Ruth Margarete Roellig (14 December 1878 – 31 July 1969) was a German writer, she is known for documenting Berlin's lesbian club scene of the late 1920s during the

Weimar Republic 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 al ...

. Additionally she published support of

Nazism 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 Naz ...

starting in the 1930s, and she stopped writing after the end of World War II.

Life

Roellig was born on 14 December 1878 in Schwiebus,

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was '' de facto'' dissolved by an ...

, Germany. Her parents were Anna and Otto Roehlig, they were in the restaurant and hotel business. At the age of 9, in 1887 the family moved to Berlin. After school in Berlin, Roellig began to write works. Her first published book was in 1913, ''Geflüster im Dunkel'' (English: Whispered in The Dark), about a poet and their muse. Roellig became newspaper contributing editor in Berlin. Roellig wrote in 1920s several books over her travels to

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Both ...

, Bonn and Paris. After her travels she started working for two lesbian feminist journals, ''

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'' ...

'' (English: The Girlfriend) and ''Frauenliebe'' (English: Love of Women) later called '' Garçonne'' (English: Boyish). In 1927, her home in Berlin's

Schöneberg Schöneberg () is a locality of Berlin, Germany. Until Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it was a separate borough including the locality of Friedenau. Together with the former borough of Tempelhof it is now part of the new borough of Tem ...

neighborhood included living with a much younger woman and a pet monkey, they were interested in the

occult The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism ...

and hosted many parties with actresses and writers. The following year, Roellig published a city guide, ''Berlins lesbische Frauen'' (1928), for lesbians (with a prologue by

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 C ...

). And by 1930, a second edition of the city guide was published. Roellig wrote in 1930 an article in sexual education book, ''Das lasterhafte Weib''. After the

Machtergreifung Adolf Hitler's rise to power began in the newly established Weimar Republic in September 1919 when Hitler joined the '' Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'' (DAP; German Workers' Party). He rose to a place of prominence in the early years of the party. Be ...

(the Nazi seizure of control 1931–1933) of

, the

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

culture in Berlin was under pressure. Roellig who supported Nazism in 1930s wrote in 1937 her last book ''Soldaten, Tod und Tänzerin'' with antisemitic content. In 1943, her home in the Schöneberg quarter of Berlin was destroyed by an airstrike. Roellig traveled to her house in

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is spl ...

. After World War II, Roellig left Silesia and went with her friend Erika to her sister Käthe. She never wrote again after the war. Roellig died on 31 July 1969, at the age of 90 in the Schöneberg neighborhood of Berlin.

Works by Roellig

Books

* *''Liane'' (1919) * ''Traumfahrt: Eine Geschichte aus Finnland'' (1920) * ''Lutetia Parisorum'' (1920) * ''Die fremde Frau'' (1920) * ''Die heiligen Annunziaten'' (1925) * *''Ich klage an!'' (1931) * ''Die Kette im Schloss'' (1931) * ''Der Andere'' (1935) * ''Soldaten, Tod und Tänzerin'' (1937)

Essays

References

External links

Margarete Roellig
in

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 ...