"Only the real, the true, the masculine held its value": Ernst Röhm, masculinity, and male homosexuality

Journal of the History of Sexuality

Volumn 8, Issue 4, 1998, Pages 616-641

  Hancock, Eleanor ^a  

^a MONASH UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; GERMANY; HISTORY; HOMOSEXUALITY; HUMAN; MALE; POLITICAL SYSTEM; SEXUAL BEHAVIOR;

GERMANY; HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY; HOMOSEXUALITY, MALE; HUMANS; MALE; POLITICAL SYSTEMS; SEXUAL BEHAVIOR;

EID: 0032038431     PISSN: 10434070     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (228)

1. "Die S.A. im neuen Staat Von Reichsminister Stabschef Ernst Röhm," Der S.A.-Mann (December 16, 1933), p. 5.
2. By masculinise I understand a male homosexual identity that is consciously masculine in a conventional sense. For a somewhat different definition - that it entails opposition to interpretations of male homosexuality as effeminate and sees male-male love as a "distillation" of masculine social instincts - see Andrew Hewitt, Political Inversions: Homosexuality, Fascism, and the Modernist Imaginary (Stanford, CA, 1996), pp. 80-81.
3. The text of § 175 was: "Unnatural vice committed between two persons of the male sex or by people with animals is to be punished by imprisonment. The verdict may also include the loss of civil rights"; "Paragraph 175 of the German Imperial Penal Code (1871)," in We Are Everywhere: A Historical Sourcebook of Gay and Lesbian Politics, ed. Mark Blasius and Shane Phelan (New York, 1997), p. 63.
4. On the German courts' interpretation of the paragraph as making oral and anal sex between men, but not mutual masturbation, illegal, see Christian Schulz, Paragraph 175. (abgewickelt): Homosexualität und Strafrecht im Nachkriegsdeutschland-Rechtsprechung, juristische Diskussionen und Reformen seit 1945 (Hamburg, 1994), p. 8;
5. and on the unsuccessful attempts to reform § 175 during the Weimar Republic, see Bodo Mende, "Die antihomosexuelle Gesetzgebung in der Weimarer Republik," in Die Geschichte des § 175: Strafrechte gegen Homosexuelle, ed. Freunde eines Schwules Museums in Berlin e.V., in collaboration with Emanzipation e.V. Frankfurt am Main (Berlin, 1990), pp. 82-104.
6. The relationship between Röhm's attitudes to masculinity and to the military, and the impact of the front experience on Röhm's politics, is explored in greater detail in Eleanor Hancock, "Ernst Röhm and the Experience of World War I," Journal of Military History 60 (1996): 39-60.
7. Ernst Röhm, Die Geschichte eines Hochverräters (Munich, 1928).
8. "Stabschef Ernst Röhm 'Der SA Mann ist die Fleischwerdung einer heroischen Geisteshaltung,'" Der S.A.-Mann (January 20, 1934), p. 6;
9. "Die S.A. im neuen Staat," p. 5.
10. "Die S.A. im neuen Staat," p. 1;
11. "Die S.A. im Jahre der Bewährung Stabschef Röhm vor den S.A.-Führern in Friedrichsroda," Der S.A.-Mann (January 27, 1934), p. 1.
12. "Stabschef Ernst Röhm," p. 5, see also p. 6.
13. On the front experience, see my article cited in n. 4, and on the wider impact of the front experience, see Eric J. Leed, No Man's Land: Combat and Identity in World War I (Cambridge, 1979);
14. Bernd Hüppauf, "Langemarck, Verdun, and the Myth of a New Man in Germany after the First World War," War and Society 6 (1988): 82-83, 86, 89-92;
15. Karl Prümm, Die Literatur des soldatischen Nationalismus der 20er Jahre (1918-1933): Gruppenideologie und Epochenproblematik, vol. 1 (Kronberg, 1974).
16. For a reference to Zucht, see "Die S.A. im neuen Staat," p. 5;
17. for references to Manneszucht, see "Die S.A. im Jahre der Bewährung," p. 5;
18. "'Daß Ihr die gleichen bleibt, das tut not!' Stabschef Röhm vor der Hamburger S.A.," Der S.A.-Mann (April 21, 1934), p. 1;
19. "'Treue und Disziplin sind die Grundpfeiler der Braunen Armee!' Stabschef Röhm an die S.A. und S.S.," Der S.A.-Mann (March 4, 1933), p. 5;
20. Ernst Röhm, "Kameraden der S.A. u. S.S.!" Der S.A.-Mann (April 15, 1933), p. 1.
21. For references to Schärfsten Manneszucht, see "Daß Ihr die gleichen bleibt, das tut not!'" p. 1;
22. for references to Straffer Manneszucht, see Ernst Röhm, "An die S.A. und S.S.," Der S.A.-Mann (February 2, 1933), p. 2.
23. For the development of the term Manneszucht, see Jeffrey A. Schneider, "From Bildung to Perversion: Masculinity and Sexuality in Bourgeois Critiques of Prussian Militarism, 1890-1914," paper presented at the October 1996 German Studies Association conference in Seattle, pp. 1, 8. I am grateful to Mr. Schneider for providing me with a copy of his paper.
24. "The way the World War ended was however dishonorable, unmanly, unsoldierly." Röhm, quoted in "Die S.A. im neuen Staat," p. 5.
25. "Röhm's speech quoted in Heinz Wulff, "Die Zehnjahresfeier der nationalsozialistischen Bluttaufe," Der S.A.-Mann (November 18, 1933), p. 4;
26. "Die S.A. im neuen Staat," p. 1;
27. "Die S.A. ist die Ideenträgerin der deutsche Revolution," Der S.A.-Mann (April 29, 1934), pp. 4-5.
28. Röhm's speech quoted in Wulff, p. 4.
29. "Die S.A. im neuen Staat," (n. 1 above), p. 5;
30. "Stabschef Ernst Röhm," p. 5;
31. "Die S.A. ist die Ideenträgerin der deutschen Revolution," pp. 4-5.
32. "Stabschef Ernst Röhm," p. 5.
33. "Die S.A. im neuen Staat," p. 1.
34. Röhm, Die Geschichte eines Hochverräters (n. 4 above), p. 12.
35. Citations to the Geschichte eines Hochverräters are to the first edition unless specifically indicated. The 1934 Saarbrücken edition, Die Memoiren des Stabschefs Röhm, frequently used by researchers, appeared after Röhm's murder and contains material not written by Röhm. It is not a reliable source.
36. See Heinrich Bennecke, "Die Memoiren des Ernst Röhm: Ein Vergleich des verschiedenen Ausgaben und Auflagen," Politische Studien 14 (1963): 186-88.
37. "Since I am an immature and wicked man, war and unrest appeal to me more than the good bourgeois order," quote from Ernst Röhm, Die Geschichte eines Hochverräters, 8th ed. (Munich, 1934), p. 363.
38. Röhm's speech quoted in "'Sie, meine alten Mitkämpfer, haben das größte Wunder erlebt!' Der Führer spricht beim Revolutions-Appell der alten Garde in München," Der S.A.-Mann (March 24, 1934), p. 4.
39. Röhm's mother acted as his hostess. See Guido Renzetti, "Memoiren" (draft), Bundesarchiv Koblenz (hereafter, BAK) N 1235/16, p. 1.
40. Although it has some problems as a source, Gerda Walther, Zum Anderen Ufer: Von Marxismus und Atheismus zum Christentum (Remagen, 1960), pp. 523, 528-29, gives some account of this conventional side of Röhm's life.
41. Röhm, Geschichte eines Hochverräters, pp. 257-59.
42. Similar views were put forward by the Nazi ideologue Alfred Bäumler. See Harry Oosterhuis, "Male Bonding and Homosexuality in German Nationalism," in Homosexuality and Male Bonding in Pre-Nazi Germany: The Youth Movement, the Gay Movement and Male Bonding before Hitler's Rise
43. (original transcripts from Der Eigene, the first gay journal in the world), ed. Harry Oosterhuis and Hubert Kennedy (New York, 1991), p. 254.
44. On Röhm's aversion to women mixing in politics and a claim by his sister that he therefore did not discuss politics with her or his mother, see Eleonore Lippert to Staatsanwalt Weiß, May 17, 1949, Staatsarchiv München (hereafter SAM) STAW 28793.
45. George L. Mosse, Nationalism and Sexuality: Respectability and Abnormal Sexuality in Modern Europe (New York, 1985), pp. 114-28,
46. The Image of Man: The Creation of Modern Masculinity (New York, 1996), pp. 107-18;
47. James Steakley, "Iconography of a Scandal: Political Cartoons and the Eulenburg Affair," in History of Homosexuality in Europe and America, ed. Wayne Dynes and Stephen Donaldson (New York, 1992), 5:327-28, 361-62, 368;
48. Harry Oosterhuis, "Male Bonding and the Persecution of Homosexual Men in Nazi Germany," Amsterdams Sociologist Tijdschrift 17 (1991): 34.
49. Oosterhuis, "Male Bonding and the Persecution of Homosexual Men," p. 34.
50. Oosterhuis, Oosterhuis, "Male Bonding and the Persecution of Homosexual Men," Ibid., pp. 34-35.
51. On this sec also Klaus Theweleit, Männerpbantasien, vols. 1 and 2 (Reinbek, 1993);
52. Oosterhuis, "Male Bonding and Homosexuality in German Nationalism," pp. 244-45.
53. Oosterhuis, "Male Bonding and the Persecution of Homosexual Men," pp. 33-37;
54. John Remy, "Patriarchy and Fratriarchy as Forms of Androcracy," in Men, Masculinities and Social Theory, ed. Jeff Hearns and D. H. J. Morgan (London, 1990), pp. 43-54;
55. Otto Winfried Mogge, "Vom Jugendreich zum Jungenstaat-Männerbündische Vorstellungen und Organisationen in der bürgerlichen Jugendbewegung," in Männerbande Männerbünde: Zum Rolle des Mannes im Kulturvergleich, vol. 2, Zweibändige Materialien Sammlung zu einer Ausstellung des Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museums für Völkerkunde in der Josef-Haubrich-Kunsthalle Köln vom 23. März bis 17. Juni 1990, ed. Gisela Volker and Karin von Weick (Cologne, 1990), pp. 103-10.
56. Röhm, Geschichte eines Hochverräters (n. 4 above), pp. 257-59.
57. Röhm claimed proudly that the men he commanded in the war put their loyalty to him above their ties to their wives and families. Röhm, Die Geschichte eines Hochverräters, 8th ed. (n. 15 above), p. 365.
58. On fraternal and paternal masculinity, see Carole Pateman, The Sexual Contract (Cambridge, 1988), pp. 76-81, 89-90.
59. For one interpretation of the psychological origins of this, see Klaus Theweleit, Männerphantasien, vol. 2, Männerkörperzur Psychoanalyse des weißen Terrors (Reinbek, 1993), pp. 174-75.
60. Heimsoth clearly mentioned Blüher to Röhm in his initial letter, because Röhm replied that he would like to get to know Blüher. Röhm to Heimsoth, December 3, 1928, Dr. Helmut Klotz, Der Fall Röhm (Berlin-Tempelhof, 1932), BAK Sammlung Schumacher/402, p. 6.
61. On Schurtz and Blüher, see Hans Blüher, Wandervogel Geschichte einer Jugendbewegung: 3 Teile: Heimat und Aufgang, Blüte und Niedergang: Die Deutsche Wandervogelbewegung als erotisches Phänomen (Berlin, 1912),
62. and Die Rolle des Erotik in der mänulicher Gesellschaft (Jena, 1917);
63. Julius H. Schoeps, "Sexualität, Erotik, und Männerbund: Hans Blüher und die deutsche Jugendbewegung," in Leiden an Deutschland: Vom antisemitischen Wahn und der Last der Erinnerung (Munich, 1990), pp. 139-58;
64. Manfred Herzer, "Hinweise auf das schwule Berlin in der Nazizeit," in Eldorado: Homosexuelle Frauen und Männer in Berlin, 1850-1950: Geschichte, Alltag und Kultur, ed. Michael Bollé and Rolf Bothe (Berlin, 1984), p. 45;
65. Jürgen Reulecke, "Das Jahr 1902 und die Ursprünge der Männerbund-Ideologie in Deutschland," pp. 3-10;
66. Klaus von See, "Politische Männerbund-Ideologie von der wilhelminischen Zeit bis zum Nationalsozialismus," pp. 93-152,
67. both in Männerbande Männerbünde: Zum Rolle des Mannes im Kulturvergleich, vol. 1, ed. Volker and von Weick;
68. Oosterhuis, "Male Bonding and the Persecution of Homosexual Men," pp. 33-38; Hewitt (n. 2 above), pp. 103-29.
69. For background, see also Jost Hermand, "All Power to the Women: Nazi Concepts of Matriarchy," Journal of Contemporary History 19 (1984): 649-67.
70. Manfred Herzer, "Asexuality as an Element of the Right Wing of the German Gay Movement before 1933 (Elisar von Kupfer, Benedict Friedlaender, Hans Blüher, Karl Günther Heimsoth)," in Among Men, Among Women: Sociological and Historical Recognition of Homosexual Arrangements (Gay Studies and Women's Studies, University of Amsterdam, June 22-26, 1983, Amsterdam), pp. 317-19.
71. am grateful to Herzer for providing me with a copy of this article. See also Harry Oosterhuis, "Introduction. IV. Male Bonding in Society" and "Introduction. V. Political Issues and the Rise of Nazism," in Oosterhuis and Kennedy, eds. (n. 18 above), pp. 119-25, 183-88.
72. G. P. Pfeiffer, "Male Heroes and Comrade-Love in War: A Study and Collection of Materials," in Oosterhuis and Kennedy, eds., pp. 221-26, 231. In view of Röhm's list of examples, it is worth noting that Pfeiffer claimed that Napoleon too loved "the male friend" and not women (pp. 222, 226).
73. John C. Four, "Sexual Politics in Wilhelmine Germany: The Male Gender Crisis, Moral Purity, and Homophobia," Journal of the History of Sexuality 2 (1992): 388-421.
74. Hans-Georg Stümke and Rudi Finkler, Rosa Winkel, Rosa Listen: Homosexuelle und "Gesundes Volksempfinden" von Auschwitz bis beute (Hamburg, 1981), pp. 105-8; Fout, pp. 398-402.
75. See the emphasis on Röhm's being a complete man in Professor Oppenheim, "ERNST RÖHM: Der Stabschef der Braunen Armee," Der S.A.-Mann (April 1, 1933), p. 3. He may, however, have protested too much, have internalized some self-hatred from these negative stereotypes.
76. Fout, p. 419. These comments also apply to the Weimar Republic, in my opinion, despite the presence of a vigorous homosexual subculture. Manfred Herzer, "Communists, Social Democrats, and the Homosexual Movement," in Gay Men and the Sexual History of the Political Left, ed. Gert Hekma, Harry Oosterhuis, and James Steakley (New York, 1995), p. 209.
77. Röhm, Geschichte eines Hochverräters, p. 236; and Ernst Röhm, circular to the SA, Ch. Nr. 1499/33, September 8, 1933, "Betreff: Ausbreitung des Muckertums," BAK Sammlung Schumacher 414.
78. Röhm, Geschichte eines Hochverräters, pp. 237-38.
79. "Die S.A. im neuen Staat" (n. 1 above), p. 5.
80. Röhm, Geschichte eines Hochverräters (n. 4 above), pp. 237-38.
81. Stümke and Finkler, pp. 85-92; Michael Burleigh and Wolfgang Wippermann, The Racial State: Germany, 1933-1945 (Cambridge, 1991), pp. 242, 249-52.
82. This may have been one reason for Lutze's claim that Röhm was insufficiently ideological. Andreas Walter Schmitz, "Die S.A. und ihr Selbstverständnis: Das Beispiel Viktor Lutze," Magister thesis, Philosophischen Fakultät, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Münster i.W., 1992, p. 56.
83. Röhm, Geschichte eines Hochverräters, pp. 236-38. This was the line also adopted by Röhm's defenders. Oppenheim, p. 3.
84. Burkhard Jellonnek, Homosexuelle unter dem Hakenkreuz: Die Verfolgung von Homosexuellen im Dritten Reich (Paderborn, 1990), pp. 52-53, 60.
85. Rosenberg's views are set out as well in Alfred Rosenberg, Der Sumpf: Querschnitte durch das "Geistes"-Leben der November-Demokratie (Munich, 1930), which combines anti-Semitism, racism, and homophobia. In it, Rosenberg argued that homosexual emancipation movements were a manifestation of the destructive power of the Jews (pp. 122-23, 139-41).
86. Manfred Herzer, "Die Gemeinschaft der Eigenen," in Goodbye to Berlin? 100 Jahre Schwulenbewegung: Eine Ausstellung des Schwulen Museums und der Akademie der Künste, 17. Mai bis 17. August 1997, ed. Andreas Sternweiler and Hans Gerhard Hannesen (Berlin, 1997), p. 91.
87. On Heimsoth as a contributor to Der Eigene and the anti-Semitism of some of his contributions, see Oosterhuis, "Introduction V." (n. 28 above), p. 188;
88. Herzer, "Asexuality as an Element" (n. 27 above), pp. 319-21, 581.
89. am grateful to Herzer for discussing his findings concerning Heimsoth with me at the Schwules Museum in Berlin on November 23, 1997. On Heimsoth and Strasser, see Karl-Günther Heimsoth, "Schluss mit Strasser-Stennes-Ehrhardt. Der Schwindel der 'Schwarzen Front,'" Sonderdruck ans der Septembernummer des Vorkämpfers, September 1931, pp. 1-4, Berlin Document Center (hereafter BDC), Ehrhardt, Hermann;
90. see also papers in Landesarchiv Berlin (hereafter LAB) Rep. 58/708; and Jellonnek, p. 64, n. 27. By January 1932, Heimsoth was acting as a representative of Hans Ebeling, editor of Der Vorkämpfer, in discussions by nationalist and National Bolshevik groups on mutual cooperation. "Notizen Nationalistische Zusammenarbeit," Die sozialistische Nation (February 2, 1932), Bundesarchiv Reich (hereafter BAR) R 1501/26076.
91. Most probably Karl-Günther Heimsoth, "Hetero- und Homophilie: Eine neuorientierende An- und Einordnung der Erscheinungsbilder der 'Homosexualität' und der 'Inversion' in Berücksichtigung der sogenannten 'normalen Freundschaft' auf Grund der zwei verschiedenen erotischen Anziehungsgesetze und der bisexuelle Grundeinstellung des Mannes," M.D. diss., Rostock, 1924,
92. or Charakterkonstellationen (Munich, 1928).
93. Both Herzer and Steakley are currently researching Heimsoth's thought and political career. Herzer, "Die Gemeinschaft der Eigenen," p. 91;
94. James Steakley, "The Homosexual Emancipation Movement and the Rise of Nazism in the Weimar Republic" (paper presented at the American Historical Association meeting, Chicago, January 1995).
95. Röhm to Heimsoth (n. 26 above), p. 6. Röhm's comments in the autobiography, however, give no indication why Heimsoth should also have reproached him for including "imposed dogmas" concerning marriage.
96. Röhm to Heimsoth, February 25, 1929, in Klotz, Der Fall Röhm (n. 26 above), pp. 7, 10.
97. Probably in Heimsoth, Charakterkonstellationen;
98. Herzer, "Asexuality as an Element," nn p. 581.
99. Röhm to Heimsoth, February 25, 1929, pp. 7-8.
100. Röhm to Heimsoth, December 3, 1928, p. 6, and Feb. 25, 1929, pp. 7, 10.
101. Hewitt (n. 2 above), pp. 79-129.
102. Andreas Sternweiler, "Schwules Selbstbewusstein," in Sternweiler and Hannesen, eds., pp. 123-28; Stümke and Finkler (n. 30 above), p. 57.
103. On the Bund für Menschenrecht, its unsuccessful attempts to become the umbrella organization for the German homosexual emancipation movement and its role in providing social centres for its members, see Andreas Sternweiler, "Die Freundschaftsbünde-eine Massenbewegung," in Sternweiler and Hannesen, eds., pp. 95-103, membership numbers on p. 100. A 1929 Berlin prosecutor's file suggested a higher membership of some 100,000. Undated note, "Eingegangen am 18. Dez. 1929," LAB Rep. 58/2103, p. 2.
104. On Hirschfeld, see Manfred Herzer, Magnus Hirschfeld: Leben und Werk eines jüdischen, schwulen und sozialistischen Sexologen (Frankfurt, 1992);
105. James Steakley, "Per scientiam ad justitiam: Magnus Hirschfeld and the Sexual Politics of Innate Homosexuality," in Science and Homosexualities, ed. Vernon A. Rosario (New York, 1997), pp. 134-40;
106. on the Wissenschaftlich-humanitäres Komitee, see also Manfred Herzer, "Das Wissenschaftlich-humanitäres Komitee," pp. 37-47;
107. "Das Wissenschaftlich-humanitäres Komitee: Vom Institut für Sexualwissenschaft bis zur Selbstauflösung," pp. 83-87, in Sternweiler and Hannesen, eds. (n. 39 above); Jellonnek (n. 38 above), pp. 42-43.
108. Steakley has pointed out recently that Hirschfeld soon modified his original theory that homosexuals constituted a third sex. Steakley, "Per scientiam ad justitiam" pp. 133-54.
109. Nonetheless, Hirschfeld and the WhK were still firmly associated with what were seen as Hirschfeld's theories, such as emphasis on homosexual abnormality and the linkage of male homosexuality to femininity by other contemporary homosexual organizations. Manfred Herzer, "Adolf Brand und Der Eigene," p. 51;
110. Sternweiler, "Die Freundschaftsbande," pp. 102-3;
111. Herzer, "Die Gemeinschaft der Eigenen" (n. 39 above), pp. 91-92, all in Sternweiler and Hannesen, eds.; Stümke and Finkler, pp. 105-8;
112. Harry Oosterhuis, "Homosexual Emancipation in Germany before 1933: Two Traditions," in Oosterhuis and Kennedy, eds. (n. 18 above), pp. 3-20.
113. Friedrich Radszuweit, "Penal Law Reform," pp. 175-76;
114. "Paragraph 175 as the Focus of Political Struggle," pp. 176-77, both in Blasius and Phelan, eds. (n. 3 above); Jellonnek, p. 79.
115. Röhm quoted in his initial testimony to the police of April 10, 1931, in a case under § 175. Undated, Dr. Schoch im Auftrage, "Beglaubigte Abschrift aus den Akten XIII.b.913-15/31 der St.A. München," LAB Rep. 58/517, p. 4.
116. Röhm to Heimsoth, February 25, 1929, in Klontz, Der Fall Röhm (n. 26 above), p. 7.
117. Interview with Mrs. Robert Röhm, 1981 BBC television documentary, "Operation Hummingbird."
118. Alexander Zinn has traced the development of a homophobic left-wing German stereotype of the homosexual as Nazi from this campaign. Alexander Zinn, Die soziale Konstruktion des homosexuellen Nationalsozialisten: Zu Genese und Etablierung eines Stereotyps (Frankfurt am Main, 1997), pp. 43-48, 49-50.
119. See also the differing interpretations of Harry Oosterhuis, "The 'Jews' of the Antifascist Left: Homosexuality and Socialist Resistance to Nazism," in Hekma, Oosterhuis, and Steakky, eds. (n. 31 above), pp. 227-57 (pp. 228-32 deal with the campaign against Röhm);
120. and Herzer, "Communists, Social Democrats" (n. 31 above), pp. 200-201, 209-16, 217-19.
121. "Das Braune Haus der Homosexuellen," Münchener Post (June 24, 1931), p. 1; and other reports of the Münchener Post gathered in P 3653, Bayrisches Hauptstaatsarchiv (hereafter BHSA) Abt. V;
122. "Warme Bruderschaft im Braunen Haus," Münchener Post (June 22, 1931), p. 1, LAB Rep. 58/517; Stümke and Finkler, pp. 119-43.
123. Prosecutors could not prove that Röhm's homosexual acts were those criminalized under § 175. See Dr. Wilde, Generalstaatsanwalt bei dem Landgericht I, to the Prussian Justice Minister, August 26, 1931, "Betrifft: Strafsache gegen Röhm und Genossen wegen Vergehens gegen § 175 Str.G.B. Erlass vom 15. Juli 1931," LAB Rep. 58/512, pp. 1-3; on these unsuccessful prosecutions, see the comments of Staatsminister Gürtner in "Ministerratssitzung vom 5. Dezember 1931," BHSA MA 100425, p. 14. On the seizure of the Heimsoth letters, and a subsequent accusation by Heimsoth and Röhm that they had been leaked for political use to the SPD press by either the Prussian Justice Minister Severing or Berlin Police President Grzezinski, Curt Becker to Generalstaatsanwaltschaft bei dem Landgericht I, March 10, 1932, in "Strafanzeige des Arztes Dr. med. Karl Günther Heimsoth, Berlin W. 30, Bayreuthstr. 18, vertreten durch Rechtsanwalt Curt Becker, Berlin W. 15, Uhlandstr. 28 gegen 1) den Staatsminister Carl Severing, Berlin, 2) den Poliziepräsidenten Grzezinski, Berlin, Polizeipräsidium, 3) Unbekannt, wegen Vergehens bezw. Verbrechens gegen die §§ 348, 349, 357, 47, 48 RSTGB.," LAB Rep. 58/708, pp. 1-3; Dr. Luetgebrune to Generalstaatsanwalt bei der Staatsanwaltschaft I in Berlin, July 18, 1932, in "Strafanzeige von Seiten des Oberstleutnants Ernst Röhm in München, vertreten durch Rechtsanwalt Dr. Luetgebrune in Hannover, gegen den Preußischen Minister des Innern in Berlin und Gen.," LAB Rep. 58/734, p. 2; and further papers on LAB Rep. 58/710.
124. Klotz was subsequently beaten up by Röhm's followers in the Reichstag building: Unsigned, undated note (1932) "Anklage im Schnellverfahren.," p. 1, and other papers in LAB Rep. 58/2526;
125. Dr. Graf, Landgerichtsdirektor, et al. to 5. Strafkammer des Landgerichts München 1, July 4, 1956, "Schwurgerichtsanklage," Gritschneder Papiere Band 46, p. 35.
126. The Gritschneder Papiere are archival materials gathered by Dr. Otto Gritschneder for his book, "Der Führer hat Sie zum Tode verurteilt . . .": Hitlers "Röhm-Putsch"-Morde vor Gericht (Munich, 1993). I am grateful to Dr. Gritschneder for allowing me access to this material.
127. January 1941, Chef der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD, "Herausgabe der Röhmbriefe," appendix to "Fall Dr. Helmut Klotz.," BAR R 58/3567, pp. 79-81.
128. Helmut Klotz, "An Eure Hochwohlgeboren," Der Fall Röhm, BAK Sammlung Schumacher/402, pp. 2-3.
129. See, e.g., the SPD leaflet, "Nase zu! Nase zu! Der Röhm redet heute in Neukölln," LAB Rep. 58/1636; SPD stickers in LAB Rep. 58/1178; and posters, April 9, 1932, Schilling, Polizeihauptwachtmeister, "Angebliches Plakatieren," LAB Rep. 58/1875.
130. Konstantin Hierl ROL II to Adolf Hitler, March 24, 1932, BAK NL 101/73, pp. 1-3; Stümke and Finkler (n. 30 above), p. 142.
131. See, e.g., "Röhm und die Strichjungen," Frankfurter Volksstimme (June 24, 1932), BHSA/V P3653;
132. "Widerlich! Wie die 'Erneuerer' Deutschlands bei Licht aussiehen," Germania (March 13, 1932), LAB Rep. 58/710.
133. Prurience was particularly noticeable in the cartoons accompanying the stories, such as "Amor im Braunen Hause," Münchener Post (July 4-5, 1931), LAB Rep. 58/517;
134. and the undated (1932) Göltz cartoon "Röhmische Jugend-Spiele," Der blaue Montag, LAB Rep. 58/710.
135. Some, but not all, of the press reporting was summarized in "Herbert Heinersdorf" (Richard Linsert), "Akten zum Fall Röhm (I. Teil)," Mitteilungen des Wissenschaftlich-humanitären Komitees (January/March 1932) 32: 349-68;
136. "Akten zum Fall Röhm (II. Teil)," Mitteilungen des Wissenschaftlichhumanitären Komitees (April/August 1932) 33: 387-96;
137. "Akten zum Fall Röhm (III. Teil)" Mitteilungen des Wissenschaftlich-humanitären Komitees (September 1932/February 1933) 34: 419-28,
138. all in Mitteilungen des Wissenschaftlich-humanitären Komitees, 1926-1933 (fascimile printing, Hamburg, 1985).
139. "Wann geht Rohm?" Münchener Post (January 11, 1933), BHSA/V P3653.
140. Stümke and Finkler, pp. 136-37, 142-43. Similar views were expressed by Kurt Tucholsky, "Röhm," Die Weltbühne, no. 17 (April 26, 1932),
141. reproduced in The Weimar Republic Sourcebook, ed. A. Kaes, M. Jay, and E. Dimenberg (Berkeley, CA, 1994), p. 714.
142. Radzsuweit, "Paragraph 175 as the Focus of Political Struggle," in Blasius and Phelan, eds. (n. 3 above), p. 177; Jellonnek (n. 38 above), pp. 76-78.
143. For other examples of attention paid to the "Röhm affair" by the homosexual press, see "Kundgebungen," Mitteilungen des Wissenschaftlich-humanitären Komitees 33 (1932): 372-80;
144. Adolf Brand, "Political Criminals: A Word about the Röhm Case" (Eros 1931), in Oosterhuis and Kennedy, eds. (n. 18 above), pp. 235-39;
145. "Kleine Unterschlagungen," Blätter für Menschenrecht 10 (1932): 11-13.
146. Quoted in Jellonnek, p. 78.
147. "Zur Person: Röhm, Ernst," July 28, 1931, LAB Rep. 55/517, p. 24;
148. Klotz, "An Eure Hochwohlgeboren," p. 2.
149. Kurt Ludecke, I Knew Hitler: The Story of a Nazi Who Escaped the Blood Purge (New York, 1937; 1982 facsimile edition), p. 492.
150. Kurt Ludecke, I Knew Hitler: The Story of a Nazi Who Escaped the Blood Purge Ibid., p. 494.
151. Dr. Wilde to the Prussian Justice Minister, August 26, 1931, "Betrifft: Strafsache gegen Röhm und Genossen . . . ," LAB Rep. 58/512, pp. 2-3; "Liebliches aus dem Braunen Haus," Fränkische Tagespost (July 26, 1931), LAB Rep. 58/517;
152. Dr. Helmut Klotz, Wir gestalten durch unser Führerkorps die Zukunft! (Berlin-Tempelhof, 1932), pp. 26-27.
153. Adolf Hitler, "Erlaß Nr. 1.," February 3, 1931, SAM Pol. Dir. München/6824. On broader party concern at the press campaign, see F. Walther Ilges, Köln-Bayenthal, to Ritter von Epp, March 30, 1932, BAK NL 101/73; "Ausschnitt aus Lagebericht Nr. 103 v. 2. August 1931," SAM Pol. Dir. München/6780. It may be too strong a formulation to describe these as intense disputes (Herzer, "Communists, Social Democrats" [n. 31 above], p. 211) since there was no debate on the issue.
154. Ludecke, p. 478. One of Röhm's predecessors as head of the SA, Franz von Pfeffer, agreed, commenting that Hitler appointed Röhm "probably, also because of his inclinations. . . . [which] offered a useful point of attack at any time." Dr. Freiherr von Siegler, February 20, 1953, "Niederschrift der Unterredung des Herrn Franz von Pfeffer, geb. am 19. Februar 1888, wohnhaft in München 13, Caracciolastr. 42, durchgeführt am 20. Februar 1953 in München mit Dr. H. Krausnick und Dr. Freiherr von Siegler im Auftrag des Instituts für Zeitgeschichte München," Institut für Zeitgeschichte (hereafter IfZ) ZS 177, p. 8.
155. Konstantin Hierl ROL II to Adolf Hitler, March 24, 1932, BAK NL 101/73, pp. 1-3.
156. See, e.g., Buch quoted in Graf (n. 59 above), p. 35.
157. Heinrich Bennecke, "Gespräch mit Herrn Zöberlein am 13.10.1959 in seiner Münchener Wohnung," October 25, 1959, IfZ ZS 319, p. 4;
158. "Unterredung mit General Ritter von Hörauf am 10. Nov. 1951," IfZ ZS 70, p. 2. So far I have been unable to confirm these claims.
159. Dr. Hans Frank, Im Angesicht des Galgens (Munich, 1953), p. 89.
160. Ludecke, p. 478.
161. Heinrich Hoffmann, Hitler wie ich ihn sah: Aufzeichnungen seines Leibfotografen (Munich, 1974), p. 70.
162. Röhm to Heimsoth, August 11, 1929, in Klotz, Der Fall Röhm (n. 26 above), pp. 15-16;
163. "Zur Person: Röhm, Ernst," July 28, 1931, LAB Rep. 55/517, p. 26.
164. Bayerische Politische Polizei, "Vorführungs-Note.," testimony of Gerhard von Prosch, August 23, 1934, SAM Pol. Dir. München/15540, pp. 3-4, and other papers on the same file; Weiß, Der Generalstaatsanwalt, "Das zur Aufklärung der Mordaktion vom 30. Juni 1934 und zur Feststellung noch lebender mitverantwortlicher eingeleitete Ermittlungsverfahren wird eingestellt.," February 28, 1952, Gritschneder Papiere Band 46, p. 4.
165. Weiß, p. 4. On Röhm's openness, see also Gerhard Rossbach, Mein Weg durch die Zeit: Erinnerungen und Bekenntnisse (Wellburg, 1950), p. 148; "Besprechung des Generalmajor a.D. von Hörauf Bayerisch Gmain, Stieglbauerlehen, Tel. Bad Reichenhall 2570 mit Herrn Dr. Frhr. v. Siegler am 12. Nov. für das Institut für Zeitgeschichte.," IfZ ZS 70, p. 3.
166. Frank, p. 88.
167. Record of interview with Dr. H. G. Betz, "Unterredung mit General Ritter von Hörauf," IfZ ZS 8, pp. 1-2. In a later interview, von Hörauf also suggested that the sexually transmitted diseases Röhm caught from women while he was in the Reichswehr gave him an aversion to intercourse with women. See "Besprechung des Generalmajor a.D. von Hörauf," p. 3.
168. Graf Carl Leon du Moulin-Eckart, "Mein Lebenslauf von 1921 bis 1946," November 11, 1946, IfZ Sp. 2/1, p. 3,
169. Walter Luetgebrune, "Eidesstattliche Versicherung.," January 27, 1948, IfZ Sp. 2/1; Jellonnek (n. 38 above), pp. 69-72.
170. See also the forthcoming book by Andreas Dornheim, Röhms Mann fürs Ausland. Politik und Ermordung des SA-Agenten Georg Bill (Münster, 1998).
171. Quoted in Jellonnek, p. 69. See also a further Statement in "Rohm bleibt Hitlers Stabschef," Münchener Neueste Nachrichten (April 8, 1932), SAM Pol. Dir. München/ 6783.
172. "Besprechung des Generalmajor a.D. von Hörauf," p. 3.
173. Jellonnek, pp. 57-58.
174. "Schmutzige Verleumdungen gegen Pg. Röhm," Der Angriff (March 8, 1932), LAB Rep. 58/708; "Röhms Rechtsanwalt schreibt: Schamlose Verleumder am Werk," Der Angriff (March 11, 1932), p. 1, LAB Rep. 58/710.
175. Jellonnek, p. 74; Oosterhuis, "The 'Jews' of the Antifascist Left" (n. 56 above), p. 230.
176. "Dem Kämpfer Ernst Röhm," Der S.A.-Mann (May 1, 1933), p. 1.
177. Oppenheim (n. 30 above), p. 3.
178. M [Marxer?], Brigadeführer, Chef des Personalamtes, I.A. Der Stabschef, to Miss Annemarie v.d. Bank, April 26, 1934, BARNS 23 alt/158.
179. Sternweiler, "Die Freundschaftsbünde" (n. 49 above), p. 103;
180. Andreas Sternweiler, "Terror und Verfolgung," p. 160, both in Sternweiler and Hannesen, eds. (n. 39 above).
181. "Rauchen, Schminken, Pudern," Deutsche Freiheit (November 18, 1932), BHSA/V, P 3653.
182. Stümke and Finkler, pp. 133-34, 236-37; Manfred Herzer, "Die Zerschlagung der Schwulenbewegung," pp. 155-59;
183. Sternweiler, "Terror und Verfolgung," p. 160, both in Sternweiler and Hannesen, eds. See also the hopes expressed by von Prosch that Röhm's prominent position in the new regime meant that § 175 no longer applied. See Bayerische Politische Polizei (n. 82 above), p. 4.
184. Mrs. B(?). Heimsoth to von Fritsch, "Geheim," September 13, 1934, IfZ MA 260, p. 8.
185. NSDAP party membership records state Heimsoth joined the party on May 1, 1933 and died in Berlin in July 1934. BAR Heimsoth, Karl Günther. His mother claimed he disappeared in mid-March 1934. Mrs. B(?). Heimsoth to von Fritsch, September 13, 1934, IFZ MA 260, pp. 1-2. A lawyer for the Heimsoth family claimed after the war that Heimsoth was allegedly arrested in 1933 or 1934 on the orders of Edmund Heines as Police President of Breslau and shot in Breslau. Dr. B. Krause to Generalstaatsanwalt München, May 27, 1950, SAM STAW 28792.
186. In 1935, § 175 was altered. Whereas before then only "unnatural vice" was punished, the scope of the paragraph was now widened to punish "vice" between men. This extended the punishable offenses to mutual masturbation and even lewd glances. The new text read: "A man, who practises vice with another man or allows himself to be misused by him for vice, is to be punished with imprisonment." Schulz (n. 3 above), pp. 7-8. The translation given in We Are Everywhere is misleading because it does not indicate the widening of the scope of the paragraph. "Paragraph 175 of the German Imperial Penal Code" (n. 3 above), p. 178.
187. Herzer, "Die Zerschlagung der Schwulenbewegung," pp. 155-59;
188. Sternweiler, "Terror und Verfolgung," pp. 160-67;
189. Andreas Sternweiler, "Trotzdem Leben," pp. 176-77, 179-80;
190. Andreas Sternweiler, "Die Männer mit dem Rosa Winkel," pp. 182-89, all in Sternweiler and Hannesen, eds.
191. Herzer, "Communists, Social Democrats" (n. 31 above), pp. 217-19.
192. Jellonnek (n. 38 above), p. 96.
193. "Reichstagsrede vom 13. Juli 1934," in Reden des Führers: Politik und Propaganda Adolf Hitlers, 1922-1945, ed. E. Klöss (Munich, 1967), p. 143.
194. Stümke and Finkler (n. 30 above), p. 125. On Röhm's reasons for his appointments, see Bruce Campbell, "The Brown Generals: The Higher Leadership Corps of the SA" (1996), pp. 205-6, 217-18.
195. am grateful to Professor Campbell for providing me with a copy of his manuscript. This has since been published as Bruce Campbell, The S.A. Generals and the Rise of Nazism (Lexington, KY, 1998).
196. Quoted in Peter Longerich, Die braunen Bataillone: Geschichte der SA (Munich, 1989), p. 148.
197. See, e.g., Esser's comment, "I knew of his occasional bisexual inclinations." Hermann Esser, "Eidesstattliche Erklärung.," October 10, 1949, SAM STAW Mü/28793, p. 2. On Himmler's homophobia, see Jellonnek, pp. 23-31. An interesting example of Himmler's early views of homosexuality can be seen in his comments in 1922 on Blüher's Die Rolle tier Erotik in his reading notebook, BAK NL 126/9, p. 15.
198. Jellonnek, p. 51.
199. Stümke and Finkler, pp. 85-92; Burleigh and Wippermann (n. 36 above), pp. 242, 249-52; Oosterhuis, "Male Bonding and the Persecution" (n. 20 above), pp. 27-45;
200. Harry Oosterhuis, "Medicine, Male Bonding, and Homosexuality in Nazi Germany," Journal of Contemporary History 32 (1997): 187-205;
201. Oosterhuis, "Male Bonding and Homosexuality in German Nationalism" (n. 18 above), pp. 241-45, 248-50, 252-54.
202. A similar argument to that of Oosterhuis has also been advanced by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, "Privilege of Unknowing: Diderot's The Nun," in Tendencies (Durham, NC, 1994), pp. 48-50.
203. On the Männerbund in Nazism, see Mosse, The Image of Man (n. 20 above), pp. 165-66, 175.
204. As Goebbels wrote of Göring, "His dress is somewhat baroque and would, if one did not know him, strike one as somewhat funny. But that's the way he is, and one must put up with his idiosyncrasies, they sometimes even have a charm about them." Entry for March 2, 1943, Louis P. Lochner, ed., The Goebbels Diaries, 1942-1943 (Garden City, NJ, 1948), p. 262.
205. D. F. Greenberg, The Construction of Homosexuality (Chicago, 1988), p. 107.
206. On overall policy toward lesbians in the Third Reich, see Claudia Schoppmann, "The Position of Lesbian Women in the Nazi Period" in Hidden Holocaust? ed. Gunter Grau, pp. 8-15.
207. Consideration was given to extending § 175 to cover sexual acts between women, but this did not occur. There was disagreement among legal experts whether this was required. It was argued among other reasons that lesbianism did not present a serious threat to the state, because it did not necessarily prevent reproduction. "Strafrechtskommission 45. Sitzung 18 September 1934 (Oberhof)," BAR R 22/973, pp. 1-5;
208. Hans Frank, 1937, "I. Nachtrag zur vorläufigen Stellungnahme des Reichsleiters des Reichsrechtsamts der NSDAP: Reichsleitung, Reichsministers Dr. Frank zum Amtlichen Entwurf eines Deutschen Strafgesetzbuchs.," BAR R 22/854, p. 11; Jellonnek, p. 112, n. 135.
209. Sternweiler, "Trotzdem Leben" (n. 101 above), p. 178.
210. Michael Kühnen, Nationalsozialismus und Homosexualität (Paris, 1986).
211. Konrad Heiden, Der Fuehrer: Hitler's Rise to Power (London, 1944), p. 235.
212. Heiden is referring to the passage quoted in n. 29 in Der Fuehrer, p. 235. See also Pfeiffer's comments in n. 34.
213. Rudolf Augstein, "Warum mußte Röhm verschwinden?" Der Spiegel (March 22, 1993), p. 105.
214. Röhm's friends also claimed after the war, perhaps predictably, that he was opposed to Nazi anti-Semitism. "Personalien Wilhelm Stölzle und seine Beziehungen zum Stabsquartier Berlin der Osaf.," Gritschneder Papiere Band 4, pp. 13, 15.
215. Röhm to Heimsoth, in Klotz, Der Fall Röhm (n. 26 above), p. 15.
216. Herzer, "Hinweise auf das schwule Berlin in der Nazizeit" (n. 26 above), p. 45.
217. "Each gay life is a provocation and automatically has an oppositional position assigned to it." Andreas Sternweiler and Manfred Herzer, "Einleitung," in Sternweiler and Hannesen, eds. (n. 39 above), p. 14.
218. A similar argument is developed by Sebastian Haffner, Failure of a Revolution: Germany, 1918-1919 (London, 1973), pp. 197-200. Haffner argues that the "stab in the back" myth stuck to Ebert in a form of ironical justice because Ebert had stabbed the revolution of 1918-19 in the back.
219. R. W. Koehl, The Black Corps (Madison, WI, 1983), p. 97.
220. Oosterhuis, "Medicine, Male Bonding, and Homosexuality in Nazi Germany" (n. 108 above), pp. 187-205. For examples of SS fear of male homosexuality in the Männerbund, see the reports on the investigation of bündisch homosexual circles in the Sudetenland in 1939 and 1940, e.g., "Abschlußbericht über die bündisch-homosexuellen Kreise innerhalb des sudetendeutschen Gaues," January 12, 1940, pp. 1-4, BAR R 43 II/1542a.
221. Theweleit, Männerphantasien, vol. 2 (n. 22 above), p. 334.
222. On the privileging of certain forms of masculinity, see David Morgan, Discovering Men (London, 1992), p. 200.
223. I am using this term in the light of Sedgwick's later development of it. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Epistemology of the Closet (Berkeley, CA, 1990), pp. 18-21, 83-85, 185-86, 240-46.
224. Hewitt's arguments against a heterosexist conflating of homosexuality and fascism arc persuasive, but his own work shows some discomfort with the, admittedly marginal, position of some homosexuals as fascists. Hewitt (n. 2 above), pp. 245-46, 284. My position here is closer to Sedgwick's. Fear of their own homosexual desires does not make the persecutors of male homosexual fascists themselves "homosexual." Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, "The Beast in the Closet: James and the Writing of Homosexual Panic," in Sex, Politics, and Science in the Nineteenth-Century Novel, ed. Ruth Bernard Yeazell (Baltimore, 1986), pp. 150-53.
225. On the distinction between homosocial and homosexual, see Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire (New York, 1985), pp. 1-4.
226. For Hess's reaction, see Alfred Rosenberg, diary entry for July 7, [1934], in Das politische Tagebuch Alfred Rosenbergs aus den Jahren 1934/35 und 1939/40, ed. Dr. Hans-Günther Seraphim (Göttingen, 1956), p. 34; on Himmler, see Esser (n. 106 above), p. 3.
227. On the murder of Karl Zehnter, see Weiß (n. 82 above), pp. 13-14.
228. Röhm, circular to the SA (n. 32 above).