Die BIF – Blätter Idealer Frauenfreundschaften
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''Die BIF – Blätter Idealer Frauenfreundschaften'' (Papers on Ideal Women Friendships), subtitled ''Monatsschrift für weibliche Kultur'' (Monthly magazine for female culture), was a short-lived lesbian magazine of
Weimar Germany The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is als ...
, published from either 1925 or 1926 until 1927 in
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
. Founded by lesbian activist
Selli Engler Selma "Selli" Engler (27 September 1899 – 30 April 1972) was a leading activist of the lesbian movement in Berlin from about 1924 to 1931. In 1931, Engler withdrew from the movement and focused on her career as a writer. After the end of Worl ...
, ''Die BIF'' was part of the first wave of lesbian publications in history and the world's first lesbian magazine to be published, edited and written solely by women.


Publication dates

''Die BIF'' was founded, edited and published by
Selli Engler Selma "Selli" Engler (27 September 1899 – 30 April 1972) was a leading activist of the lesbian movement in Berlin from about 1924 to 1931. In 1931, Engler withdrew from the movement and focused on her career as a writer. After the end of Worl ...
, who afterwards became one of the most renowned lesbian activists of Weimar Germany. It was one of three lesbian magazines of the time beside ''
Die Freundin ''Die Freundin'' ( en, The Girlfriend: The Ideal Friendship Journal) was a popular Weimar-era German lesbian magazine published from 1924 to 1933. Founded in 1924, it was the world's first lesbian magazine, closely followed by '' Frauenliebe'' a ...
'' (since 1924) and '' Frauenliebe'' (since 1926). Among them ''Die BIF'' was unique, as both other magazines were published, edited and even partly written by men. According to the imprint it was located at Großbeerenstraße 74 III in
Kreuzberg Kreuzberg () is a district of Berlin, Germany. It is part of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Mitte. During the Cold War era, it was one of the poorest areas of West Berlin, but since German reunification in 1990 it ha ...
. Engler acted as publisher, editor and writer but, as a result of financial difficulties and illness, had to delay publishing twice. ''Die BIF'' was printed at Mitsching's Buchdruckerei in Berlin, its circulation is unknown. The 1927 issues were distributed by the GroBuZ company in Berlin. Advertising offices were available in many large towns in Germany, including
Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...
,
Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...
,
Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...
, Stuttgart and
Duisburg Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in No ...
. Only three issues are known to have been published: Issue No. 1 (date unknown) and Issues No. 2 (January 1927) and No. 3 (early 1927). The only known originals belong to the collection of the
German National Library The German National Library (DNB; german: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek) is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany. It is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its task is to colle ...
in
Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
, Engler herself submitted them in November 1927. Copies can be found in the special libraries ,
Schwules Museum The Schwules Museum (English: Gay Museum) in Berlin, Germany, is a museum and research centre with collections focusing on LGBTQ+ history and culture. It opened in 1985 and it was the first museum in the world dedicated to gay history. The muse ...
and in Berlin and at the library of the
University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...
. The exact dates of publication of ''Die BIF'' are still unknown, as the first and the last issues contain no information on when exactly they were published. For many years researchers suggested either 1924 or 1926 as possible dates for the first issue. As 1924 has since been discounted, publication is believed to have started either in 1925 or more likely 1926. Engler discontinued ''Die BIF'' in early 1927 and started writing in July for the competing magazine '' Frauenliebe''. ''Die BIF'' had 24 pages and was released as a monthly magazine on the first of the month, sold on news booths at a price of 1
Mark Mark may refer to: Currency * Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina * East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic * Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927 * F ...
, a relatively high price, as well as by subscription. In Issue No. 3, "on request" of readers Engler announced a lower price for a reduced number of pages, down to 50 Pfennig for 12 pages. As a spring-off to the magazine, on January 1, 1927, Engler started the "''Damen-BIF-Klub''" (Ladies BIF Club), an opportunity for lesbian women to meet once a week.


Authors and contents

''Die BIF'' published mainly literary works such as fictional prose and poems along with an occasional historical or analytical article on lesbianism, discussing social and work life, fashion and lesbian identity. Engler's intention was to offer a magazine with a standard higher than that of its competitors, which Engler considered to be inadequate. Nevertheless, in 2016 Claudia Schoppmann referred to ''Die BIF'' as "a monthly magazine with a low literary standard". In contrast to ''Freundin'' and ''Frauenliebe'', ''Die BIF'' refrained from reporting on Berlin's contemporary lesbian social life. All original content of ''Die BIF'' was written by women. While many articles were written by Engler herself, other noticeable writers included Olga Lüdeke and Ilse Espe. All in all, there were at least ten contributors, five of whom later went on—along with Engler—to write for ''Frauenliebe''. In addition to their articles, there were occasionally excerpts of works by men, selected by the publisher for their interest to readers, for example snippets from Alexandre Dumas, Magnus Hirschfeld or
Otto Weininger Otto Weininger (; 3 April 1880 – 4 October 1903) was an Austrian philosopher who lived in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1903, he published the book ''Geschlecht und Charakter'' (''Sex and Character''), which gained popularity after his suici ...
.


Legacy

Only few contemporary comments on ''Die BIF'' are known. Franz Scott wrote in 1933, that ''Die BIF'' has been launching "excellent artistic and literary contributions", which in accordance with its standards made ''Die BIF'' superior to ''Freundin'' and ''Frauenliebe'' and stated that it failed because the target group was undemanding. Scott's comparison has been heavily criticized by in 2015 as biased, contradictory and one-sided. In 1927,
Magnus Hirschfeld Magnus Hirschfeld (14 May 1868 – 14 May 1935) was a German physician and sexologist. Hirschfeld was educated in philosophy, philology and medicine. An outspoken advocate for sexual minorities, Hirschfeld founded the Scientific-Humanitarian Com ...
took a photograph that shows two issues of ''Die BIF'' from the archive of the
Institut für Sexualwissenschaft The was an early private sexology research institute in Germany from 1919 to 1933. The name is variously translated as ''Institute of Sex Research'', ''Institute of Sexology'', ''Institute for Sexology'' or ''Institute for the Science of Sexua ...
, among other gay papers. In 1938 the
Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
jurist Rudolf Klare mentioned ''Die BIF'' in his article "Zum Problem der weiblichen Homosexualität" (On the problem of female homosexuality) as an example of the "abundant press" by "organisations of female homosexuals" of the 1920s in Germany. After being forgotten for decades, ''Die BIF'' was rediscovered by Katharina Vogel and Claudia Schoppmann in 1984 as part of basic work on Engler's biography, punctually extended by Schoppmann (1997), Jens Dobler (2003) and Heike Schader (2004). Some more in-depth work followed in 2020, though a thorough analysis of the ''BIF'' contents is still missing. Since the rediscovery of Selli Engler and ''Die BIF'', German and international researchers acknowledge its pioneering role as the first lesbian magazine run by women (and the only one until ''
Vice Versa References

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'' was published in 1947).
Florence Tamagne Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...
highlighted this as ''Die BIFs "unique quality".


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:BIF 1925 establishments in Germany 1927 disestablishments in Germany Defunct political magazines published in Germany First homosexual movement Lesbian culture in Germany Lesbian history Lesbian-related magazines Magazines established in 1925 Magazines disestablished in 1927 Magazines published in Berlin Monthly magazines published in Germany Women's magazines published in Germany