The Gay Capal of the Neteenth Century | The New Yorker

Contents:

• SNDALS: WILHELM'S GAY IENDS SHOOK THE EMPIRE
• WAS KAISER WILHELM II OF GERMANY GAY?
• THE LONG, SORDID HISTORY OF THE GAY CONSPIRACY THEORY
• ATHEIST AND GAY, FRERICK THE GREAT WAS MORE RADIL THAN MOST LEARS TODAY

SNDALS: WILHELM'S GAY IENDS SHOOK THE EMPIRE

Speakg of the homosexual sndals of Wilhelm’s urt, the Harn-Eulenberg affair has led many historians to suggt the theory that Wilhelm was a eply reprsed gay man. There were gay men among his clost advisors, as the trials revealed, and Eulenberg’s own romantic feelgs for Wilhelm also me to light. In November 1906, the journalist Maxiian Harn opened a mpaign agast the homosexual "marilla" around Wilhelm II wh a subtle article.

There were also tchy letters that at least suggted a homosexual relatnship between the two of them, which had prevly been a topic of nversatn higher circl. Bee that was what Harn was about: by placg the emperor at the center of a homosexual “marilla”, he wanted to fame his “ia of ​​a 'personal regiment' wh stctively negative associatns”, wr the historian and Pssia expert Christopher Clark his Wilhelm II. Display Two weeks later, Harn Eulenburg me out openly as gay: "Prce Friedrich Herich von Pssia (a of Wilhelm II, whose homosexualy had bee public January 1907; the edor) had to bee he suffers om hered perversn of the sexual stct, renounce the men's champnship the Orr of St.

”In fact, Wilhelm II now unrtook a liberatn: He removed all of Eulenburg's iends, whether gay or not, om his Eulenburg herself uld not "hold on" much longer after Moltke's parture - jt as Barons Spzemberg had speculated. But public, as wh Wilhelm II, the former cy mandant and nfidante of the imperial fay was regard as persona non grata; he died Brl emperor, who was said to have homophile tennci om time to time, and who on the other hand cultivated extramaral relatns wh noble women as well as urtans, relied more than ever on monstrative masculy.

WAS KAISER WILHELM II OF GERMANY GAY?

Intertgly enough, some historians rearched to the Kaiser's personalistic life and claimed that he had a mor bra damage at birth and has unpredictable and irratnal behavur due to his "sense of ferry" and sufferg om "Attentn Deficiency Disorr" as a rult om his unlovg 's all brace ourselv for the next shockg revelatn:"Probg further, some historians have nclud that William was a reprsed homosexual who never me to terms wh his own personaly. I know he spent a lot of time wh Eulenburg and the Liebenberg Circle who all admted to be gay but is that the only 'evince' for this claim?

THE LONG, SORDID HISTORY OF THE GAY CONSPIRACY THEORY

But while the Netherlands, which 2001 beme the first untry to legalize gay marriage, has paved the wave for a queer royal to officially wear the crown, LGBTQ people have long been dog so unofficially. The liph’s sexualy has been the source of some bate: Acrdg to the French medievalist Évariste Lévi-Provençal, the phrase “hubb al-walad, ” found 16th-century historian Ahmed Mohammed al-Maqqari’s pendium "Nafh at-Tib" reference to Al-Hakam II, translat as a “preference for boys, ” though other scholars mata refers to paternal Medieval Europe scholar Francis Prado-Vilar wrote that knowledge of Al-Hakam’s homosexualy the urt of Córdoba “enuraged the ambns of the factns gathered around his much younger brother, Prce al-Mughira.

”“In his youth his lov seem to have been entirely homosexual, ” queer studi scholar Louis Crompton wrote “Male Love and Islamic Law Arab Spa. )“To the shock of many urtiers, the pair were monstratively affectnate to each other public, spe Jam’ var proclamatns agast homosexualy, ” Daniel Smh wrote “Love Letters of Kgs and Queens. Frerick the Great of Pssia (1712 - 1786)Even his lifetime, this Pssian royal was wily mored to be a homosexual, though that term wouldn’t be ed till nearly 90 years after his years after the kg’s ath, his physician Johann Ge Rter von Zimmermann published a book which he sperately tried to dispel gossip Frerick had a “Grecian taste love.

And rather than let that secret out, Frerick pretend to be gay, “so that he would ntue to appear virile and pable of sexual terurse, albe wh men.

ATHEIST AND GAY, FRERICK THE GREAT WAS MORE RADIL THAN MOST LEARS TODAY

But he did ltle to obscure his sexualy: Sanssouci, his palace Potsdam, was filled wh homoerotic art and, across Europe, “l Potsdamists” beme slang for kg allegedly pursued the Veian philosopher Franc Algarotti and even famed French philosopher Voltaire, who lived wh him at Sanssouci, though ’s not certa if eher relatnship was Voltaire’s ath 1778, a mancript of his memoir tailg Frerick’s homosexual tennci tail was stolen and published the Netherlands. ”The archde spent the rt of his life secln at Klsheim Palace near Salzburg, where he died at the age of 76 1919, three years after his brother’s ath and one year after the Atro-Hungarian Empire was dissolved after the end of World War II of Buganda (1868 - 1903)Discsn of Uganda’s treatment of homosexualy ually settl on Print Yoweri Meveni’s “Kill the Gays” bill, but this 19th century kabaka, or kg, of Buganda allegedly had sexual relatnships wh men along wh his 16 1886, Mwanga II orred the btal torture and aths of dozens of urtiers and pag, wh many burned alive.

“I hear there was homosexualy Mwanga’s palace, ” Meveni told a crowd of thoands on Martyr Day 2010, the Atlantic reported. Still, he had an effect: a few liberal-md lleagu accepted his notn of an nate gay inty, and a Bavarian official privately nfsed to siar yearngs.

”The first chapter of Robert Beachy’s “Gay Berl: Birthplace of a Morn Inty” (Knopf) begs wh an acunt of Ulrichs’s dac act. The tle of the chapter, “The German Inventn of Homosexualy, ” telegraphs a prcipal argument of the book: although same-sex love is as old as love self, the public disurse around , and the polil movement to w rights for , arose Germany the late neteenth and early twentieth centuri.