Liebenberger Circle

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Philipp zu Eulenburg around 1905

Liebenberger Kreis or Liebenberger Tafelrunde refers to the close circle of friends of Kaiser Wilhelm II between 1886 and 1907. The name is derived from Liebenberg Castle , Philipp zu Eulenburg-Hertefeld's land in the north of the Brandenburg province .

The round table

Liebenberg Castle

Even as Prince of Prussia, Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was in opposition to his parents and had had an unhappy childhood and youth, made contact with the diplomat Philipp Graf zu Eulenburg (1847–1921), who was twelve years his senior Men’s amusement offered the spiritual warmth that he had not found at the Prussian royal court. Since 1886, year after year, he has been staying regularly at Liebenberg Castle, officially on the hunt, but in fact mainly because of the emotional environment that the Count - who was elevated to the rank of prince in 1900 - offered him here and that above all since his accession to the throne in 1888, has provided relaxation and distraction.

The all-male group was determined by a homoerotic basic feeling, the homosexual inclination of some of its members is now considered proven. The Liebenberger Kreis was also a place of political influence, which, however, remained informal: on the one hand, because its members usually did not hold any really influential positions in the civil service; on the other hand, because Eulenburg himself, who set the tone, was more of an apolitical character. Nonetheless, some historians, especially since the research of John Röhl , see the latter as the decisive initiator of the personal regiment of the young emperor (1890–1900) and accordingly classify the Liebenberger sociability in this context.

In Liebenberg it was sometimes cultured - Prince Eulenburg was a passable singer, played the piano and composed himself - and sometimes quite vulgar. Georg von Hülsen is said to have suggested the following "interlude" to Count Görtz in the fall of 1892 to amuse the emperor:

“You have to be presented by me as a trained poodle! - This is a 'hit' like no other. Remember: at the back 'sheared' (tricot), in the front long curtains made of black or white wool, in the back under the real poodle's tail a marked intestinal opening and, as soon as you 'make it beautiful', 'in front' a fig leaf. Think how wonderful it is when you bark, howl to music, shoot a gun, or do other antics. That's just great! ' [...] I can already see S [a] M [ajestät] laughing like us. "

After the Eulenburg trial of 1907, which ended with Eulenburg's social ostracism and cost him his friendship with the emperor, the Liebenberger Kreis disintegrated. Max Egon Fürst zu Fürstenberg took Eulenburg's place as the closest friend of Kaiser Wilhelm .

Relatives

The inner circle of Liebenberg included:

Also Bernhard von Bulow was a protégé Eulenburgs that his appointment as Chancellor had forced the emperor in the 1890s, with the Liebenberger circle in conjunction.

Political importance

Due to the Harden-Eulenburg affair of 1907/1908, in which the allegation of homosexuality against Prince Eulenburg - who has since retired from the diplomatic service - became a political issue, the Liebenberger Kreis came into public disrepute. The publicist Maximilian Harden had come to the conviction since 1906 that the diplomatic strategy of the Reich leadership had failed in the First Morocco Crisis of 1905 mainly because the Liebenberger Kreis had persuaded the Kaiser not to risk a war with France. For Harden this was the reason to start a campaign against this group in which he told his members, officially mainly Eulenburg and Moltke , their homosexuality - at that time a de jure criminal offense ( § 175 RStGB ), de facto a social "disgrace" - publicly accused, which led, among other things, to the Harden / Moltke libel trial and to a perjury suit against Eulenburg, whose claim that he had never committed homosexual acts had become doubtful due to the counter-testimony of a former lover.

Despite the mild outcome of the criminal proceedings - the one against Eulenburg was adjourned ad ultimum due to illness , the one against Moltke was discontinued in exchange for a settlement payment to Harden, while the allegations themselves remained officially unconfirmed - the emperor himself had long since been suspected of homosexual “transgressions” “Advised, forced to drop his friends. From then on he was politically decried in the leading circles - among conservatives, but above all also among liberals - as "wimp" and "weakling" ("Wilhelm the Peaceful"), who - deviated from the "masculine" course of Bismarck - supposedly himself shied away from the necessary risk of war and thereby jeopardized Germany's power and reputation internationally. In terms of society, the Liebenberger Kreis affair led the public discussion of homosexuality , which at the time was widespread in the leading circles in the patriarchal Prussian society, such as the officer corps, but was absolutely taboo and withheld, to a climax.

literature

swell

Secondary literature

  • Sebastian Haffner : Philipp zu Eulenburg. In: Sebastian Haffner, Wolfgang Venohr : Prussian profiles. New edition, 2nd edition. Econ Ullstein List, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-548-26586-3 , pp. 195-215 ( Propylaeen-Taschenbuch 26586).
  • Isabel V. Hull : The entourage of Kaiser Wilhelm II. 1888-1918. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 1982, ISBN 0-521-23665-7 (also: Yale, Univ., Diss., 1978).
  • John CG Röhl: Count Philipp zu Eulenburg - the emperor's best friend. In: John CG Röhl: Kaiser, Hof und Staat. Wilhelm II and German politics. 3rd unchanged edition. Beck, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-406-32358-8 , pp. 35-77.
  • John CG Röhl: Wilhelm II. The construction of the personal monarchy 1888–1900. Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-48229-5 .
  • Nicolaus Sombart : Wilhelm II. Scapegoat and master of the middle. Volk & Welt publishing house, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-353-01066-1 , therein mainly pp. 159-204: The Eulenburg Affaire .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Hülsen an Görtz, October 17, 1892. In: Eulenburg, Korrespondenz , Vol. 2, p. 953. See also Röhl 1988, p. 24.
  2. ↑ Nicolaus Sombart : Wilhelm II. Scapegoat and Lord of the Middle. Volk & Welt publishing house, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-353-01066-1 , therein mainly pp. 159-204: The Eulenburg Affaire .
  3. ^ Sebastian Haffner : Philipp zu Eulenburg. In: Sebastian Haffner, Wolfgang Venohr : Prussian profiles. (= Propylaea paperback 26586). New edition, 2nd edition. Econ Ullstein List, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-548-26586-3 , pp. 195-215.