617 - Adolf Brand

Adolf Brand Adolf Brand Köpfe und Akte (from the series: Deutsche Rasse) 1910s/1920s Three portfolios containing a total of 55 vintage gelatin silver prints. From 12 x 9.8 cm to 16 x 11 cm (16.4 x 11.4 cm), portrait and landscape formats. Each print mounted on cardboard and with printer's label, therein handwritten order no. in ink, on the reverse of the mount. Published by 'Der Eigene', Berlin-Wilhelmshagen. Provenance Heinz Peter Barandun collection, Zurich; private property, Switzerland Adolf Brand was an important representative of the gay movement of early 20th-century Germany. In the magazine 'Der Eigene,' which he founded in 1896 and published until 1932, he promoted his ideal of the 'heroic' man – superior because of manly virtues – through texts and images. 'Der Eigene' was the first magazine in Germany aimed at a homosexual readership. Initially published quarterly and later monthly, the magazine mainly appealed to educate middle-class circles due to its focus on literature and culture. Together with Benedict Friedlaender and Wilhelm Jansen, Brand founded the ‘Gemeinschaft der Eigenen’ in 1903, a club that, among other things, organised hiking trips for male youths, similar to the Wandervogel movement. After the First World War, Brand expanded his publishing program to include the distribution of erotic photographs, mostly showing naked young men in harmony with nature. It is not known who the individual photographers were. With his libelous writings, tendency to provoke, and the practice of ‘outing’ prominent homosexual contemporaries against their will, Adolf Brand was an opponent of Magnus Hirschfeld’s approach, which was based on medical grounds and demanded legal and social equality for homosexuals.