Friedrich Wilhelm Georg Ernst, Prince of Prussia (1826-1902) from the House of Hohenzollern was born on February 12, 1826, near Düsseldorf, the son of Prince Friedrich and his wife Louise of Anhalt-Bernburg. Unlike his family’s tradition of military service, he did not pursue a martial path and instead began to cultivate his artistic talents at an early age. In the author’s book “Anders als die Andern. Schwule und Lesben in Köln und Umgebung 1895-1918” (2006; DVD: p. 87), I had already written a dedicated chapter about Prince Georg of Prussia. Because, in 2006, he interested me mainly in local-historical terms, the text has now been supplemented with additional details.
His Dramas
Prince Georg of Prussia wrote under the pseudonyms “G. Conrad” and “Georg Conrad.” He authored at least 24 works — mostly tragedies and dramas drawn from ancient or historical material. The central themes were often heroic ideals, family conflicts, or historical personages. By doing so, Georg of Prussia remained faithful to the bourgeois and courtly norms of the 19th century. It is true that works such as “Alexandros” (1877), “Sappho” (1887), “Umsonst” (about Queen Christine of Sweden, 1877), and “Conradin” (about Conradin of Swabia, 1887) are today of interest because of their homoerotic configurations (Lexikon “Mann für Mann.” 2010. Vol. 1, p. 390). However, to date there is no clear evidence of a direct engagement with same-sex love in any of his works.
Thus, in “Sappho. Drama in One Act” (1887) the plot centers on the love relationship between Sappho and the beautiful Phaon. Only a few lines suggest that the author could also imagine love beyond the exclusivity of heterosexual attraction: “For millions bow to Eros, and everyone feels Eros in a different way. To whom shall we grant right, to whom shall we grant wrong?” (p. 11) and “Is not difference in nature—grounded, established? It merely delights us” (p. 15).
His Theater Contacts in Berlin
The Berlin Nationaltheater am Weinbergweg held the premiere rights to his dramas. In the 1860s and 1870s, this theater was a gathering place for homosexuals. The director and many of the actors, including Hermann Hendrichs, who was born in Cologne, identified as homosexual. “In the National Theater’s tunnel, life was lively during the pauses, and for the connoisseur a noticeable homosexual influence could not be denied. Every evening one also saw Prince Georg there, extremely popular for his affable, buoyant nature, often beside him (… ) Mr. von Schweitzer (see TheColu.mn). Their usual entertainment was the theater. Both were, in addition to their day jobs, dramatists themselves” (Magnus Hirschfeld: “From Then to Now,” 1986, p. 96). When Hermann Hendrichs became director of the Berlin Victoriatheater, Prince Georg of Prussia was also part of this circle — what today would be called a gay-culture network — “a precursor of a gay (…)
solidarity before the formation of actual organizations” (“Self-Consciousness and Perseverance. 200 years of history.” 2004, pp. 47-48; cf. Yearbook for the Sexual Minorities 1914, pp. 53-54, 57 in the article: “From the Homosexual Life of Old Berlin”).
His Theater Contacts in the Rhineland
There is also evidence of a network in the Rhineland that supported the homosexual movement, including advocacy for the abolition of § 175. In the author’s book “Anders als die Andern” (2006, DVD: pp. 156-157, 162), I outlined the complex connections between Louise Dumont (intendant of the Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus) and Berthold Litzmann (Germanist and literary historian in Bonn). Prince Georg of Prussia also influenced these circles, acting as patron of the Literary-Historical Society founded by Litzmann and maintaining friendly contact with him. At Düsseldorf’s Art School and the Düsseldorf Schauspielhaus, Georg von Preußen supported young male talents. “Through his work, he helped young artists in a most noble way; he filled his halls with fine copies after Raphael. … He surrounded himself with young people, inviting them to small dinners or into his box.” (Obituary by Marie von Olfers, “Georg Prince of Prussia.” In: Hohenzollern-Yearbook VI, 1902, pp. I–IV, here p. III). Among these young men was his aide-de-camp, Georg von Hülsen-Häseler, whom he opened the way for at court and in the theater (see “Man for Man,” 2010, pp. 391, 580-582).
The Petition to Abolish § 175 (1899)
Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935), together with other men, founded the Wissenschaftlich-humanitäre Komitee (WhK) in 1897 — the world’s first organization dedicated to gay rights. In 1899 he initiated a petition to abolish § 175 StGB, which criminalized homosexual acts between men. Beforehand, he enlisted prominent supporters and found four early backers: August Bebel (chairman of the SPD), Richard von Krafft-Ebing (author of the sexual science bestseller Psychopathia Sexualis), Franz von Liszt (liberal criminal-law professor), and Ernst von Wildenbruch (court poet and friend of the Emperor). It was the resonance of these four names that initially drew hundreds and then thousands to support the petition. The fact that Ernst von Wildenbruch was successfully recruited for this petition is owed to the influence of Prince Georg of Prussia. Hirschfeld writes that, on the “direct initiative” of Georg von Prussia, Ernst von Wildenbruch signed the petition. Georg von Prussia also counted among the early financial supporters of the WhK.
His Death and the Homosexual Community’s Obituary (1902)
After his death in early May 1902 in Berlin, Prince Georg was interred at Rheinstein Castle (near Bingen), a fortress to which he had long been devoted. In the “Yearbook for the Sexual Minorities” (1903, pp. 1297-1303) appeared a lengthy obituary with a photograph. It was stressed that the obituary was published not only because Prince Georg had materially supported the emancipation struggle of homosexuals, but also because the urbane, gentle prince had earned extraordinary admiration and sympathy among Berlin’s homosexual population.
In this obituary, the writer Paul Lietzow is quoted at length about the deceased: “He was a beautiful man. Sparks of fire and wit flew from his eyes. The slightly snug uniform fit him as if tailor-made.” Lietzow notes that Georg was deeply distressed to learn that Prince Heinrich of Prussia, the brother of Frederick the Great, had previously been “loathed by the army” for his homosexual inclinations. (This refers to the 1726-born Prince Heinrich of Prussia, whom I recently discussed in TheColu.mn.) Lietzow also emphasized the similarities between Georg of Prussia and Ludwig II: both were of noble bearing; both wore striking, lush, dark curls; both bought vast cantidades of books and read almost constantly; both were passionate connoisseurs of art and great lovers of music and theater; both detested war and hunting. It seems likely that Lietzow’s allusions were meant to hint at Ludwig II’s homosexuality in light of the public record. A similar nod had appeared a decade earlier, predating the formal homosexual movement: Melchior Grohe dedicated his emancipatory work “Der Urning vor Gericht” (1893, p. 9) to Ludwig II and Georg von Prussia.
The Outing Came Only Twenty Years After His Death
There are no known personal statements about Georg von Prussia’s love life. It was only posthumously that he was described as a financial patron of the WhK. It is notable that, even in the obituary published after his death, he was not identified as homosexual by the WhK, by Paul Lietzow, or by the case’s informant “M.”, who spoke of a decades-long friendship with him.
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Only in the Yearbook for the Sexual Minorities of 1920 (p. 91) did the homosexual movement note that among the deceased Hohenzollerns there were three homosexuals: beside King Frederick the Great (1712-1786) stood his brother, Heinrich of Prussia (1726-1802), and the Georg of Prussia covered here (1826-1902). Twenty years after his death, Magnus Hirschfeld (From Then to Now, 1986, pp. 96-97) became somewhat clearer: “The love of his fate concerned the same sex, as evidenced by many homosexuals he received in his palace.” Hirschfeld also mentions that in the 1920s — apparently for the WhK archive — he received a letter exchange of Carl Friedrich Müller with Georg von Prussia from the years 1872-1988: “How much unfulfilled longing do these pages reflect for the one who can read between the lines.”
