Selli Engler

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Autograph Selma Engler, 1938
Selma Engler, 1929

Selli Engler (born September 27, 1899 in Schwiebus , † April 30, 1972 in Berlin-Marienfelde ), whose real name was Selma Engler , was a prominent activist of the lesbian movement in Berlin during the Weimar Republic . She was a writer, publisher and organizer of so-called clubs.

Her documented activity as an activist ranges from 1926 to May 1931, when she abruptly withdrew from the lesbian movement. She continued to write afterwards, in 1933 briefly conformed to the National Socialists and, after the Second World War, lived in seclusion in Berlin-Kreuzberg until shortly before her death . Engler saw herself as a writer until her death, but was unsuccessful after 1931, and nothing of her texts has survived since then.

Live and act

Past life - 1899

Selli Engler was born on September 27, 1899 as the daughter of the slipper maker Gustav Engler and his wife Maria Franziska in Schwiebus . Engler had eleven siblings and the family lived in poor conditions. Her father died in 1912, the following year she left school at the age of fourteen, and in 1914 the mother and some of the children moved to Berlin. As the oldest of the siblings, Engler initially worked as a saleswoman to support the family; later as clerk , invoice clerk and accountant. From 1921 onwards, her siblings, who had grown up in the meantime, took over; Engler was no longer working, she presumably ran the family household at Nostitzstrasse 61 for the next few years.This gave her economic and time leeway for the next decade, which she also used for her education , She learned English and to play the violin, at the same time she found the time to "pursue my literary inclinations for a few hours a day".

At the latest by this time she also became part of the lesbian scene in Berlin and dealt with sexual science writings on female homosexuality. The exact time of their “ coming out ” is not known. Engler has been described as a so-called " virile " homosexual woman. Franz Scott , a contemporary author on the lesbian scene of the Weimar Republic, wrote about her essence that she had “always had an elegant, masculine, serious smack”; in 1929 she described herself self-ironically as a “very solid guy”.

Engler in the first lesbian movement

The "BIF - sheets of ideal women's friendship" - 1926 to 1927

Selma Engler, 1927

With the publication of the magazine Die BIF - Blätter Idealer Frauenfreundschaften , Engler made her debut as an author and lesbian activist in 1926/1927. In addition to the BIF, from January 1927 she ran the “Ladies BIF Club”, which met on Fridays in the small Red Hall of the Nationalhof at 37 Bülowstrasse. In the BIF she already did parts of the booklet with her own work, preferably poems and short prose.

The magazine was the first lesbian magazine that was completely in the hands of women, but after a few issues in 1927 it had to stop its publication for financial reasons. Engler and some of her co-authors, however, managed to switch to Frauenliebe , a lesbian magazine that had a large circulation with a circulation of just under 10,000 copies.

At the "Frauenliebe" - 1927 to 1929

After the end of the BIF, she wrote for the magazine Frauenliebe from July 1927 to August 1929 . She was active as a writer here in a variety of ways, in addition to poems, short stories and serial novels, she also wrote texts on movement politics, in which she often glorified the publisher Carl Bergmann as the “leader of the movement”. It is noticeable that between December 1927 and December 1928 she did not appear once in Frauenliebe, but then resumed her activity without interruption. Nothing is known about the reasons for this break. In her work as an activist, she tried to work towards a greater participation of homosexual women in the German Friendship Association .

Change to girlfriend - 1929 to 1932

Engler's statement on her move to her girlfriend on September 18, 1929

Due to internal conflicts, she switched to the Friedrich Radszuweit publishing house in 1929 , and from September 18, 1929 she wrote for The Girlfriend and occasionally in other magazines of the publisher, such as the Blätter für Menschenrecht and Das 3rd Generation , a magazine for "transvestites".

In many appeals and appeals since 1929 she campaigned in particular for the entry of lesbian women into the Bund für Menschenrechte , whose leader Friedrich Radszuweit , at the same time publisher of the friend , whom she, like Carl Bergmann, stylized as a "leader".

On September 28, 1929, she opened the “Erâto” women's club in Kreuzberg's Kommandantenstrasse, on the second floor of the “Magic Flute”, a well-known pub for gays and lesbians. In contrast to bars, which were often open to heterosexual visitors, such women's clubs were valued as undisturbed spaces. So it was said in an issue of the friend's appreciation: "In the 'Erâto' at 'Selli' we are completely among ourselves!"

The "Erâto" did not stay there long, later events took place, among other places, in the Märkischer Hof in Admiralstrasse 18c in Kreuzberg. The capacity of 600 people in the dance hall rented there suggests that the club was successful. He existed there until January 8, 1931, when he moved into a new club house at Lindenstrasse 110. Engler announced this to his girlfriend and reported on the club meetings there. A last advertisement from the women's club "Erâto", this time again in the Märkischer Hof, can be found in issue 18 of the girlfriend of May 6, 1931.

Withdrawal from the movement - 1931/32

Afterwards Engler withdrew as an activist from the lesbian movement, neither her name nor that of the women's club "Erâto" can be found in the girlfriend or in any other well-known magazine. At the end of April 1932, however, an advertisement for her volume Kleine Novellen , which was published by Bergmann-Verlag , appeared in Garconne .

Engler under National Socialism - 1933–1945

Selma Engler, 1938

At the end of 1933 she sent Adolf Hitler a play written by her called Heil Hitler . The Reichsdramaturg praised the work with regard to its attitude, but stated a lack of "artistic-dramaturgical" quality and refused the necessary approval for performances. In January 1934, September 1938 and 1943 she repeatedly submitted applications for admission to the Reichsschrifttumskammer , all of which were rejected because she could only show occasional publications. The files provide evidence of poems, prose texts, dramas and an opera libretto, and she also gave occasional lectures, but none of her works have survived. Apart from these things, no further connections between Engler and the NSDAP or the National Socialist government can be found.

Afterlife - 1946 to 1972

After the war, Engler continued to live as a writer in Berlin-Kreuzberg on Ritterstrasse . As far as is known, however, there were no more major publications. In 1956 she was briefly observed by the Ministry of State Security . After moving in the early 1970s, Selli Engler died a little later in April 1972 in Berlin-Marienfelde.

reception

At the same time, Franz Scott saw Selli Engler in an outstanding position as one of the pioneers of the lesbian movement alongside Charlotte Hahm and the only pseudonymous Charly . She “understood how to gain a certain importance among homosexual women”.

Alfred Döblin , in a parodistic manner, assembled a text passage from her work Knowledge into a passage in his novel Berlin Alexanderplatz , which is about homosexual love. In this context, Döblin expert Gabriele Sander certifies Engler a "highly trivial [...] Courths-Mahler style".

In her analysis of the novel Arme kleine Jett, Doris Claus emphasizes the emancipatory value of literary work. By drawing a lesbian way of life in the realistically drawn Berlin artist milieu without massive conflicts with the social environment and society, he creates a utopia and offers the possibility of identification.

Today, Engler is mainly recognized for her activist activities as one of the “central and long-standing makers of the lesbian subculture in Berlin in the 1920s” and as a “prominent lesbian fighter during the Weimar Republic”. Her appearance was unusual for this time: Engler was aggressively looking for public visibility as a club leader, author and activist, she did not use a pseudonym and repeatedly used her photo in advertising for her books and in calls for members of the organizations she led. In 2015, the naming of a Berliner Straße after Engler was considered, however, due to Engler's unclear attitude towards National Socialism, this was controversial and ultimately it was not named.

State of research

After her withdrawal from the lesbian movement, Engler fell into oblivion. Their rediscovery began in the mid-1980s with a text by Katharina Vogel, later supplemented by Claudia Schoppmann , Heike Schader and Jens Dobler . In 2020, her biographical data were saved and supplemented with further information about her life.

Works

  • Understanding. Roman, 1927
  • Life can only be endured when intoxicated. Novel, 1929 (incomplete)
  • Poor little Jett. Novel, 1930
  • Little novellas , 1932

Web links

proof

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Denis Barthel: Selli Engler (1899-1972): publisher, activist and poet - addenda to her biography In: Mitteilungen der Magnus-Hirschfeld-Gesellschaft No. 64, 2020, p. 26– 34.
  2. ↑ a b Heike Schader: Virile, vamps and wild violets - sexuality, desire and eroticism in the magazines of homosexual women in Berlin in the 1920s. 2004, ISBN 3-89741-157-1 , p. 34.
  3. ↑ Selli Engler: "Vom Stiftungsfest" In: Frauenliebe, 4th year No. 36, p. 3
  4. ^ A b c Christiane Leidinger : An "Illusion of Freedom" - Subculture and Organization of Lesbians, Transvestites and Gays in the Twenties. In: Ingeborg Boxhammer, Christiane Leidinger (eds.): Online project lesbian history. Berlin 2008, online , accessed June 28, 2013.
  5. ↑ a b Denis Barthel: Selli Englers Die BIF - Notes on their edition history In: Mitteilungen der Magnus-Hirschfeld-Gesellschaft No. 64, 2020, pp. 35–38.
  6. ↑ a b c d e f Heike Schader: Virile, vamps and wild violets - sexuality, desire and eroticism in the magazines of homosexual women in Berlin in the 1920s. 2004, ISBN 3-89741-157-1 , pp. 74-76.
  7. ↑ Selli Engler: Our guide has spoken. A little reminder to everyone. In: Blätter für Menschenrecht, 12/8, December 1930, pp. 14/15.
  8. ↑ Selli Engler: Ein Stern In: The 3rd Sex 1930 (Vol. 1), No. 2 (September 1930), p. 8.
  9. ^ A b Julia Hürner: Living conditions of lesbian women in Austria and Germany - from the 1920s to the Nazi era. (PDF; 657 kB). Dissertation 2010, pp. 48–50, accessed on June 28, 2013.
  10. ↑ Katharina Vogel: On the self-image of lesbian women in the Weimar Republic. An analysis of the magazine "Die Freund", 1924–1933. In: Eldorado: Homosexual women and men in Berlin 1850–1950, history, everyday life and culture. Berlin 1984, ISBN 3-92149536-9 , p. 165.
  11. ^ Gabriele Sander: Alfred Döblins Berlin Alexanderplatz - a text made up of texts. Literary paraphrases and parodies from an intertextual perspective. In: Marily Martínez de Richter (ed.): Modernism in the metropolises. Roberto Arlt and Alfred Döblin. International Symposium, Buenos Aires - Berlin 2004. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2005, ISBN 3-8260-3198-9 , p. 129.
  12. ^ Doris Claus: Of course, lesbian during the Weimar Republic. An analysis of the magazine “Die Freund”. Bielefeld 1987, pp. 76-93.
  13. ↑ Personalities in Berlin 1825-2006 - Memories of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender and intersex people. Ed .: Senate Department for Labor, Integration and Women. Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-9816391-3-1 .
  14. ↑ Jens Dobler: From other shores: History of the Berlin lesbians and gays in Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain. 2003, ISBN 978-3-86187298-6 , p. 108.
  15. ↑ Marti M. Lybeck, Desiring Emancipation: New Women and Homosexuality in Germany, 1890-1933. State University of New York Press, 2014, ISBN 9781438452234 , p. 152
  16. ↑ Micha Schulze: Berlin-Xhain wants to name a street after a lesbian - the “BZ” foams. www.queer.de, October 22, 2015, accessed July 31, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Engler, Selli
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Engler, Selma
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German activist of the lesbian movement
DATE OF BIRTH September 27, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Schwiebus
DATE OF DEATH April 30, 1972
Place of death Berlin-Marienfelde