success. 654 Brugmans inventory of individual body parts in Himilia critiques the unnatural compartmentalization and symbolic fragmentation of womens bodies and selves. Arguably, the perception of a woman as a compilation of individual body parts objectifies her and results in subjective fragmentation and self-alienation. However, in Weimar, media representations of women as isolated and interchangeable fragments were ubiquitous. In her discussion of Weimar fashion photography, Mila Ganeva links the representation of individual body parts in contemporary fashion imagery to the cultural objectification of women. In her discussion of a fashion photograph she writes,
Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 2. Here, one is reminded of the Weimar journalist Gabriele Tergit who wrote, Pretty is something you can become. 653 Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 140-41. 654 Mila Ganeva, Women in Weimar Fashion: Discourses and Display in German Culture, 19181933 (Rochester: Camden House, 2008), 3-4.
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the two legs appear as mere objects and the photograph could be considered a stilllife. 655 The photographers still-life representation of body fragments instead of organic wholeness . . . seems to invite female spectatorship to reflect critically upon a prevalent fetishization. 656 A cursory examination of Weimar periodicals bears out Ganevas claims; womens bodies are often reduced into fragments such as hands, legs, feet, or faces. A 1924 BIZ advertisement promoting a contest (fig. 4.20), for example, highlights a womans legs and hands. Her legs are ogled by a line of seven men, themselves fetishized and reduced to heads. Three of the men pictured wear monocles, amplifying their status as gazing subjects. 657 Moreover, the men appear to be looking up the womans dress suggesting that, in addition to the advertised 2500 Rentenmark, she is also part of the prize. The image is strikingly similar to one published by Hirschfeld in 1930 (fig. 4.21) appropriately labeled Beinfetischismus (Leg-fetishism). The montage depicts monumentally-sized female legs sitting upon the faade of the Berliner Dom, which is decorated with the words Erotik in der Reklame (eroticism in advertising). 658 Hirschfelds illustration, but more importantly its caption, confirms that contemporary theorists recognized that the representation of female body parts in order to market products constituted a form of [sexual] fetishism.

Mila Ganeva, Fashion Photography and Womens Modernity in Weimar Germany: The Case of Yva, NWSA Journal 15, no. 3 (Fall 2003): 14. 656 Ganeva, Fashion Photography, 14. 657 The monocle not only symbolically served to hyperbolize the gaze by foregrounding the eye, but was generally worn by wealthy (or those who aspired to or simulated personal wealth) gentlemen. 658 As Hirschfelds caption explains, the image is taken from a recent issue of Die Aufklrung (The Explanation) that features an article in which modern leg-fetishism is addressed.

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Analogous to contemporary fashion and advertising imagery, Hch often represented women in her photomontages as a pastiche of individual, and fetishized, body parts. Her 1930 photomontage Marlene (4.22) foregrounds the sexual objectification and fetishization of the female body. Created the same year as Hirschfelds Geschlechtskunde, the photomontage depicts oversized female legs on a pedestal being ogled from below by two appreciative men and illustrates the dynamics of fetishization. Marlene obviously references Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992), yet in the photomontage, the artist reduces the legendary German actress to a pair of legs and erotically enticing red lips. While Hchs Scrapbook includes several pictures of contemporary actresses, Marlene may be linked to lesbian subculture. Dietrich, who was rumored to have had a number of lesbian affairs, was wildly popular among Berlin lesbians. 659 In 1935, Hch foregrounded a womans legs on a pedestal once again in Der Schuss (The Kick) (fig. 4.23). While the closely configured space in Marlene implies an intimate scene, the distance between the legs and the male figures below them in Der Schuss is vertiginous and amplified by an aerial view of an empty and austere, fascistinspired Platz. Nonetheless, both Marlene and Der Schuss (akin to Brugmans Himilia) emphasize the eroticized fragmentation of the female body and evoke its fetishization.

Kreische, Lesbische Liebe im Film, in Boll, Eldorado, 188. Kreische claims that Marlene Dietrich also privately wore mens clothing. Kreische cites Weimar actress Herta Thiele who, in a 1981 interview, stated, Es gab damals einen Trend, sich wie die Dietrich anzuziehen und mglichst so zu sein unter Freundinnen, und jede nannte sich Marlene wie sie. (There was a trend among lesbians to dress like Dietrich and everyone called themselves Marlene). See, Karola Gramann, Heide Schlppman, and Amadou Seitz, Interview mit Herta Thiele, in Frauen und Film, no. 28 (Berlin 1981): 40.

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Similar to Brugmans unfortunate Himila, Hchs women are often grotesque composites. 660 Indeed both artists often represented female bodies as crudely cobbled individual parts. While Brugman emphasized the bodys renegade uncontrollability; Hchs hybrids are comprised of uncomfortably alien fragments. Nonetheless, both artists exposed and parodied the discursive logic of sexism, advertising culture, Weimar eugenics, and ethnography. 661 Conclusion As this chapter demonstrates, an appreciation of Hchs oeuvre is greatly enhanced when considered in relation to the writings of her partner Til Brugman. Together from 1926 through 1935, the couples shared experience of, and critical engagement with Weimar culture and its subsequent shift and decline, informed, and, to a large extent, determined their individual and joint artistic production. My examination of Hch and Brugman was significantly inspired and enabled by the pioneering contributions and independent critical thought of Bosch, Everard, Dech,
Further examples include, but are not limited to Die Ssse (The Sweet One) (1926), and Fr ein Fest gemacht (Dressed for a Party) (1936). 661 Intrinsic to Weimar culture, fashion discourse and ethnography similarly commodified and objectified the human body, and equally rendered beauty and character quantifiable. The intersection of these discourses is patently expressed in 1932 photograph of a cage-like contraption that supposedly measures a womans beauty and symbolically merges fashion, technology, and racial discourse. Captioned Eine Maschine die die Schnheit misst, (A Machine that measures Beauty) appears in the Berliner Illustrierter Zeitung 41, no. 46 (1932): 1531, and is pictured in Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 57. The concept of measuring beauty was not limited to women or the exclusive domain of fashion magazines. In the service of racial classification, mens facial features were also measured. See, Pini, Liebeskult und Liebeskitsch, 113, 400, Archiv Gerstenderg, Wietze. The image is easily linked to the writings of the popular Weimar ethnographer Hans F.K. Gnther. Gnther (1891-1968) identified five races and distinguished the superior Nordic from the other four based on skull size and bodily characteristics. See, Hans F.K. Gnther, The Racial Elements of European History, trans. G.C. Wheeler (London: Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1927), 4-8. The Nordic Dolichecephalic skull was considered superior to the shorter and broader Brachycephalic skull of other races.Gnther was also a respected figure among the international scientific community. Wilson D. Wallis wrote a concise and favorable review of Gnthers Rassenkunde Europas. Mit besonderer Bercksichtigung Rassengeschichte des Hauptvlkes indogermanischer Sprache (Munich: J.F. Lehmann Verlag, 1929). See, American Anthropologist, vol. 32, Issue 3 (1930): 546-47.
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and Brandt. My study, however, newly examines previously undisclosed aspects of social engagement and criticism in Hchs photomontages and in Brugmans literary production. While Hch and Brugman were clearly interested in similar themes, beyond two documented joint projects, it is difficult to determine the actual extent of their collaboration. Did Hchs photomontages inspire Brugmans radical linguistic inventions; or were Hchs composite creatures intended to illustrate and visually reinforce the biting wit of Brugmans literary grotesques? As an exploration of the couples close and ongoing creative partnership indicates, both questions must be answered with an emphatic yes. While this study contributes to the critical appreciation of Brugmans texts, an examination of the couples lesser known projects enhances our comprehension of Hchs oeuvre.

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CHAPTER V Weimar Sexology, Sexual Subculture, and Hannah Hchs Tamer

Introduction A number of Hannah Hchs photomontages attest to her interest in exploring gender and sexual identity. Yet, unlike the awkward and blatantly ill-matched mixedgendered bodies that characterize the artists Dada-era oeuvre, Hchs late Weimar photomontages are visually subtle. Most notably, the artists 1930 photomontage Dompteuse (Tamer) (fig. 5.1), an image that smoothly combines gendered elements, suggests an engagement with sexology and Weimar sexual subculture. Indeed, the seamless combination of male, female, and androgynous body parts in the Tamer clearly teased the contemporary boundaries of popular representation. Described by scholars as a bisexual mannequin, 662 oscillating between genders, 663 or wildly androgynous, 664 the Tamer is arguably one of Hchs most sexually ambiguous images. While Hchs Tamer clearly suggests sexual ambiguity, according to Maria Makela, it also intervened in medical debates about gender formation and alteration, but likewise contributed to the discourse of sexual deviancy as presented at Hirschfelds Institute of Sexology. 665 While no evidence suggests that Hirschfeld or his ilk ever saw Hchs Tamer, it is nevertheless easily linked to contemporary sexological materials.

Joe Mills and Peter Boswell, Dating the Dompteuse: Hannah Hchs Reconfiguration of the Tamer, The Photo Review 26/27, n. 4/1 (2003/2004): Boswell, 18. 663 Maud Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife: The Weimar Photomontages of Hannah Hch (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), 190-97; 200-03. 664 Joe Mills and Peter Boswell, Dating the Dompteuse, Mills, 15. 665 Makela, Grotesque Bodies, 209; 214.

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This chapter will present visual evidence that significantly expands upon Makelas important, yet largely unexplored claim linking Hchs Tamer to contemporary sexological discourse. Furthermore, I will newly tie the image to an expanded context which includes Weimar sexual subculture, medico-scientific material, and the popular media. My starting point in this discussion will be the New Woman, a figure that deviated from the early twentieth-century gender status quo and whose purported androgyny may be discursively linked to the transvestite. The transvestite, a figure initially classified in Magnus Hirschfelds 1910 publication of the same name, linked related discussions of lesbians, bearded women, and dual-gendered hermaphrodites. Hirschfelds sexological publications continue to inform present-day gender discourse and are central to this chapter. A homosexual himself, Hirschfeld declared that gender variance was a natural phenomenon and actively campaigned for the decriminalization of homosexuality and the acceptance of non-normative sexual identities. Moreover, he was energetically involved in the creation and support of Berlins sexual subculture. The New Woman In Germany, the New Woman signified the tensions between Wilhelmine tradition and contemporary Weimar reality. Shortly after the war, women were granted the right to vote and new opportunities for employment in urban centers radically altered the social parameters of their lives. The New Woman, whose economic and sexual independence upset the boundaries of bourgeois tradition and propriety, embodied both the opportunities and the controversies which accompanied womens changing roles in Weimar. In her acceptable guise, the New Woman represented the
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postwar promise of social and economic progress, yet negatively, she disrupted the gendered status quo and posed a threat to bourgeois social tradition. Alternately embraced and spurned in the popular media, the multi-faceted New Woman functioned as a repository for all manner of contemporary female personae and offered a wide range of interpretive and associative possibilities. For this reason, scholars describe the New Woman as a symptom of the uneasy modernity which characterized Weimar culture as a whole. 666 The New Woman was linked to androgynous female fashions. Because gender was primarily expressed and defined through clothing in the early twentieth-century, clothing debates were often at the center of contemporary discussions regarding womens social and sexual roles. At the time, the idea of womens dress as a screen for the projection of modernity was a prominent cultural feature. As Kaja Silverman observes, every transformation within a societys vestimentary codes implies some kind of shift within its ways of articulating subjectivity. 667 Relatedly, Barbara Kosta observes that in Weimar, the segment of the female population that cast themselves as modern strove to attain the same freedoms and privileges of men and styled themselves accordingly. 668 While others claim that womens adoption of an androgynous style was not merely an expression of fashionability, but a weapon of self-

Marsha Meskimmon and Shearer West, eds., Visions of the Neue Frau Visions of the Neue Frau: Woman and the Visual Arts in Weimar Germany (Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1995), 6. 667 Kaja Silverman, Fragments of Fashionable Discourse, in Studies in Entertainment: Critical Approaches to Mass Culture, Tania Modelski, ed. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996), 149. 668 Barbara Kosta, Unruly Daughters and Modernity: Irmgard Keuns Gilgi-eine von uns, The German Quarterly 68, no. 3 (Summer 1995): 279.

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creation and sexual assertion. 669 Scholars generally agree that the adoption of androgynous and masculine fashions by women during the 1920s was an expression of social and economic independence. Yet, some claim it signaled an exploration of gender roles, an argument which also supports observations that early twentieth-century lesbian identity was closely tied to, and generally expressed through clothing. 670 In either case, during the 1920s, clothing styles that diverged from contemporary masculine and feminine stereotypes commonly indicated gender deviance. As a result, New Women were often associated with non-normative sexual behavior. Whereas the mainstream media warned of womens imminent masculinization, Berlins lesbian crossdressers celebrated masculine clothing and hairstyles. While Magnus Hirschfeld objectively studied mnnliche Frauen (mannish women), in stark contrast, the Weimar press sensationalized mannish women as freaks, or linked them to prostitution. 671 Given the discursive intensity surrounding womens clothing and its relationship to sexuality and gender, it comes as no surprise that Weimar lesbians also weighed in on the theme. In 1928, a front page article in Frauen-Liebe addressed the historical relationship between masculine dress and womens emancipation. Its inconclusive tone, however, suggests that even among contemporary lesbians, the issue was a controversial one. The close relationship between costume and female emancipation was
Meskimmon and West, Visions of the Neue Frau, 6. Esther Newton, The Mythic Mannish Lesbian: Radclyffe Hall and the New Woman, in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 9, no. 4. (1984): 558-60. Newton explores the mannish lesbians impact on the new woman discourse. She claims that the late nineteenth-century new womans partial cross-dressing identified her as a member of a new social category lesbian. 671 The term mnnliche Frauen appears several times in Hirschfelds many publications and are too numerous to list here.
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evident in the womens movement in the past. During the French Revolution Olympe de Gouges . . . summoned her female comrades to wear mens clothing. In 1905, Anatole Frances Sur la pierre blanche, came close to the future image of women who perform masculine work. He describes their masculine haircuts [Bubikopfschnitt] and male clothing. . . Should we adopt the belief that masculine clothing represents a conscious step toward emancipation? 672 In sum, the popular, sexological, and lesbian discourses of manly dress and the neue Frau were routinely linked in Weimar and their proximity is central to comprehending Hchs oeuvre. Moreover, the artists contemporary situation intersected with all three discourses; Hch was a self-supporting lesbian, lived in an urban environment, and had a basic knowledge of sexology. 673 However, before her oeuvre is more fully examined in relation to these discourses, the major currents of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century sexual science must briefly be outlined. Nineteenth-century Sexology: Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, Carl Westphal, and Richard von Krafft-Ebing Sexology, or sexual science, incorporates various disciplinary approaches in the study of human sexual behaviors and relationships. In late nineteenth-century Europe, sexology medicalized a host of behaviors that had previously been considered criminal, immoral, or sinful. The proper channels (i.e. procreative) of sexual gratification informed early sexological debates. Hence, the focus of nineteenth-century sexologists was ensuring reproduction and regulating sexual excess. Unsurprisingly, lesbians and

Dr. Eugen Grster, Hosenrolle und Frauenemanzipation, (Trouser-roles and Womens Emancipation) Frauen Liebe und Leben 2 (Berlin 1928): 17. 673 Hchs lesbian partner Til Brugman visited Hirschfelds Institute in 1931, and Brandt claims that both women were personally acquainted with Hirschfeld.

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homosexuals, whose sexual activities and desires did not conform to this model, were pathologized and stigmatized. The Hannover native Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (18251895), an avowed homosexual, wrote the first extended study, and defense, of male same-sex desire, Forschungen ber das Rthsel der mannmnnlichen Liebe (Studies/ Research regarding the Riddle of ManManly Love). 674 Ulrichs Studies, published as twelve treatises between 1863 and 1879, deploy philosophy, law, history, literature, religion, and mythology to develop the theory of the homosexual as belonging to a third-sex. 675 Ulrichs writings represent an early and valuable contribution to the process of homosexual self-definition; however, their humanist, rather than medico-scientific, tenor, and pseudonymous authorship, rendered them somewhat anachronistic. Nonetheless, Ulrich contributed significantly to what French theorist Michel Foucault characterized as a broad cultural project aimed at defining the homosexual, a process that began during the seventeenth-century. 676 According to Foucault, the definition of the homosexual was intrinsically bound to religious, juridical, and medical institutions. The ongoing process of defining the homosexual through cultural institutions, as described by Foucault, gained momentum during the late nineteenth-century.

Hubert, Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, in Rosario, 27. Hubert, Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, in Rosario, 29. The term third sex was coined by Theophile Gautier to describe the indepently-minded female protagonist of his 1835 novel, Mademoiselle Maupin. Because homosexuality was a social stigma, Ulrichs, who did not want to disgrace his family, published under the pseudonym Numa Numantius. Ulrich dubbed homosexuals Urnings (named after Uranian love as described in Platos Symposium). 676 Michel Foucault, The Incitement to Discourse, in The History of Sexuality, Volume I: An Introduction, trans. Robert Hurley (New York: Vintage Books, 1990), 17-35.
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In 1870, the Berlin neurologist Carl Westphal (1833-1890) published an essay in a medical journal which described homosexuality as a neurological illness. 677 Westphals model of homosexuality was adopted by the Viennese psychiatrist and sexological pioneer, Baron Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing (1840-1902). Until it was challenged in 1895 by Hirschfeld, the concept of inversion determined the perception and representation of homosexuality and homosexuals. In 1886, Krafft-Ebing published Psychopathia Sexualis: eine klinische forensische Studie (Sexual Pathology: A Clinical and Forensic Study). 678 Krafft-Ebings study was initially printed as a pamphlet, but eventually developed into an exhaustive compilation of all manner of sexual proclivities and practices. 679 Gender scholars aptly describe Krafft-Ebings Psychopathia Sexualis as an encyclopedia of sexual perversions that coined many of the terms we currently use. 680 Psychopathia Sexualis was not intended for the general public. Its pages, the author explained, were meant to support the research of serious men active in the natural sciences and jurisprudence. 681 As KrafftEbing intended, Psychopathia Sexualis was routinely consulted as a court manual and enabled expert testimony in matters pertaining to sexuality in judicial proceedings. Extended passages dealing with explicit details, erotic impulses, or sexual behavior,
Carl Westphal, Die Kontrre Sexualempfindung: Symptom eine neuropathologischen (psychopathologischen) Zustandes (Contrary Sexual Feelings: Symptoms of a neuropathological (psycopathological) State), Archiv fr Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten (Berlin) 1869-70; 2, 73-108. 678 Richard von Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathia Sexualis, mit besondere Bercksichtigung der contrren sexualempfindung: eine klinische forensische Studie (Stuttgart: Ferdinand Enke, 1886). 679 By 1893, Psychopathia was in its 8th printing and 442 pages in length. 680 Vernon Rosario, Homosexuality and Science: A Guide to the Debates (Santa Barbara, CA: ABCCLIO, Inc., 2002), 18. 681 Richard von Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathia Sexualis, mit besonderer Bercksichtigung der contrren Sexualempfindung: eine klinisch-forensische Studie, 8th ed. (1893; repr., Elibron Classics, 2005), v.
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were written in Latin, the contemporary language of educated men. This enabled the author to avoid censorship and prosecution, as well as to maintain an aura of scientific mystique. As Krafft-Ebing explained, his use of Latin terminus technicis was twofold: It dissuades the unbefitting reader, and serves to euphemistically temper especially disgusting passages. 682 However, the interest in sexual deviance was apparently so great that Krafft-Ebings book was regularly expanded and revised to reflect the most current research. A mere pamphlet in 1886, Psychopathia Sexualis grew at each subsequent printing (eleven in all) and became the most translated and widely published Victorian sexological work. 683 Like most of his contemporaries, Krafft-Ebing believed that the primary purpose of sex was procreation and classified any form of sexual desire that did not lead towards that goal as a perversion. Homosexuality, he reasoned, was a perversion because the sexual instinct does not lead to procreation, nor correspond with the primary and secondary physical sexual characteristics. However, he also significantly claimed that homosexuality was not a sin or a crime, but caused by processes occurring during gestation which resulted in a sexual inversion in the brain. Hence, the term invert came to designate both the male and female homosexual and was generally and widely accepted. 684 Krafft-Ebings classification of sexual inversion as an inborn disposition, rather than a learned vice, opened the door to new debates regarding the causes and nature of homosexuality.
Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathia Sexualis, 8th ed., v. Rosario, Homosexuality and Science, 18. 684 Toni Brennan and Peter Hagerty, Who was Magnus Hirschfeld and what do we need to know? History of Philosophy and Psychology 9 (1) (2007): 19.
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Despite Krafft-Ebings claim that sexual deviancy was a perversion, at the time homosexuals nevertheless considered Psychopathia liberating and progressive. Psychopathia is primarily comprised of sexual biographies and autobiographies closely modeled after the religious confession. Foucault has argued that in Western society, the confession is generally regarded as a liberatory practice and is valorized as a route to truth, hence, its adoption in medical and human science. 685 Furthermore, he claimed that confession is a subjectifying process that eventually leads to normalization, an argument particularly relevant to homosexuals who were historically regarded as abnormal. The process of establishing homosexual subjectivity was greatly facilitated by many first-person accounts of sexual deviancy in Psychopathia Sexualis. Indeed, as scholars recognize, subjects become subjects through the discourses they speak. 686 Importantly, as Harry Oosterhuis remarks, the individuals who provided Krafft-Ebing with sexual testimonies were educated and highly articulate. They volunteered personal sexual information because they considered it an opportunity to explain the naturalness of their ascribed and perceived difference. 687 Like Foucault, Oosterhuis stresses the role of the confessional relationship to the early expression of homosexuality and convincingly claims that the confession/case history was the prototype for modern homosexual identity and has played an important role in the making of sexual
Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, Volume I: An Introduction, trans. Robert Hurley (New York: Vintage Books, 1990), 3-13. 686 Sylvia K. Blood, Body Work: The social construction of womens body image (London: Routledge, 2005), 97. Blood writes, subjects speak themselves into being, using the patterns available in culture. 687 Harry Oosterhuis, Autobiography and Sexual Identity, in Stepchildren of Nature: KrafftEbing, Psychiatry, and the Making of Sexual identity (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2000), 223.
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categories and identities. 688 Hence, despite Krafft-Ebings pathologizing discourse, his work is largely responsible for establishing the preconditions for early homosexual emancipation. 689 Magnus Hirschfeld The transformation of sexology from a largely inaccessible medical discourse to one suitable for a lay audience was largely the work of the German reformer Magnus Hirschfeld. Hirschfeld is perhaps best known as the founder of the Berlin Institute for Sexual Science (1919). Hirschfelds research began as an outgrowth of Krafft-Ebings work. Like Krafft-Ebing, Hirschfeld was a medical doctor, however, in stark contrast to Krafft-Ebing who wrote for an exclusive and limited community of educated men, Hirschfeld was particularly keen on writing for, and enlightening, the bourgeois reading public. Indeed, much of Hirschfelds work was devoted to dispelling public ignorance regarding homosexuality. Scholars significantly remark that Hirschfeld was a reformer rather than a revolutionary with a confirmed confidence in the legal system and the petition. 690 He was convinced that if properly informed and educated, the public would eventually accept the homosexual. Central to Hirschfelds activism was the notion that homosexuality was natural, and therefore should not be punished.

Oosterhuis, Autobiography and Sexual Identity, 222-23. Mark Johnson, Transgression and the Making of Western Sexual Science, in Transgressive Sex: Subversion and Control in Erotic Encounters, Hastings Donnan and Fiona Magowan, eds., (Oxford, UK: Berghahn Books, 2009), 172-73. 690 Toni Brennan and Peter Hegarty, Who was Magnus Hirschfeld and What do we need to know? History of Philosophy and Psychology 9 (1) (2007): 15.
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In 1896, under the pseudonym Theodore Ramien, Hirschfeld published his first work in defense of homosexuality, Sappho and Socrates. 691 The pamphlets subtitle declared the authors intention to explain the love of men and women for people of their own sex. Among late nineteenth-century European homosexuals and lesbians, Sappho and Socrates automatically suggested homosexuality. Links to ancient Greek culture not only lent contemporary homosexuals a much desired sense of historicity and tradition, but also reflected the idealization of classical culture at the time. 692 These contemporary associations explain how a familiarity with Platos Symposium became a coded cipher of recognition among male homosexuals, while knowledge of Sapphos recently discovered poetic fragments implied an awareness of lesbian love, or, as it was alternately termed, sapphism. 693 While Sappho and Socrates implicates ancient Greek

Magnus Hirschfeld, [Theodore Ramien] Sappho und Sokrates: Oder Wie erklrt sich die Liebe der Mnner und Frauen zu Personen des eigenen Geschlechts? (Leipzig: Verlag Max Spohr, 1896). (Sappho and Socrates: Or How Can One Explain the Love of Men and Women for People of Their Own Sex?). 692 In Victorian England and Wilhelmine Germany, Greece was recognized as the first culture to understand the obligations and standards of intellectual morality. The influence and inspiration of ancient Greek culture upon a number of late nineteenth- and early twentieth century cultural discourses is of no small importance. It is evidenced in the flowing tunics and robes favored by late nineteenth-century clothing reformers and dancers inspired by ancient Grecian costume. This fashion foregrounded the unfettered sensuality associated with heroic classical nudity and complemented the momentous cultural discourse in favor of sexual liberation. See, Terri J. Gordon, Fascism and the Female Form: Performance Art in the Third Reich, Journal of History of Sexuality 11, no. 1/ 2 (Jan.-Apr., 2002): 196. As Gordon writes, Greek cultural norms were deeply ingrained in the body culture movement, from the ideal of the sculpted, athletic male body in [Friedrich Ludwig] Jahn's gymnastics clubs to Duncan's vision of a Greek dance of the future to [Rudolf von] Laban's open-air dance temples. 693 Discursive lnks between ancient Greek culture and homosexuality persisted well into the 1920s. In 1926, Albert Moll, Polizei und Sitte, 102, writes that Greek references in personal ads are codes for perverse homosexual and lesbian searches: Hufig wird in den Anzeigen perverser Verkehr gesucht. Bestimmte Wrter lassen das Perverse in der Anzeige erkennen. Eine homosexuelle Frau sucht eine Freundin. Der Briefe soll unter der Chiffre Lesbos oder Sappho abgegeben werden. Sappho, die griechische Dichterin brnstiger Gedichte an Freundinnen, lebte auf der Insel Lesbos. Auch Mnner haben solche Erkennungschiffren. Der Freund, Uranus, Eros, Plato und hnliche Worte spielen in den Anzeigen eine Rolle. Links between ancient Greek culture and homosexuality were not limited to Germany. See, R.S. Koppen, Civilised Minds, Fashioned Bodies and the Nude Future, in Virginia Woolf, Fashion and Literary Modernity (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009), 137; Joseph Bristow, Symonds

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culture, Hirschfeld credits Friedrich Nietzsches mid-nineteenth-century declaration what is natural cannot be immoral as the inspiration for his text. 694 In 1897, Magnus Hirschfeld founded the Scientific Humanitarian Committee (SHC) (Wissenschaftlich-humanitre Komittee) in Berlin. The primary aim of the committee was to campaign against Paragraph 175 of the German penal code (the law outlawing male homosexual acts). The Committees motto was per scientiam ad justitiam or, through science/knowledge to justice and is emblematic of Hirschfelds lifes work. 695 Hirschfelds 1901 pamphlet Was muss das Volk Wissen ber der Dritte Geschlecht? (What should the public know about the Third Sex?) aimed to educate and explain male and female homosexuality to the reader. 696 Hirschfelds 1905 claim that all forms of sexual expression were intrinsically natural fortuitously dovetailed with the zeitgeist. During the late nineteenth century, mass production and industrialization were increasingly perceived among many Western European artists and intellectuals as dehumanizing and inspired a renewed

History, Elliss Heredity: Sexual Inversion, in Bland and Doan, Sexology in Culture, 85; The centrality of ancient Greek culture within early lesbian self-definition runs like a thread through Rodriguezs biography of the scandalous sapphist Natalie Barney. Suzanne Rodriguez, Wild Heart: A Life: Natalie Clifford Barneys Journey from Victorian America to Belle poque Paris (New York: Harper Collins, 2002). 694 Brennan and Hegarty, Who was Magnus Hirschfeld?, 17. Hirschfeld makes this comment on page 35 of Sappho and Socrates. 695 Brennan and Hegarty, 14. Hirschfeld founded the committee with three professional colleagues, the Leipzig publisher Max Spohr, lawyer Eduard Olberg, and the writer Franz Josef von Blow. 696 Magnus Hirschfeld, Berlins Drittes Geschlecht (1904 repr., Berlin: Verlag rosa Winkel, Schriftenreihe der Magnus Hirschfeld Gesellschaft; Bd. 5, 1991); See also Brennan and Hagerty, 15. The pamphlet was reprinted several times and by 1914 had reached 50,000 copies The title page of the pamphlet bore the motto, "The great conqueror of all prejudice is not Humanity, but Science. What should the public know was programmatic for Hirschfelds desire to make homosexuality acceptable to the intended bourgeois heterosexual audience and is an eloquent testament of Hirschfelds motto in action: Through knowledge to Justice.

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appreciation of all things natural. 697 Hence, arguments that gender deviations were natural and falsely and undeservedly pathologized resonated with broader cultural trends. 698 Unsurprisingly, Hirschfelds characterization of sexual identity and sexuality as a Naturerscheinung (a product of nature) was widely embraced by contemporary homosexuals and lesbians. 699 Furthermore, this perception of sexuality paved the way for sexual tolerance and supported arguments for the decriminalization of homosexuality well into the century. Hirschfeld and Sexual Intermediacy In the early twentieth century, the concept of the homosexual as the embodiment of a male soul trapped in a female body, or vice versa provided the terms through which homosexual self-identity and experience was generally understood. 700 Contrary to contemporary psychoanalytical discourse, the understanding of homosexuality was largely antithetical to the Freudian project and Freudian theory rarely informed the terms through which a lesbians experience was understood. 701

Stephen F. Eisenman, et al, Nineteenth Century Art: A Critical History (London: Thames and Hudson, 2002), 370. As Eisenmann writes, During a period of wrenching economic expansion and contraction, colossal urban and industrial growth, and the final eradication in Europe of pockets of premodern community, nature came to be considered by some writers and artists as an inviolable sanctuary. 698 Magnus Hirschfeld, Geschlechtsbergge: Mischungen mnnlicher und weiblicher Geschlechtscharaktere (Sexuelle Zwischenstufen) (Leipzig: Verlag der Monatsschrift fr Harnkrankheiten und sexuelle Hygeine, 1905), 5. Hirschfeld writes that the intention of his study is die Hervorhebung nicht hinreichend beachteter Naturerscheinungen. 699 Claudia Schoppmann, Zeit der Maskierung: Lebensgeschichten lesbischer Frauen im Dritten Reich, (Berlin: Orlanda Frauenverlag, 1993), 87. Hirschfeld trug zu einer positive Identitt bei, denn was angeboren war, konnte nicht schlecht oder verwerflich sein. 700 Chris Waters, Havelock Ellis, Sigmund Freud and the State: Discourses of Homosexual Identity in Interwar Britain, in Sexology in Culture: Labelling Bodies and Desires, Lucy Bland and Laura Doan, eds. (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1998), 166. Krafft-Ebings concept was internationally accepted. 701 Waters, Havelock Ellis, Sigmund Freud and the State, 165. Waters claims that especially in the English-speaking world, psychoanalytical accounts of homosexuality dominate much official thinking on the subject. Nowhere, he claims, was this more the case than in the United States, where faith in

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Instead, contemporary lesbians commonly identified with the concept of the mannish woman, as advanced by German sexologists Ulrichs, Krafft-Ebing, and Hirschfeld, and as circulated in Britain through the work of Edward Carpenter (1844-1929) and Havelock Ellis. Like Krafft-Ebing, Magnus Hirschfeld deployed the case history methodology; however, unlike his predecessor who only collected 627 sexual case studies (187 of them borrowed from existing legal-medical and psychiatric sources), Hirschfeld gathered information from thousands of contemporary subjects. 702 Scholars estimate that over the years, Hirschfelds Institute collected over thirty-thousand sexual autobiographies and over 35,000 photographs and illustrations. 703 The extraordinary volume of information available to Hirschfeld compelled him, and ultimately others, to reconsider traditional binary models of human sexuality and instead propose myriad variations of gender identification. Hirschfeld based his gender model on exhaustive

modern science led not only to the valorization of psychoanalytic expertise, but to the marginalization of earlier sexological models of erotic desire that were based on premises quite distinct from those of Freud and his followers. As Waters remarks, a Freudian understanding of homosexuality, is very much a postwar phenomenon and first gained currency after 1950 (165). 702 Oosterhuis, Stepchildren, 130. The [remaining] 440 case histories Krafft-Ebing collected deal with [the sexual disorders] of patients he treated or with whom he corresponded. One hundred seventysix of these histories or autobiographies were published in one or more of the fourteen editions of Psychopathia Sexualis that appeared between 1886 and 1903, while 238 of them appeared in other monographs or articles. Twenty-six case histories were never published. See also, Brennan and Hegarty, 7. While Krafft-Ebings 1893 edition of Psychopathia Sexualis includes only 198 case histories. Between 1903 and 1904 alone, under the aegis of the SHC, Hirschfeld conducted a survey of homosexuality in Berlin distributing over 6600 questionnaires to [male] students and factory workers. Hirschfeld also significantly devised a psychobiological questionnaire composed of more than 135 sets of questions. Subjects were questioned on a wide range of themes. They were asked about kinship, family history, racial, ethnic, and class background. Information regarding personal and family medical history, dreams, memories, childhood and current sexual behavior, hobbies, and political views was also collected. 703 Vern L. Bullough, Introduction, Magnus Hirschfeld, Transvestites: The Erotic Drive to Cross Dress, trans. Michael A. Lombardi-Nash (Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1991), 11. The institutes library also held more than 20,000 volumes. Unfortunately the Institutes holdings can only be estimated because much of the collection was destroyed when Nazis stormed and plundered it in May, 1933.

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computations and tables that meld a nineteenth-century naturalists Linnaean impulse to catalogue and classify with a more forward looking social tolerance for sexual variations. In his 1905 Geschlechts-bergnge (Sexual-transitions) Hirschfeld labeled individuals whose sexual impulses and sensibilities fell somewhere within a staggeringly broad spectrum of masculine or feminine types as sexuelle Zwischenstufe (sexual intermediates). 704 Later, in his 1910 publication Transvestites, Hirschfeld devoted a chapter to a discussion of sexual intermediates and illustrated his theory of sexual intermediacy with three tables. 705 Each represents a mathematically calculated model of sexual types based on the multiplication of four basic components: 1. the sexual organs 2. the other physical characteristics 3. the sex drive 4. the other emotional characteristics 706 Based on these components, Hirschfeld arrived at the staggering number of 43,046,721 possible sexual types, which he himself characterized as enormous. 707 Hirschfeld significantly disrupted the traditional fundamental link between gender identity and physical biology by considering subjective gender identification and thus markedly influenced contemporary and later perceptions of gender. 708 Indeed, scholars agree that Hirschfelds most influential and significant contribution to our

Magnus Hirschfeld, Geschlechtsbergnge: Mischungen mnnlicher und weiblicher Geschlechtscharaktere. (Sexuelle Zwischenstufen) (Leipzig: Verlag der Monatsschrift fr Harnkrankheiten und sexuelle Hygeine, 1905). 705 Magnus Hirschfeld, The Theory of Intermediaries, Transvestites: The Erotic Drive to CrossDress, trans. Michael A. Lombardi-Nash (1910; repr. Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1991), 215-36. 706 Hirschfeld, Transvestites, 219. 707 Hirschfeld, Transvestites, 227; Tables one through three are printed on 224-25. 708 Manfred Herzer and J. Edgar Bauer, 100 Jahren Schwulenbewegung: Dokumentation einer Vortragsreihe in der Akademie der Knste (Berlin: Verlag rosa Winkel, 1998), 29.

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current understanding of sexuality was the dissolution of the over-arching order based on the binary pattern Man/Woman, and the suggestion of an infinite number of sexes. 709 Hirschfeld thus anticipated postmodern concepts of gender. 710 Hirschfeld: Sexology and Photography While thousands of sexual autobiographies and case studies were fundamental to Hirschfelds work, photographic documentation was integral to his research and publications. 711 Indeed, visual perception was the cornerstone of late-nineteenth and early twentieth-century scientific methodology and Hirschfeld was a man of his time. In an age in which seeing was believing science was based upon that which could be seen and proven through objective visual observation. 712 In the early twentieth century, the lingering prestige of optical empiricism was sufficiently strong to ensure that the terrain of the photographable was still regarded as roughly congruent to knowledge in general. 713 Accordingly, while contemporary sexologists explored the invisible workings of the soul and described lesbianism as the masculine soul heaving in a female

J. Edgar Bauer, Der Tod Adams, 100 Jahren Schwulenbewegung: Dokumentation einer Vortragsreihe in der Akademie der Knste (Berlin: Verlag Rosa Winkel, 1998), 29. 710 Brennan and Hagerty, 19; See also, Celia Kitzinger, The Social Construction of Lesbianism (London: Sage Publications, 1987), 47; Alfred C. Kinsey, et al., Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Co., 1948), 639. When one considers that Kinseys 1948 six point heterosexual/homosexual continuum was considered path breaking at the time, we can better appreciate Hirschfelds remarkable early twentieth-century contributions. 711 David James Prickett, Magnus Hirschfeld and the Photographic (Re)Invention of the Third Sex, Visual Culture in Twentieth-Century Germany: Text as Spectacle, ed. Gail Finney (Bloomington: University Press, 2006), 103-19. 712 Visually legible data was considered the most modern and reliable source of empirical information among late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century scientists. For a discussion of this see, Thomas O. Haakenson, Science, Art, and the Question of the Visible: Rudolph Virchow, Hannah Hch, and Immediate Visual Perception, in Legacies of Modernism: Art and Politics in Northern Europe, 18901950, Patrizia C. McBride, Richard W. McCormick, and Monika agar, eds. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), 93-104. 713 Haakenson, Science, Art, 79. See, Allan Sekula, The Body as Archive, October 39 (Winter 1986): 373.

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bosom, 714 they nonetheless largely defined homosexuals by their outward appearance and lesbians (and homosexuals) generally subscribed to this notion. In 1904, a Berlin lesbian claimed that her preference for male clothing was the same as effeminate men who prefer to wear female garments. 715 The visual documentation of sexually deviant individuals was a major component of early twentieth-century sexological practice and generated a considerable inventory of graphic materials. From the early 1900s, Hirschfeld and others documented, i.e., photographed gender deviant individuals and observed that homosexuality frequently manifested itself in a preference for clothing of the opposite gender. 716 Unsurprisingly, these materials reflected and supported definitions of the lesbian based on sartorial practice. 717 Indeed, among contemporary sexologists and lesbians alike, it was a womans garb and not her sexual practices that characterized her as perverse. 718

Farwell, Heterosexual Plots, 74, Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathia Sexualis, F.J. Rebman, trans. (Login: Chicago, 1929), 399. 715 Paul Ncke, Ein Besuch bei den Homosexuellen in Berlin: Mit Bemerkungen ber Homosexualitt, Reprint 1904, in Magnus Hirschfeld, Berlins Drittes Geschlecht, Manfred Herzer, ed. (Berlin, Verlag rosa Winkel, 1991), 185. 716 These observations were not limited to German sexologists. In 1908, the British sexologist Havelock Ellis wrote, The chief characteristic of sexually inverted woman is a certain degree of masculinity. As I have already pointed out, a woman is inclined to adopt the ways and garments of men. There is a very pronounced tendency among sexually inverted women to adopt male attire when practicable. See, Havelock Ellis, Sexual Inversion, vol. 2 of Studies in the Psychology of Sex (Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Co., Publishers, 1908), 140-41. 717 R. S. Koppen, From Symbolism in Loose Robes to the Figure of the Androgyne, in Virginia Woolf, Fashion and Literary Modernity (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009), 55. As Koppen writes, The most recognizable image of the lesbian circulating in Paris, Berlin, and London, was that projected by the woman with cropped hair, dressed in a mans tuxedo, posing with a cigarette and the signature monocle. . . The quotational and highly stylized aspects of this practice clearly point in the direction of camp, drag, and other forms of sartorial performance, though . . . contemporary sexologists were quick to inscribe such cross-dressing within a discourse of authenticity; as signs of an authentic, if inverted, sexuality. 718 Jann Matlock, Masquerading Women, Pathologized Men: Cross-Dressing, Fetishism, and the Theory of Perversion, in Fetishism as Cultural Discourse, Emily Apter and William Pietz, eds. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993), 37.

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Hirschfelds Transvestites, 1910 Hirschfelds 1910 publication, Transvestites, was the first publication of its kind to scientifically examine the practice of cross-dressing and its relation to sexual identity. 719 Transvestites is recognized as having coined the Latin-derived term to designate the cross-dresser and as significantly distinguishing the cross-dresser from sexual inversion (homosexuality), a category under which it had previously been subsumed. 720 Hirschfeld claimed that clothing is not arbitrary, capricious or merely lifeless fabric, but rather an indication of an inner striving which is valid not only in these special cases but rather in general, and to a much greater extent than is usually believed. 721 Hirschfelds Transvestites includes seventeen autobiographical statements, each of which offer intimate details regarding the subjects sartorial and erotic predilections. Hirschfelds focus, however, was the male subject; only one of the seventeen case histories (Case 15) discusses a woman who lived and dressed as a man, Berlin native Helene N. 722 Hirschfelds summarizing comments regarding his lone female subject stress her masculine identification and her driving sexual urges as totally diminishing

Magnus Hirschfeld, Transvestites: The Erotic Drive to Cross-Dress, trans. Michael A. LombardiNash (1910; repr. Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1991); Die Transvestiten: Eine Untersuchung ueber den erotischen Verkleidungstrieb mit umfangreichem casuistischem und historischem Material. 720 Susan Stryker, Transgender History (Berkeley: Seal Press, 2008), 16. According to Hirschfeld, much like the sexual intermediate, transvestites occupied a space between pure male and pure female. He argued that absolute representatives of their sex are only abstractions, invented extremes and transvestites represent one of many different types of sexual intermediaries, including homosexuals and hermaphrodites, who occupy the sexual spectrum (17). 721 Hirschfeld, Clothing as a Form of Expression of Mental Condition, Transvestites, 203; 203-14. Clothing is the unconscious language of the spirit and clearly expresses itself all the more when the tongue is condemned to silence (204). 722 Hirschfeld, Transvestites, 95-102. Case 15, Helene N. was born in 1880.

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behind her burning wish to be a man, to go as a man, and to live as a man. 723 The last chapter of Transvestites revisits the theme of women who identify as masculine and presents a history of women who passed as men in various military units. 724 In 1912, Transvestites was supplemented by a second volume comprised solely of illustrations depicting historical and contemporary male and female cross-dressers. 725 Photographic materials would continue to represent a major component of Hirschfelds research: In 1930, he published a volume comprised entirely of illustrations, the last of his four volume opus, Geschlechstskunde (Sexual Knowledge/Information). 726 The volume includes dozens of illustrations depicting figures whose clothing does not conform to contemporary gender stereotypes. In an almost generic fashion, they underpinned the claims of contemporary sexologists linking sartoria to gender identity and reflected (perhaps even influenced?) the habitus of Weimar sexual subculture. Sexual Deviancy and Weimar Life through the eyes In Weimar, the key role of photography in scientific and diagnostic practice was reinforced by sweeping technical developments after World War I that facilitated the production and dissemination of printed materials. New and cheaper printing techniques, and an improved railway system, not only generated an unprecedented volume of mass-produced imagery, but transformed popular print media into an inexpensive and omnipresent multi-purpose cultural instrument. Concurrently, these
723 724

Hirschfeld, Transvestites, 102. Hirschfeld, Women as Soldiers, in Transvestites, 393-416. 725 Magnus Hirschfeld and Max Tilke, Der erotischen Verkleidungstrieb (Die Transvestiten.) Illustrierter Teil (Berlin: Alfred Pulvermacher & Co., 1912). 726 Magnus Hirschfeld, Geschlechtskunde auf Grund dreissigjhriger Forschung und Erfahrung bearbeitet, vol. 4, Bildertheil (Stuttgart: Julius Pttmann Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1930).

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developments radically changed the appearance of print media; interwar media was characterized by a dramatic shift away from the literary format to one that emphasized pictures. Weimar contemporaries were not unaware of the immense implications of these developments. They astutely recognized that the new emphasis on imagery triggered a paradigmatic cultural shift. Writing in 1927, Kurt Korff, editor of the mainstream journal Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung (BIZ), observed that unlike the preceding century, wherein the written word dominated, life through the eyes now dictated perception. He attributed this phenomenon to the expansion and proliferation of magazine and, relatedly, film culture. Due to both media, Korff claimed, the public got used to visual imagery having a greater impact than the message of the written word. 727 Weimar Culture and the Cross-dresser Due, in part, to the expansion of the print media, the Weimar discourse of sexual deviancy was no longer the exclusive domain of sexologists or the habitus of sexual subculture. In 1931, a large advertisement for the upcoming performance of the transvestite Barbette at a major Berlin theatre appeared in a popular daily newspaper (fig. 5.2). Similarly, the theme of cross-dressing was discussed by a number of prominent Weimar authors. In 1926, under the auspices of the Prussian Ministry of the Interior, Dr. Albert Moll, leading sexologist and Hirschfeld colleague, published Polizei und Sitte

Johnson, 50n78, cites Kurt Korff, Die Berliner Illustrierte, in Max Osborn, ed., 50 Jahre Ullstein (Berlin: Ullstein, 1927), 290-91. Korff edited the BIZ from 1903 to 1933. A German Jew, Korff was forced to flee in 1933. In New York he became an advisor to Henry Luces magazine Life, first published in 1936. See also, Anton Kaes, Edward Dimendberg, and Martin Jay, The Weimar Republic Sourcebook (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995), 646-47.

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(Police and Morals). 728 Ostensibly, the volume Represents Police in Individual Pictures, but is, in fact, a broad discussion of moral and sexual issues with a number of historical illustrations. Despite Molls insistence that sexuality is a timelessly relevant theme, his focus is contemporary Weimar and includes the topic of cross-dressing. 729 Moll,

however, handles the female and male cross-dresser with conspicuous difference. The female cross-dresser is represented by a late nineteenth-century drawing of a prostitute dressed in mens clothing (fig. 5.3). 730 The illustration exemplifies the contemporary conflation of lesbianism with prostitution and fin-de-sicle decadence (a topic addressed in-depth in chapter two). Significantly, the illustration references neither Weimar culture nor contemporary scientific methodologies: It is an undated sketch by the nineteenth-centurys most talented pornographic artist, Flicien Rops. 731 Rops drawing sensationalizes and mythologizes the figure and dramatically distances her from Weimar reality. Rops lesbian cross-dresser is 1) anonymous, 2) historical, 3) exotic (French), and 4) depraved (prostitute); in short, this cross-dresser is a product of a male artists pornographic imagination. 732 The unfortunate inclusion of a nineteenth-century drawing by a known pornographer in the government-sponsored Polizei und Sitte reinforced the irrational ahistorical and metaphorical epistemology that
Hirschfeld, Geschlechts-bergnge, 3, references Molls contributions along with those of Krafft-Ebing. 729 Moll, Polizei und Sitte, 22-28. 730 Moll, Polizei und Sitte, 22. The image is captioned, Dirne in Mnnerkleidung (Prostitute in Mens clothing). 731 Linda G. Zatlin, Beardsley Redresses Venus, Victorian Poetry 28, no. 3/4 The Nineties (Autumn-Winter, 1990): 112, 123n8. Zatlin cites Ronald Pearsall, The Worm in the bud: The World of Victorian Sexuality (New York: Macmillan, 1969), 384. 732 Flicien Rops was known in Weimar Germany primarily as an artist who specialized in pornographic themes. In his monograph, Gustave Kahn characterized Rops imagery as satanic and diabolical in which the painful drama and complicated lust and bitter chronic of modern prostitution takes place. Flicien Rops (Berlin: Marquardt and Co., 1925?), 20.
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accompanied, and significantly clouded, the Weimar discourse of lesbianism. In contrast to Molls publication, Weimar lesbian magazines printed photographs of contemporary female cross-dressers. Had Moll so chosen, a photograph of an actual woman would have, in a Foucauldian context, greatly supported the identity construction of Weimar lesbian cross-dressers. Molls skewed representation is even more apparent when it is compared to his discussion of male cross-dressers. The unmanipulated photographs of two male subjects suggest that they may have been borrowed from Hirschfelds vast archive (fig. 5.4) or from contemporary Weimar police files (fig. 5.5). 733 Both the photographic medium and probable official institutional sources firmly anchor the male cross-dresser, unlike his mythologized female counterpart, in an actual contemporary context. The differences between the two media (drawing/photographs) are significant here because while pictures dominated Weimar mass media, photographs decidedly trumped drawings in indicating modernity and scientific veracity. Molls deployment of photographs to represent the male cross-dresser is also emblematic of the male-centered focus of Weimar sexology. In contrast to the scientific tenor of Albert Molls Polizei und Sitte, Weimar publications with sexual themes were often laced with a salacious subtext. In the 1931 guide to Weimar-era Berlin night life, Fhrer durch das lasterhafte Berlin (Guide to scandalous Berlin), for example, Curt Moreck discussed the cross-dresser in just such
Moll, Polizei und Sitte, Both photographs are pictured on page 23. Number 19 is labeled Mnnlicher Transvestit. Benutzung der Bubikopfmode (Male transvestite. Using the womens hairstyle), while the other (20) is captioned Mnnlicher Transvertit (Male Transvestite). No further information is given. Note Molls term Transvertit. Apparently, in 1926, Hirschfelds recently coined term [1910] Transvestite was not yet universally established.
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terms. 734 Under the bold heading Here one finds Transvestites, Moreck introduced a short chapter revealing the names of curious locales where one encounters girls dressed as boys and boys dressed as girls. This, the author wrote, is not a carnival joke. Blending thinly-veiled sensationalism with the clinical vocabulary of contemporary sexology, he continued, You have probably heard of transvestites. They are those men and women whose inversion is not limited to a feeling of difference (eine seelische Andersempfindung), but in order to be content, need to wear the clothing of the other sex. 735 Morecks Fhrer celebrates the naughtiness of Weimar and, as he explained, is geared to the Berlin tourist who is looking for a side of the city generally omitted from official tourist guides. 736 Richard Salardennes sensationalistic 1931 Hauptstdte des Lasters (Capital Cities of Vice) discusses sexual subculture in a number of world cities and devotes several pages to the city of Berlin. 737 In what reads as an international erotic travel guide, the sub-heading Eccentric Cabarets introduces a thinly-veiled voyeuristic discussion of the cross-dressed men and women who frequent the legendary Berlin homosexual nightclub Eldorado. 738 While the piquant revelations of Moll, Moreck, and Salardenne were primarily geared to fantasies of provincial readers, the cross-dresser was also linked to Weimar

734

1931), 176.

Curt Moreck, Fhrer durch das lasterhafte Berlin (Leipzig: Verlag der moderner Stadtfhrer,

Moreck, Fhrer, 176. Moreck, Fhrer, 7-8. 737 Richard Salardenne, Berlin, Haupstdte des Lasters: Vergngungsvierteln der Weltstdte (Berlin: Auffenberg Verlagsgesellschaft, 1931), 88-110. Other cities include Amsterdam, Berlin, Budapest, London, New York, Prague, and Vienna. 738 Salardenne, Haupstdte des Lasters, 95-96.
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fashion debates. The terse caption below a male transvestite pictured in Molls Polizei und Sitte (fig. 5.4) emphasizes the subjects Bubikopf, a popular, yet, at the time, highly controversial, boyish hairstyle for women. Its inclusion in this conspicuously short caption succinctly demonstrates the unstable contemporaneous discursive intersection between the male cross-dressers feminine masquerade and socially threatening aspects of the androgynous New Woman. 739 The Feared Masculinization of Women and the Garonne While androgynous clothing and hairstyles lent the New Woman a positive aura of modernity, it also potentially signaled her loss of femininity. In Weimar, this was a cultural phenomenon of no small importance and fed male anxieties about the increasing public face of women. 740 Indeed, ridiculous claims in the media stoked popular anxieties regarding the vermnnlichung (masculinization) of women and, arguably, were also intended to frighten women into conforming to conventional stereotypes. Both the popularity and intensity of these debates are striking; and, as Kosta claims, the resultant tensions and conflicting ideologies played themselves out on the female body. 741 In Weimar, public discussions of the relationship between womens fashion and their natures, in particular with regard to their sexuality, were deployed as a tool for continued oppression and control. And, as Mary Russo relatedly claims, a culture that intends to control women reflects the misogyny which permeates

739 740

Moll, Polizei und Sitte, 23. Meskimmon and West, Visions of the Neue Frau, 6. 741 Kosta, 280.

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the fear of losing ones femininity, and alienating men. 742 In mid 1920s, fashion debates escalated when representations of the New Woman were newly infused with the fictitious Garonne. The Garonne was the title of French author Victor Marguerittes scandalous, yet successful, 1922 novel. 743 Similar to the New Woman, the garonne was a discursively constructed and mass-mediated international phenomenon. Due to the figures bisexuality, the garonne represented a most provocative expression of gender. 744 Much like the transvestite, whose sexual identity oscillated between genders, the androgynous garonne was described by contemporaries in similar terms as a girl who looked like a man that looked like a girl. 745 The figures edgy sexual frisson was embraced and emulated by upper-class Weimar lesbians and Garonne became the namesake for a periodical and a trendy womens bar. 746
742

Julia Drost, La Garonne: Wandlungen einer literarischen Figur (Gttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2003). The title of Viktor Marguerittes controversial Bildungsroman of the New Woman is a feminized version of the French garon (boy). Set in Paris, the young female protagonist seeks financial and sexual independence, launches a decorating business and takes several lovers, one of which is a woman. Marguerittes renowned literary invention represented postwar hedonism and androgynous fashion. The garonne symbolized female emancipation, sexual freedom and also contributed to the process of early lesbian identity construction. As a result of the novel, Margueritte lost his position in the prestigious French Academy. La Garonne was scandalous, but wildly popular; it was translated into twelve languages and followed by two sequels. The novel was published in a German translation in 1924 but was shortly thereafter banned in Germany. 744 Kosta,Unruly Daughters, 279. 745 Kosta,Unruly Daughters, 279, 285n35. Kosta cites Weimar journalist Gabriele Tergits contemporary description of the garonne: Das Mdchen sieht aus wie ein Mann, der wie ein Mdchen aussieht. See also, Gabriele Tergit, Blten der Zwanziger Jahre: Gerichtsreportagen und Feuilletons, 19231933, Jens Brning, ed. (Berlin: Rotation, 1984), 67. 746 Ilse Kokula, Lesbische Leben von Weimar bis zu Nachkriegszeit, in Adele Meyer, Lila Nchte, 101. The lesbian periodical Garonne replaced the title Frauen Liebe and circulated from December 1930 until October 1932. According to Kokula, Susi Wanowski (dancer Anita Berbers former lesbian partner) opened the Garonne bar on Berlins Kalckreuthstrasse 11 in 1931; Gordon offers a conflicting account when he claims that Berlins wild child [Berber] settled on Susi Wanowski, the owner of the Comobar, a classy lesbian locale on the Kommandanstrasse (74). See also, Heike Schader, Virile, Vamps und wilde

12.

Mary Russo, The Female Grotesque: Risk, Excess, and Modernity (New York: Routledge, 1994),

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In Weimar, androgyny was a highly charged issue because it blurred what were formerly clear cut definitions of sexual identity. 747 Much like androgynous clothing, boyish hairstyles similarly diffused sexual difference and, as a result, contemporary discourse commonly linked hair to non-normative sexual identity. 748 In a tone alternating between humor and alarm, in 1927 a respected feminist journal reported that the Gemeinderat (town council) of the German village Zerbau decided to charge all unmarried women who sported the Bubikopf a monthly fine of 1 RM (Reichsmark). 749 In the 1920s, women who wore their hair in a Bubikopf (like a boy) were referred to in conservative German circles as Andershaarige (different, or other-haired): 750 At the time, a term which also automatically inferred homosexuality. 751 The discursive significance of hair was also evident among contemporary sexologists. 752 Hirschfeld studied the link between hair, sexual identity, and behavior.

Veilchen: Sexualitt, Begehren, und Erotik in den Zeitschriften homosexueller Frauen im Berlin der 1920er Jahren (Knigstein: Helmer, 2007), 55. 747 Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 188. In Weimar Germany any representation of androgyny . . . had the potential to signify bisexuality or a degree of homosexuality. 748 Popular debates regarding womens [short] hair were not limited to Weimar Germany but also conducted in France. See, Mary Louise Roberts, Samson and Delilah Revisited: The Politics of Womens Fashion in 1920s France, in American Historical Review (June 1993): 657-84. 749 Helene Stocker, ed., Die Neue Generation: Publikations-Organ des Bundes fr Mutterschutz, Jg. 23, no. 9 (1927): 301. This story appeared under the headline: Besteurung des Bubikopfes (Taxation for the Bubikopf). Married women were charged 2 RM. 750 Kosta, Unruly Daughters, 278. 751 Magnus Hirschfeld, and Ludwig Levy-Lenz, eds. Sexual-Katastrophen: Bilder aus dem modernen Geschlechts-und Ehehleben (Vienna: Dr. Karl Meyer Ges.m.b.H., 1927), 52. The lesbian Margarete H. reports being noticed and taunted on the street as a man, or a man in womens clothing or with the weighted (vielsagende) term anders (other). As previously noted, at the time, anders inferred Richard Oswalds 1919 film, Anders als die anderen (Different than the Others), the first film with a homosexual theme. 752 Thomas O. Haakenson, Grotesque Visions: Art, Science, and Visual Culture in Early TwentiethCentury Germany (PhD diss., University of Minnesota, 2006), 191-92. Hirschfeld suggested that perusal through any newspaper would demonstrate how many women seek assistance in order to remove (manly) facial hair.

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Bearded Women and Terrifying News In early twentieth-century German culture, hair conjured images of robust virility and was considered a marker of masculinity in both men and women. In part, this correlation explains the many bearded women pictured in Hirschfelds contemporary publications. One such photograph illustrating the contemporary discursive link between hair and masculinity (fig. 5.6) depicts a woman in a mans military uniform wearing a false mustache. 753 His 1905 publication Geschlechts-bergnge (Sexual Intermediates) includes several images of Androtrichie, or feminae barbatae (bearded women) (fig. 5.7). 754 Hirschfeld classified falsely mustached or naturally bearded women as sexual intermediates and strengthened the link between hair and sexuality by remarking many homosexual women have to shave on a regular basis to prevent the growth of excessive facial hair, and he knows one who shaves three times a week. 755 While Hirschfelds observations were expressed with clinical neutrality, as the following report confirms, references to hairy women in the popular media were sensationalistic or denigrating. 756

Magnus Hirschfeld, Berlins Drittes Geschlecht, Manfred Herzer, ed. (Reprint 1904. Berlin: Verlag rosa Winkel, 1991), 91. The caption informs the reader that the mustache is glued-on. Similar pictures of women in uniform with mustaches appear on 107 and 122. 754 Magnus Hirschfeld, Geschlechts-bergnge mit 83 Abbildungen und einer Bunttafel (Leipzig: Verlag der Monatsschrift fr Harnkrankheiten und sexuelle Hygeine, 1905), Plate 54. 755 Magnus Hirschfeld, Geschlechts-bergnge, unpaginated, cited in Haakenson, 192, 192n330. 756 I have recently discovered numerous early twentieth-century photo postcards of bearded women. They suggest that bearded women were popularly regarded as a natural curiosity and folk entertainment. In contrast, mens hair was a positive sign of masculinity and denoted sexual potency; advertisements in the back pages of the popular interwar German periodical Lustige Bltter geared to men regularly promoted products that promise to enhance mustache growth. Negative cultural associations linking women and hair persist; in Germany, even today, an uncomfortably outspoken or angry woman is often described as having Haare auf die Zhne (hair on her teeth).

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In 1924, the Berliner Illustrierter Zeitung (BIZ) published a manipulated photograph of a young woman with a mustache captioned Eine Schreckensnachricht (Terrifying News) (fig. 5.8). Obviously intended to frighten women from cropping their hair, the caption warns: When one does not allow the hair to grow on the head, it will grow on the face and women will get mustaches. 757 Published roughly twenty years after Berlins Third Sex (1904) and Sexual Intermediates (1905), the 1924 image appears to be an unscientific and blatantly sensationalized version of one of Hirschfelds countless earlier subjects. However, the melding of feminine and masculine characteristics in the BIZ image also implicates Hchs mix-gendered figures: in 1924 she was employed at Ullstein, the magazines publisher, and likely saw the illustration. 758 Weimar Subculture and the Cross-dresser Magnus Hirschfeld was often mentioned in Weimar lesbian magazines. Relatedly, discussions and pictures of transvestites were regularly featured in lesbian journals. A number of lesbian magazine covers depict cross-dressed women (fig. 5.9) and nearly every issue announces a transvestite-themed article on its title page. Indeed, the clothing-based cultivation and performance of gender was central to the Weimar lesbians construction of social identity. 759 As Heike Schader explains, lesbians achieved

According to the caption, the comment was made by an unnamed vice president at an American fashion congress. 12. October, 1924, Berliner Illustrierter Zeitung. 758 Lavin, Chronology, Cut, 208. Hch worked three days a week at the Ullstein Press between 1916 and 1926. 759 Heike Schader, Virile, Vamps und wilde Veilchen: Sexualitt, Begehren, und Erotik in den Zeitschriften homosexueller Frauen im Berlin der 1920er Jahren (Knigstein: Helmer, 2007), 66-67. Weimar lesbians identified as falling somewhere between male and female and generally identified with the claims of contemporary sexologists who argued that despite their genitals, lesbians felt, acted, and physically fashioned themselves as masculine. Schader, however, comments that feminine lesbians were represented as even more feminine than heterosexual women. This, she

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this by orienting and aligning themselves with contemporary clichs of feminine and masculine appearance. 760 Accordingly, virile lesbians asserted their identity through the deliberate adoption of clothing and mannerisms stereotypically associated with men; 761 monocles and smoking jackets clearly identified them as gigolo or gentleman figures. 762 Gertrud Liebherrs Moderne Fotokunst Due the increased affordability of photography and the new image-driven Weimar media, photography became an integral component to contemporary gay and lesbian identity construction. 763 The Berlin photographer Gertrud Liebherr (life dates unknown), who specialized in portrait photographs of cross-dressers, advertised her services in Berlins lesbian periodicals. 764 According to her ad, Liebherr was dedicated to what she described as Moderne Fotokunst (modern art-photography) (fig. 5.10). 765 Liebherr advertised in Die Welt der Transvestiten (The World of the Transvestite), a

concedes, was a problem because the threat of pseudo-homosexuality hung over such discussions like the sword of Damocles (67). 760 Schader, Virile, Vamps, 123. 761 Schader, Virile, Vamps, 123. 762 Schader, Virile, Vamp, 109. 763 Matlock, Masquerading Women, 37; 37n10. Well into the 1950s, womens homosexuality continued to be studied under rubrics that mixed clothing and costume obsessions, and as Jann Matlock remarks, we could say that the studies of female cross-dressing and clothes obsessions became the euphemistic space in which lesbians had their day. 764 Jens Dobler, ed. Verzaubert in Nord-Ost: Die Geschichte der Berliner Lesben und Schwulen in Prenzlauer Berg, Pankow und Weissensee (Pankow: Museumsverband Pankow, Bruno Gmnder Verlag und Sonntags-Club, 2009). Dobler introduces Liebherr as Szenen-Fotografin (Photographer of Berlins homosexual scene). According to my April 2011 correspondence with him, Liebherrs life dates are unknown. 765 This advertisement appears in the lesbian periodical Die Freundin (Berlin) (17. Oct., 1927): 7.

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special subsection integrated in the lesbian magazine Die Freundin and was apparently read by male and female cross-dressers alike. 766 Two Liebherr portraits, Die Frau als Mann (The Woman as Man) (figs. 5.11, 5.12) although different, share the same caption. Both appear in lesbian journals and suggest that along with creating studio portraits for private clients, Liebherr also contributed to the lesbian print media. Both photographs depict female cross-dressers meticulously attired in masculine clothing and reflect lesbian cross-dressers engagement with representations of elegant men in the contemporary popular media, such as those pictured in BIZ, the most widely read German pictorial (fig. 5.13). 767 Viewed in this context, Liebherrs photographs are best understood as contemporary documents of a particular lesbian role. While to some, women dressed as men potentially suggest an ironic performance of masculinity, I would argue that Liebherrs clientele had no such intentions. If we consider that the women who commissioned these photographs were self-supporting lesbians and, at best, earned about 25 Marks weekly, 768 relative to their wages and the cost of food and

Rainer Herrn, Schnittmuster des Geschlechts: Transvestitismus und Transsexualitt in den frhen Sexualwissenschaft (Giessen: Psychosozial-Verlag, 2005), 145. 767 Images such as Der Elegante Herr (The Elegant Man) in the BIZ (August, 10, 1924) obviously served as templates for Weimar lesbian transvestites. The phenomenon of female cross-dressing was, however, not limited to Berlin and this observation is significant because it speaks to broader issues of emerging lesbian visibility, and supports Everards claim of a cross-cultural Sapphic link between the monocle in Hchs Russian Dancer and that pictured in Romaine Brooks portrait of Una Troubridge. Furthermore, photographs depicting cross-dressed women created by the fin-de-sicle lesbian American photographers Alice Austen (1866-1952) and Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864-1952) attest to a similar practice in the United States. Relatedly, a number of cross-dressed Parisian lesbians photographed in the early 1930s by Brassa in a lesbian bar, significantly named Le Monocle, are wearing tuxedos, neckties, and monocles. 768 For a table of wages for skilled/unskilled workers in 1928, see, C. Bresciani-Turroni, The Movement of Wages in Germany during the Depreciation of the Mark and after Stabilization, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 92, no. 3 (1929): 411. See also, Renate Bridenthal, Beyond Kinder, Kche,

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entertainment, Liebherrs portrait studio, which advertised 12 photo-postcards for 8.50 Marks (more than a third of a womans average weekly wages), was relatively costly. 769 This suggests that Liebherrs studio photographs represent an investment in the visual performance of lesbian identity on the part of the subjects that commissioned them. The anonymous cross-dressed subjects in Gertrud Liebherrs portraits greatly facilitated the self-representation of Weimar lesbians and contributed to an ongoing cultural process that destabilized the traditional conflation of male costume, gender identity, and social authority (fig. 5.14). While the masculine attire of Liebherrs female subjects initially invested in the sartorial expressions of patriarchal authority, it ultimately weakened that same authority and challenged dominant modes of social identification. 770 Indeed, images of women dressed as men aided in and hastened the demise of the power vested in male costume. As Susan Gubar elaborates, female transvestism only initially in-vests the traditional forms of patriarchy with authority, for ultimately, transvestites di-vest conventional forms of legitimacy and finally, as the etymology of the word transvestite implies, make a travesty of sexual signs. 771 In Weimar, female transvestites, as Hirschfeld discovered much to his surprise, were generally lesbians; however, their severely tailored clothing, a gendered sign, also
Kirche: Weimar Women at Work, Central European History 6, no. 2 (June, 1973): 156. Bridenthal writes women earned 30-40% less than men. Based on Bresciani-Turronis statistics, median hourly wage for a [male] worker in 1928 was 99.35 Pfg. Bridenthal claims that women generally earned 30-40% less than men; this suggests that women earned ca. 24-27 Marks weekly. 769 The price of a lesbian periodical was 20 Pfenning (Pfg; cent), and admission to a festive evening at a lesbian club was 30- 50 Pfg. and often included a party favor. A pack of cigarettes was 50 Pfg., and a loaf of bread generally sold for 40 Pfg. 770 Marsha Meskimmon, Masquerade, Performance and Multiplicity, in We werent modern enough: Women Artists and the Limits of Modernism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999), 219; See also, Marvin Carlson, Performance: A Critical Introduction (London: Routledge, 1996). 771 Susan Gubar, Blessings in Disguise: Cross-dressing as Re-dressing for Female Modernists, The Massachusetts Review 22, no. 3 (Autumn 1981), 502.

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clearly indicated their adherence to feminist principles and identification as New Women. In contrast to their lesbian counterparts, male cross-dressers, as Hirschfeld established, were not necessarily politically engaged or homosexual. Perhaps due to the latter, male transvestites were integrated in lesbian, rather than homosexual magazines. Between 1927 and 1931, three Berlin lesbian magazines, Die Freundin, Frauenliebe, and Garonne, provided a forum for female and male transvestites. 772 Essays and editorialtype discussions served to normalize the transvestite. First-and third person accounts characterized cross-dressing as secret and pleasurable and these experiences were generally described without guile or shame. 773 The Weimar Transvestite Voo-Doo and Hchs Tamer The muscular arms, sequined costume, and maquillage of Hchs Tamer might easily belong to a male cross-dresser and suggests the celebrated Weimar transvestite, Voo-doo. A prominent figure in Berlins sexual subculture, Voo-Doo (alias Willy Pape) is pictured in Hirschfelds Transvestites (fig. 5.15), and is described as a highly successful Varit artist who performs as a Snake Dancer. 774 Fifteen years later, the lesbian

Herrn, Schnittmuster, 144. Most notably, beginning with its first issue in 1924, the Berlin lesbian magazine Die Freundin integrated the theme of the transvestite in its publication with an unpaginated insert or Sonderteil (special section). Originally called Der Transvestit (The Transvestite), in 1927 the section was renamed Meinungsaustausch der Transvestiten (Open-discussion for Transvestites) or simply Transvestit. Due to censorship, for a short time Freundin ceased publication in 1928, but when the magazine resumed printing in 1929, the special section for cross-dressers was renamed Die Welt der Transvestiten (The World of Transvestites). See also Herrn, Schnittmuster, Literaturverzeichnis, 221-37. Between 1927 and 1932, numerous articles regarding transvestites were published in other Berlin lesbian and gay magazines. Herrns bibliography suggests that interest in this theme was highest between 1929 and 1931. 773 Anonymous, Mann und Freundin zugleich? Kritische Betrachtungen einer Transvestitengattin, (Both Husband and Girlfriend? Critical Thoughts of the Wife of a Transvestite) Die Freundin 4 Jg., no. 5, March 5, 1928, unpaginated. 774 Magnus Hirschfeld and Max Tilke, Der erotische Verkleidungstrieb (Der Transvestiten), Illustrierter Teil (Berlin: A. Pulvermacher, 1912), Plate 43. Voo-Doos moniker and Snake-Charmer act

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magazine Die Freundin featured a photograph of Voo-Doo alongside an article about womens fashion (fig. 5.16). The article, introduced by the magazines editor as an Open Forum regarding Questions of Fashion, launched what he hoped would be a lively discussion regarding this timely issue. 775 In the subsequent text, the author claims that the while purpose of clothing was protection from the elements, above all, it was intended to suggest and enhance the naked body. Indeed, Voo-Doos costume reveals more than it covers. Gerlachs 1927 photograph highlights Voo-Doos midriff and leg, and reinforces the authors claims. Captioned The Transvestite Voo-Doo, one of the most famous international dance-stars, Voo-Doo obviously enjoyed continued popularity and success. 776 Much like the Tamers sequined bodice, Voo-Doos extravagant costume suggests the theatre or an orientalized belly-dancer. However, unlike the celebrated, while convincingly feminine performance of the Snake-Dancer Voo-Doo, the masculine (e.g. distinct biceps) and feminine (e.g. costume) components of Hchs Tamer, can never be resolved into one gender but oscillate irritatingly between genders. Sexual Intermediacy and Hchs Tamer

suggests the early twentieth-century Western European discourse of primitivism and the contemporary conflation of oriental culture with exotic sexuality. Furthermore the description of Pape as a Varit artist, a French term, suggests inter-ethnic European exoticism. Voo-Doo was also the name of a popular Weimar Berlin gay bar, where, according to Curt Moreck one could experience exotic nights. See, Curt Moreck, Fhrer durch das lasterhafte Berlin (Leipzig: Verlag der moderner Stadtfhrer, 1927), 138. A Christian Schad drawing of the bar Voo-Doo is pictured in Moreck on page 141. While an extended discussion of Voo-Doo is deserved, it exceeds the scope of this study. 775 Anonymous, Meinungsaustausch ber Modefragen: Ein Mann ber Damenmode, Die Freundin, Jg. 4, no. 14 (1927): 27-28. 776 Die Freundin, Jg. 3, no. 4 (1927): 27. (Photo Gerlach) Der Transvestit Voo-Doo, einer der bekanntesten internationalen Tanzsterne.

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The many feminae barbatae pictured in Hirschfelds publications represent only one example of what he classified as sexual intermediates or alternately as Zwischenstufe (between-steps), or Zwitter (two-thing, or two-sexed). A number of photographs in Hirschfelds 1905 publication Geschlechts-bergnge depict men with abnormally rounded hips; muscular, flat-chested women; or dual-gendered

hermaphrodites. 777 One such dual-gendered figure (fig. 5.17) is comprised of male and female elements and suggests Hchs Tamer in its competing signifiers. Indeed, both Hirschfelds Pseudohermaphrodite and Hchs photomontage destabilize

stereotypical representations of gender. While figures that blend male and female characteristics automatically disrupt binary perceptions of gender, the most subversive aspect of Hchs Tamer is arguably the figures almost seamless visual construction. While Hch combined male and female elements in photomontages throughout her career, scholars recognize a marked difference between the artists Dada-era and late Weimar depictions. The blatantly mixed-gendered figures of Hchs Dada oeuvre are carnivalesque. A detail from Hchs 1919 signature photomontage, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, for example, connects an aging male head to a pudgy infants body and represents one of many abrupt visual combinations that characterize the artists work from this period. The patent absurdity of this, and similarly brusque visual combinations, reflects the artists contemporary

Magnus Hirschfeld, Geschlechtsbergge: Mischungen mnnlicher und weiblicher Geschlechtscharaktere (Sexuelle Zwischenstufen) (Leipzig: Verlag der Monatsschrift fr Harnkrankheiten und sexuelle Hygeine, 1905).

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affiliation with Dadaism, a movement known for its program of cultural impropriety and radical impertinence. However, by the mid 1920s, as Makela and others astutely observe, Hch had largely abandoned the irreverent mode of address that characterized her work from the early Weimar period and replaced it with a more evocative aesthetic. 778 Makela ventures that this development was influenced, perhaps by her encounter in Paris with Surrealism. 779 Certainly Hchs familiarity with Surrealism may in part explain the emergence of a more subtle visual aesthetic in her late Weimar oeuvre. 780 Yet,

arguably, of equal, if not decidedly greater, influence upon the artists suave gender combinations was her contemporary lesbian relationship. It clearly altered her perception of rigid gender stereotypes and changed her aesthetic; this manifested itself in a more relaxed treatment of the human form. Concomitantly, Hch depicted visual transitions between male and female bodies by using similarly scaled photographic fragments of body parts in her collages. 781 Makela claims that the harmonious melding of disparately gendered elements demonstrates Hchs increased ease with regard to

Makela, By Design, 66. Makela, By Design, 66, 65, 77n76; See also Burmeister, HH: eine Lebenscollage, vol. 2, 17790, HH Archiv BG, 24.37. On a scrap of paper dated April 22 Paris, Hch noted the names Tzara Soupault Eluard Th. Fraenkel Huidobro Peret Ribemont-Dessaignes Satie Serner Slavy. Hchs travel diary includes the addresses of Max Ernst and Man Ray. The papers from Hchs visit to Paris in 1924 include Theo von Doesburgs calling card, which she most probably carried with her to facilitate and socially finesse introductions to a number of artists. 780 Makela, By Design, 65; Hch met Tristan Tzara and Man Ray while in Paris. Other artists she met there include Constantin Brancusi, Amade Ozenfant, and Sonia Delaunay with whom she shared textile designs. 781 Makela, By Design, in Photomontages of HH, 66, emphasis Makela.
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gender classification. 782 The smooth visual transitions that characterize Hchs late Weimar oeuvre also clearly suggest the artists new-found ease with her own sexual identity, and indicate a familiarity with contemporary sexual subculture. The smoothly conjoined yet oscillating female and male characteristics of the Tamer connote the concept of sexual intermediacy. As Hirschfelds British colleague, the prominent sexologist Norman Haire (1892-1952) explained in 1933, We are accustomed to classify individuals as male or female, the classification being made at birth . . . But modern sexology has pointed out the inadequacy of this rough and ready classification . . . When carefully investigated even the apparently most normal male may be found to have certain physical characters approximating to the female type, and the apparently most normal female to have sex characters approximating to the male type. One is led to the conclusion that the hundred-per-cent females are theoretical types which do not exist in reality. 783 Much like the inadequacy of binary male and female classifications theorized by Hirschfeld and characterized by Haire as rough and ready, Hchs Tamer is neither male nor female but uncannily teeters somewhere between the two and suggests the sexual Zwischenstufe. The individual masculine and feminine signifiers in Hchs Tamer graphically demonstrate the deconstruction and reconfiguration of gender. 784 Moreover, the image may be linked to non-normative sexual practices; Makela remarks

Maria Makela, By Design, in Photomontages of HH, 66. Makela, however, tempers the significant consequences of this argument with the suggestion that this may also be attributed to her encounter in Paris with Surrealism. 783 Norman Haire, Introduction, Neils Hoyer [pseudo], ed., Man Into Woman: An Authentic Record of a Change of Sex, trans. H. J. Stenning (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1933), viii-ix. 784 George L. Hersey. The Evolution of Allure: Sexual Selection from the Medici Venus to the Incredible Hulk (London: MIT Press, 1996), 172.While the gender ambiguity of Hchs Tamer is easily linked to Weimar sexology and sexual subcultures, Hersey catapults the 1930 photomontage into popular late twentieth-century discourse by linking it to the female bodybuilder Kristy Ramsey and the 1980s vogue for sado-masochism.

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that the small seal cornered below, ever so discreetly recalls the many photographs in Hirschfelds museum of flagellation fetishists. 785 While the gender ambiguity of Hchs Tamer aligns it with Weimar sexology, as well as popular and sexual subculture, the photomontage may also be linked to police institutions and practice. Much like sexologists, the Weimar police relied primarily upon photography to document sexual intermediacy; contemporary police materials suggest the influence of sexological practice and publications. 786 Hchs Tamer and Weimar Criminology In a 1928 police handbook, the Weimar criminologist E. Wulffen, using Hirschfelds classification, declared every individual that deviates from typical male and typical female is a sexual intermediate. 787 However, Wulffen alternately dubs sexual intermediates in vernacular terms as Mannweiber und Weibmnner (Men-women and Women-men). 788 Similar labels circulated in lesbian subculture; in a magazine article about a sixteen-year-old girl, the author writes, Her peers called her the Buamdel (combined words Buben [boy] and Mdel, or Mdchen [girl]). 789 The similarity of these terms and their usage in official and subcultural sources confirms that in Weimar, gender-related terminology circulated in diverse milieus and contexts.
Makela, Grotesque Bodies, 213. A photograph of Abtreibungsinstrumente (Abortion-instruments) pictured in E. Wulfflen Encyclopdie der Kriminalistik: Der Sexualverbrecher (1928, p. 642-43) reappears slightly altered as the drawing Abtreibungsinstrumente (aus dem Dresdner Kriminalmuseum.) in Hirschfeld Geschlechtskunde, vol. 4 (1930), 448. 787 E. Wulffen, Verbrechen auf Homosexueller Grundlage, in Encyklopdie der Kriminalstik. Der Sexualverbrecher: Ein Handbuch fr Juristen, Polizei-und Verwaltungsbeamte, Mediziner und Pdagogen (Berlin: Dr. P. Langenscheidt, 1928), 578. 788 Wulffen, Verbrechen auf Homosexueller Grundlage, 575. 789 Sechzehn Jahre unter falscher Flagge: ein Mdchen, das zum Jngling wird, (Sixteen years [sailing] under the wrong flag: a girl that becomes a boy), Liebende Frauen, 4. Jg., no. 46 (1929).
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Significantly, all of them implicate Hchs dual-gendered 1930 Tamer, which could easily be described in medico-scientific language as a sexual intermediate, in the vernacular man-woman, woman-man, or subcultural Buamdl. Aspects of Weimar police practice can be partially revealed through an undated mug-shot of a male transvestite, originally made public in the scientific journal Geschlecht und Gesellschaft (Sex and Society) in 1924 (5.18). 790 The mug-shot is comprised of six photographs arranged in two rows of three and is representative of modern criminal police photography. In his 1924 discussion of cross-dressers, Lothar Goldmann captioned the image as follows: One of the first known cases of transvestite practice. In this sequence, the same person is pictured above as a man, and below dressed as a woman. 791 Multiple photographs of this anonymous subject in masculine and alternately feminine attire include two profile and four frontal views. Because the subject is depicted as both a man and a woman, six photographs augment the then standard contemporary police procedure of three views (frontal, profile, and with hat). While originally and primarily a police document, this six-part image suggests much more than a standard mug-shot. It documents the contemporaneously illicit, yet non-criminal practice of cross-dressing, but also represents official efforts to identify and portray sexual intermediacy and gendered multiplicity. Arguably, and perhaps what is most interesting about the image, it cogently illustrates Hirschfelds theory of a gendered continuum, at the time, a radical concept. The anonymous individual pictured
Cited and pictured in Herrn, Schnittmuster, 135; 241. Lothar Goldmann, ber das Wesen des Umkleidungstriebes, Geschlecht und Gesellschaft XII, (Dresden) (1924/25), Plate 1. 791 Goldmann, ber das Wesen des Umkleidungstriebes, Plate 1, reprinted in Herrn, Schnittmuster, 135; 241.
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here is represented as a figure whose gender is positioned within a fluid spectrum punctuated at opposite ends by masculinity and femininity as signified stereotypically by hair and dress. The multiple photographs animate and lend an almost cinematic progression to the different faces and gendered facets of the subjects identity. Their sequential formatting not only illustrates the ambiguity of the subjects gender, which literally shifts from frame to frame, but also challenges the viewers perception. When viewed at once, ones attention oscillates between the six photos, yet is unable to rest on a single image; similar to Hchs Tamer, this police document does not convey semiotic resolution. Much like Hchs Tamer, the six-part mug-shot challenges any preconceptions of fixed gender. Yet, unlike these multiple images in which each photograph represents an individually and separately gendered aspect of the subject, Hch compresses and synthesizes her representation of dually and shifting genders into a single frame. Conclusion This chapter links Hchs 1930 Tamer to contemporary Weimar gender discourse. As the discussion above explains, Weimar culture was dominated by pictorial media, a development supported by the rapid growth of the printing industry after World War I. The emphasis on visual imagery in Weimar dovetailed with Magnus Hirschfelds methodology which was based largely on the photographic documentation of countless gender deviant subjects.

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Due to a proliferation of illustrated sexological publications and gender debates in the mainstream media, the Weimar public grew increasingly familiar with nonnormatively sexualities. The diverse range of materials generated by the broad contemporary interest in sexuality undoubtedly informed, influenced and supported Hchs visual aesthetic. While the sensationalism of the popular media fanned the flames of controversial gender debates and perpetuated masculine and feminine stereotypes, Weimar sexologists explored the non-normatively gendered figures of Berlins sexual subculture. Hchs Tamer suggests the prominent transvestites Voo-Doo and Barbette, and is easily linked to imagery generated by popular media, medicoscientific materials, and Weimar sexual subculture. Above all, the Tamer implicates the indeterminately and/or non-normatively gendered figures studied by Hirschfeld, such as transvestites, bearded women, and lesbians. The impulse of Weimar sexologists to classify and visually document gender deviancy was reflected in contemporary police practice. A six-part Weimar police mugshot of a male transvestite illustrates what Hirschfeld classified as a sexual intermediate and criminologist E. Wulfflen described as Weibmnner. Hchs ambiguously gendered Tamer eloquently draws upon the inter-related contemporary efforts of the Weimar mainstream, sexologists, official institutions and sexual subculture to cogently represent non-normative gender.

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CHAPTER VI Hannah Hch, Til Brugman, and Weimar Sexology Introduction As the arguments thus far have established, the oeuvres of Hannah Hch and Til Brugman reflect a critical and sustained engagement with gender. This chapter will examine scientific, subcultural, and popular Weimar print materials and, with a focus on body-related medical technologies, examine select Hch photomontages and Brugman texts. Throughout the 1920s, Weimar sexological discourse significantly changed. It was during this decade that sexologists joined forces with endocrinologists to explore the nature of sexual hormones. Inspired by the early twentieth-century discoveries of Eugen Steinach, scientists initially studied the relationship between hormones and age243

related physical degeneration, but soon began to consider the influence of hormones on gendered identity and sexual behavior. This brought about a paradigmatic shift in the understanding of human sexuality and ultimately led to gender-altering surgical procedures. 792 Certainly to anyone with a superficial knowledge of Weimar Germany, a culture in which the body was the epistemological and material focus for a range of contemporary discourses, it comes as no surprise that gender altering surgeries were developed there. Because medical technologies are thoroughly embedded in contemporary cultural contexts and bound with systems of power and knowledge, they are never simply technical as they so often appear to be in the popular imagination, but, as scholars explain, intrinsically epistemic. 793 As a result, epistemic things become technical things and vice versa. 794 Indeed, Weimar-era medical practice reflected the discursive proximity and intersection of endocrinological, surgical, and sexual sciences. These discursive interrelationships were historically unique and compelled

unprecedented medical experiments and, relatedly, corresponding illustrations. Comparable to medical technologies, the processes of scientific visualization are similarly embedded in contemporary cultural contexts. As Philip C. Ritterbush explains, It is this visual element, dependent upon the faculty of perception that lays science

Rainer Herrn, Schnittmuster des Geschlechts: Transvestitismus und Transsexualitt in den frhen Sexualwissenschaft (Giessen: Psychosozial-Verlag, 2005).185; 228. In a 1933 interview, Hirschfeld claimed he was initially against such methods because, at the time, he considered them unnecessary and very dangerous. Anonymous, Magnus Hirschfeld: LAmour et la Science, Viol 3, 119 (July 1, 1933): 6. 793 Nikki Sullivan and Samantha Murray, eds., Somatechnics: Queering the Technologisation of Bodies. (Surrey, GB: Ashgate, 2009), 3. 794 Lily Kay, Who wrote the Book of Life: A History of the Genetic Code (Stanford, Stanford University Press, 2000), 36, cited in Sullivan and Murray, Somatechnics, 3.

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open to the influence of the general culture of its time, for we all learn to see in ways that are conditioned by educational institutions, popular media, and the fine arts. 795 In Weimar, the medium of photography where scientific and cultural discourses intersected was privileged and often deployed to illustrate unprecedented surgical procedures in the medical press. Notably, the first surgical vaginoplasty performed on two male transsexuals whose genders were altered was illustrated in 1924 with photographs. 796 However, the combined media of photography, photomontage, and collage were also deployed in the medical press to illustrate vanguard surgical procedures and are analogous to Hchs signature photomontage medium. Like Hch, who combined male and female elements in her photomontages to suggest unprecedented gendered identities, Weimar surgeons newly conjoined male and female elements to alter and construct gender. Yet, whether gender is constructed with fragments from the popular print media, as in Hchs photomontages, or surgically assembled from human flesh, it is, in effect, a montage which is comprised of cultural and biological components. However, before correlations between photomontage and Weimar sexological and medical discourse are addressed, an overview of vanguard medical developments and practices must be presented. Eugen Steinach and Surgical Rejuvenation

Philip C. Ritterbush, The Shape of Things seen: The Interpretation of Form in Biology, Leonardo 3, no. 3 (July 1970): 305. 796 Felix Abraham, Genitalumwandlung an zwei mnnlichen Transvestiten. Zeitschrift fr Sexualwissenschaft und Sexualpolitik 18 (1931): 223-26.

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During the 1890s, the Austrian endocrinologist Eugen Steinach determined that animal subjects could be rejuvenated through surgically grafted hormonal tissues. 797 Initially, Steinachs experiments were of limited interest to medical specialists. However, after World War I, sensational reports of Steinachs procedures and their miraculous results found their way into the popular press. While the primary goal of Steinachs early research was rejuvenation, he soon discovered correlations between hormones and sexual behavior which significantly influenced and altered contemporary perceptions of biological sex, gender, and sexual identity. 798 Later, the Russian-French physician Serge Voronoff (1866-1951) began to study the effects of administering testicular and ovarian tissue and extracts to human subjects. 799 When news of the rejuvenating effects of surgical grafts hit the popular press, Steinach and Voronoff gained international acclaim. Unsurprisingly, endocrinology became a burgeoning field and practitioners scrambled to administer androgens (the generic term for hormones) and raced to publish their discoveries. 800 In 1923, Voronoff presented a paper at the London Congrs International de Chirurgie on the subject of testicular grafting. As one anonymous reviewer in the prestigious British Medical Journal commented, the procedure tickled the fancy of laymen, and in its broad outline is

Herrn, Schnittmuster, 200. Steinachs early experiments generally entailed grafting or transplanting the sexual organs or tissues into the other sex of the species. 798 Herrn, Schnittmuster, 105. 799 Norman Haire, Rejuvenation: The Work of Steinach, Voronoff, and Others (London: George Alllen & Unwin Ltd., 1924), 50. Voronoff began transplanting the testicles of sheep and goats in 1917. 800 Haire, Bibliography, Rejuvenation, 213-28, references related research published as early as 1786, 1849, and a few isolated examples before 1910. Apparently, there was a burst of scientific interest in this theme during the 1910s and a publishing frenzy ensued between 1918 and 1923.

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easily understandable by them. 801 The contemporary medical community was particularly fascinated with the promise of reestablishing sexual potency among aging men. The British medical press concluded, We must admit . . . the testicular graft is something worthy of serious consideration. 802 In the popular British press, these experiments were known as the monkey-ball operation. 803 The sensational reports of Voronoffs research in the British press were akin to the uproarious media reception generated by Steinachs research in Germany. 804 In 1920, Magnus Hirschfeld published a much shortened and simplified version of Steinachs research geared to the interested bourgeois reader in a pamphlet entitled, Artificial Rejuvenation. 805 In his opening remarks, Hirschfeld declared Steinachs sensational and astounding discoveries dominate the news and render the dramatic political situation in Germany pale in comparison. 806 This publication confirms that by 1920, the average German reader had access to expertly authored materials regarding
The British Medical Journal, vol. 1, no. 3299, Testicular Grafts, (March 22, 1924): 529. The British Medical Journal, Testicular Grafts, 529. 803 Makela, Grotesque Bodies, 207. 804 Voronoff began his research much later than Steinach and was a flamboyant character who sought publicity; Voronoffs notoriety and extravagant lifestyle overshadowed his research contributions. Voronoffs wealth enabled him to purchase a chteau on the Italian Riviera previously owned by the painter Romaine Brooks mother. Brooks, who later inherited the property, cynically commented on this in her unpublished autobiography. My mothers spirit is now beyond the world she once so disdained . . . She will feel no distress to know that the grounds once consecrated by her devotion, the palm-shaded walks, the rocks, the terraces carefully planted with exotic flowers, are now built in with cages for housing monkeys. The very air she would have vibrate with loving calls . . . is now filled with the shattering plaints of Voronoffs chimpanzees. Romaine Brooks, The Monkey Farm, No Pleasant Memories (Unpublished, undated) (Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.), 193. 805 Magnus Hirschfeld, Knstliche Verjngung knstliche Geschlechts-Umwandlung: Die Entdeckungen Prof. Steinach und ihre Bedeutung volkstmlich dargestellt von Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld (Artificial rejuvenation and Sexual reassignment: The discoveries of Prof. Dr. Steinach and their meaning, presented in lay-language by Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld) (Berlin, Institut fr Sexualwissenschaft, 1920). 806 Magnus Hirschfeld, Knstliche Verjngung knstliche Geschlechts-Umwandlung, 3. Durch die gesamte Tagespresse gingen und gehen in diesen Tagen Mitteilungen so aufsehenerregendster erstaunlicher Art, dass selbst die folgenschweren und fr unser Vaterland verhngnisvollen aussere Ereignisse neben Ihnen an Interesse verblassen.
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medical rejuvenation and the effects of hormones upon gendered behavior. 807 Hirschfelds booklet was followed in 1923 by an independently produced documentary film, which further popularized Steinachs discoveries. Steinach claimed that the testicles of young animals, or what he dubbed the Puberttsdruse (Puberty-glands), prolonged youthfulness. 808 However, through his research, Steinach accidentally discovered the feminizing effects of ovarian tissue. He reported that ovarian extracts countered the masculinizing effect of the testicular glands and, when administered to male rats, they developed mammaries and were able to suckle young. 809 Soon, scientists began to consider the possibility of performing similar procedures on human subjects. 810 As Hirschfeld reported, by 1920 testicular transplants had been performed on fourteen men. 811 While the primary aim of these procedures was to physically rejuvenate the subjects, their gender-altering potential was discovered when the testicles of a homosexual man were surgically replaced with testicular tissue taken from a heterosexual subject. According to Hirschfeld, after the operation, the homosexual

Hirschfeld, Knstliche Verjngung. Hirschfeld discusses Die Puberttsdruse und ihr Einfluss auf die Geschlechtlichkeit, (The puberty-glands [testicles] and their Influence on Sexuality), 7-12; and Verjngung, (Rejuvenation), 23-30. 808 Haire, Rejuvenation, 85. Steinach began investigating the relationship between sexual behavior and the gonads of animals in 1894 and reported research results in scientific journals from 1910. 809 Magnus Hirschfeld, Knstliche Verjngung knstliche Geschlechts-Umwandlung: Die Entdeckungen Prof. Steinach und ihre Bedeutung volkstmlich dargestellt von Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld (Artificial rejuvenation and Sexual reassignment: The discoveries of Prof. Dr. Steinach and their meaning, presented in lay-language by Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld) (Berlin, Institut fr Sexualwissenschaft, 1920), 14. 810 Haire, Rejuvenation, 62. Haire claims that in 1918 Steinach suggested the leading Viennese genito-urinary surgeon Dr. Robert Lichtenstern should apply the same methods to human beings. 811 Hirschfeld, Knstliche Verngung, 21. These procedures were performed at the Berlin Virchow Klinik by the prominent surgeons Professor Eric Mhsam, and his Viennese colleague, Lichtenstern.

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man reported heterosexual impulses. 812 Based on this remarkable occurence, Hirschfeld slowly began to reconsider and augment his initial understanding of transvestites. 813 He, and other medical practioners, soon began to realize that hormones played a key role in sexual identity and behavior. Before long, it was widely believed that sexuality could be influenced and adjusted with hormonal extracts and gonadal surgeries. Der Steinach Film By the early 1920s, artificial rejuvenation and gender-ambiguity, or as it was then termed, sexual intermediacy, had not only been discussed in the scientific and popular press, but also inspired a feature-length film. Simply known as Der Steinach Film, it was a co-production of the culture department of the Berlin-based UfA and the Austrian state film agency. 814 The Steinach Film was released only four years after Richard Oswalds 1919 homosexual-themed film Anders als die Andern. However, unlike Oswalds moralizing and melodramatic fiction, The Steinach Film was marketed as a scientifically informed documentary. 815 The Steinach Film premiered at the Berlin movie theatre Palast am Zoo (Palace near the Zoo) in January 1923 (fig. 6.1). Billed as an Aufklrungsfilm

(explanatory/educational film) 816 that bridges science and culture, contemporary

Hirschfeld, Knstliche Verjngung, 20. Herrn, Schnittmuster, 105, 227. Herrn comments that Hirschfeld was not the first to make this correlation. In 1912 British sexologist Havelock Ellis suggested that hormonal imbalance played a key role in transvestitism. 814 UfA (Universum Film Aktien-Gesellschaft) was founded in 1917 and still exists today; it was absorbed by the Austrian German Dutch television and film conglomerate RTL. 815 The narrative of Oswalds film addressed the controversial social and legal issues of male homosexuality. Anders argued for the repeal of paragraph 175, the law that criminalized homosexual acts between men. The story, which ends in tragedy, is about a man who is the victim of blackmail because of his homosexuality. Magnus Hirschfeld participated in the film as the doctor. 816 Well into the 1970s, the Aufklrungsfilm genre implied sexual education.
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promotional materials claimed it would shed light on centuries of ignorance regarding sexual problems and problems related to vitality. 817 Ads for the film praised it because, despite its lay language, it was scientifically informative and explained the process and benefits of surgical rejuvenation. 818 Moreover, as the same ad promises, The Steinach Film will wipe the grin off of any ignorant face that does not understand the relationship between the sexual glands and the homosexual and lesbians nature. While the educational and informational value of the Steinach Film was touted by early Weimar commentators, importantly, it featured several images of sexually ambiguous figures previously pictured only in medico-scientific publications. One such anonymous, and ambiguously-gendered, figure has short hair, a mustache and pendulous breasts (fig. 6.2). 819 The anonymous masked subject might be described as a collage of gendered characteristics and exemplifies, indeed, embodies two-genders. This and similar ambiguously gendered figures pictured in the film likely shocked early Weimar movie-goers; nevertheless, The Steinach Film supported the popular construction and contemporary representation of sexual intermediacy. For obvious reasons, the freakishly unfamiliar figures in The Steinach Film may not be characterized as mainstream; however, the films venue at a major Berlin theatre was. The Steinach Film represents yet another example of the accessibility and ongoing public dissemination of expertly authored sexological information and materials in Weimar.

Translation mine. These texts appear in a January 1923 newspaper advertisement for the film. Materials held at Archiv fr Sexology, Humboldt University, Berlin and are reproduced at http://www2.hu berlin.de/Sexology/GESUND/ ARCHIV/COLLSTE.HTM Tab Der Steinach Film (accessed August 5, 2011). 818 http://www2.hu berlin.de/Sexology/GESUND/ ARCHIV/COLLSTE.HTM Tab Der Steinach Film [accessed August 5, 2011]. 819 http://www2.hu berlin.de/Sexology/GESUND/ ARCHIV/COLLSTE.HTM Tab Der Steinach Film

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In Steinachs 1920 publication, Rejuvenation, before and after photographs of old and subsequently rejuvenated animal and human subjects [all male] confirm the success of his medical experiments. 820 However, Steinachs contemporary research was unprecedented and compelled new forms of illustration. While views inside the body, and before-and-after photography were not new in 1920, the collage medium, then a vanguard artistic technique, was deployed in the 1920 publication, 821 as in an illustration depicting glands framed in a black square superimposed over a rodents belly (fig. 6.3). 822 Indeed the medium is analogous to the surgical procedure it illustrates; much like a collage, surgical grafts and implants conjoin previously foreign elements to create a new and hybridic whole from their parts. These, and related early twentiethcentury medical procedures, echo art historian Brandon Taylors characterization of the collage as a competitive juxtaposition of fragments; a medium, he claims, that retained its experimental quality and marginal status well into the 1930s. 823 Indeed,

Dr. Eugen Steinach, Verjngung durch experimentelle Neubelebung der alternden Puberttsdruse (Rejuvenation through experimental resuscitation of aging puberty-glands) (Berlin: Julius Springer, 1920). Test subjects include rats, a dog, and an elderly man. 821 For a broad discussion of medical illustration see, John L. Thornton and Carol Reeves, Medical Book Illustration: A Short History (Cambridge GB: Pleander Press, 1983); Jonathan Shaw and Jennifer Carling, Spheres of Knowledge: Artistic Discovery in Renaissance Europe, Harvard Magazine 114, no. 2 (November- December 2011): 42-27; For a discussion of the correlation between medical illustration and mid-twentieth century visual technologies, see Hans Elias, Discovery by Illustration, Scientific Monthly 70, no. 4 (April 1950): 229-32. The words of Weimar contemporary Hans Elias, who left Germany in 1934, emphasize the important interrelationship between scientific perception and contemporary modes of illustration. This discipline of illustration and visualization is a great force in the process of discovery. Scientific drawing which, during the nineteenth century, was almost universally handled by the investigators themselves, has contributed greatly to the advancement of science in the past. The production of visual teaching materials, atlases, charts, models, motion pictures, film strips, lantern slides, and perhaps other devices, if handled by personnel trained both scientifically and artistically, may contribute more and more to scientific progress in the future. We may also witness in this process a renewed interest in the shape of living things, and the recognition that knowledge of structure is one of the cornerstones for the understanding of function. 822 Steinach, Verjngung, 20-21. 823 Brandon Taylor, Collage: The Making of Modern Art (New York: Thames and Hudson, 2004), 9.

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Taylors remarks regarding the then experimental practice of collage and photomontage are clearly analogous to Weimar surgical innovation. While Steinachs hormone-related discoveries clearly anticipate Hchs inconclusively sexed 1930 Tamer, the inside/outside view of the rodents body in Steinachs medical illustration suggests the artists photomontage Starken Mnner (Strong Men), an image which explores the relationship between biology and gender identity. Hannah Hchs Strong Men Hchs 1931 photomontage Die starken Mnner (The Strong Men) (fig. 6.4) foregrounds the boxer and his contemporary status as a cultural hero. Hchs title suggests physical strength and issues related to contemporary concepts of masculinity. As scholars David Bathrick, Eric N. Jensen, and Joyce Carol Oates similarly claim, in an age of stifling conformity, the boxer easily advances to an icon of male individuality. As Oates pithily writes, Boxing is for men, and is about men, and is men [it is] a celebration of the lost religion of masculinity all the more trenchant for being lost. 824 Indeed, the general popularity of the boxer during the 1920s was heightened by the experiences of World War I. During World War I, age-old ideals of male heroism were undermined through the anonymity of industrialized conflict and the physical degradation of the trenches. In Germany, these experiences were exacerbated by the

David Bathrick, Max Schmeling on the Canvas: Boxing as an Icon of Weimar Culture, New German Critique 51 (Autumn 1990): 113-36; Eric N. Jensen, Body by Weimar: Athletes, Gender, and German Modernity (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010); Joyce Carol Oates, On Boxing (Garden City, NY: Dolphin Doubleday, 1987), 72.

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humiliation of defeat. 825 After the war, the country mended itself by looking to the past; nineteenth-century Nietzschean individualism, which celebrated physical strength and virile dignity, was rekindled. This served to mollify the once rough and tumble figure of the boxer and rendered him newly salonfhig (socially acceptable). As historian David Bathrick explains, after World War I the boxing arena was to leave the ghetto of strictly lower class amusement and rapidly achieve acceptance as a respectable form of public entertainment. 826 The glorification of the body and sport in Weimar Germany (as earlier stated in the discussion of Krperkultur) was emblematic of profound political and social transformations. Leading intellectuals were convinced that German culture could be rejuvenated and strengthened with sport. 827 Among the Weimar avant-garde and the international cultural elite, the boxer was lionized and became an ideal trope for an entire age. 828 In 1921, the influential Berlin art dealer and publisher Alfred Flechtheim (1878-1937) expressed his fascination with the boxer in an editorial in Querschnitt (Cross-section) (subtitled a journal for artists and friends of boxing). He wrote, We consider it our duty to promote boxing in German artistic circles as it has been the case elsewhere. In Paris, Braque, Derain, Dufy, Matisse, Picasso, and Rodin are all

Ingrid Sharp, Gender Relations in Weimar Berlin, in Christiane Schnfeld, Practicing Modernity: Female Creativity in the Weimar Republic (Wrzburg: Knigshausen & Neumann, 2006), 7. 826 David Bathrick, Max Schmeling on the Canvas: Boxing as an Icon of Weimar Culture, New German Critique 51 (Autumn 1990): 113-36. 118. 827 Bathrick, Max Schmeling, 114. See also, Heinz Risse, Soziologie des Sports (Berlin: August Reher, 1921). 828 Bathrick, Max Schmeling, 118.

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enthusiastic boxing fans. 829 Indeed, the widespread fascination with the boxer inspired a number of artists to take up the theme; yet Hch, in contrast to her contemporaries, disrupted the boxers masculinity with ambiguity and visual irony. 830 Hchs photomontage Strong Men features the legendary German boxer Max Schmeling (fig. 6.5). 831 Then, a major sports personality, Schmeling was a ubiquitous presence in the international media, and his image, even reduced to a mere silhouette, was easily recognizable. Hch, however, depicted Schmeling as a shell: a composite face of an old man and a young woman float inside the boxers hollow body. Trapped in Schmelings muscular silhouette, the twisted face can never be resolved into unity; it is always two genders. 832 The unresolved gender of the figures face is echoed by its lower body; turned, the buttocks face outward and emphasize a crevice that resembles a feminine sign of availability. 833 Yet, while Hchs boxer disrupts masculine stereotypes, it may also be linked to Weimar sexual subculture or medicalized sexology; the figures dual-gendered face suggests the common contemporary characterization of male homosexuality as a woman trapped in a mans body. Relatedly, the view inside the Strong Mans body evokes the surgical implantation of a feminizing hormonal component.
Bathrick, Max Schmeling, 119, 119n22; Ist der Boxsport Roh? (Is Boxing raw?) Querschnitt 1 (1922): 221. 830 These include, but are not limited to, Roman native, Ernesto di Fiori (1884-1945) Max Schmeling (bronze sculpture, 1928), Marianne Brandt (1893-1983) Boxers (photomontage, 1929), Rene Sintenis (1888-1963) Boxer Paul Allner (bronze sculpture, 1925), Czech native, Frieda Reiss (1890-1957) Boxer Erich Brandl (photograph, 1925), and Dutch native, Paul Citroen (1896-1983) Boxkampf (Boxing Match) (photomontage, 1925). 831 Max Schmeling (1905-2004) became the European lightweight champion in 1928 and later defeated the African-American Joe Louis (1914-1981) in a historic match at New Yorks Yankee Stadium for the World Title in 1938. 832 Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 197. 833 Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 197.
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In Weimar, the boxer was not only celebrated in the popular mass media, and a favored theme among contemporary artists, but also feted among homosexuals. 834 Max Schmelings homoerotic appeal, and the interrelation of sexology and popular entertainment culture, is once again confirmed by the image of classical beauty pictured in Magnus Hirschfelds 1930 Sexualkunde (fig. 6.6). Here, the nude Schmeling is depicted from behind. This eroticizes his buttocks and echoes the pose of the ancient pagan goddess Aphrodite Kallipygos pictured beside him. 835 As Eric N. Jensen observes, this pairing invited an artistic and sensuous appreciation of Schmelings body, whose own smooth and unblemished white skin mirrored that of the marble statue. 836 During the Weimar era, the boxer was widely regarded as an embodiment of Nietzschean individuality and virile integrity and was ubiquitous in popular, artistic, subcultural, and scientific materials. In general, contemporary representations of the figure are uniformly constructed. 837 Boxers, but especially Schmeling, the most popular

Eric N. Jensen, Body by Weimar: Athletes, Gender, and German Modernity (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 89. The boxers erotic appeal extended, not surprisingly, to Weimar Germanys remarkably vibrant gay subculture. An anonymous man posing as a boxer pictured on the 1930 cover of the Berlin gay magazine Die Insel (The Island) attests to the contemporary allure of the boxer among gay men. 835 Hirschfeld, Sexualkunde, vol. 4 (1930), plates 206-207; also pictured in Jensen, Body by Weimar, 88. 836 Jensen, Body by Weimar, 89. 837 Here, the Weimar dancer/performance artist, and Hch contemporary, Valeska Gert [Gertrude Samosch] (1892-1978) deserves mention. Similar to Hch, Gert represented the boxer in an ironic context. Her 1927 performance Boxen (Boxing) was a circa three minute open-ended dance mimicking the poses and techniques of the boxer. Gerts strange staccato-like dance performances were in tune with the fractured experience of Weimar daily life, and like Hchs disjointed collage imagery, they too belie a harmonious and regulated perception of wholeness or semiotic closure. Similar to a late 1950s happening, neither Gert nor her audiences were entirely certain when a performance had begun or ended. For a discussion of Gert, see Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Valeska Gert, The Drama Review 25, no. 3 (Fall 1981): 55-66.

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of all, were represented as unambiguously masculine. 838 While Hchs Strong Men suggests Schmelings broad appeal, the photomontage diverges significantly from contemporary representations; it empties and re-infuses the figure with dual and unresolved gendered elements and subverts his status as a masculine icon. Til Brugman and Weimar Sexology Similar to Hch, Til Brugman explored the construction of gender stereotypes and engaged with the medical and surgical aspects of contemporary sexological discourse in her ouevre. Brugmans knowledge of sexology and medicine was more than superficial; according to her correspondence, she translated a number of medical texts in 1931, 839 and reportedly visited Hirschfelds Institute the same year. 840 Much like the playful, yet subversive irony suggested in Hchs unresolved dual-gendered Tamer and Strong Men, Brugmans literary grotesques demonstrate a satiric engagement with
Bathrick, Max Schmeling and the Canvas, 125-25; 125n30. In Weimar, the boxer was a perennially popular theme among contemporary artists. In 1921 Flechtheim commissioned Rudolf Grosmann to create an edition of eight lithographs with a boxing theme. George Groszs mid-1920s portrait of Schmeling emphasizes the figures muscular torso, while Rene Sintenis bronze sculpture, Boxer, and Paul Citroens photomontage Boxkampf, and Willi Baumeisters drawing of a boxing ring, celebrate the boxers statuesque physique and suggest virile integrity. 839 Brandt, Vertippte Zebra, 170-71. Unfortunately, I have been unable to locate information regarding actual texts Brugman translated. Knowledge of their themes would undoubtedly be helpful in understanding her oeuvre, and possibly that of her partner Hch. Brandt however, suggests that Brugman translated sexological materials and remarks that Sexualwissenschaft (Sexual science) was at the time, a relatively young science. I am inclined to think Brugman had a working knowledge of Steinach materials; she references the scientist in two of her texts. See also, Norman Haire, Rejuvenation: The Work of Steinach, Voronoff, and Others (London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1924), 205. Haire mentions hiring a polyglot secretary to read and translate materials discussing Steinachs procedures printed into English, American, French, Dutch, German, and Scandinavian medical journals. Unfortunately Haire does not identify this talented and mysterious polyglot by name. However, a connection between Brugman and Haire is feasible. Haire was friends with Magnus Hirschfeld and, as previously noted, scholars claim Hirschfeld and Brugman were acquainted. Furthermore, Haire was involved in German publishing projects. He wrote the introduction to Niels Hoyer, Man into Woman, which was first published in Germany in 1932 as Lili Elbe: Ein Mensch wechselt sein geschlecht, eine Lebenbeichte (Dresden: Carl Reissner Verlag, 1932). 840 The Hirschfeld Institute website Visitors and Residents, tab confirms Brugmans visit to the Institute in August, 1931. http://www.magnus-hirschfeld.de [accessed September 18, 2011].
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gender and contemporary sexological discourse. Brugmans Revision am Himmel (Adjustment in Heaven) explores the potentially destabilizing effects of Steinachs research upon fundamental Western European concepts of morality and

heteronormativity. 841 Brugmans short story Warenhaus der Liebe lampoons both Steinachs rejuvenation procedure and the sexually deviant subjects that were the focus of Hirschfelds research. Revision am Himmel Brugmans Revision am Himmel is a bizarre fantasy spun from contemporary scientific discourse. Revision playfully engages with contemporary theories that linked sexual identity and behavior to inborn and glandular disposition. In the narrative, Brugman explores the social consequences of such claims and their potentially disastrous results. In the text, even God himself is compelled to reconsider age-old concepts of sin and guilt and revise the Ten Commandments. After much soul-searching and consultation with the Saints, God must reluctantly concede that if character and behavior are inalterable and reflect inborn or glandular disposition, no one can be called a sinner. If that be the case, he reasons, and glands are responsible for all behavior, whores, street-boys . . . lesbians and homosexuals . . . are all without guilt. 842 While Revision blatantly parodies contemporary sexology and Judeo-Christian morality, the text may also be read as an argument in support of sexual tolerance. Written in late Weimar, and possibly after 1933, when all public expressions of homosexuality were
Everard, Patchamatac, 92-93; 97n24, 25, 26. Revision am Himmel was among Hchs 1927-1935 papers. After the artists death in 1978, Brugmans manuscripts were moved to the Hch Archive in Bachnang; Revision am Himmel, printed in Brandt, 111-22. 842 Til Brugman, Revision am Himmel, in Brandt, Das Vertippte Zebra, 114, 118.
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prohibited and punishable by law, Brugmans text addressed an illicit theme and espoused a potentially dangerous socio-political message. 843 Warenhaus der Liebe Much like Revision, Brugmans short story Warenhaus der Liebe (Department Store of Love) (1931-33) explores gender and sexuality, and is a thinly veiled satire of Hirschfelds Berlin Institute. 844 In the narrative, the Institute of Sexual Science is allegorized as a department store wherein a variety of sex-related merchandise and services are offered. 845 Open 24 hours, the store sells a variety of objects to accommodate and support the pursuit of pleasure and customers may purchase any obscure fetish object they desire. Brugmans abstruse inventory of merchandise, such as military uniforms, bedpans, and rubber baby behinds, lampoons the exhaustive collection of sexual paraphernalia held in the erotic museum housed in Hirschfelds Berlin Institute. 846 Brugman also pokes fun at strange erotic practices and

Ilse Kokula, Lesbisch leben von Weimar bis zur Nachkriegszeit, in Boll, Eldorado, 153. While all organized lesbian and homosexual activities were forbidden by Nazis on February 23, 1933, as early as 1925, calls were made in the German parliament for the criminalization of lesbianism. In 1932, the Chief of the Berlin police department prohibited the public gathering of lesbians and launched an intimidating campaign of random identity controls and police raids of lesbian clubs. 844 Myriam Everard, Eros in het Museum, Lust en Gratie 18 (Fall 1988):68, 75n4; See also Brandt, Vertippte Zebra, 79. Because Brugman misspelled Hirschfelds name as Herschmann in a 1931 letter to Hch, scholars were unsure whether or not Brugman actually visited the Institute. The visitors tab at http://www.magnus-hirschfeld.de [accessed August 6, 2011]; however, confirms Everards hunch that Brugman visited the Institute; Brugman signed the guest log of Hirschfelds Institute in August, 1931. 845 Brugmans discussion of different departments, suggests the actual organization of Hirschfelds Institute. As Herrn explains, a dermatologist, an X-ray technician, a physiognomist (Menschenkundler), an endocrinologist, and a sexual surgeon all had offices there (112-13). 846 The Institutes collection of erotic paraphernalia was extensive. Much of it destroyed or lost, a portion of it mysteriously survived in a private collection. See, Sibylle Lewitscharoff and Ulrich Moritz, Ein Kabinett fr Sonderlinge? Die Sammlung Trautmann, in sthetik und Kommunikation 7 (1981): 60-71. Haakenson, Grotesque Visions, 197. In 1908, Hirschfeld rationalized the necessity for a sexological museum as follows: It appeared to me very worthwhile to create an archive of sexual science, a sexualbiological museum, analogous to the phylogenetic Institute of [Ernst] Haeckel in Jena or the bacteriological Institute of [Louis] Pasteur in Paris. Here one could collect within a discipline-specific

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the sexologists penchant for minutely cataloguing them. Similarly, the author satirizes the commodification and brazen marketing of unnecessary medical procedures. As customers enter the department store, they are handed flyers with the text, Have you already been transplanted? (Sind sie schon betransplantiert?). 847 In a sophisticated play on Steinachs name, Brugman writes, The elderly lady felt herself versteinacht and [tentimes] verzehnsteinacht. The price reflected this. 848 While Brugman satirizes unconventional sexual behavior and the barefaced commercial interests that drive medical research and practice, she nonetheless portrays sexual deviancy in a positive light. She lauds the Warenhaus and its proprietor for his efforts to accommodate and normalize all manner of sexual identity and expression. The freedom to love the object of ones choice, she writes, enables the party-like atmosphere in the department store. 849 The congenial atmosphere described in Brugmans narrative reflects accounts of Hirschfelds Institute, which contemporaries remembered as friendly and informal. 850 Because everyone can freely express themselves and find acceptance there, the department store is responsible for

library valuable or original documents and official papers for strict scientific purposes, as well as pictorial and special data for collective research, data, statistics for comparative folklore or juridical studies, further graphic representations, results of comparative measurements, specimens, photographs, slides, instruments, plaster castings, sexual symbols, etc., etc. 847 Brugman, Warenhaus, in Brandt, 79. 848 Brugman, Warenhaus der Liebe, in Brandt, Vertippte Zebra, 75. Die alte Dame fhlte sich versteinacht, verzehnsteinacht. Das Entgelt war dementsprechend. 849 Brugman, Warenhaus, in Brandt, 79. 850 Herrn, Schnittmuster, 202. Extant Weimar era photographs taken at the Berlin Institute generally depict Hirschfeld with his co-workers and patients happily socializing. Herrn remarks that the atmosphere at the clinic was unusual because contacts between Hirschfeld and his patients were markedly collegiate in contrast to typical patient doctor relationships. See also Herrn, 115, for an undated photograph taken at an Institute costume party depicting male and female cross-dressers.

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worldwide happiness, and peaceful coexistence. 851 As the manager of Brugmans fictitious store declares, We have received telegrams from Yellowstone Park, from the middle of the ocean, from the top of the Himalayas, the North Pole and the Sahara from those who are grateful to finally be freed from the shackles of ridiculous prejudice regarding love and for the first time in their lives are able to live in happiness. 852 These claims could very well double as a statement from Hirschfeld. Certainly the ease with which Brugman jokingly addresses surgical procedures and playfully integrates sexological jargon in her text confirms her interest in, and professional knowledge of, contemporary medico-scientific research and publications. Furthermore, as Brugman scholar Marion Brandt claims, Hch and Brugman were personally acquainted with Magnus Hirschfeld. 853 Brandts claim is feasible when one considers Hirschfelds broad cultural engagement, and the public accessibility of the Institute. The Institute was open to visitors and its educational outreach program was remarkably developed for the time. Makela comments that in the first year alone [1919] the Institute gave 4,200 guided tours, which were augmented by regularly scheduled continuing education classes and scientific lectures that the general public could attend. 854 Brugman, who visited the Institutes museum in August 1931, remembered the collections much more clearly than she did the name and founder of

Til Brugman, Warenhaus der Liebe, in Brandt, 79. Jeder sass mit seine Liebe wie es ihm passte. [Everyone sat with their lover the way they pleased.] 852 Brugman, Warenhaus der Liebe, in Brandt, 79. 853 Brandt, 170, claims that Hch met Hirschfeld in 1926, while Brugman met him later. 854 Makela, Grotesque Bodies, 211. A number of Weimar era lesbian periodicals advertise Hirschfelds public lectures.

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the Institute: She wrote a grotesque tale about it . . . and had the story end with a menacing vision, thereby seemingly anticipating the Institutes imminent demise. 855 Unfortunately, Hirschfelds campaign of information and outreach could not prevent negative political repercussions or stop the attacks that haunted him long before the National Socialists assumed power in 1933. 856 Despite his tireless efforts the Institute of Sexual Science was destroyed by the National Socialists. On May 6, 1933, it was one of the first targets in a series of raids organized and aimed at what the Nazi regime deemed degenerate culture. During the raid, the Institute was looted and its materials publically burned by a group of National Socialists, many of whom were university students. 857 As a result, over 10,000 books, 10,000 psycho-biographical questionnaires, and an estimated 30,000 hand-written sexual biographies were lost or destroyed. 858 Uncannily, Brugmans Warenhaus eerily presage the Institutes looting. In a disturbingly graphic passage, Brugman describes violent military hordes that build bonfires, break everything they get their hands on, and destroy objects invested with

http://www.magnus-hirschfeld.de Tab, Visitors and Residents, Til Brugman [accessed September 18, 2011]; See also Brandt, Vertippte Zebra, 207. 856 Brennan and Hegarty, 16. Throughout the 1920s, hecklers shouting anti-gay and anti-Semitic slurs frequently disrupted Hirschfeld's public lectures. In October 1920, after a lecture in Munich, Hirschfeld was beaten by extremists and left for dead. As a result of the attack, he was hospitalized and erroneous reports of his death were printed in the Leipziger Neuesten Nachricht on October 4, 1920. 857 Nazis carried materials out of the building and destroyed books and other archival materials with a bonfire. The building that housed Hirschfelds Institute in Berlins Tiergarten Park, was later destroyed in an Allied air attack in 1943. 858 Everard and Bosch, Lust en Gratie, 7. Hirschfeld, who had embarked on an international lecture tour in 1931, was abroad at the time of the looting. In a 1934 article, Hirschfeld likened seeing the destruction of the Berlin Institute in a newsreel at a Parisian cinema to witnessing ones own funeral. See, Brennan and Hagerty, 16, who cite Hirschfeld in Anthropos I/2 (1934): 1. Tragically, Hirschfeld never returned to Germany and died a year later in Nice on his 67th birthday in 1935.

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the tenderest sentiment by stamping them with their feet. 859 Indeed, these details could easily double as an eye-witness account of the May 1933 raid. Brugman scholars claim that Warenhaus was written between 1931 and 1933. 860 The graphic description of a looting, however, suggests that Brugman did not complete the text until after May, 1933. Yet, judging by the humorous and conciliatory tone of the text, it seems probable that Warenhaus was written before the Nazi raid. 861 While Brugman was undoubtedly able to see the humor in earnest situations, the violent destruction of a cultural institution was arguably not among them. Instead, I would suggest that the text, once again, reveals Brugmans incredible and intuitive grasp of the zeitgeist. By mid-1933, Nazi raids were unfortunately no longer isolated occurrences, 862 however, as German sexologist Ludwig Lenz later claimed, the raid on the Institute, was one of the very earliest acts of government terror, preceeding by years the later well-known Nazi excesses. As Lenz rhetorically queries, Why was the Institute destroyed? Whence the violence? . . . The answer is simple and straightforward enoughwe knew too much. 863 Current events provided Brugman with sufficient

Brugman,Warenhaus der Liebe, in Brandt, 79-80. Brandt, 270; Lust & Gratie 5 (1988): 19, 58-65. Warenhaus der Liebe was written in German and was first published in 1988 as a Dutch translation in the lesbian magazine, Lust en Gratie. 861 Warenhaus der Liebe was most probably written between 1931 and 1933. Written in German, the text was first published in a Dutch translation as Liefdeswarenhuis in Lust en Gratie (Fall 1988): 19, 58-65. Warenhaus der Liebe is printed in its original German text in Brandt, Vertippte Zebra, 72-81. 862 Long before Hitler was declared Reichschancellor, Nazis engaged in acts of terror. A cursory examination of 1931 and 1932 issues of Das 12 Uhr Blatt, a Berlin daily, reveals numerous reports of Nazi activities which are generally described in denigrating terms. Nazi Schergen (Nazi Hooligans), Nazimrder (Nazi murderers), Blutrache (bloody revenge), Gesetzwidrig (illegal) and Terror are consistently used in headlines of articles that report regular run-ins with the police and illegal and violent Nazi activities such as murders and mass riots (100 Nazi against zwei Policemen, March 25, 1931). 863 Cited in Erwin J. Haeberle, Swastika, Pink Triangle, and Yellow Star: The Destruction of Sexology and the Persecution of Homosexuals in Nazi Germany, in The Journal of Sex Research 17, no. 3,
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information to generate a disturbing, and credible, fictitious scenario. We do not, however, know if, and to what extent, she anticipated her fiction would so closely and darkly resonate with actual events. Viewed from a later date, the harmless conclusion of Warenhaus, wherein a fetishistic client, who is also an admiral, calls off the attack if the department store promises to deliver one million million celluloid soldiers to fight in future wars, is somewhat difficult to understand. 864 Yet, as a number of contemporaries later claimed, many underestimated the grave implications of National Socialism and did not consider it a serious threat until it was far too late. 865 Despite its humorous tone, Brugmans Warenhaus is a critique of sexual repression and an argument for sexual freedom which was, in part, likely inspired by her own illicit lesbian sexuality. Like her, homosexual Magnus Hirschfeld and other progressive sexual scientists, sought to ameliorate the lives of non-normatively gendered individuals and worked to gain their social acceptance.
History and Sexuality (Aug., 1981): 274; 286n7, Ludwig Lenz, Psychoanalysis and Hitler, in The Memoirs of a Sexologist: discretion and indiscretion (New York: Cadillac Publishing Co., 1951), 429-30. We had a great many Nazis under treatment at the Institute . . . It would be against medical principles to provide a list of the Nazi leaders and their perversions. Lenz adds, The history of morals in the Third Reich will some day fill a large volume . . . It is an undeniable fact that extremists are not as balanced mentally as the average normal person, and one mental abnormality is usually accompanied by another. Lenz continues, In 1929 one of our patients at the Institute was a young man who had formerly had an intimate relationship with [Ernst] Roehm (leader of the Nazi Sturmabteilung [paramilitary stormtroopers]). From time to time he told me about his circle, which, in those days, we considered hardly worthy of notice and he mentioned casually the name Adolf Hitler: Adi is the most perverted of us all, but at the moment he is acting the heroic male (439-40). 864 The admiral argued that if no one engaged in normal heterosexual sex, the population would dwindle and ultimately jeopardize the future of the army. Here Brugman conflates homophobia with warmongering and ironizes the contemporary valorization of reproductive [hetero]sexuality. It may also be read as a subtle swipe aimed at the sexual hypocrisy which (according to Ludwig Levy Lenz) was common among high-ranking Nazis. 865 Haakenson, 237, cites Renate Bridenthal, Atina Grossmann, and Marion Kaplan, Introduction, When Biology became Destiny: Women in Weimar Germany (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1984), xii, Nazism did not arrive full blown, with promises of war and gas chambers. It came slowly, step by step, draped in the protective coloring of love for country, strong medicine to combat unemployment, and . . . a pledge to restore the traditional family.

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Weimar Sexology and Extreme Transvestites The concept of transgenderism was first suggested in the 1860s by Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, who initiated the thinking of same-sex desire through cross-gender identification. 866 Indeed, Ulrichs mid nineteenth-century characterization of his own experience as an anima muliebris virile corpora inclusa (a feminine soul confined in a male body) would describe homosexuality, in vernacular terms, for many years to follow. Significantly launching a discussion of the conflict between sex and gender, as transgender theorist Jay Prosser claims, Ulrichs established the trope that later defined transsexuality. 867 Later, in 1870, German sexologist Carl Westphal addressed the radical gender inversion of two profoundly cross-gendered subjects: a young woman who wants to live as a man, and a man who wants to live as a woman. 868 Ulrichs and Westphals nearly identical model of radical gender inversion was adopted by sexologist Krafft-Ebing. Under the heading Effeminatio und Viraginitt, nine case studies of individuals who strongly identified as members of the opposite sex were included in Krafft-Ebings 1893 printing of Psychopathia Sexualis. 869 The first true pioneer in the field of cross-gender identification was, however, Hirschfeld. Scholars now argue that because Hirschfelds 1910 Transvestites was a putatively pre-transsexual work on sexual inversion, four of the seventeen subjects

Jay Prosser, Transsexuals and the Transsexologists: Inversion and the Emergence of Transsexual Subjectivity, in Lucy Bland and Laura Doan, eds., Sexology in Culture: Labeling Bodies and Desires (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), 119. 867 Prosser, Transsexuals, in Bland and Doan, 119. 868 Prosser, Transsexuals, in Bland and Doan, 119; Carl Westphal, Contrary Sexual Feelings, English translation: http://www.well.com/~aquarius/westphal.htm [accessed September 25, 2011]. 869 Krafft-Ebing, Psychopathia Sexualis (1893), 280-305. The subjects of the nine case studies are two women, and seven men.

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discussed in the volume would likely be classified as transsexuals today. 870 Indeed, the contemporary early twentieth-century label of sexual inversion was a largely undifferentiated concept. As gender historian George Chauncey explains, sexual inversion referred to a broad range of deviant gender behavior, of which homosexual desire was only a logical but indistinct aspect. 871 In the early 1920s, the unclear distinction between sexual inverts and transvestites led Hirschfeld to distinguish what he initially characterized as extreme transvestites. 872 According to Hirschfeld, extreme transvestites were individuals who not only had an impulse to cross-dress but also identified so strongly with the opposite sex that they wanted to change their bodies. 873 Thereafter, Hirschfeld coined the most popular and lasting term, transsexual, to describe this phenomenon. 874 Certainly, as gender historians argue, transsexuals existed before they were named. 875 Moreover, in Weimar, the development of medical procedures geared to bridging the gap between subjectivity and biological gender greatly contributed in establishing a transsexual

Vern L. Bullough, A Nineteenth-Century Transsexual, Archives of Sexual Behavior 16, 1 (1987): 84; cited in Jay Prosser, Transsexuals, in Bland and Doan, 122; 871 Prosser, Transsexuals, in Bland and Doan, 116, 128n1. See also George Chauncey, From Sexual Inversion to Homosexuality: Medicine and the Changing Conceptualization of Female Deviancy, Salmagundi, 58/59 (1982-3): 116. 872 Rainer Herrn, Schnittmuster des Geschlechts: Transvestitismus und Transsexualitt in den frhen Sexualwissenschaft (Giessen: Psychosozial-Verlag, 2005), 184. 873 Herrn, Schnittmuster, 184. 874 Magnus Hirschfeld, Die intersexuelle Konstitution, Jahrbuch fr sexuelle Zwischenstufen (Berlin 1923): 3-27. 875 Prosser, Transsexuals, in Bland and Doan, 128. Prosser rebukes the critical commonplace that the term transsexual and the availability of medical technologies such as plastic surgery and endocrinology conjoined to create the figure.

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identity. 876 As Rainer Herrn explains, attempts to remedy their social difficulties were undertaken as early as 1883. 877 In these early cases, transsexuals were compelled to seek the support and expertise of medical practitioners. To this end, examinations were conducted to assess, verify, and document the degree of an individuals gender dysphoria. 878 Hirschfeld, who contributed significantly to the theorization of the transsexual, conducted a number of gender assessments at the Institute of Sexual Science. 879 As narrated in Man into Woman, the psychological component of the evaluation was particularly intense: By means of a thousand penetrating questions, this man explored the patients emotional life for hours. 880 Expert medical testimonials, especially from figures as prominent as Hirschfeld, not only contributed to the cultural legitimization of transgenderism, but also served to assuage the social and legal difficulties transsexuals inevitably faced. Generally, medical experts recommended that gender-dysphoric individuals be permitted to change their names legally and wear clothing normally worn by the other sex. 881 Unfortunately,
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For an outline of arguments regarding the relationship of surgeries to transgender identity construction, see Bernice L. Hausman, Recent Transgender Theory, Feminist Studies 27, no. 2 (Summer 2001): 465-90. 877 Herrn, Schnittmuster, 201. In 1883, the biological female Sophia Hedwig was, thanks to a medical dispensation, the first woman permitted to legally assume a masculine name (Herrmann Karl) and adjust her birth certificate accordingly. Herrn adds that claims Sophia, who was ambiguously gendered, was the first person whose genitals were surgically altered is erroneous. According to Herrn, she did not undergo surgery but was merely allowed to officially change her name. 878 This procedure is akin to the medical and psychological diagnostic protocol pre-operative transsexuals are subjected to today. 879 Neils Hoyer, Man into Woman: An Authentic Record of a Change of Sex, trans. H.J. Stenning. (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1933), 50. A literary account of one such examination is described as a long and elaborate examination. As Hoyer writes, the professor intimated to his patient that he must now submit himself for a special examination by his friend Dr. Hardenfeld [pseudonym for Hirschfeld] the sexual psychologist. 880 Hoyer, Man into Woman, 51. 881 Cross-dressing was not illegal; however, if a cross-dressed individual caused a public disturbance they were arrested and charged with criminal disorder. Until 1923, official name changes had

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Weimar procedures governing the evaluation and recognition of transgendered individuals were neither uniformly instituted nor regulated. Legal permission to live as a member of the opposite sex was not always granted, or, once granted, was on occasion, later revoked. 882 While Hirschfeld vigorously supported the desire of extreme transvestites to change their names and wear the clothing they pleased, he began to explore the idea of a surgical solution for some of these cases.

Gender Reassignment Surgery The first surgical gender reassignment procedure was performed on a woman in Berlin in 1912. 883 However, by the mid 1920s, an undisclosed number of sexual surgeries had been performed in Germany, most of which were partial, and performed on women. 884 In stark contrast to the number of gender-altering surgical procedures

to be published in the Deutsche Reichsanzeiger und Preussische Staatsanzeiger (Official Newspaper of the German and Prussian Government). As Herrn laconically comments, the announcement had to paid for by the person seeking a name change, and simultaneously outet them as transgendered by including their full name and address (128). Permits to wear clothing normally worn by the opposite sex were issued in the form of paper documents which the subject could carry with them and produce if necessary. 882 Herrn, Schnittmuster, 134. As Herrn writes, especially in the female transvestite newspapers of the 1920s and 1930s, complaints regarding the difficulty of changing ones name appear often. For a discussion of official protocol which enabled a subject to legally live as a transvestite in Weimar, see, Die behrdliche Anerkennung der Transvestiten (134-42). 883 Herrn, Schnittmuster, 104, 231. In 1926, surgeon Richard Mhsam claimed that in 1912 he removed the breasts and uterus of a 35 year old woman. The subject, he reported, was a talented painter who dressed in mens clothing and reportedly identified as male. Chirurgische Eingriffe bei Anomalien des Sexuallebens, Therapie der Gegenwart 67 (1926): 455. 884 Herrn, Schnittmuster, 200. Papers published by Magnus Hirschfeld (1918), Hans Abraham (1921) and Richard Mhsam (1926) report performing several such procedures on female subjects.

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performed on women, only five male-to-female operations were reported before 1933. 885 Yet, when one considers the conspicuously low statistical presence of female subjects in contemporary sexological literature, 886 it is curious that so many women were subjected to these unprecedented and arguably risky procedures. 887 This not only speaks to the anatomical differences between male and female subjects but, as Herrn and Marjorie Garber remark, also indicates the generally lesser significance of the female subject in Weimar and attests to the sexism of the male-dominated medical community. 888 In 1923, based on Hirschfelds recommendations, a seven year surgical process, resulting in the first complete male-to-female gender reassignment, was initiated. 889

However, as Herrn writes one can only speculate on the number of women who had their breasts, uterus and/or ovaries removed during the 1920s in their efforts to change their sex, because records do not exist. What little evidence exists indicates that the most frequent, while least invasive, procedure was breast amputation. This was apparently often performed in conjunction with an official name change. In 1930, Hirschfeld reported amputating the breasts of a woman Herta, who later changed her name legally to Gerd. 885 Herrn, Schnittmuster, 201. 886 16 of 17 case studies in Hirschfelds 1910 Transvestites discuss male subjects. See also, Norman Haire, Rejuvenation: The Work of Steinach, Voronoff, and Others (London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1924). Haire discusses the cases of eighty-two men and those of six women. 887 Operations on female subjects were more dangerous because the ovaries and uterus, unlike the testicles, which are outside the body, are difficult to retrieve. Herrn, Schnittmuster, 105, comments that men often attempted to castrate themselves, while women, compelled by their biology, were forced to consult doctors. See also, Haire, Rejuvenation, 196. The transplantation of young ovaries brings about somewhat analogous results to those which occur after testicular grafting in men, but it entails a major operation for both the donor and the recipient, since the ovaries are situated in the abdominal cavity. It is thus not at all such a simple procedure as in men. 888 Herrn, Schnittmuster, 198, 198n23. Herrn comments that Marjorie Garber interprets the relative disinterest among early sexologists in developing and/or perfecting female-to-male SRS procedures as a reflection of the asymmetry of the cultural status of women and men. See also Marjorie Garber, Vested Interest: Cross-Dressing and Cultural Anxiety (New York: Routledge, 1992), 147. 889 Herrn, Schnittmuster, 201-04. This entailed the castration of Rudolph Ri.[chter?] (1892-1933). Richters castration, the first surgical step in sexual-reassignment surgery, was performed in the Berlin Institute for Sexual Science by Heinrich Stabel. Later, Richters castration was followed by a penectomy and the construction of an artificial vagina. Richter, who assumed the female name Dorchen, lived and worked in Hirschfelds institute for more than 10 years as a housemaid. Herrn writes that Hirschfeld was aware that transsexuals often had difficulty finding work and because of this, hired a number of them as

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Although Hirschfeld and Steinach had undoubtedly paved the way for popular reports of gender reassignment, until 1931, gender-altering procedures were only discussed in the medical press or in Weimar lesbian magazines. 890 The narrator of Man into Woman, a contemporary literary account of a male-tofemale gender transition, remarks, the new ovaries which the Professor proposes to ingraft . . . will be taken from a woman who is scarcely twenty-seven years old. 891 While no information regarding the identity of the female donor is given in the text, one cannot help but wonder where and how Weimar physicians procured young and healthy female ovaries. 892 Was the anonymous 26 year old female donor an invalid, newly deceased, or perhaps the victim of a crime? 893 Unfortunately, due to the destruction of Hirschfelds Institute and most of its archive in 1933, mysteries such as these are
maids at the Institute. Like Dorchen, artist Hugo Otto Arno Ebel, or Toni (born 1881), surgically transitioned from male-to female and later worked at the Institute as a housekeeper. Toni Ebels transition, however, unlike Dorchens, only took two years and his physical transformation was completed by 1931. Ebels 1929 surgery was performed by Dr. Levy-Lenz and Dr. Felix Abraham, two of Hirschfelds Berlin Institute colleagues. Felix Abraham discussed these cases of male-to-female surgeries [Dorchen Richter and Toni Ebel] in his essay, Genitalumwandlung an zwei mnnlichen Transvestiten, Zeitschrift fr Sexualwissenschaft und Sexualpolitik 18 (1931): 223-26. 890 The first popular discussion of sexual transition in the Weimar media appeared in 1931: Wie aus dem dnischen Maler Einar Wegener eine Frau Lilli Elven wurde, Das 12 Uhr Blatt, March 9, 1931 (Berlin), unpaginated. 891 Hoyer, Man into Woman, 172. 892 The anonymous article reporting Lilis operation, Wie aus dem dnischen Maler Einar Wegener eine Frau Lilli Elven wird was printed in the popular Berlin 12 Uhr Blatt (March 9, 1931). According to the journalist, Die Operationen fhrten zur Einpflanzung eines gefunden Ovariums, das durch Operation bei einer anderen Frau entfernt worden war, wodurch natrlich keine Gebrfhigkeit hergestellt werden konnte, da die Gebrmutter fehlt. (The operations led to the transplantation of a found ovary that was removed from another woman; of course this will never lead to conception because the uterus is missing.) 893 Hoyer, Man into Woman, 170. A discussion woven into the narrative suggests potential sources of human female tissue and organs. At length the Matron came into the room and conveyed her doleful news that she must wait yet a few days longer, as the invalid in question who had been operated on yielded no suitable material for Lili [quotes in original]. Relatedly, Haire, Rejuvenation, reports four cases in which previously sterile women conceived and passed through a normal pregnancy after . . . the transplantation into the abdominal wall of two discs of ovarian tissue, still warm from the body of another woman. The grafts were taken from women suffering from cancer, myoma of the uterus, or pulmonary tuberculosis (196).

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unsolvable and infuse discussions of early sexual reassignment surgeries with ominous undertones. Einars casual remark regarding his new ovaries coupled with Herrns claim that the majority of body-altering operations were performed on female subjects, darkly suggests the proverbial evil scientist of Weimar fiction. Rotwang, the creator of Marias sinister cyborgian body-double in Fritz Langs silent film Metropolis, immediately comes to mind. 894 Gender Reassignment and the Weimar Print Media As Hirschfelds many publications, the 1923 Steinach Film, and a 1931 report of Einar Wegeners surgical transition in the popular Berlin press confirm, 895 genderdysphoria, hormones and gender-altering surgical procedures were addressed in the mainstream press. While gender-altering procedures were primarily discussed in scientific and medical journals, human subjects were actively solicited in the lesbian print media to participate in medical experiments. 896 Weimar medical practitioners enlisted the personal ads on the back pages of the lesbian magazine Frauen Liebe to find volunteers for hormonal experiments. The discrete font, and length, of these ads renders them barely noticeable; they are easily glossed over and superficially confused with the typically terse personal ads placed by women searching for girlfriends. The two
Fritz Lang, Metropolis, 1927, UfA, 153 minutes. Matthew Biro succinctly describes Metropolis as the most cyborgian film. See, Biro, The Dada Cyborg: Visions of the New Human in Weimar Berlin (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009), 259. 895 An anonymus report of a womans desire to be transformed into a man followed shortly. In sharp contrast to the respectful tenor of articles discussing Wegener as an actual patient, the female subject is only partially identified as the ca. 40-year old Viennese society woman Hildegard R. who had long preferred to wear mens clothing. Moreover, she is portayed as ludicrous. Hildegard reportedly stole a ram from the Schnbrunn Zoo, then drove to an unidentified klinik in Vienna and demanded that the rams testicles be implanted in her body. The operation was a success. Aus Frau wird Mann: Wieder ein Geschlechtswechsel diesmal in Wien! Das 12 Uhr Blatt, May 22, 1931. 896 Two such ads appear in Frauen Liebe, 6 Jg., no. 13/14 (Berlin, 1931): 9.
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ads in Frauen Liebe share the same contact address and appear to have been placed by the same anonymous person or organization. 897 The first ad targets women who identify as masculine, and reads: Appropriate Ladies/ Sought for scientific experiments with masculine glandular preparations. A second ad guarantees larger breasts through hormone therapy and may be aimed at readers of either sex. 898 Womanly/ Breasts through real glandular growth! The only natural procedure in existence based on exact science. Real and lasting success! Clinical tests performed on men and animals with complete and proven success. Guaranteed safe. Many years of experience. For informative booklet with proof and further information contact: While both ads tout the benefits of modern medical science, like any advertisement, they were primarily intended for marketing purposes. Importantly, these ads confirm the pursuit of research subjects for endocrinological experiments in public media. Furthermore, they also suggest that the correlation between hormones and gender identity was widely recognized. It is likely that culturally literate contemporaries, such as Brugman and Hch, were aware of this media discourse: While Brugman is credited with the translation of contemporary medical texts and references vanguard surgical procedures throughout her oeuvre, Hchs photomontages are easily linked to genderreassignment procedures, as in the case of the artists 1926 Sweet One. Hannah Hchs Sweet One: The surgical construction of gender?

Frauen Liebe, 6 Jg., no. 13/14 (Berlin, 1931): 9. Translation mine. Based on Herrns claims regarding the botched and dangerous attempts of transgendered men to enlarge their breasts, it is likely that ads for breast enlargements in the lesbian press probably targeted male subjects. Before the discovery of hormones, procedures to enlarge mens breasts were problematic; paraffin injections often ended with deadly infections. Hormone treatments represented a modern and safer alternative to earlier methods.
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Hannah Hchs 1926 Die Ssse (The Sweet One) (fig. 6.7) belongs to the suite of photomontages From an Ethnographic Museum created by the artist between 1925 and 1930. Kristin Makholm describes the series as photographs of female body parts attached to those of so-called primitive sculptures in which the artist combines the strange with the unusual, the Self with the Other. 899 So named by Hch (unlike the artists love series which was named by scholars), the ethnographic series offers evidence of a highly self-conscious form of primitivism. Indeed, its moniker confirms that Hch recognized that primitivism did not arise from an unmediated confrontation between European artists and non-Western artifacts, but through aesthetic discourse and museum practice. 900 While discussions of Hchs Sweet One generally emphasize the juxtaposition and contrast of primitive artifacts with elements from Western consumer culture, Makela uniquely and importantly links the photomontage to Weimar medical practice. She claims that the fissure that slits the weather-worn wooden torso from head to belly is too clean-edged, too exact, to have been an accident of time. The body has been deliberately cut by one who wielded a knife with the precision of a surgeon. 901 Hchs Sweet One suggests the surgical construction of gender; it pairs an African male idol figure with graphic fragments that signal Weimar femininity. 902 In an act that signifies the ultimate deconstruction of masculine identity, the artist has carefully removed the
Kristin Makholm, Strange Beauty: Hannah Hch and the Photomontage, MoMA, no. 24 (Winter-Spring 1997), 22. 900 Biro, The New Woman as Cyborg, 243-44. 901 Makela, Grotesque Bodies, 193. Emphasis original. 902 Makela, Grotesque Bodies, 195. The image of the male Bushongo idol figure that Hch used for the collage is pictured in Makela. It was printed originally in the Ullstein publication Querschnitt 5, no. 1 (1925), between pps. 8-9.
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figures penis to make way for a pair of female legs. 903 While Makela foregrounds the grotesque aspects of the Sweet One, her remark, the empty gaping belly need only be filled with female sex organs, links the photomontage to gender reassignment surgery. 904 Indeed, the Sweet Ones torso appears to be a masklike faade. An oversized mouth covered with lipstick, along with a carefully arched female eyebrow snipped from a contemporary fashion magazine, feminize the figures rough-hewn head. In addition, demure hands and elegantly posed legs suggest daintiness and femininity. The blatant juxtaposition of obviously mismatched graphic elements in this photomontage demonstrates little of the visual subtlety that often characterizes the artists late Weimar depictions of mixed-gendered figures. Nonetheless, Hchs 1926 Sweet One cogently illustrates the deconstruction of masculinity and the construction of femininity. Whether or not the artist intended to reference surgical gender reassignment, Sweet One is contemporaneous with related Weimar-era medical developments and clearly resonates with associated discourses. Throughout the 1920s, surgeons rapidly improved their techniques and, by 1931, male-to-female gender reassignment procedures had become almost routine and described in the medical press as easy. 905 However, the most widely publicized gender reassignment procedure was performed on the Dutch painter Einar Wegener (1880-1931). 906 Einar Wegener: Aus Mann wird Frau
Makela, Grotesque Bodies, 193. Makela, Grotesque Bodies, 193. 905 Herrn, Schnittmuster, 201; Felix Abraham, Genitalumwandlung an zwei mnnlichen Transvestiten (Genital changes of two male Transvestites), Zeitschrift fur Sexualwissenschaft 18 (Berlin 1931): 223-26. 906 Herrn, Schnittmuster, 204. Wegeners surgeries were performed in 1930 and 1931 at Dresdens Frauenklinik (Womens Clinic), by gynecologist Kurt Warnekros.
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Hchs dual-gendered representations Sweet One, Tamer, and Strong Men suggest Wegeners performance of femininity and, most importantly, his surgically constructed gender. While both Hch and Wegener engaged with mainstream representations of gender, Wegeners non-critical acceptance of gender stereotypes conspicuously differs from that of Hch. Hchs engagement with gender and the contemporary media in her photomontages blatantly exposes and satirizes its artificiality, while Wegeners construction of femininity is almost entirely devoid of irony. Despite this significant difference, Hchs photomontages and Wegeners selfrepresentation equally indicate their profound understanding of gender as a social and cultural phenomenon largely constructed through popular media. The following discussion will introduce Einar Wegener to the reader and examine how he documented his gender identity and transition with photographs. While Wegeners case is generally of interest to scholars of transgender history, his visual performance of femininity in Man into Woman has never been examined. 907 The volumes illustrations are significant because they eloquently demonstrate discursive intersections between surgical gender construction, popular Weimar representation, and Hchs photomontage ouevre. Eimar Wegener died due to complications soon after his third gender surgery in 1931, but not before he was heralded as the world's first transsexual. 908 A 1931 press article was followed in 1932 by Niels Hoyers Man into

Niels Hoyer [pseud. Ernst Ludwig Harthern Jacobson], ed., intro. Norman Haire MD, Man into Woman: An Authentic Record of a Change of Sex, trans. H.J. Stenning (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1933). 908 Herrn, Schnittmuster, 204. The anonymous article, Aus Mann wird Frau: Wie aus dem dnischen Maler Einar Wegener eine Frau Lilli Elven wurde (A Man becomes a Woman: How the Danish painter Einar Wegener became the woman Lilli Elven) Das 12 Uhr Blatt (12 Oclock News), March 9, 1931.

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Woman. 909 Hoyer disguised the names of the primary players, 910 but, as Herrn comments, thanks to the curiosity of contemporary journalists, the names of Lilis physicians are known to us. 911 Wegeners gender surgery was not the first of its kind; however, the publicity it received is understandable when one considers his biography and that of his wife. Due to the couples professional activities and flamboyant, semi-public lifestyle it comes as no surprise that Einars male-to-female transition was barely mentioned in medical journals but, instead, reported in the popular press. 912 The Wegeners were fine artists and traveled between Rome, Madrid, Paris, Copenhagen, and Berlin. Gerda Wegener (1885-1940) was more successful than her husband and achieved renown with illustrations for a number of erotically-themed monographs, which clearly suggest a familiarity with contemporary sexual subculture. 913 Gerdas drawing Moderner Prostitutionsbetrieb (Modern Prostitution Business) (fig. 6.8) is pictured in Hirschfelds

Das 12 Uhr Blatt was a ca. 8-10 page per issue Weimar-era boulevard-style publication published in Berlin by Ullstein. 909 The last sentence of the 12 Uhr Blatt article announces (and promotes?) an upcoming novel by Lili Ellven that will be used for scientific purposes. (Im brigen hat Lili Ellven ber ihre Wandlung einebn Roman geschrieben, der wissenschaftlich verwertet warden soll.) 910 Hoyer, Foreword, Man into Woman, xiii. At Lili Elbes desire, fictitious names have been employed for the persons who figure in her narrative. 911 Herrn, Schnittmuster, 206. In the book, Hirschfeld appears as Dr. Hardenfeld, and the operating physician Kurt Warnekros is dubbed Dr. Werner Kreutz. The Berlin Institute of Sexual Science is dubbed the Institut fr Seelenkunde (Institute for the Science of the Soul). Hirschfeld and Warnekros were however mentioned in Das 12 Uhr Blatt. 912 Herrn, Schnittmuster, 204. See also, Sabine Meyer, Mit dem Puppenwagen in der normative Weiblichkeit: Lili Elbe und die journalistische Inszenierung von Transsexualitt in Dnemark, Nordeuropa Forum: Zeitschrift fr Politik, Wirtschaft und Kultur 20 (1-2/ 2010): 35. By 1912, the Wegeners were known in Denmark for their extravagant lifestyle. This largely motivated their move to Paris where they felt they felt they could better devote themselves to their art, and live more freely. 913 A selection of works illustrated by Gerda Wegener include: Giacomo Casanova, Une aventure damour Venise (Paris: G. Briffaut, 1927); Louis de Robert, Lanneau, ou, La jeune fille imprudente (Paris, 1913); Louis Perceau, Souze sonnets lascifs pour accompagner la suite daquarelles initulee Les Delassements dEros (Paris: Erotopolis, 1925).

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1930 Sexualkunde and, according to its caption, also appeared in Albert Molls Polizei und Sitte. 914 Pictured in both Hirschfeld and Moll, Wegeners illustration attests to the slippery contemporary interface between medico-scientific and popular literature. 915 Einar becomes Lili: Constructing Femininity Einar Wegener apparently discovered his feminine side soon after he married in 1904 when he sat in as a female model one day for his wife Gerda. 916 Gerda created a number of images depicting her husband in womens clothing (fig. 6.9). 917 In 1926, Einar assumed a female identity and became Lili and later chose the surname Elbe in honor of Dresdens river, the city where he was surgically transformed into a woman. While Wegeners story contributed significantly to the popularization of the transsexual subject, it also reflected the contemporary gendered status quo. As German gender scholar Sabine Meyer astutely observes, Wegeners performance of femininity perpetrated heteronormative social conventions. 918 Ironically, she claims, despite the radicality of the surgery, Lilis gender reassignment served to normalize Einar by altering his male body to conform to his feminine feelings. 919 Furthermore, even though surgery played the central role in the construction of Einars female identity, Lili emphasized cultural, rather than biological aspects of her feminine identity. In this
Gerda Wegeners illustration appears in Hirschfelds Sexualkunde (1930), vol. 4, Plate LIV. It is also featured in Molls 1926 Polizei und Sitte between pages 128 and 129. Molls caption reads Moderne Demimondnen, (modern female members of the demimonde). 915 This is also similar to Lilis literary account of her transition which, as an anonymous journalist in the popular Berlin press claimed in 1931, was intended for scientific purposes. (Im brigen hat Lilli Elven ber ihre Wandlung einen Roman geschrieben, der wissenschaftlich verwertet werden soll.). 916 Hoyer, Man into Woman, 63; See also, Meyer, Mit dem Puppenwagen, 35. 917 Aus Mann wird Frau, Das 12 Uhr Blatt, (1931); unpaginated; Meyer, Mit dem Puppenwagen, 35. 918 Meyer, Mit dem Puppenwagen, 33. 919 Meyer, Mit dem Puppenwagen, 33.
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aspect, Man into Woman reflects Teresa de Lauretis observations regarding the nature of gender. As de Lauretis writes, sexualized identities are neither innate nor simply acquired, but dynamically (re)structured by forms of fantasy, both public and private, conscious and unconscious, which are culturally available and historically specific. 920 Due to the co-authorship of Man into Woman, scholars understandably question the veracity of Lilis voice; however, the books illustrations clearly convey Lilis subjectivity and agency. 921 Photographs, as opposed to drawings, illustrate Man into Woman and, because, at the time photographs were associated with veracity and objectivity, they support the claims of narrative factuality made in the books introduction. 922 The frontispiece, however, is a drawing (fig. 6.10) and depicts Einar in pensive profile; he appears to look down and away from the narrative. The composition of the image and its traditional medium in no way reflect the books radical theme. The frontispiece reduces Einar to a bearded profile and sharply contrasts with the images that follow. Later in the book, Einar/Lili is generally pictured in full-length photographs as a proud and unapologetically sexualized female.
Teresa de Lauretis, The Practice of Love: Lesbian Sexuality and Perverse Desire (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994), xix. 921 Herrn, Schnittmuster, 204. Because Lili Elbes personal papers are lost and the book was published after she died, scholars understandably question the slippage between Lilis voice and Hoyers account. See also, Sandy Stone, The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttransexual Manifesto, in Writing on the Body: Female Embodiment and Feminist Theory, Katie Conboy, Nadia Medina, and Sarah Stanbury, eds. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997), 342. Stone, commenting upon the confused conundrum of identity that characterizes the books narrative voice asks, What sort of subject is constituted in these texts? Hoyer, was a pseudonym for Ernst Ludwig Harthern Jacobson; Lili Elbe was the female name chosen by the artist Einar Wegener, whose name [in the book Man into Woman] was Andreas Sparre. This lexical profusion has rich implications for studies of self and its construction (356n15); See also Meyer, Mit dem Puppenwagen, 40. Meyer convincingly argues that even Lilis surname Elbe," which only appears in conjunction with the books title [and on Lilis gravestone], was created by journalists to promote Man into Woman. 922 The Introduction by respected British sexologist Norman Haire lent the text a quasi-medical aura and authority.
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While the theme of sexual reassignment surgery was new in the popular Weimar media, Man into Woman conspicuously reflected the contemporary gender status quo. As Dianne Dugaw writes, certainly the idea of gender identity, particularly as it legitimizes surgeries and prescriptions, underlies the transsexual phenomenon. However, ideas of art, play and parody seem to apply as well. 923 Yet in the case of Lili, with the exception of a posed 1926 photograph, play and parody are curiously lacking. Instead, Lili is pictured throughout volume in a number of popular and well-rehearsed female guises. Much like fashion magazine imagery, Lili closely conforms to popular gender stereotypes and her slavish identification with these contemporary representations attests to their constructed nature. Lili documented her first foray into femininity as an exotic, dark-eyed beauty (fig. 6.11). The contrived quality of this 1926 photograph, which may easily be mistaken for a contemporary postcard of a long forgotten starlet, is underscored by its caption, which, unlike other photographs in the book, emphasizes Lilis pose. In the photograph, Lilis sensuous mouth and dark kohl-rimmed eyes mimic those of a seductive silent film vamp. The strap of Lilis dress tantalizingly falls off her shoulder onto her upper arm, yet the fan she holds decorously covers whatever undress is potentially revealed. The next photograph pictures Lili as an elegant well-dressed woman proudly posing in her artistically-furnished Parisian apartment (fig. 6.12). Much like a young woman constructing her feminine persona by playing dress-up in an intimate domestic space, both photographs picture Lili alone and in control of her environment. Yet, shortly after
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Dianne Dugaw, Delusions of Gender, The Womens Review of Books 14, no. 7 (April 1997):

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her second operation, Lili incorporated another woman in her identity construction and proudly posed with her trusted confidant, a nurse, in the garden of the Dresden Frauenklinik (fig. 6.13). The contrasts between the posture and clothing of the two women pictured in front of the Klinik foreground Lilis sophisticated enactment of femininity. Unlike the matronly nurse standing beside her, Lili is elegantly posed and wears a tailored coat that emphasizes her shapely figure, while the uniform of her stodgy companion reflects a homespun simplicity. The centrality of clothing in the visual construction of Lilis gender is highlighted in three additional photographs, all of which feature Lili in the same flowered dress. 924 Further into the narrative, and after her second operation, Lili dares to move beyond the safety of her apartment or the sheltered grounds of the Dresden clinic and visually inserts herself into the crowded streets of Copenhagen (fig. 6.14). Here, in an ultimate test of gender-performance, Lili blends in and successfully passes as a modern New Woman on a bustling urban street. As these illustrations confirm, Lili clearly and uncritically identified with contemporary mass-mediated representations of femininity. Transsexuals, Homosexuals, and Gender Montage Unlike the photographs of Lili in the volume, the dust-jacket of Man into Woman (fig. 6.15), ostensibly the first image any potential reader interested in the topic would see, is a photomontage. Fittingly, the transsexual, then a radically new subject, is
Two of the photographs appear to have been taken on the grounds of the Dresden Frauenklinik on the same overcast June 1930 day, while the third pictures Lili in front of a plain cloth backdrop. The emphasis of the flower print fabric calls to mind Heike Schaders comments regarding the strong cultural link between flowers and Weiblichkeit (womanliness) in Weimar. The photographs of Lili are pictured vis-a-vis pages 128,152, and 240.
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portrayed with photomontage and collage. Full-length male and female figures [Lili and Einar?] joined at the feet dominate the image. The deployment of photomontage and collage indicate the constructed nature of Lilis gender and its composite fragmentary is underscored by the background: The two figures are superimposed over actual press clippings reporting Wegeners sex change. Combined, the press clippings and the overlapping photographs reiterate the mediated nature of gender; moreover, they suggest the cut-and-pasted identity of the transgendered subject. Indeed, the photomontage and collage were well-suited to represent contemporary figures that had not yet been integrated into the Weimar mainstream, and the dust-jacket of Man into Woman is a case in point. Albert Moll similarly illustrated contemporary figures whose radical subjectivities had not yet found their way into the cultural mainstream as a Schnittbild (cut-picture or collage) (fig. 6.16). In his 1926 discussion of homosexual subculture in Polizei und Sitte, a collage comprised of press clippings lifted from contemporary gay and lesbian periodicals metaphorically suggests the fragmented perception of Weimar sexual subcultures in the popular imagination. Furthermore, the deployment of subcultural print media in the illustration reiterates the centrality of print media to homosexual and lesbian identity construction in Weimar. Yet, while the dust-jacket of Man into Woman and Molls collage are emblematic of the proliferation of print materials in Weimar culture, they also indicate that the abundance of print media did not necessarily facilitate the representation or the publics comprehension of non-normatively gendered individuals. Indeed, despite their hyper280

textuality, both the dust-jacket and Molls illustration are, in a word, incoherent. Comprised of mass generated media fragments, both reflect an ongoing process, which, much like the figures they were intended to represent, could merely anticipate social and cultural assimilation. Conclusion The early twentieth-century discovery of hormones and of their effects upon sexual identity and behavior revolutionized contemporary medical practice and the understanding of sexual identity. By the mid 1920s, the Weimar public had easy access to information regarding these correlations. Hirschfelds 1920 pamphlet Verjngung and the 1923 Steinach Film facilitated the close discursive relationship between the popular media and the medico-scientific community. These discursive developments are reflected in Hchs Weimar-era

photomontages Tamer, Strong Men and Sweet One. Much like the figures in the 1923 Steinach Film, the gender of Hchs Tamer is ambiguous, while the artists Strong Men, akin to a contemporary medical illustration, offers an inside/outside view of the body. Hchs 1926 photomontage Sweet One is contemporaneous with early gender reassignment surgeries and, analogous to a male-to-female transsexual, the artist has removed the figures penis and feminine attributes have been added. Hchs partner Til Brugman engaged with new medical procedures through her professional activities as a translator and, more importantly, critically as a satirist. Her literary grotesques, Revision am Himmel and Warenhaus der Liebe, lampoon

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vanguard Weimar medical technologies, but also support and defend non-normative sexual practices. While gender altering surgeries were performed as early as 1912 and discussed in German medical journals from 1918, the first mainstream media coverage of a sexual reassignment were reports of Einar Wegener. Man into Woman narrates his surgical transformation but, above all, foregrounds the cultural construction of gender. Lilis selfrepresentation attests to the intrinsic correlation of popular media and gender construction. While Hchs photomontages also represent gender as a mediated construction, in contrast to Lilis slavish replication of popular feminine stereotypes, Hch subversively exposes and visually disrupts its artifice. The dust-jacket of Man into Woman is a collage, a medium contemporaneously associated with the Weimar avant-garde. The cut-and-paste technique is analogous to the physical radicality of surgical gender reassignment. But most importantly, the collagein the service of both Lili Elbes gender identity construction and Hch photomontage practice--redeploys culturally mediated fragments to generate hybridic identities and imagery.

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CHAPTER VII CONCLUSION

Unlike scholarship that foregrounds Hchs engagement with mainstream media, this dissertation enhances our comprehension and appreciation of the artists oeuvre in an expanded framework that includes sexological, subcultural, and scientific contexts. Such materials, in turn, aided in creating discourses that reflect Hchs unique treatment of the human figure and resonate with the artists unconventional intimate relationships. In, or around 1919, while romantically involved with Raoul Hausmann, Hch began to engage seriously with gender-related themes. In 1926, she entered into a ten-year lesbian partnership with Til Brugman. As visual analysis of the artists oeuvre both before and after her years with the Dutch writer suggests, this was the most important personal relationship in Hchs life. As I have demonstrated throughout the

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dissertation, the correlation between Hchs oeuvre and her psycho-sexual biography is apparent when discussed in tandem. After 1926, Hchs photomontages began to reflect her lesbianism and a familiarity with subcultural media concerning gender and sexuality. In addition to Weimar sexual subculture, Hchs work during this period references themes found in Brugmans texts. These developments confirm that Hchs lesbian partnership informed her work in a significant way not fully recognized in the literature to date. Beginning with analysis of Hchs Dada-era oeuvre, evidence has been presented in the dissertation which indisputably establishes the interrelatedness of the artists biography and her artistic themes. Hchs emphasis on visual rather than textual elements easily distinguished her oeuvre from that of her fellow Dadaists. Furthermore, unlike her male contemporaries, she routinely foregrounded female commodification and reproductive issues in her art. As I have shown, even Hchs early photomontages, most notably Dada-Ernst, reflect the artists budding emotional and sexual independence. In Dada-Ernst, Hch emphasized themes of sexuality and the gaze. Above all, her placement of an eye at the vagina represented a bold re-appropriation of what had for millennia been predominantly the purview of men: the eye as the symbol of the gaze and [sexual] dominance of the female body. 925 A proto-feminist declaration of sorts, the iconographic audacity of Dada-Ernst anticipated the women-centered imagery in Hchs later photomontages and paved the way for her more patently

For a general historical discussion of the destruction of matriarchal cultures and the subsequent appropriation of the female body and vaginal imagery under patriarchal rule, see, Monica Sj, The Great Cosmic Mother of All (San Francisco: Harper Row, 1987).

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lesbian images. Dada-Ernst seems also to have prefigured the work of future artists; during the 1960s and 1970s vaginal imagery and themes became a powerful and highly controversial component of radical second-wave feminist art most notably in the work of artists Carolee Schneeman, Hannah Wilke, Valie Export, Judy Chicago, and others. 926 Indeed, even into the twenty-first century, as a recent New York exhibition indicates, vaginal imagery has retained its controversial aura. 927 As chapter II demonstrates, Hchs Russische Tnzerin and Englische Tnzerin overtly reference lesbian subculture and reiterate the influence and the centrality of her intimate relationships upon her oeuvre. My discussion of these collages expands upon Bosch and Everards 1988 claim that they represent a double portrait of Hch and Brugman. Analysis in this dissertation not only strengthens their speculations, but also reveals additional clues that link the two photomontages, visually and symbolically, to lesbian subculture. While Hchs Weimar contemporaries, artists Jeanne Mammen, Gertrud Liebherr, Gertrude Sandmann, and Rene Sintenis, produced a number of lesbian-themed works, 928 Hch and the French Surrealist Claude Cahun were the only

Carolee Schneemans performance Interior Scroll (1975), Hannah Wilkes photographic work, Venus Envy (1980), Valie Exports 1977 Action Pants, and Judy Chicagos 1974-79 installation The Dinner Party foreground vaginal imagery. Contemporary debates surrounding Chicagos groundbreaking installation were decidedly fueled by the vaginally-inspired sculptural designs of the ceramic dinner plates. The controversies accompanying this work smoldered for three decades; no museum was forwardthinking, or daring enough, to add The Dinner Party to its permanent collection. In 2002 the work was donated to the Brooklyn Museum. See Anna C. Chave, Is this good for Vulva?: Female Genitalia in Contemporary Art, in The Visible Vagina, Francis M. Naumann, Eve Ensler, and Anna C. Chave (New York: Francis M. Naumann, 2010), 7-27. 927 The exhibition The Visible Vagina was held at the Francis M. Nauman Gallery (January 28March 20, 2010). 928 See, Marga Dpping, Andrea Firmenich, and Eberhard Roters, eds., Jeanne Mammen: Kpfe und Szenen, Berlin 1920 bis 1933 (Kunsthalle in Emden; Bonn: VG Bildkunst, 1994); Marcella Schmidt, Gertrude Sandmann (1891-1981), in Michael Boll, et al., Eldorado: Homosexuelle Frauen und Mnner in Berlin 1850-1950, Geschichte, Alltag und Kultur (1984, repr., Berlin: Edition Hentrich; Berlin: Verlag rosa

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lesbian artists at the time to explore the theme with the avant-garde medium of photomontage. 929 However, in contrast to Hch, whose representations of female doubling are rarely balanced, and if so, somewhat precariously (as in Russian Dancer, English Dancer, Vagabonds, Auf dem Weg, and Grotesque); Cahun emphasized visual symmetry. To this end, she and her partner Marcel Moore often used mirrors (fig. 2.18) or, as seen in a 1928 self-portrait (7.1), double exposures. As Jennifer Shaw and others recognize, in accordance with the traditional lesbian motif of mirroring, Cahuns engagement with the theme of Narcissus is all pervasive in her oeuvre. 930 This is evident in her 1930 volume Aveux non avenus (Avowals null and void); both the text and the photomontage illustrations foreground individual and lesbian doubling (fig. 7.2). 931

Winkel, 1992), 205-09. For a short and rare English-language discussion of Sintenis and her oeuvre, see Erich Ranfft, German Women sculptors 1918-1936: Gender differences and status, in Visions of the Neue Frau: Women and the Visual Arts in Weimar Germany, Marsha Meskimmon and Shearer West, eds., (Aldershot, GB: Scolar Press, 1995), 48-52. Sintenis was respected among her contemporaries, and a protg of the prominent Berlin art dealer Alfred Flechtheim; at his suggestion, Sintenis replaced her given name, Renate Alice, with the more exotic and interesting sounding French Rene. A Weimar lesbian heartthrob, Sintenis is primarily known for her sculpted animal figures. Her sculptural self portrait, however, as Ranfft comments, exudes a definite androgynous quality through its look of boyish adolescence (51). While Sintenis is lesser known for her graphic oeuvre, she illustrated a volume of Sapphos poetry in 1936. See, Hans Rup, ed. Sappho: mit 13 Zeichnungen von Rene Sintenis (Berlin: Holle Verlag, 1936). Due to its theme, it is remarkable that the volume was published. 929 Polish artist and leading designer of photomontages for the popular press Janusz M. Brzeski, made a series of erotic compositions while working for Vu in Paris. His 1930 collage Lesbos II, which clearly suggests cunnilingus, is pictured in Matthew Witkowsky, Intro. Peter Demetz, Foto: Modernity in Central Europe, 1918-1945 (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2007), 190. Because it was, by contemporary standards, pornographic, Brzeskis collage, as Witkowsky comments, was kept wholly private. 930 Jennifer Shaw, Narcissus and the Magic Mirror, in Dont Kiss Me: The Art of Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, Louise Downie, ed. (New York: Aperture, 2006), 35-36. Narcissus was also a popular motif among fin-de-sicle Symbolists, a group Cahun greatly admired. Moreover, as Tirza True Latimer observes, in the popular imagination, narcissism was linked with lesbianism. See Latimer, Narcissus and Narcissus: Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, in Women Together, Women Apart: Portraits of Lesbian Paris (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2005), 68-104. 931 Claude Cahun, Aveux non avenus (Paris: ditions du Carrefour, 1930).

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Here, much like a playing, or Tarot, card, 932 the artists repetitive deployment of her own image generates a balanced design. While her shaved head renders Cahun shockingly asexual, classical male and female statues balance the image on either side and imply symbolically that her identity is positioned between the two sexes. Similar to a number of Hchs photomontages, the frontispiece of Cahuns Aveux non avenus (fig. 7.3) is dominated by a large eye, indicating issues of scopic agency and the gaze. 933 Centrally placed, the eye is cradled within two hands; the arms extend downward and end, abruptly severed, in a shadow that appears to be a pair of lips. The configuration of these elements visually suggests intimate female anatomy comprised of an eye (clitoris), arms (labial lips), and lips/mouth (vagina). While the image shares its balanced composition with Ernsts copulatory vision Of this Men Shall Know Nothing (fig. 1.25), even more so, it resonates with Hchs oeuvre and her recurrent engagement with the gaze and the fetishization of the female body. Moreover, the eroticized lips suggested in Cahuns 1930 photomontage may be linked to Hchs Marlene (fig. 4.22) of the same year. As this study establishes, Weimar lesbian materials were often indistinguishable from mainstream media. The comparative visual analysis of lesbian and mainstream materials presented in this dissertation is unprecedented and serves to disentangle

Moreover, the composition of the photomontage conspicuously suggests a well-known contemporary photograph of the infamous British occultist Aleister Crowley (active in Paris in the early 1900s). Cahun, who created a series of self-portrait photographs posed as a Buddha in 1927 (pictured in Shaw, Dont Kiss Me, 114), was obviously interested in occult and esoteric subjects. 933 Related themes are also evident in the photomontage introducing Chapter II of Aveux non avenus. It features a large eye and a round element that suggests a hand held mirror. Cahuns 1936 sculpture Object is a large eye and its symbolic implications are addressed by Steven Harris, in Coup doeil, Oxford Art Journal 24, no. 1, 2001: 89-112.

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contemporary imagery generated by different and, on occasion, antagonistic cultural discourses such as Weimar Krperkultur, advertising, dance culture, sexology, and pornography. Classifying and differentiating this imagery constitutes a contribution to lesbian scholarship and art history; importantly, it also enables a new, much deeper recognition of lesbian themes in Hchs oeuvre that can be applied to the work of some of her contemporaries, such as Jeanne Mammen. Much like Mammens 1928 watercolor Two Women Dancing, Hchs Russian Dancer and English Dancer suggest a virile/feminine lesbian pair. Before the advent of Weimar lesbian print media, lesbians were generally the subjects of male-authored materials. As explained in this study, lesbian-authored media catapulted illicit themes of sapphic love and female cross-dressing into the Weimar mainstream and contributed to their popularization. My analysis of these developments is significantly indebted to German scholarship on lesbianism, much of which has not found its way into English language discourse. Katharina Vogels 1984 discussion of Die Freundin established the magazines key role in early lesbian self-representation and social community. 934 Heike Schaders (2007) ground-breaking examination of Weimar lesbian magazine prose identified and catalogued commonly used representational tropes and erotically-coded terms. While the work of Vogel and Schader is indispensable

Katharina Vogel, Zum Selbstsverstndnis lesbischer Frauen in der Weimarer Republik: Eine Analyse der Zeitschschrift Die Freundin, 1924-1933, in Michael Boll, et al. Eldorado: Homosexuelle Frauen und Mnner in Berlin 1850-1950, Geschichte, Alltag und Kultur (1984; repr., Berlin: Edition Hentrich; Berlin: Verlag rosa Winkel, 1992), 162-68; For a related English-langusge discussion, see Angeles Espinaco-Virseda, I Feel that I belong to You; Subculture, Die Freundin, and Lesbian Identity in Weimar, spacesofidentity 4, no. 1 (2004): 83-113.

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to this study, my in-depth analysis of Weimar lesbian visual materials and, most notably, the extended discussion of Berlin photographer Gertrud Liebherr, is the first of its kind. Comparative examination of Hannah Hchs photomontages and lesbian media in this study reveals that the artist commonly deployed visual strategies appropriated from lesbian publications. As has been established, female couples in Hchs photomontages Russian Dancer and English Dancer (both 1928), Auf dem Weg (1934), and Liebe (1931) may be linked to representations in the lesbian print media and also restate the influential role of Hchs intimate relationships upon her oeuvre. The joint creative projects of Hannah Hch and Til Brugman are also a primary focus of my thesis. While the couples interest in similar themes has been generally acknowledged, their collaboration, and influence upon each others oeuvre, has, for the most part, been explored only in German and Dutch publications and not in the detail it requires. This dissertation builds upon the scholarship of Everard and Bosch (1988), Lavin (1993), Everard (1993), Brandt (1995), and Makela (1993), yet examines the couples joint projects with greater depth in order to enable a fuller comprehension and appreciation of both womens oeuvres. As we have seen, Hch and Brugmans collaborative projects not only foreground gender-related themes, but also contemporary social issues. My reading of Brugmans 1933 satire Hollands Blumenfelder reveals that scratching below the surface discloses a scathing critique of Nazi-informed eugenic discourse. The couples jointly produced volume Scheingehacktes, which includes the short stories Schaufensterhypnose and Scheingehacktes, addresses the pitfalls of capitalism,
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consumer culture, and blind conformity. The latter theme especially attests to the couples civil courage; in Nazi Germany, the ability to conform often became a matter of life and death. Hch and Brugmans sense of social satire was, not surprisingly, most extreme when engaging with gender-related themes. Pursuing a thematic approach, as has been done here, allows closer examination of a key trope in Hchs oeuvre, namely, the female figure. During the Weimar years, the female figures in Hchs photomontages became progressively grotesque. The artists crippled Brides and her English Dancer lend visual expression to shadow aspects of Weimar eugenics and Krperkultur and represent heterosexual courtship and the contemporaneously valorized bourgeois institution of marriage rather darkly for the era. Moreover, Hchs cobbled monstrosities, and above all her photomontage English Dancer, (both of which reflect Brugmans 1927 literary grotesque Himilia) present a futuristic scenario of a robotic surgical female hybrid. Himilia addresses issues of emotional independence, bodily self-determination, and sexual agency; once again, these are themes which would later become the discursive foundation of 1960s and 70s feminism. Brugmans Himilia may also be linked to more recent debates regarding the correlation of sexism and cosmetic surgery 935 and uncannily presage the controversial oeuvre of the French artist Orlan, whose surgically altered body is her medium. 936 While Maria Makela and Maud Lavin have acknowledged the influence of Magnus Hirschfeld and The Institute of Sexual Science upon Hchs and Brugmans
Kathy Davis, Reshaping the Female Body: The Dilemma of Cosmetic Surgery (New York: Routledge, 1995). 936 For a discussion of Orlan and her oeuvre, see Simon Donger with Sam Shepherd and Orlan, Orlan: a hybrid body of artworks (London: Routledge, 2010).
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oeuvres, a comparative in-depth analysis of Hchs photomontages and German sexological materials had never before been undertaken. Evidence presented in this dissertation clearly links Hannah Hchs 1930 photomontage Tamer and its dual-sexed ambiguity and extravagant costume to the practice of cross-dressing. Male and female transvestites were an integral part of Western European sexual subculture and, by the mid 1920s, compelled new forms of illustration. Hchs Tamer evokes the habitus of Berlins sexual subculture and clearly suggests the sexual intermediates pictured in Weimar publications and documented in contemporary police files. Hchs contemporary, Paris Surrealist Leonor Fini, 937 similarly configured a transvestite taming an animal in her 1932 painting Travesti loiseau (Transvestite with a Bird) (fig.7.4). Finis subject, her good friend Andr Pieyre de Mandiargues, is depicted wearing the wings of Hermes, which traditionally suggest mercurial androgyny. 938 While the subjects upper torso is unclothed, his lower torso (and sex) is draped with costly fabric; both his sexual ambiguity and extravagant costume link the figure to Hchs 1930 Tamer. This suggests that, at the time, the transvestite clearly inspired both Hch and Fini. Moreover, Finis painting Le supplice de lallure (The torture of allure) (1940) (fig. 7.5), an evocative rendition of what may be a cross-dressed young woman or an effete young man, suggests that like Hch, she too was deeply fascinated with ambiguously gendered individuals.

For a recent discussion of the artist, see Peter Webb, Sphinx: The Life and Art of Leonor Fini (New York: Vendome Press, 2009). 938 Webb, Sphynx, 30-31.

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As I have demonstrated throughout this study, popular culture, sexual subculture, sexology, ethnography, and medicine were discursively conflated in Weimar Germany. Furthermore, German sexual discourse was increasingly medicalized and influenced by the burgeoning field of endocrinology. By 1923, correlations between non-normative gender and hormones had been established. Der Steinach Film brought images of ambiguously sexed individuals to a German-language movie-going public, clearly anticipating Hchs photomontages Tamer and The Strong Men; the latter also alludes to endocrinology and gender reassignment surgeries. As this study confirms, what began in Hchs youth as a highly personal exploration of sexuality and gender in her art would become increasingly central to her oeuvre. Stung by early experiences at the hands of her misogynistic Dada colleagues and her thoughtless lover Raoul Hausmann, Hch initially approached gender-related themes with sarcasm and anger. Later, however, Hchs wrath, as her photomontages reveal, alternates with sophisticated humor and light-hearted playfulness as well as sarcasm and a deepening exploration of dysphorically gendered identities and bodies. The political triumph of Nazism, followed by the artists separation from Til Brugman in 1936, radically disrupted Hchs overt exploration of lesbian and transgender themes. This period also coincided with the artists brief marriage to Kurt Matthies. Although short-lived, Hchs affection for her castrated husband attests to her unconventional emotional nature and her fascination with non-normatively gendered individuals. Hchs troubled marriage, coupled with her move to a rural Berlin

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suburb in 1939, initiated a period of radical loneliness in which she primarily pursued nature studies and abstraction. Hannah Hchs Nazi-era Oeuvre: Nature Studies and Abstraction Garden and landscape themes dominate Hchs artistic output from 1933 to 1945 and while this substantiates the artists love of nature, it is also in tune with the contemporary cultural environment. Under the Nazi regime, it was practically impossible and potentially dangerous for Hch to sell her photomontages. In contrast, in Germany at the time, nature studies and landscapes suggested a patriotic love of country and, at minimum, facilitated Hchs attempts to market her own work. Between 1935 and 1937, hoping to sell them, Hch, left a number of landscape-themed watercolors with a government official in Gotha (her hometown) and another eleven with the Berlin Reichsluftfahrtministerium (Air Force Ministry). 939 As mentioned earlier, from the late 1930s and through the mid 1950s, human figures actually became peripheral to Hchs work. While this interlude clearly reflected her personal and cultural isolation, it also made way for new artistic paths. After Hitler was appointed Reichskanzler in 1933, many of Hchs friends and fellow artists fled Germany. In the following years the situation steadily worsened as Joseph Goebbels, the newly appointed Propagandaminister, orchestrated a highly publicized national campaign against the artistic avant-garde. 940 The National Socialists persecution of the
939

Cara Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit fr Hannah Hch: Das Leben einer Knstlerin, 18891978. Berlin: Osburg Verlag, 2011), 288-89. Hch was unsuccessful in Gotha; the details regarding her transactions with the Air Force Ministry are unknown. 940 Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 262-67. Goebbels (1897-1945) was assisted by Adolf Ziegler and Wolfgang Willrich, author of the Aryan art polemic Suberung des Kunsttempels: Eine kunstpolitische Kampfschrift deutscher Kunst im Geiste nordischer Art (Cleaning the Temple of Art: A

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avant-garde climaxed in 1937 with the four-year traveling exhibition Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art). The exhibition, which began in Munich, was shown in a number of German cities and featured works from German museum collections deemed unAryan. 941 Hch, whose work was not included in the show, was nevertheless branded by the prominent art critic Wolfgang Willrich in 1937 as a Kulturbolschewistin (cultural Bolshevik). 942 This did not, however, deter her from going to see the Degenerate Art exhibition in Munich on September 11, 1937. In her journal, Hch noted that the most important art works created after the war were on view, and that despite the incendiary publicity that had preceded it, the people viewing the exhibition were remarkably quiet. 943 Denounced as a cultural Bolshevik, Hch radically altered her artistic practice and hid much of her work during the war. However, being associated with the avantgarde was perhaps not her only concern; being identified as a lesbian after 1933 was an equally distressing prospect. German lesbian scholar Ilse Kokula writes that during the Nazi era many lesbians kept a low profile, moved to rural areas, or entered into sham marriages with male homosexuals which provided both partners with mutual protection

Political Manifesto in Defense of German Art in the Nordic Spirit) (Munich: J.F. Lehmanns Verlag, 1937). Roughly 16,000 modern art works were confiscated and removed from German museums. 941 For a discussion of Nazi Kulturpolitik (cultural politics) leeding to the 1937 Entartete Kunst exhibition, see, Peter Adams, Art of the Third Reich (New York: H.N. Abrams, 1992), esp., 121-28; Stephanie Barron, et al. Degenerate Art: The Fate of the Avant-garde in Nazi Germany (Exh. Catalogue, Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1991). 942 Wolfgang Willrich, Suberung des Kunsttempels: Eine kunstpolitische Kampfschrift deutscher Kunst im Geiste nordischer Art. (Munich: J.F. Lehmanns Verlag, 1937), 54. Willrich mentions Hch and includes a fragment of her 1925 oil painting Die Journalisten (The Journalists) in a collage of degenerate art works. 943 Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 272-73.

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(strategies which also suggest Hchs situation). 944 Clearly when one considers the juridical institutionalization and police enforcement of sexual repression in Nazi Germany, Hchs lesbian partnership with Brugman was not only risky but also potentially life-threatening. 945 Hannah Hchs pursuit of artistic abstraction during this period, much like her landscape and nature studies, suggests a reticence to create works that would attract unwelcome attention and scrutiny. Her rekindled interest in abstraction is seen in her 1946 photomontage Schne Fanggerte (Beautiful Mechanical-Traps) (fig. 7.6). For an artist who lived in solitude, the works title is curious; it alludes to the dangers of seduction, yet its drab browns and bluish grays are anything but beguiling. Instead, they reflect the war-weakened German publishing industry and the limited availability of color inks.

Ilse Kokula, Lesbisch Leben von Weimar bis zur Nachkriegszeit (Lesbian Life from Weimar through the Postwar Period) in Eldorado, Boll et al., 159. As Kokula remarks, research of concentration camps generally focuses on the fate of Jewish prisoners, while scholarship regarding the treatment of homosexuals in the camps does not address the fate of lesbians. Male homosexuals were systemicallyespecially after 1936-rounded up with police raids and interned. Their clothing was labeled with pink triangles. On occasion male homosexuals were castrated and in rarer instances, executed. In contrast, it is difficult to trace how many lesbians were actually imprisoned; lesbians integrated within larger groups of women. Labeled Asozial (asocial), lesbians shared this classification with prostitutes and female career criminals who, like them, wore a black triangle. In the camps, if women were caught engaging in lesbian acts, they were beaten. German lesbian survivors of the Ravensbrck camp reported that lesbians were sequestered from other women in separate cell blocks and systematically raped by Russian and French prisoners. Although sexual contact between prisoners was normally forbidden, the guards animated the foreign inmates to commit these acts by promising and rewarding them with liquor (157-59). See, G. Zorner, ed., Frauen-KZ Ravensbrck von einem Autorenkollektiv unter Leitung von der antifaschistischen Widerstandskmpfer in der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik (Berlin: Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, 1971). For a discussion of lesbian wartime survival strategies, see also, Claudia Schoppman, trans. Allison Brown, Days of Masquerade: Life Stories of Lesbians during the Third Reich (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996). 945 Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 299. Hch and Brugman met in Berlin in early June 1939 before she and her new partner Johanna Hans Martineit were compelled to leave the city for their native Holland.

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Wartime lack is also evident in Hchs 1945 Bilderbuch (Picture-book), which, despite its humble materials, nevertheless manages to convey a happy tone. 946 In the 1970 preface to the Picture-book, in the wobbly handwriting of an octogenarian, Hch wrote, It was 1945: the need for EVERYTHING could neither be ignored nor filled, and, as she claimed, color-printing was technically impossible. 947 Hchs exploration of juvenile themes using animal subjects resonates with the claims of lesbian artist Rene Sintenis, who, in 1931 said that the animal domain gave her an escape from daily life and the human beings who had expectations which she could not fulfill. 948 In contrast to human subjects, as James M. Saslow perceptively recognizes, animals allow artists to sublimate and express easily what may otherwise be uncomfortable or culturally dangerous. 949 Hchs relatively minimal depiction of human figures in her wartime oeuvre indicates that, upon separation from Brugman, her sensibilities changed considerably.

Hchs only known artistic project for children, her 1945 Bilderbuch was originally published in 1985 and reissued in English translation in 2010. See, Hannah Hch, Bilderbuch, Hans Marquardt and Manfred Hamm, eds. (Dsseldorf: Claasen Verlag, 1985); Gunda Luyken, ed., Hannah Hch, Bilderbuch, 1945, trans. Brian Currid (Berlin: Green Box Kunst Editionen, 2010). 947 Hannah Hch, Bilderbuch, 1945, (1985). While Hch created the book in 1945, her handwritten preface is dated July 1970. 948 Gisela Breitling and Renate Flagmeier, eds. Das verborgene Museum I: Dokumentation der Kunst von Frauen in Berliner ffentlichen Sammlungen, exh. Cat. (Berlin: Neue Gesellschaft fr Bildende Kunst und Verlag Edition Hentrich, 1987), 237. Paraphrased in Ranfft, German women sculptors, 19181936, 51; 59n45. 949 Sintenis comments (and Hchs wartime pursuit of animal themes) may be linked to Saslows arguments. In his discussion of lesbian artist Rosa Bonheurs (1822-79), Saslow perceptively claimed that viewed in conjunction with her biography, Bonheurs paintings represented an alternative vision of the modern female body, and specifically the lesbian body: For her, as for many of her contemporaries, animals figured simultaneously as symbols of freedom in their own right; as surrogates for the desire for an equivalent social freedom on the part of women in general; and as a surrogate for the parallel desire on the part of gender-deviant women (and men) in particular for release from constricting norms of masculinity and femininity. See, Disagreeably Hidden: Construction and Constriction of the Lesbian Body in Rosa Bonheurs Horse Fair, in The Expanding Discourse: Feminism and Art History, Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard, eds. (New York: Harper Collins, 1992), 196.

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Throughout this period, figures are often merely suggested by silhouettes or theatrical masks, as in Mhn (Poppies) (1935-40) (fig. 7.7) and Mask und Vase (Mask and Vase) (1940) (fig. 7.8). On occasion, figures are abstracted and integrated with plant or garden themes as in the gouache Tmpel (Pond) (1936) (fig. 7.9). Occasionally they appear to haunt Hchs paintings like apparitions; this is evident in the barely visible facial features suspended in the watercolor Pond, or the small outline of a female body surrounded by swirling abstraction in Flora (1942) (fig.7.10). The artists love of nature and her loneliness are equally expressed in the wartime watercolor, Der Mond zu Besuch (The Moon comes to Visit) (1943) (fig. 7.11). Little evidence in Hchs wartime oeuvre suggests interpersonal or genderrelated themes, yet they are nonetheless subtly expressed in three of the artists works. At first glance, the bold composition of Hchs black and white ink drawing Und die Freunde der Keime (And the Friends of Sprouts) (1943) (fig. 7.12) evokes a woodcut. However, the sexless bird-insects in this mysterious garden themed work suggest the many cross-genus hybrids in the artists prewar photomontages. While the pained expressions of the humanoid figures in Hchs painting 1945 (1945) (fig. 7.13) convey the helpless desperation of war, their neutered bodies, much like the androgynous heads pictured in the artists 1948 gouache Liebespaar am Hang (Romantic Couple on a Slope) (fig. 7.14), clearly echo earlier gender-related themes once central to Hchs oeuvre. During the 1950s, the material deprivation that characterized Hchs art during the war was dramatically swept away. The vibrant colors of her abstract painting
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Schwebende Formen (Floating Forms) (1957) (fig. 7.15) reflect the availability of paints made possible through Germanys economic recovery, yet its title bears a lingering trace of Hchs war-era reluctance to engage artistically with human interaction. However, whether Hchs palette was somber or buoyant, figurative imagery remained nominal in the artists oeuvre well into the late 1950s. Ich fhlte die Freiheitdie Freiheit! 950 After the war, as Hchs journal entries reveal, the artist reveled in a sense of freedom and great relief. Yet, she was also deeply troubled and depressed by the shocking revelations of Nazi war crimes made public through the Nrnberg Trials of 1946. 951 Slowly, Hch also began to discover the fate of friends with whom she had lost contact during the war. Despite painful personal losses, the artists postwar oeuvre rapidly gained momentum and soon exhibited a rekindled interest in earlier themes as seen in her reworking of the Tamer. Importantly, the postwar years also coincided with Hchs reemergence on the international art scene. In 1953, five of her works were included in the exhibition Dada 1916-1923 at New Yorks Sidney Janis Gallery and, in 1957, twenty-six Hch collages were exhibited at the Berlin gallery Gerd Rosen. The first large-scale Dada-themed museum retrospective, Dada-Dokumente einer Bewegung (Dada-Documents of a Movement) organized in Dsseldorf in 1958, included Hchs work and, in 1963, the artists first retrospective was organized in Milan at the Galleria Levante. In 1968, Hch

950

Galerie.

I felt freedomfreedom! Hchs journal entry from January 26, 1946. HH Archiv Berlinische Schweitzer, Schrankenlose Freiheit, 372-75.

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participated in the Museum of Modern Art exhibition Dada, Surrealism, and Their Heritage in New York. 952 These global events launched a whirlwind phase in which professional recognition, interviews, and the admiration of art historians and young artists, including Fluxus performance artists Charlotte Moorman and Nam June Paik, as well as the Italian Abstract-Expressionist Emilio Vedova, put a definitive end to Hchs quiet life in Heiligensee. 953 Furthermore, contemporary Pop Art, or as it was then also called, Neo-Dada, supported a reappraisal of Hchs oeuvre and that of other veteran Dadaists. Certain recurring Obsessions: Hannah Hch and the new New Woman In 1959, Hch remarked, I suppose every artist has certain recurring obsessions. 954 This dissertation conclusively establishes, through examination of the entirety of the artists oeuvre, why the female figure was one of Hchs recurring obsessions. In the early 1960s, after almost twenty-five years of absence, Hch abruptly reintroduced the figurespecifically the female figurein her work. 955 After several years in which it played only a minor role, this reintroduction of the female figure suggests its lasting significance for her; a consequence, I argue, of feminism, lesbianism, and her culturally untrained sexuality.
Ralf Burmeister, Hannah Hch: Aller Anfang ist DADA! Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz; Berlin: Berlinische Galerie, Landesmuseum fr Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur, 2007), 188-90. 953 Burmeister, Aller Anfang ist DADA!, 185-92. Interest in and recognition of Hannah Hch and her oeuvre began around 1958 and remained constant until she died in 1978. Hch met Vedova while he was in Berlin in 1965 and the two became friends. Moorman and Paik contacted Hch in 1966 (189). 954 Statement made to Edouard Roditi, Interview with Hannah Hch, Arts 34, no. 3 (1959), 27. 955 Peter Boswell, Through the Looking Glass, in The Photomontages of Hannah Hch, Peter Boswell, Carolyn Lanchner, and Kristin Makholm, eds. (Minneapolis: Walker Art Center; New York: The Museum of Modern Art; Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1997), 20; 23n39; See also Burmeister, Aller Anfang ist DADA!, 186. In the late 1950s, Hch subscribed to Life International and Magnum and, as Burmeister claims, due to the sehr guten Druckqualitt der Farbreproduktionen (very good print quality of the color reproductions), the artist used the magazines for her collages.
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During the 1960s, Hch reengaged with womens issues that had recently come to the fore in Westernized countries throughout the world. This trend was reflected in contemporary Germany where a growing economy fueled consumerism and expanded employment opportunities for women; in addition, the invention of the birth-control pill provided unprecedented social choices and viable alternatives to marriage there as elsewhere in Europe and North America. 956 It was then, once again, that Hch began to explore gender in her work. Interestingly (and recently discovered by artist Joe Mills) at the time, she also chose to rework the Tamer with materials published in a 1959 magazine. 957 Hchs revision of one of her most evocative gender-themed works suggests that current social developments infused the artists earlier themes with new relevance and inspired her to pursue them once more. As Kristin Makholm observes, many of the artists photomontages from the 1960s intentionally recall her work from the 1920s and 1930s while engaging the latest New Woman. 958 While timely, Hchs photomontages Um einen roten Mund (About a Red Mouth) (1967) (fig. 7.16), Hommage Riza Abasi (Homage to Riza Abasi) (1963) (fig. 7.17), and Grotesque (1967) (fig. 1.19) clearly echo her Weimar oeuvre. The composition of About a Red Mouth reflects Hchs intermittent pursuit of lyrical abstraction, while the pink and white lace petticoat that comprises the photomontages middle ground

Boswell, Through the Looking Glass, 20-21; 23n37. Joe Mills and Peter Boswell, Dating the Dompteuse: Hannah Hchs Reconfiguration of the Tamer, Photo Review 26/27, no. 4/1 (2003/ 2004): 16-18. Mills credits Kristin Makholm for finding evidence in Hchs papers in 1996 confirming her subscriptions to Life International and Magnum. Based on materials Mills discovered in a 1959 issue of Life International, Hch reconfigured the Tamer sometime between 1959 and 1964, when it was exhibited in Berlin. 958 Kristin Makholm, Strange Beauty: Hannah Hch and the Photomontage, MoMA, no. 24 (Winter-Spring 1997): 23.
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attests to the artists perennial interest in womens fashion and her work during the teens and 20s as a textile designer. The fleshy pink lips that dominate About a Red Mouth suggest the lips of Hchs 1930 Marlene and once again confirm her unbroken engagement with the cultural construction and fetishization of femininity. Hannah Hchs erotically-tinged fascination with exoticized femininity is patently expressed in her 1963 collage Homage to Riza Abasi. While the works title references the sixteenth-century Persian miniaturist Riza Abbasi, the image evokes a number of Hchs earlier themes. 959 The constructed and contorted subject of Riza Abasi, a darkeyed Audrey Hepburn look-alike, alternately suggests 1920s Ausdrckstanz

(expressionistic dance) and a sultry silent-film Vamp, both key elements in Hchs Weimar-era oeuvre and Scrapbook. 960 Riza Abasi is also reminiscent of the artists Ethnographischen Museum series, a group of Weimar-era photomontages in which Hch combined pictures of non-Western artifacts with imagery from contemporary fashion magazines. 961 Hchs rekindled interest in and engagement with the related themes of female beauty and commodification are equally evident in her 1963 collage Grotesque, the title of which alludes to the bizarre extremes that often dictate womens fashion. Grotesque suggests and revisits what for Hch was undoubtedly a central and lifelong theme: the
The artists interest in the Iranian miniaturist of the Isfahan School Riza Abbasi (1565-1635) may have been piqued by the Persian branch of the Deutsches Archeologisches Institut (German Archeological Institute) which opened in Berlin in 1961. 960 Ausdrckstanz (expressionistic dance) flourished after World War I in Germany. For an indepth study of the cultural significance of dance in Weimar, see, Karl E. Toepfer, Empire of Ecstasy: Nudity and Movement in German Body Culture, 1910-1935 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997). 961 For a discussion of the series, see Maud Lavin, From an Ethnographic Museum, in Cut with the Kitchen Knife: The Weimar Photomontages of Hannah Hch (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), 158-183.
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lesbian couple. Both monstrous and whimsical, this colorful female pair, one of which is ambiguously gendered due to an aging male head, suggests a playful reprise of her 1919 Dada-Puppets (fig. 1.3). Moreover, the figures in Grotesque, which are reduced to heads and legs, also evoke the artists similarly configured 1928 photomontages, Russian Dancer and English Dancer, and imply their belated and joyous unification. As a chronological overview of the artists oeuvre reveals, it is critical to examine in detail the extent to which Hchs intimate relationships and cognizance of popular and subcultural media media played a key role in shaping her aesthetic sensibilities and artistic production. Although Hchs Dada-era photomontages clearly exhibit a feminist turn, her engagement with gender and sexuality significantly increased and found clarification and fruition in late Weimar during her years with Til Brugman; a period that also importantly coincides with the widespread dissemination of popular, subcultural, and scientific materials related to sexuality and gender in Germany. While Hchs pursuit of gender-related themes was interrupted by war, the vibrancy and masterful abandon of her Sptwerk attests to her perennial fascination with the female figure and her lifelong exploration of the construction and expression of gender in its myriad forms.

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FIGURES

1.1 Hannah Hch, 1915. Hannah Hch Archiv (HH Archiv), Berlinische Galerie, Landesmuseum fr Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und Architektur, Berlin.

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1.2 Til Brugman, ca. 1905. HH Archiv, Berlinische Galerie.

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1.3 Hannah Hch, Dada-Puppen (Dada-Dolls), 1916-1918. Cloth and diverse materials, ca. 60 cm. Berlinische Galerie.

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1.4 Hannah Hch, Entartet (Degenerate), 1969. Collage, 34.4 x 40.5 cm. Collection Landesbank Berlin AG.

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1.5 Hannah Hch, Entwurf fr das Denkmal eines bedeutendes Sptzenhemdes (Design for a Memorial for an Important Lace-Shirt) 1922. Collage, 27.6 x 17 cm. Hamburger Kunsthalle.

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1.6 Hannah Hch, Schnitt mit dem Kchenmesser Dada durch die letzte weimarer Bierbauchkulturepoche Deutschlands (Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada through the last Weimar Beer Belly Cultural Epoch of Weimar Germany), 1919-20. Photomontage, 114 x 90 cm. Neue Nationalgalerie Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz Berlin.

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1.7 Hannah Hch, Die Mdchen (The Girls), 1921. Photomontage, dimensions unknown. Lost.

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1.8 Hannah Hch, Da-Dandy, 1919. Photomontage, 30 x 23 cm. Private Collection.

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1.9 Raoul Hausmann, Photo Hannah Hch, 1919. HH Archiv, Berlinische Galerie.

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1.10 Hannah Hch, Oz, der Tragde (Oz, the Tragic Actor) 1919. Photomontage. Photomontage. Missing, pictured in Lavin, Cut with the Kitchen Knife, 38.

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1.11 Raoul Hausmann, ABCD, 1923-24. Photomontage, 40.6 x 28.6 cm. Muse National dArt Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.

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1.12 Kurt Schwitters, Miss Blanche 1923. Collage, 15.9 x 12.7 cm. Collection Dr. Werner Schmalenbach, Dsseldorf.

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1.13 Hannah Hch, Collage (Dada), 1922-24. Collage, 24.7 x 32.8 cm. Collection Merrill C. Berman, Scarsdale, New York.

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1.14 George Grosz and John Heartfield, Sonniges Land (Sunny Land), 1919. Photographic reproduction, dimensions and whereabouts of original unknown. Berlin, Akademie der Knste, John Heartfield Archiv.

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1.15 Max Ernst, Le Cygne est bien paisable (The Swan is quite Peaceful), 1920. Gouache on photographic enlargement of photomontage, 21 x 29 cm. Collection Dsseldorf WestLB.

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1.16 Johannes Baargeld, Typical Vertical Misrepresentation as a Depiction of the Dada Baargeld (Self-portrait), 1920. Photomontage, 37.1 x 31 cm. Kunsthaus Zrich.

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1.17 Max Ernst, Jean Hatchet and Charles the Bold, 1929. Collage, 34 x 20 cm. Cleveland Museum of Art.

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1.18 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.

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1.19 Hannah Hch, Grotesque, 1963. Photomontage, 25 x 17 cm. Institut fr Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart.

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1.20 Hannah Hch, Der Vater (The Father), 1920. Galerie Berinson, Berlin.

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1.21 Hannah Hch, Dada-Ernst (Dada-Serious/Grave), 1920-21. Photomontage, 18.6 x 16.6 cm. Collection Vera and Arturo Schwarz, Milan.

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1.22 Abtreibungsinstrumente (Abortion-instruments). Magnus Hirschfeld, Vol. 4. Bilderteil: Geschlechtskunde auf Grund dreissigjhriger Forschung und Erfahrung bearbeitet (Stuttgart: Julius Pttmann Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1930), 341.

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1.23 Gustave Courbet, LOrigine du Monde (1866). Oil on Canvas, 46 x 55 cm. Muse dOrsay, Paris.

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1.24 Sheela-na-Gig, Corbel in the Church of St. Mary and St. David, Kilpeck, Ireland, 12th century. Pictured in Monica Sj, The Great Cosmic Mother of All (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1987), 320.

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1.25 Max Ernst, Les Hommes nen Sauront Rien (Of this Men Shall Know Nothing), 1923. Oil on canvas, 81 x 64 cm. Tate Gallery, London.

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1.26 Eric von Stroheim as Count Karamzin. Foolish Wives, Universal Jewel (1922).

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2.1 Hannah Hch, Rssische Tnzerin (Russian Dancer), 1928. Photomontage, 30.5 x 22.5 cm. Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museums Braunschweig, Kunstmusem des Landes Niedersachsen.

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2.2 Hannah Hch, Englische Tnzerin (English Dancer), 1928. Photomontage, 23.7 x 18 cm. Institut fr Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart.

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2.3 Romaine Brooks, Una, Lady Troubridge, 1923. Oil on canvas, 127.3 x 76.4 cm. Smithsonian American Art Museum.

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2.4 Anonymous photograph (Three Nude Women). Liebende Frauen, 2. Jg., no. 36 (1927).

332

2.5 Hannah Hch, Album (Scrapbook), undated, ca. 1933. unpaginated.

333

2.6 Hannah Hch, Equilbre (Equilibrium), 1925. Photomontage, 30.5 x 20.3 cm. Institut fr Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart.

334

2.7 Nacktkultur im Film. Aus der Zeitschrift: Schnheit (Nudism in Film: from the Magazine: Beauty) [Wilhelm Prager, Film Still, Wege der Kraft und Schnheit, 1925]. Albert Moll, Polizei und Sitte (Gersbach & Sohn, Berlin, 1926), 31.

335

2.8 Kupfer und Meyer, Tnzerinnen (Female Dancers). Die Freundin, 3 Jg., no. 15, August 8, 1927.

336

2.9 Anonymous photograph (Three Nude Women on a Beach). Die Freundin, 7. Jg., no. 39, 16. Sept., 1931.

337

2.10 Anonymous cover Illustration. Ruth Margarete Roellig, Berlins lesbische Frauen, mit einem Vorwort von Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld (Leipzig: Bruno Gebauer Verlag fr Kulturprobleme, 1928).

338

2.11 Otto Hahn, cover Illustration. Marie-Rene Mecke-Daumas, Die klugen Jungfrauen: ein Sittenbild aus Berlin W. (Leipzig: W. Borngrber, 1924).

339

2.12 Foto Angela, Die Tnzerinnen Schwestern Karolewna (The Dancing Karolewna Sisters). Die Dame, 3. Novemberheft, 1929 (Berlin), detail, p. 11.

340

2.13 Heinz von Perchkhammer, Ecstasy, ca.1930. Photograph, dimensions, present whereabouts unknown. www.tumblr.com/tagged/heinz-von-perckhammer?before=1307366646 (accessed January 5, 2012).

341

2.14 Heinz von Perchkhammer, Heliogravure. Edle Nacktheit in China mit 32 Original-aufnahmen von Heinz von Perckhammer (Berlin: Eigenbrdler Verlag, 1928).

342

2.15 Anonymous photograph. Frauen-Liebe, 3 Jg., no. 5 (1928).

343

2.16 Anonymous photograph, Die Badenden (The Bathers). Die Freundin 4. Jg., no. 8, April 16, 1928.

344

2.17 Anonymous photograph, Ideale Schnheit (Ideal Beauty). Die Freundin, 4. Jg., nr. 3, Feb., 6, 1928.

345

2.18 Anonymous erotic postcard, 1920s. http://www.delcampe.de/list.php?cat=7894&searchMode= all&searchTldCountry=net&searchInDescription=Y Seite 4 (accessed March 1, 2012).

346

2.19 Fernand Khnopff, Avec Gregoire le Roy. Mon couer couer pleure dautrefois (With Gregoire the King, my heart cries again). Colored pencil and white chalk on paper, 25 x 14.2 cm. Private collection.

347

2.20 Franz Roh, Selbstbegrssung, (Greeting Oneself) 1927-33. Gelatin silver print, 15.4 x 19.8 cm. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

348

2.21 Claude Cahun, Self-Portrait in Mirror, 1928. Photograph, 179 mm x 237 mm, Jersey Heritage Trust (JHT)/1995/00030/g.

349

3.1 Masculine/feminine lesbian sartorial configuration, undated. Postcard, France. Authors collection.

350

3.2 Jeanne Mammen, Two Women Dancing, ca. 1928. Watercolor and pencil, 48 x 36 cm. Frderverein der Jeanne-Mammen-Stiftung, Berlin.

351

3.3 Jeanne Mammen, Zeebrugge, 1920s. Watercolor and pencil, 39 x 34 cm. Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa.

352

3.4 Josephine Baker in modernen Revuekostm. Magnus Hirschfeld, Vol. 4. Bilderteil: Geschlechtskunde, Plate 51.

353

3.5 Gesichtsbemalung einer Indianerin aus Arizona; Gesichtsbemalung der Haussa-Frauen im Westsudan (Face-painting of an Arizona Indian; Face-painting Haussa Woman in West Sudan). Hirschfeld, Vol. 4. Bilderteil: Geschlechtskunde, p.768.

354

3.6 Sent Marona, orientalische Tnzerin (Sent Marona, Oriental Dancer). Die Freundin, March 5, 1928.

355

3.7 Rudolf Koppitz, Studie russischer Tnzerinnen (Study of Russian Dancers), ca. 1926. Bromide Print, 33.4 x 17.9 cm. Private collection, Vienna.

356

3.8 Anonymous photograph (Entwined Figures). Liebende Frauen, 3. Jg., no. 41 (1928).

357

3.9 Lenare, Lydia Sokolova Queen of English Dancers, The Illustrated London News, Oct., 6, 1926, 683.

358

3.10 Hannah Hch, Liebe (Love), 1931. Photomontage, 21 x 21.8 cm. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.

359

3.11 Anna Pawlowa Libelle, Undated postcard. Collection author.

360

3.12 Libellule. Postcard, undated. http://www.delcampe.de/list.php?searchString=libellule&cat7894&searchMode=all&SearchTldCountry=net&searchInDescription=Y (accessed March 9, 2012).

361

3.13 Young Girl with Wings. Postcard, undated. http://www.delcampe.de/page/item/id,153841928,var,Libelleoriginele-foto-rond-1915,language,G.html (accessed March 1, 2012).

362

3.14 Herta Wasserkampf, Postcard, Felix Korn Verlag, Stuttgart, ca. 1930. Akpool.de/ansichtskarte-postkarte-nixe-sitzt-auf-rosenblatt-libelle-fisch (accessed January 15, 2012).

Reversed image

363

3.15 Hannah Hch, Album (Scrapbook), unpaginated. HH Archiv, Berlinische Galerie.

364

3.16 Hannah Hch, Vagabunden (Vagabonds) 1926. Photomontage, 35 x 25 cm. Collection Guido Rossi, Milan.

365

3.17 Hannah Hch, Von Oben (From Above, or Two Children above the City), 1926-27. Photocollage on paper mounted on cardboard, 30.6 x 22.2 cm. Private collection, Des Moines, Iowa.

366

3.18 Hannah Hch, Auf dem Weg im F. Himmel (On the Way to F. Heaven) 1934. Photomontage, 36.8 x 25.4 cm. Private collection, New York.

367

3.19 Anonymous, Mrchenland (Fairy-Tale Land). Die Freundin, 7. Jg., no. 43, Oct., 28, 1931.

368

3.20 H. W. Mager, Traumbild (Dream-picture). Photomontage. Die Freundin, 4. Jg. no. 9, April 30, 1928.

369

3.21 Hannah Hch, Flucht (Flight), 1931. Collage, 24.5 x 18.1 cm. Institut fr Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart.

370

3.22 Hannah Hch, Siebenmeilenstiefel (Seven-League Boots), ca. 1934. Photomontage, 22.9 x 32.2 cm. Hamburger Kunsthalle, Kupferstichkabinett.

371

3.23 Hannah Hch, Nur nicht mit beiden Beinen auf der Erde Stehen (Dont Stand with both Legs on the Ground), 1940. Photomontage, 32.2 x 20.8 cm. Institut fr Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart.

372

4.1 Til Brugman SHE HE (1917-1922). Collection Gerrit Jan de Rook, Den Haag.

373

4.2 Til Brugman, undated photograph, Berlinische Galerie, BG-HHC-F 191/79.

4.3 Damenklub Violetta, Der Vorstand [Charlotte Lotte Hahm], Frauen-Liebe, 2. Jg., no. 49 (1927): 12.

374

4.4 Hannah Hch and Til Brugman with their cat Ninn, 1928. Photograph, HH Archiv Berlinische Galerie.

375

4.5 Hannah Hch, Bsingstrasse, 1929. Linocut, 14.1 x 14. 9 cm. Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, BG-G 6840/93.

376

4.6 Hannah Hch, Tulip Farmer, Atlantis: Lnder, Vlker, Reisen 5 (1933): 431.

377

4.7 Hannah Hch, Tulip Field, Atlantis: Lnder, Vlker, Reisen 5 (1933): 430.

378

4.8 May-Day Rally, Nurenberg, 1933. Interfoto Mnchen. Pictured in Udo Pini, Liebeskult und Liebeskitsch: Erotik im Dritten Reich (Munich: Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1992), 36-37.

379

4.9 Hannah Hch, Der Schandfleck im Tulpenbeet (The Stain in the Tulip Field), 1927. Ink on paper, 213 x 202 mm. pictured in Herbert Remmert und Peter Barth, eds., Hannah Hch: Werke und Worte (Berlin: Frhlich & Kaufmann, 1982), 47. Present whereabouts unknown.

380

4.10 Hannah Hch, cover Illustration. Scheingehacktes (Berlin: Verlag der Rabenpresse, 1935).

381

4.11 Hannah Hch, hand-colored cover Illustration. Scheingehacktes, 1935. Berlinische Galerie, BG-HHC 560/79.

382

4.12 Hannah Hch, Cabbage Patch, Scheingehacktes, 1935, p. 15.

383

4.13 Hannah Hch, Schaufensterhypnose, Scheingehacktes, 1935, p. 23

384

4.14 Hannah Hch, Die Braut (Pandora) (The Bride [Pandora]), 1927. Oil on canvas, 114 x 66 cm. Die Berlinische Galerie, Landesmuseum fr Moderne Kunst, Photographie, und Architektur, Berlin.

385

4.15 Hannah Hch, Traum Seines Lebens (His Lifes Dream), 1925. Photomontage, 30 x 22.5 cm. Museum of Modern Art, New York.

386

4.16 Hannah Hch, Buerliches Brautpaar (Peasant Wedding Couple), 1931. Photomontage with collage, 21.6 x 20.9 cm. Private collection, Berlin.

387

4.17 Hannah Hch, Die Braut (The Bride), ca. 1933. Photomontage, 20 x 19.7 cm. Collection Thomas Walther, New York.

388

4.18 Hannah Hch, Brgerliches Brautpaar (Bourgeois Wedding Couple), 1920. Watercolor, 39 x 107 cm. Private collection.

389

4.19 Man Ray, Garderobe, 1920. Gelatin silver print, 25 x 16.5 cm. Kunsthaus Zrich.

390

4.20 Advertisement, Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung, August 17, 1924, p. 942.

391

4.21 Beinfetischismus (Leg-Fetishism). Hirschfeld, Geschlechtskunde, 1930, p. 741.

392

4.22 Hannah Hch, Marlene, 1930. Photomontage, 36.7 x 24.2 cm. Collection Dakis Joannou, Athens.

393

4.23 Hannah Hch, Der Schuss (The Kick), 1935. Photomontage, 18 x 23 cm. Berlinische Galerie.

394

5.1 Hannah Hch, Dompteuse (Tamer), 1930. Photomontage, 35.5 x 26 cm. Graphische Sammlung, Kunsthaus Zrich.

395

5.2 und im Wintergarten, Barbette, das geheimnisvolle Wesen am Trapez (and at the Wintergarten [theatre], Barbette, that mysterious creature on a trapeze). Blick in die Welt, Das 12 Uhr Blatt, July 31, 1931.

396

5.3 Dirne in Mnnerkleidung. Zeichnung von F. Rops (Prostitute in mens clothing, Drawing F. Rops). Albert Moll, Polizei und Sitte: Die Polizei in Einzeldarstellungen (Berlin: Gersbach & Sohn Verlag, 1926), p. 22.

397

5.4 Mnnlicher Transvertit. Benutzung der Bubikopfmode (Male Transvestite. Use of the Bubikopf hairstyle). Moll, Polizei und Sitte, p. 23.

398

5.5 Mnnlicher Transvertit (Male Transvestite). Moll, Polizei und Sitte, p. 23.

399

5.6 Eine Frau die es liebt Uniform zu tragen: der Bart ist angeklebt (A woman who loves to wear uniforms: the mustache is glued-on). Magnus Hirschfeld, Berlins drittes Geschlecht (Leipzig: Verlag Max Spohr, 1904), p. 122.

400

5.7 Androtrichie (feminae barbatae) (Bearded Women). Magnus Hirschfeld, Geschlechts-bergnge; Mischungen mnnlicher und weiblicher Geschlechtscharactere (sexuelle-Zwischenstufen) (Leipzig: Verlag der Monatsschrift fr Harnkrankheiten und sexuelle Hygeine, 1905), Plate 14.

401

5.8 Eine Schreckensnachricht (Terrifying News). Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung, no. 41, Oct., 12, 1924, p. 1216.

402

5.9 Gertrud Liebherr(?), Photograph. Liebende Frauen, 5. Jg., no. 16 (1930).

403

5.10 Moderne Fotokunst. Die Freundin, 3 Jg., no. 20 (October 17, 1927): 7.

5.11 Gertrud Liebherr, Die Frau als Mann. Die Freundin, 4. Jg., no. 5, (1928): 5.

404

5.12 Gertrud Liebherr, Die Frau als Mann, Die Freundin, 4 Jg., no. 5 (1928): 4.

405

5. 13 Der Elegante Herr (The Elegant Man). Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung, August 10, 1924, p. 271.

406

5.14 Gertrud Liebherr(?), Photograph. Liebende Frauen, 4 Jg., no. 18 (1929).

407

5.15 Voo Doo. Magnus Hirschfeld and Max Tilke, Der erotischen Verkleidungstrieb (Die Transvestiten.) Illustrierter Teil (Berlin: Alfred Pulvermacher & Co., 1912), Plate 43, detail.

408

5.16 Gerlach, Der Transvestit Voo-Doo, eine der bekanntesten internationaler Tanzsterne (The Transvestite Voo-Doo, one of the Most Prominent International Dance-stars), Die Freundin, 3 Jg., no. 14 (1927): 27.

409

5.17 Pseudohermaphroditismus masculinis bei berwiegend weiblichen Habitus. Error in sexu (Pseudohermaphrodite with dominant female behavior). Hirschfeld, Geschlechts-bergnge, Plate 7.

410

5.18 Male cross-dresser, Police Photo, undated. Lothar Goldman, ber das Wesen des Umkleidungstriebes, Geschlecht und Gesellschaft 12 (1924/25), Plate 1.

411

6.1 Advertisement, Der Steinach Film, 1923 Humboldt Institut, Online Archiv fr Sexology http://www2.hu berlin.de/Sexology/GESUND/ ARCHIV/COLLSTE.HTM Tab Der Steinach Film (accessed March 1, 2012).

412

6.2 Film Still (detail), The Steinach Film, 1923. Humboldt Institut, Online Archiv fr Sexology http://www2.hu berlin.de/Sexology/GESUND/ ARCHIV/COLLSTE.HTM Tab Der Steinach Film (accessed March 1, 2012).

413

6.3 Eugen Steinach, Verjngung durch experimentelle Neubelebung der alternden Puberttsdrse (Berlin: Verlag von Julius Springer, 1920), pp. 20-21.

414

6.4 Hannah Hch, Die Starken Mnner (The Strong Men), 1931. Photomontage, 24.5 x 13.5 cm. Institut fr Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart.

415

6.5 Max Schmeling, Ullstein Bild, 1927. Photograph. The Granger Collection, New York.

416

6.6 Boxer Schmeling and Aphrodite Kallipygos. Hirschfeld, Vol. 4. Bilderteil: Geschlechtskunde, Figs. 206, 207.

417

6.7 Hannah Hch, Die Ssse (Sweet One), 1926. Photomontage with watercolor, 30 x 15.5 cm. Museum Folkwang, Essen.

418

6.8 Gerda Wegener, Portrait of three Women (Lili in the centre). Niels Hoyer, ed., Man into Woman, An Authentic Record of a Change of Sex, trans. H. J. Stenning (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1933), facing page 224.

419

6.9 Gerda Wegener, Moderne Demimondnen. Moll, Polizei und Sitte, between pp. 128-29.

420

6.10 Einar Wegener (Andreas Sparre) about 1920. Frontispiece, Hoyer, Man into Woman, 1933.

421

6.11 Einar Wegener (Andreas Sparre) posing as Lili, Paris 1926. Hoyer, Man into Woman, 1933, facing page 40.

422

6.12 Einar Wegener (Andreas Sparre) after definitely assuming the name of Lili, Paris, January, 1930. Hoyer, Man into Woman, 1933, facing page 96.

423

6.13 Einar Wegener (Andreas Sparre) as Lili Elbe, Dresden, May 1930, between second and third Operations. Hoyer, Man into Woman, 1933, facing page 112.

424

6.14 Einar Wegener (Andreas Sparre) as Lili Elbe, Copenhagen, February, 1931. Hoyer, Man into Woman, 1933, facing page 208.

425

6.15 Dust-jacket, Neils Hoyer, ed., Lili Elbe, ein Mensch wechselt sein Geschlecht: Eine Lebensbeichte (A Person changes their Sex: a life confession) (Dresden: Carl Reissner Verlag, 1932).

426

6.16 Schnittbild aus Zeitschriften die vorzugsweise in homosexuellen Kreisen gelesen wurde (Collage of newspapers that are primarily read in homosexual circles). Moll, Polizei und Sitte, p. 101.

427

7.1 Claude Cahun [and Marcel Moore], Self-portrait, ca. 1928. Photograph. Jersey Heritage Trust (JHT)/1995/0036/b print.

428

7.2 Claude Cahun, Photomontage prefacing Chapter III. Aveux non avenus (Paris: dition Carrefour, 1930).

429

7.3 Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore [signed Moore]. Photomontage, Frontispiece. Aveux non avenus, 1930.

430

7.4 Leonor Fini, Travesti loiseau (Transvestite with a Bird), ca. 1932. Oil on canvas, 100 x 65cm. Private collection.

431

7.5 Leonor Fini, Le supplice de lallure (The Torture of Allure), 1940. Oil on canvas, 64.8 x 40.7cm.

432

7.6 Hannah Hch, Schne Fanggerte (Beautiful Trapping-Machines), 1946. Photomontage, 30 x 22cm. Collection Landesbank Berlin AG.

433

7.7 Hannah Hch, Mhn (Poppies), 1935-40. Gouache, 63 x 47 cm. Berlinische Galerie.

434

7.8 Hannah Hch, Maske und Vase (Mask and Vase), 1940. Gouache, 45 x 32 cm. Berlinische Galerie.

435

7.9 Hannah Hch, Tmpel (Pond), 1936. Watercolor 40 x 57 cm. Berlinische Galerie.

436

7.10 Hannah Hch, Flora, 1942. Watercolor, 35 x 48 cm. Berlinische Galerie.

437

7.11 Hannah Hch, Der Mond zu Besuch (The Moon comes for a Visit), 1943. Watercolor, 72 x 57 cm.

438

7.12 Hannah Hch, Und die Freunde der Keime (And the Friends of Sprouts), 1943. Ink on Paper, 23 x 23 cm. Berlinische Galerie.

439

7.13 Hannah Hch, 1945, 1945. Oil on canvas, 92.8 x 81.4 cm. Collection Landesbank Berlin.

440

7.14 Hannah Hch, Liebespaar am Hang (Romantic Couple on a Slope), 1948. Gouache, 45 x 62 cm. Berlinische Galerie.

441

7.15 Hannah Hch, Schwebende Formen (Floating Forms), 1957. Oil on canvas, 90 x 60 cm. Berlinische Galerie.

442

7.16 Hannah Hch, Um einem roten Mund (Around/About a Red Mouth), ca. 1967. Collage, 20.5 x 16.5 cm. Institut fr Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart.

443

7.17 Hannah Hch, Hommage Riza Abasi (Homage to Riza Abasi), 1963. Photomontage, 35.5 x 17.7 cm. Institut fr Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart.

444

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