J. Heinrich Dencker

J. Heinrich Dencker (incorrectly also: thinker , full name probably Konrad Ludwig Heinrich Dencker , born November 9, 1860 in Sulingen ; † February 25, 1921 ) was a German manufacturer and in the 19th and 20th centuries as an active member of the scientific humanitarian committee one of the first campaigners for the liberation of homosexual men from persecution through Section 175 of the German Criminal Code . At the same time, Dencker gave the first gay movement in the Prussian province of Hanover a name and a face.

Life

Settlement of the WhK for 1898/1899 "for the fund for the liberation of homosexuals", including the "expenditure d. Office Hannover for propaganda ";
in: Yearbook for sexual intermediate stages , 1899, pp. 282f.

J. Heinrich Dencker came from a family that had lived in Sulingen for more than four centuries, who can be traced back to 1520 and provided mayors and councilors several times. In 1875 the old part of today's town hall was built by the scythe manufacturer Dencker. Members of the family were also tobacco and scythe manufacturers as well as notaries and post office keepers . Born at the time of the Kingdom of Hanover , the presumably wealthy manufacturer J. Heinrich Dencker remained single for his entire life. He was, according to the Yearbook of sexual intermediate stages in early 1898, a year humanitarian Scientific after the establishment of the Committee (SHC), head of an already existing local chapter of the SHC, the office Hannover . This group was "[...] the first proven homosexual group in the Prussian province of Hanover".

At the beginning of 1900, Dencker, together with Magnus Hirschfeld and Ferdinand Karsch, signed the letter to a renewed petition to the abolition of § 175 to the members of the Reichstag , "[...] who had previously been negative or indifferent to this matter."

In 1902 Magnus Hirschfeld emphasized the "[...] particularly active activity" of the subcommittees of the WhK, including "the Hannoversche under J. Heinr. Dencker [...] ". In the same year Dencker signed among others the income and expenditure accounts of the WhK; So he was the auditor and at least until 1904 also a guarantor for the correctness of the finances of the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee.

Efforts have also been made since around 1904 to set up a "committee of representatives", a collective management body at the head of the scientific-humanitarian committee. This committee of seven chairmen , mentioned for the first time in the monthly report of the WhK of November 1, 1904 , included Magnus Hirschfeld and the factory owner from Sulingen. He was re-elected to the committee of chairmen several times, namely in 1907, 1909 and 1912, and presumably remained active in this function until his death, also promoting the Whk several times with considerable annual contributions.

Presumably Dencker was also involved in the lecture “The homosexual question in the light of science” given by Magnus Hirschfeld on March 13, 1904 in the house of the fathers on Lange Laube 1 in Hanover. The lecture was “ well attended by the better stands ”. In the previous year, however, the Hanover police chief had rejected a similar lecture by the WhK because of the “moral dangers to be feared for the audience”.

Since Dencker had been a member of the management committee of the WhK since 1904 and had headed the office, the local group and the “Sub-Committee Hanover”, we can also assume that we met the founding members of the WhK, who at least temporarily lived in Hanover: with the railway official Eduard Oberg (1858-1917) and with the publisher Max Spohr (1850–1905). "Presumably Dencker also knew the writer Hanns Fuchs (1881 - after 1909), who was born in Stadthagen [...] ", who from the age of 20 until 1910 published more than twenty titles, mostly on the subject of homosexuality and at the same time Hanoverian local color .

In 1907, the factory owner J. Heinrich Dencker gave Sulingen, Lindenstrasse 8, as his postal address . The building was previously inhabited by the post owner Dencker, it still stands today (as of 04/2015) and has been home to the Zum Schwarzen Ross restaurant for decades .

Regarding the death of J. Heinrich Dencker in 1921, the yearbook for sexual intermediate stages from 1922 stated: “Then the chairman [of the WhK] remembered those who had died last year, especially the long-time chairmen [...], whereupon the meeting as a sign of Sadness rose from the seats. "

Although Dencker's homosexuality has not yet been proven - it was not customary at the time to acknowledge it publicly - the life of the fighter against Section 175, which violated human rights, provides “[...] a rare example that it was also possible to stand up for the world's first homosexual movement even from small-town seclusion. "

literature

Rainer Hoffschildt : J. Heinrich Dencker (1860–1921), activist from the very beginning , in Jens Dobler (Red.): Mitteilungen der Magnus-Hirschfeld-Gesellschaft , No. 50/51, 2014, pp. 92–95

Remarks

↑ The J. at the beginning of the name has not yet been clarified, "[...] it may have been a company name [...]". Rainer Hoffschildt thanked the archivist Hajo Wieting from the Sulingen city archive for the presumed full name and the associated life data

↑ Deviating from this, the Personal Lexicon of Sexual Research , ed. by Volkmar Sigusch and Günter Grau , Dencker's departure from the Berlin Committee and Hirschfeld together with Benedict Friedlaender and others in 1907; see p. 200 there

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k Text content not fully transcribed from Rainer Hoffschildt: J. Heinrich Dencker ... (see literature)
↑ Detlev Pape: From the old Dencker family in Sulingen (1520-1930) , in: Erich Plenge (Hrsg.): Chronik von Stadt und Land Sulingen (= Heimatkundliche Schriftenreihe , Vol. 3), Sulingen: Erich Plenge & Co., 1985, p. 159ff.
↑ Report by Magnus Hirschfeld from May 1, 1902, in: Yearbook for sexual intermediate stages , 4th year (1902); here: p. 974
↑ According to Rainer Hoffschild: Compare the yearbook for sexual intermediate stages (JfsZ) from 1903, p. 1366, JfsZ from 1904, p. 743 and JfsZ from 1905, p. 1083

personal data
SURNAME	Dencker, J. Heinrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Denker, J. Heinrich (misspelling); Dencker, Heinrich; Dencker, JH; Dencker, Konrad Ludwig Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German pioneer of the homosexual movement
DATE OF BIRTH	November 9, 1860
PLACE OF BIRTH	Sulingen
DATE OF DEATH	February 25, 1921

[2] The J. at the beginning of the name has not yet been clarified, "[...] it may have been a company name [...]". Rainer Hoffschildt thanked the archivist Hajo Wieting from the Sulingen city archive for the presumed full name and the associated life data

[6] Deviating from this, the Personal Lexicon of Sexual Research , ed. by Volkmar Sigusch and Günter Grau , Dencker's departure from the Berlin Committee and Hirschfeld together with Benedict Friedlaender and others in 1907; see p. 200 there

[Aktivist_der_ersten_Stunde-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k Text content not fully transcribed from Rainer Hoffschildt: J. Heinrich Dencker ... (see literature)

[3] Detlev Pape: From the old Dencker family in Sulingen (1520-1930) , in: Erich Plenge (Hrsg.): Chronik von Stadt und Land Sulingen (= Heimatkundliche Schriftenreihe , Vol. 3), Sulingen: Erich Plenge & Co., 1985, p. 159ff.

[4] Report by Magnus Hirschfeld from May 1, 1902, in: Yearbook for sexual intermediate stages , 4th year (1902); here: p. 974

[5] According to Rainer Hoffschild: Compare the yearbook for sexual intermediate stages (JfsZ) from 1903, p. 1366, JfsZ from 1904, p. 743 and JfsZ from 1905, p. 1083