Karl M. Baer

Karl M. Baer , pseudonym NO Body , (born on 20th May 1885 in Arolsen as Martha Baer , died on 26. June 1956 in Bat Yam , Israel) was a German-Israeli writer , social worker and Zionist . The initial in Baer's name stands for his original first name Martha . As far as official purposes required an explanation of the initial, Baer always gave the first name Max .

Life

Certified copy of Baer's birth entry at the Arolsen registry office

Martha Baer

Baer was mistakenly identified and raised as a girl because of pseudo-hermaphroditism , a form of intersexuality . After completing her training in economics, sociology and education in Berlin and Hamburg, Martha Baer worked as a social worker (“Volkspflegerin”) and was involved as a women's rights activist . Starting in May 1904, she campaigned for two years as an envoy of the Hamburg lodge des B'nai Brith in Galicia against trafficking in women and for women's education . In Lemberg , Martha Baer met Beile Halpern , who became her partner and later Karl Baer's first wife.

“ In consistent pursuit of the fight against trafficking in girls on a social basis, the Jewish branch committee in Hamburg sent a well-prepared program to Lemberg. At first there were three women, later only one, who undertook the task of educating the female population and setting up social institutions to raise the economic and moral soil. In connection with the protection association, the Lemberg lodge and community, a daycare center was gradually set up, a workers' association established, a job record for workers and clerks created, the education of illiterate people initiated, the women's associations organized to combat [trafficking in girls] , an information center for Emigrants deployed where girls traveling are given addresses and quarters. In many cities the messenger [that is Martha Baer] spoke in popular assemblies about the trafficking in girls and how to combat it, drawing attention to women's professions ; briefly worked on the whole social area. "(Quoted from Lit. Maretzki, p. 222f)

Baer probably had to quit her job in Galicia because it was becoming increasingly difficult for her to continue to live the role credibly, as Hirschfeld's description of the case shows. On the occasion of a short hospital stay in Berlin after Baer's minor accident, the attending physician diagnosed pseudohermaphroditism. The sex correction took place in December 1906, the Arolsen registry office corrected the birth entry on January 8, 1907. In the 1907 procedure for the official determination of male gender, the Berlin doctor Georg Merzbach acted as the expert .

Karl M. Baer

In October 1907 Karl Baer and Beile Halpern married. However, she died a year and a half later in March 1909. Shortly thereafter, Baer married Elza Max (1887–1947) for the second time . From 1908 to 1911 Baer was an insurance employee in Berlin. From 1911 he worked for the Jewish community in Berlin . In December 1920 he became director of the Berlin section of the B'nai Brith lodge. Until it was forcibly closed by the Gestapo in April 1937, Baer played an important role in Berlin's Jewish cultural life, which he strongly influenced. With the help of Aliyah , he and his wife emigrated to Palestine in July 1938 . Between 1942 and 1950 he worked there as an accountant until he had to give up his job because he was almost completely blind. Nothing is known about Baer's further life until his death in 1956. He is buried under the name Karl Meir Baer in the Kirjat Shaul cemetery in Tel Aviv .

Book and film

In 1907, Karl Baer published the autobiographical book From a man's girl years about his childhood and youth in the female sex under the pseudonym NO Body . In 1919 the book was made into a film by Karl Grune under the title From a man's girl years . The film is considered lost .

literature

• NO Body: From a man's girlhood. Preface by Rudolf Presber . Afterword by Dr. med. Magnus Hirschfeld. Reprint published by Hermann Simon with a preliminary remark and a concluding contribution: “Who was NO Body?” Ed. Hentrich, Berlin 1993, (Original Riecke Berlin 1907).
• M. Baer: trafficking in girls. In: Arena , edited by Rudolf Presber, 3rd vol. Issue 5, August 1908, pp. 549–555.
• KM Baer-Berlin. About trafficking in girls. In: Zeitschrift für Sexualwissenschaft No. 9, 1908, pp. 513-528.
• Magnus Hirschfeld : Three cases of erroneous gender determination. In: Medical Reform. Weekly for social medicine, hygiene and medical statistics XV, 1906, 51. p. 614.
• Magnus Hirschfeld: Sexual Pathology. A textbook for doctors and students. 2nd part: Sexual intermediate stages: the male woman and the female man. Bonn 1918, p. 44ff.
• Louis Maretzki: History of the order Bne Briss in Germany 1882-1907. Berlin 1907.
• Michael Winkelmann: Suddenly they are gone. Arolser Jews in the 20th Century. Kassel 1992, ISBN 3-88122-671-0 .
• Karl M. Baer. In: Personalities in Berlin 1825 - 2006. Memories of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender and intersex people. Senate Department for Labor, Integration and Women, Berlin 2015, pp. 10–11. urn: nbn: de: kobv: 109-1-7841313 (Archive) ( PDF, 2.8 MB )

Web links

• Literature by and about Karl M. Baer in the catalog of the German National Library
• From a man's girlhood in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Hermann Simon: NO Body. From a man's girlhood (PDF document)
• Memorial plaque for the Berlin section of B'nai Brith
• Whose Body is it anyway? Hermaphrodites, Gays, and Jews in NO Body's Germany by Sander L. Gilman (Engl.)