Max Spohr

Johannes Hermann August Wilhelm Max Spohr (born November 17, 1850 in Braunschweig ; † November 15, 1905 in Leipzig ) was the first and at the time only German bookseller and publisher to publish open publications on the subject of homosexuality to a significant extent .

Max Spohr

Life

Max Spohr was born as the son of the independent businessman Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Spohr and his wife Ferdinande Lisette in Braunschweig in 1850. In his hometown he completed an apprenticeship as a bookseller and then worked as a book trade assistant in Fünfkirchen (Hungary), Hanover and Leipzig . In Braunschweig, together with Rudolf Wengler, he founded the Wengler & Spohr publishing house , which today is only known to have published speeches to the Reichstag . In Leipzig, the former center of the German book world Spohr was with the publishers KF Koehler and Veit & Co operates. He stayed there and married Elisabeth Hannöver-Jansen (1853–1899, related Schumann) from Cologne on December 20, 1880. She had 3 sons from him.

Services

In March of the following year he founded a general, second-hand and publishing bookstore and his publishing house. First of all, remnants from other publishers, such as technical and construction books, which he had taken over from Knapp'schen Verlag Halle, were sold. After he took over holdings from other publishers, the range changed considerably. At the end of the 1880s Spohr began to publish books independently, and by taking over the publishing house from Louis Heuser from Neuwied , Spohr also became active in the medical field.

With Der Urning in front of the court by Melchior Grohe and Die Enterbten des Liebesglücks by Otto de Joux (real name: Otto Rudolf Podjukl) the first works on the subject of homosexuality appeared in 1893 and in 1894 Norbert Grabowsky’s wrong sex sensation followed .

So Spohr was well known as a publisher of homosexual writings when Magnus Hirschfeld turned to him, after several publishers had rejected it, to bring out his pamphlet Sappho and Sokrates. It was published in 1896 as the only book by Hirschfeld under a pseudonym ( Th. Ramien ). A short time later, Spohr met Hirschfeld personally and a close collaboration began. On the trip to Spohr, Hirschfeld was writing his Reichstag petition. This then supported him and sought respected signatories. Spohr also introduced Hirschfeld to Eduard Oberg and together with Franz Joseph von Bülow they founded the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee (WhK) in Berlin on May 15, 1897 , the world's first organization for homosexual rights. Spohr also headed the later founded Leipzig sub-committee of the WhK.

From 1899 to 1922 the publishing house published the yearbook for sexual intermediate stages and separate prints from them, which were a financial loss. After the third edition, this was brought up in the monthly. Around a hundred of the 2000 printed copies were sold and most of them were sold to WhK members at half price. Among other things, this shows Spohr's personal commitment and invalidates the accusation that is sometimes expressed only out of strong business acumen for the topic. Spohr also tried to get permits for WhK events and other matters. Other publishers brought out a maximum of 8 books on this topic and often only hinted at homosexuality. In contrast, Spohr published more than 120 publications (excluding the yearbooks) not only in the highly scientific style, but also in popular scientific and fictional works. Lesbian love has also been a topic again and again, albeit less often. The commitment to the education was not without consequences due to the censorship laws in force at the time. He was denounced, repeatedly tried and also convicted, in each case according to § 184 RStGB (dissemination of lewd writings), which was tightened in 1900. In terms of scientific works, it was primarily writings on sex education , especially around contraception . Among the fictional texts, on the other hand, including several authentic novels about individual Urnian life stories, the subject of homosexuality showed where the limits of writing lay over it. It was also possible to go further with books for the upper class than with books for the common people. He proudly declared:

"I do not need to emphasize that an immoral work has never been disseminated through my publisher, even if I have the courage to publish writings that, even if they touch sensitive objects, only serve as a blessing for humanity."

- Max Spohr : in Mark Lehmstedt: Books for the "third gender" ...

In 1893, Spohr founded the subsidiary Circular Rings , with which he attempted to present theosophical literature in a visually high quality. The content couldn't keep up, however, and the titles also sold poorly, so that the experiment fell asleep again after five years. Other sources also report that the fiction part of the publishing program was published there, the department existed until 1904 and was supervised by the poet Franz Evers . The graphic design often came from the graphic designer Fidus , who also created the publisher's logo, a crouching maiden.

The translation of all of Oscar Wilde's writings , on the other hand, was groundbreaking for his reception in Germany. In addition, the publisher brought out philosophical works, through the takeover of the Dyk'schen Buchhandlung Reiseliteratur and also books on “New Religiosity”, Buddhism , Spiritism , occultism and other secret sciences. The last three subject areas were handed over to Ernst Fiedler between 1901 and 1909 . Alongside Eugen Diederichs, he was the most active publisher of writings in this direction for the life reform movement . Most of the time, however, was given to general sex education, especially contraception. Some works reached between eight and 28 editions. There was also an embroidery pattern factory for a few years under the name Kramer & Spohr .

In 1903 Spohr found out about his colon cancer ; In addition, there was a process of disseminating indecent writings after Section 184 of the RStGB, which was tightened in 1900, because of the publication of some editions of Adolf Brand's magazine Der Eigen . Thereupon he passed the business on to his younger brother Ferdinand Spohr. In 1904 Spohr underwent an operation and on November 15, 1905 he succumbed to his illness.

Obituaries and posthumous honors

Both Magnus Hirschfeld and his opponent Adolf Brand dedicated long and praising obituaries to Spohr.

As far as you can tell today and his contemporaries, Max Spohr was not homosexual.

"Max Spohr was one of those who gave the lie to the belief of some homosexuals that only someone with a similar feeling could do them justice."

- Magnus Hirschfeld

Hirschfeld also addressed this topic in his memoirs. There it is said that there were no personal reasons for Spohr's commitment, with his excellent wife and three blooming sons he led the happiest family life, unaffected by other feelings.

A little after his 150th birthday, on April 1, 2001, Spohrstrasse (previously: Kurz Strasse) was named after him in Leipzig's Ostvorstadt. Since the same year, the Völklinger Kreis has been awarding the Max Spohr Management Prize to companies that are exemplary in promoting equal rights for sexual minorities.

The further fate of the publisher

Brother Ferdinand Spohr initially ran the publishing house under its old name and renamed it in 1917 as the publishing house “Truth” Ferd. Look around. However, individual books were still published under the old name. From 1923 onwards, the publishing activities flagged and until 1925 only one or two publications appeared annually. In some years, especially after 1930, there was no publication at all. After the publishing house was run for a long time by Ferdinand and his son Oswald - who also became the owner of the Degener & Co. publishing house and mainly published genealogical publications - Rudolf Spohr, Ferdinand's son, took over the management in 1937. A granddaughter of Spohr who is still alive reports that the company and the family were bombed twice during the war and only the family book could be saved. Publishing ended in 1942 and the company was deleted from the commercial register in 1951.

swell

1. ↑ leipzig-lexikon.de : Entry Spohr, Max , as of October 7, 2006
2. ^ Magnus Hirschfeld Society : Book presentation Mark Lehmstedt: Books for the "third gender" The Max Spohr Verlag in Leipzig. Publishing history and bibliography (1881–1941).
3. ↑ Andrea Behnke: Colorfully mixed for success Companies are increasingly relying on diversity management. In: The time . No. 23/2001.

literature

• Mark Lehmstedt : Books for the "third gender". The Max Spohr Verlag in Leipzig. Publishing history and bibliography (1881–1941). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2002, ISBN 3-447-04538-8 . ( Writings and testimonials on book history. Publications of the Leipzig working group on the history of the book industry. Volume 14.)
• Albert Knoll (ed.): The disinherited of love happiness: Max Spohr (1850–1905), pioneer of gay literature. Forum Homosexuality and History Munich, 2001, ISBN 3-935227-08-6 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Max Spohr in the catalog of the German National Library
• forum-muenchen.de The disinherited of love happiness , about the exhibition about Max Spohr from 2001 with a virtual tour
• Ancestors and descendants