International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest

Extract

Adolf Brand was a German publisher and anarchist whose strong belief in individual freedom was intrinsic to his advocacy of male homosexual emancipation. He argued “the right of self-determination over body and soul is the most important basis of all freedom” ( Brand 1991 : 155). After a brief career as a schoolteacher, Brand started a publishing company in Berlin and in 1896 began publication of Der Eigene ( The Self-Owner or The Special One ). Initially conceived as an individualist anarchist journal, it soon focused entirely on male homosexual culture, making it the first journal of its kind in history. It ceased publication in 1931. Brand initially joined with sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld and his Wissenschaftlich-humanitäres Komitee (Scientific-Humanitarian Committee) in support of the repeal of Paragraph 175, the provision of the German Criminal Code that made male homosexual acts a crime. But due to his disagreement with Hirschfeld's medical/biological views on homosexuality, Brand later turned against Hirschfeld and co-founded the world's second homosexual emancipation organization with Benedikt Friedländer and Wilhelm Jansen, the Gemeinschaft der Eigenen (Community of the Special), as a counterbalance to the Komitee . The GdE viewed homosexuality as a vigorously masculine cultural movement, advocating love relationships among male friends akin to those of ancient ... log in or subscribe to read full text