Benedict Friedlaender (8 July 1866 – 21 June 1908; first name occasionally spelled Benedikt) was a German Jewish sexologist, sociologist,

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

volcanologist A volcanologist, or volcano scientist, is a geologist who focuses on understanding the formation and eruptive activity of volcanoes. Volcanologists frequently visit volcanoes, sometimes active ones, to observe and monitor volcanic eruptions, col ...

, and

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

Life

Friedlaender was born in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

as the son of Carl Friedlaender (1817–1876), a professor of economics. His grandfather was Nathan Friedlaender (died 1830), a Berlin physician and university lecturer. Among his siblings was Immanuel Friedlaender (1871–1948), a distinguished volcanologist. He studied mathematics, physics, botany, and physiology in Berlin, earning a Ph.D. in zoology in 1888. As a well-to-do donor, he supported the anarchist journal ''Kampf'' and published in the journal ''Der Sozialist''. He gave substantial financial support to

Magnus Hirschfeld Magnus Hirschfeld (14 May 1868 – 14 May 1935) was a German physician, Sexology, sexologist and LGBTQ advocate, whose German citizenship was later revoked by the Nazi government.David A. Gerstner, ''Routledge International Encyclopedia of Queer ...

's Scientific-Humanitarian Committee (Wissenschaftlich-humanitäres Komitee, or WhK) in Berlin. The primary goal of the WhK was to work against

Paragraph 175 Paragraph 175, known formally a§175 StGBand also referred to as Section 175 in English language, English, was a provision of the Strafgesetzbuch, German Criminal Code from 15 May 1871 to 10 March 1994. It Criminalization of homosexuality, mad ...

of the Imperial Penal Code, which criminalized "unnatural vice" between males. The WhK assisted defendants in criminal trials, conducted public lectures, and gathered signatures on a petition for the repeal of the law. It found some parliamentary support for its law reform efforts in the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

. With Adolf Brand and ten others, Friedlaender founded the homosexual organization called Gemeinschaft der Eigenen (GdE) in 1903. The wor
Eigenen
can mean both "peculiar, distinctive, odd" (as in

Oddfellows Odd Fellows (or Oddfellows when referencing the Grand United Order of Oddfellows or some British-based fraternities; also Odd Fellowship or Oddfellowship) is an international fraternity consisting of lodges first documented in 1730 in London. ...

) and "owned, possessed", and the GdE's name was inspired in part by

Max Stirner Johann Kaspar Schmidt (; 25 October 1806 – 26 June 1856), known professionally as Max Stirner (; ), was a German post-Hegelian philosopher, dealing mainly with the Hegelian notion of social alienation and self-consciousness. Stirner is oft ...

's libertarian philosophy of "self-ownership" or autonomy. The GdE repudiated Hirschfeld's understanding of homosexuality in a

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

spectrum and instead emphasized the masculinity of male-male sexuality, as did

André Gide André Paul Guillaume Gide (; 22 November 1869 – 19 February 1951) was a French writer and author whose writings spanned a wide variety of styles and topics. He was awarded the 1947 Nobel Prize in Literature. Gide's career ranged from his begi ...

in 1924 in his Corydon. Some members of the GdE advocated the classical Greek practice of having a relationship with a younger man while being married. The GdE also spurned Hirschfeld's efforts at law reform and coalition-building with the Social Democrats and the

feminist movement The feminist movement, also known as the women's movement, refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for Radical politics, radical and Liberalism, liberal reforms on women's issues created by inequality between men and wom ...

, adopting instead a diffusely anarchist outlook inspired by Stirner's individualism and the sweeping cultural criticism of

Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philology, classical philologist, turning to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, aged 24, Nietzsche bec ...

. Friedlaender nonetheless maintained his membership in the WhK until 1906, when he broke with Hirschfeld and founded a third gay organization named "Secession from the WhK". Later renamed "League for Manly Culture", this organization folded shortly after Friedlaender's death by suicide on 21 June 1908 in Berlin. Friedlaender wrote several books on different themes. He wrote ''Die Renaissance des Eros Uranios'', which called for the revival of " Greek love".

Works

* ''Beiträge zur Kenntniss des Centralnervensystems von Lumbricus''. Berlin: Dissertation, 1888. * ''Der freiheitliche Sozialismus im Gegensatz zum Staatsknechtsthum der Marxisten. Mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Werke und Schicksale Eugen Dühring's''. Berlin: Freie Verlagsanstalt, 1892. * ''Absolute oder relative Bewegung?'', with Immanuel Friedlaender. Berlin: Leonhard Simion, 1896. * ''Der Vulkan Kilauea auf Hawaii''. Berlin: H. Paetel, 1896. * ''Die vier Hauptrichtungen der modernen socialen Bewegung: Marxistische Socialdemokratie, Anarchismus, Eugen Dührings socialitäres System und

Henry George Henry George (September 2, 1839 – October 29, 1897) was an American political economist, Social philosophy, social philosopher and journalist. His writing was immensely popular in 19th-century America and sparked several reform movements of ...

s Neophysiokratie, kritisch und vergleichend dargestellt''. Berlin: Calvary, 1901. * ''Marxismus und Anarchismus''. Berlin: Calvary, 1901. * ''Die Renaissance des Eros Uranios. Die physiologische Freundschaft, ein normaler Grundtrieb des Menschen und eine Frage der männlichen Gesellungsfreiheit. In naturwissenschaftlicher, naturrechtlicher, culturgeschichtlicher und sittenkritischer Beleuchtung''. Berlin-Treptow: Bernhard Zack, 1904. * ''Entwurf zu einer reizphysiologische Analyse der erotischen Anziehung unter Zugrundlegung vorwiegend homosexuellen Materials.'' Leipzig: Spohr, 1905. * ''Männliche und weibliche Kultur. Eine kausalhistorische Betrachtung''. Leipzig: "Deutscher Kampf" Verlag, 1906. * ''Die Liebe Platons im Lichte der modernen Biologie''. Berlin-Treptow: Bernhard Zack, 1909.

Notes

External links

Thieme-connect
{{DEFAULTSORT:Friedlaender, Benedict 1866 births 1908 suicides 1908 deaths 19th-century German LGBTQ people German anarchists 19th-century German Jews German libertarians German male writers 19th-century German physicists German sexologists German sociologists German volcanologists Individualist anarchists Jewish anarchists Jewish German physicists Jewish sociologists LGBTQ Jews German LGBTQ rights activists German LGBTQ writers Masculists Suicides in Germany Writers from Berlin 20th-century German LGBTQ people First homosexual movement

Life

Works

See also

Notes

External links