Masculinity and Homosexuality in Germany and the German Colonies, 1880-1945

The five articles included in this special issue hint at the future direction of research in Germany's gay history. Walther's and Schmidt's essays suggest the fruitfulness of research into both homoerotic and homophobic aspects of German imperialism. They make us realize how much more research needs to be done yet on the culture of German imperialism, both in the colonized areas and in the metropole. In dealing with this question as well as many other areas of research, queer theory will no doubt prove fruitful. Pursell's essay demonstrates how useful this theoretical perspective can be both in providing new answers to old questions as well as opening up a new way of looking at German culture in general. And both Crouthamel's and Ramsey's essays show us how much untapped material there is even in a field such as Weimar Germany, which one might assume has been exhaustively explored. In both of these essays, we see how this untapped material can give us a fresh viewpoint on questions that maintain importance, such as the impacts of World War I and the emergence of a movement for sexual rights. [Author]

The five contributions include:

• Clayton Whisnant: "[Introduction]: Gay German History: Future Directions?," pp. 1-10.
• Daniel J. Walther: "Racializing Sex: Same-Sex Relations, German Colonial Authority, and Deutschtum," pp. 11-24.
• Heike I. Schmidt: "Colonial Intimacy: The Rechenberg Scandal and Homosexuality in German East Africa," pp. 25-59.
• Jason Crouthamel: "Male Sexuality and Psychological Trauma: Soldiers and Sexual Disorder in World War I and Weimar Germany," pp. 60-84.
• Glenn Ramsey: "The Rites of Artgenossen: Contesting Homosexual Political Culture in Weimar Germany," pp. 85-109.
• Tim Pursell: "Queer Eyes and Wagnerian Guys: Homoeroticism in the Art of the Third Reich," pp. 110-137.