From Georg Simmel to Stefan George: Sexology, Male Bonding, and Homosexuality

Stefan George and his circle occupied an intermediate social space between the sexologist and masculinist wings of the German homosexual rights movement. George adopted the notion of übergeschlechtlich from Georg Simmel as a strategic utopian foundation for a literary Männerbund that would be perceived as beyond sexuality, despite its homosexual underpinnings. Its frequently antimodernist, authoritarian, antisemitic, misogynistic, and homophobic performativity contradicted both the presence of many Jews in its midst and the fact that it did not meet the standards of hegemonic masculinity. The resulting paradox of a state inspired homosexuals, the Conservative Revolutionaries, and the National Socialists equally. The present article attempts to disentangle some of this combined history.