Franz von Holstein (1826-1878) was born in 1826 as the son of an old Mecklenburg noble family. In 1859 he took over the Leipzig leadership of the Bach Society, was a founding member of the Bach Association, and worked as a composer. His opera “Der Haideschacht” premiered in Dresden in 1868 and remained his most successful work.
With regard to homosexuality, there are in Wikipedia several interesting statements about Holstein: he was homosexual, he was friends with Wilhelm Henzen and Heinrich Bulthaupt, and he wanted the then 19-year-old actor Joseph Kainz to be adopted and named universal heir. I followed these statements.
Holstein’s Homosexuality — the Beginning of the Scavenger Hunt
Wikipedia states: “Magnus Hirschfeld made Holstein’s homosexual inclination public.” Tracing back the sources behind this claim feels like a scavenger hunt: for the source of his homosexuality, Wikipedia points to “Mann für Mann. Biographisches Lexikon zur Geschichte von Freundesliebe und männlicher Sexualität im deutschen Sprachraum” (2010. pp. 569-571). This lexicon points to the statements of Richard Meienreis and Magnus Hirschfeld. Magnus Hirschfeld (“Die Homosexualität des Mannes und des Weibes”. 1914. p. 665) refers in assuming his homosexuality only to the publications of J. E. Meisner. The latter is the pseudonym of the musicologist Richard Meienreis (1865-1926. See Marita Keilson-Lauritz “Die Geschichte der eigenen Geschichte”. 1997. p. 441; Magnus-Hirschfeld-Gesellschaft). What is known about Holstein’s homosexuality, therefore, essentially rests on two publications by one author.
The Gossip of Richard Meienreis
Richard Meienreis wrote under the pseudonym J. E. Meisner “Uranismus oder sogenannte gleichgeschlechtliche Liebe” (1908). To offer positive identification options for homosexual contemporaries, he lists here 23 allegedly homosexual poets (p. 16, including Heinrich Bulthaupt) and five allegedly homosexual musicians (p. 17, including Franz von Holstein). He did not explain why he categorized them as homosexual.
Under his real name he later wrote in the “Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen” (1923, pp. 93-99) the piece “Franz von Holstein und Heinrich Bulthaupt.” Richard Meienreis never actually met Franz von Holstein, but he did meet his wife and Heinrich Bulthaupt personally. The “initiated, the closest intimate friends of the house” are said to have told Meienreis that the Holstein couple lived in a “sensible marriage” like “brother and sister.” Heinrich Bulthaupt had written a biography of Franz von Holstein, in which he, according to Meienreis, “not only fails to reveal his urnischer (= homosexual) disposition, but vouches to erase every trace of it with careful care. (…) Although Bulthaupt’s sexual disposition was an open secret, although every streetwalker in Bremen knew the old man, who also happened to be repulsively unattractive, knew what he sought in the dim shrubs of the Wallanlagen: outward appearance had to be maintained, had to be feigned. (…) That Bulthaupt knew about Franz von Holstein’s sexual orientation — which I was told, among others, by the Leipzig-based writer Wilhelm Henzen, who was personally friendly with Holstein — there should be no doubt.” Marita Keilson-Lauritz (“Die Geschichte der eigenen Geschichte”. 1997. p. 61, cf. p. 442) judges the way Meienreis spoke about Holstein in this “Yearbook” as “somewhat gossipy.” That assessment is accurate and even more so for his remarks about Bulthaupt. I attach little significance to these statements, written 45 years after Holstein’s death.
Supplementarily, it can be noted that the Whk in the JfsZ (1902. p. 974) referenced that at a monthly meeting of the WhK there were discussions about “communications concerning the ur-nischen (= homosexual) composer v. Holstein.” Such statements show only that at the dawn of the gay movement, some activists regarded Holstein as homosexual — nothing more.
Holstein’s Relationships with Wilhelm Henzen and Heinrich Bulthaupt
Holstein was friends with Wilhelm Henzen (1850-1910) and Heinrich Bulthaupt (1849-1905). According to Wikipedia, both men were “homosexual according to various reports.” For this, “Mann für Mann” is listed as the sole source. In “Mann für Mann” (2010. pp. 221-223 and 524-525) the only explicit claim supporting the homosexuality of Henzen and Bulthaupt is Rudolf Meienreis with his aforementioned gossip piece in the “Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen” from 1923. Even here, the sourcing remains thin.
Holstein’s Relationship to Joseph Kainz
In March 1877 Holstein met the then 19-year-old actor Joseph Kainz (1858-1910). According to Wikipedia, the “attempt to adopt the then-19-year-old actor Joseph Kainz in 1877 and designate him as universal heir” failed. The cited source for this is “Mann für Mann” (2010, p. 570). It states that Holstein took Kainz “into paternal custody. (His) heartfelt wish to adopt Kainz and designate him as universal heir was not realized, to his distress.”
For these statements the Lexikon cites two sources that are currently online as well. One is the remarks of his wife Hedwig von Holstein, who wrote in her memoir “Eine Glückliche” (1902. p. 287): “Like a final sunbeam, his association with Josef Kainz refreshed him at that time, (…) whose great talent interested him as much as his simple, natural nature touched him sympathetically. ‘If Kainz were my son! — It would be too much happiness,’ sighed the childless man who had longed for a son so intensely.”
The other sources are the remarks by Joseph Kainz in the book “Der junge Kainz. Briefe an seine Eltern” (1923). Kainz addresses Holstein, who initially “vividly wished” to meet him (p. 161). The editor of the letters comments that Holstein “was so interested in Kainz that he wanted to adopt him. Kainz and his parents behaved reluctantly” (p. 269). A later remark by theater director Neumann about Kainz reads: “now they have nothing left to do but to maintain the favor of these two people (i.e., the Holsteins) and to ensure that they make them universal heirs” (p. 163).
Neumann’s comment comes across to me not as a serious proposal but as a playful suggestion. It is unclear how the desire for adoption was seriously circulated, given that Kainz and his parents did not want it at all. Holstein appears to have supported Kainz artistically, but I have found no evidence that he took him into “paternal custody,” though that need not mean much.
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Conclusion
At the start of the research, I had hoped to write something more substantial about Franz von Holstein’s homosexuality — for example, about his relationships and friendships. In the end, what I could research and document largely amounts to gossip. There are no documents that seriously indicate a homosexual orientation of Franz von Holstein. The sources speak not about Holstein himself, but rather about Richard Meienreis, although I should note that Meienreis was not inherently an unserious author, but a pillar of the early gay rights movement (see the brief portrait of him on the Magnus-Hirschfeld-Gesellschaft website).
Thus, the piece becomes more a reflection on how cautious one must be with historical sources. Often you are left with little more than copying from other publications. Sometimes, however, it is worth digging deeper. Holstein’s homosexuality feels like a phantom giant that keeps shrinking the closer you examine it.
