Latest / The History of Germany: Kingdoms, War, and Rebuilding Europe — Fexingo History / The Eulenburg Affair: Germany's First Gay Scandal
Transcript
- Lucas: So, we've talked a lot about Bismarck's Germany, the Kaiser's bluster, the march toward war. But there's a story from right before World War I that cuts through all that — a sex scandal that brought down the Kaiser's inner circle and exposed the hypocrisy at the heart of the empire. Luna: A sex scandal? In Wilhelmine Germany? That sounds almost unbelievable — they were so buttoned up. Lucas: Exactly. And that's why it was so explosive. It's called the Eulenburg Affair, after Prince Philipp zu Eulenburg, the Kaiser's closest friend. He was a diplomat, a poet, a composer — and the center of a cozy, intimate circle around Wilhelm II. But in 1906, a journalist named Maximilian Harden started publishing articles accusing Eulenburg and other high-ranking men of homosexuality. Luna: Harden — wasn't he the editor of Die Zukunft? He was a firebrand. Lucas: The same. And he wasn't motivated by moral outrage — he was a nationalist who thought the Kaiser was being too soft, too pacifistic, and he believed Eulenburg's influence was pulling Germany away from a firm stance against France and Britain. So he used Paragraph 175 — the law that criminalised homosexual acts — as a weapon. He didn't present proof at first; he dropped hints and innuendo in his articles. Lucas: The hints were enough. People in Berlin high society started whispering. Eulenburg challenged Harden to a duel. Harden ignored it and went further, naming names — including Count Kuno von Moltke, the city commander of Berlin, who was married but widely rumored to be gay. Luna: Moltke sued for libel, didn't he? I remember reading about a trial. Lucas: He did. And that's when it all spilled into the open. The first trial, in October 1907, was a sensation. Moltke's wife, Lily, testified that her husband had never consummated the marriage — she gave graphic details about his relationships with other men. The court found Harden guilty of libel, but on appeal, the verdict was overturned. Then there was a second trial, and a third. The whole thing became a circus. Lucas: Meanwhile, Eulenburg was forced to resign from all his posts. He was charged with perjury and later with homosexuality. His own trial started in 1908, but it was a mess — he had a heart condition, the proceedings were repeatedly delayed, and eventually the charges were dropped for health reasons. He lived out his life in exile at his estate in Liebenberg, but his reputation was destroyed. Luna: And Harden? He won in the end? Lucas: In a way. He succeeded in destroying Eulenburg, and he weakened the so-called 'peace party' around the Kaiser. But he also opened a Pandora's box. The trials generated thousands of pages of testimony, and they normalised the idea of homosexuality as a threat to the state. The right-wing press had a field day, and the whole affair deepened the homophobia that would later be codified under the Nazis. Lucas: There's a direct line from the Eulenburg Affair to the Nazi crackdown on gay men. Paragraph 175 was already on the books, but the Reichstag actually broadened it in 1935, making even a kiss or a suggestive glance a crime. The Nazis used the whole infrastructure of surveillance and denunciation that the scandal had helped build. Luna: So Harden's political attack actually ended up strengthening the very forces he was against? He was a progressive on foreign policy, but he unleashed something ugly. Lucas: Exactly. And there's another layer: Harden himself was Jewish, and the affair fed anti-Semitic tropes about Jewish journalists undermining German masculinity. It was a tangled mess. The Kaiser never fully recovered from the scandal — he was humiliated by seeing his closest friend pilloried, and it made him more paranoid and isolated, which arguably contributed to the disastrous decisions of July 1914. Luna: I never knew any of this. It's like the scandal that changed the course of history, and hardly anyone talks about it. Lucas: Well, for a long time it was deliberately buried. After 1945, historians focused on the big geopolitical causes of the war — alliances, militarism, nationalism. The Eulenburg Affair seemed like a footnote, a bit of gossip. But more recent scholarship has shown how much it mattered — both as a political turning point and as a window into the anxieties of Wilhelmine society. Lucas: And that's the thing about history — sometimes the stories that get left out are the ones that tell you the most. If you've been stepping into history with us episode by episode, you know we love finding those corners. And honestly, it's listeners like you who make it possible for us to dig into these obscure, fascinating stories. A couple of dollars a month is genuinely what keeps these going — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, if you've gotten something out of them. Luna: Yeah, it really does help. Every little bit goes straight into research time and keeping the show ad-free. Lucas: So, back to the affair. One of the most striking things is how the accused men reacted. Eulenburg insisted he was innocent; Moltke maintained a dignified silence. But a third figure, a Prussian general named Kuno von Moltke's namesake and relative, Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Younger — he was the Army Chief of Staff. He wasn't directly accused, but the scandal tainted him by association, and he was deeply shaken. Luna: Wait — the Moltke who led the invasion of Belgium in 1914? He was a cousin or something? Lucas: Nephew, actually. And yes, that Moltke. He was a close friend of Eulenburg's, and the scandal hit him hard. He had a nervous breakdown in 1907 and had to take leave. Some historians argue that his psychological fragility in the July Crisis of 1914 — his hesitation, his last-minute attempt to reverse the invasion — may have been partly a result of the trauma of the affair. He was terrified that if the war went badly, people would blame the 'degenerate' officers around the Kaiser. Luna: That's a really personal connection to the big picture. So the affair didn't just ruin reputations — it may have affected how the war was fought. Lucas: Precisely. And there's one more layer: the trial itself became a spectacle of homophobic voyeurism. The public was obsessed with the details of the men's private lives. Newspapers sold out daily. And yet, paradoxically, the affair also created a kind of visibility. For the first time, ordinary Germans heard about men who loved other men — even if the tone was hostile. It planted a seed that would eventually grow into the homosexual emancipation movement of the 1920s, centered in Berlin. Lucas: There's a direct line from the scandal to the Institute for Sexual Science that Magnus Hirschfeld founded — Hirschfeld was a witness in one of the trials. He argued that homosexuality was innate, not a moral failing. That was radical for the time, and the trials gave him a platform. Luna: So in a weird way, the Eulenburg Affair helped launch both the persecution and the defense of gay people? That's incredibly complicated. Lucas: History rarely gives us clean narratives. The affair is a perfect example. It destroyed lives, but it also forced a conversation. And it shows how easily personal prejudice can be weaponised for political ends — a lesson that never gets old. Lucas: I think that's where we'll leave it for today. Next time, we'll look at another unexpected chapter — the story of the German colonies in Africa and the Herero and Nama genocide. Luna: That's going to be a heavy one, but important. Thanks, Lucas. Lucas: Thanks, Luna. And thanks to everyone listening. Until next time.