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Hössli
Publishes Eros
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Switzerland, 1836. The German Swiss hat maker and
interior designer Heinrich Hössli (1784-1864)
published his two volume Eros, The Male Love of the Greeks: Its Relationship to the
History, Education, Literature and Legislation of All Ages to defend sexual love
between men. He argued that male-male sexuality is as natural as a man's
love for a woman, and that the proclivity toward same-sex love is inborn.
Later writers like Karl Ulrichs would defend love between men based on
scientific claims, but Hössli's approach was more
anthro- |
Heinrich Hössli
as a
Young Man
photo credits |
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pological. Drawing on Greek classics and poetry from Turkey, Persia, and Arabia he
argued that Greek love is universal in all cultures and that the modern suppression of it
was no different from the hatred of witches in previous centuries. He urged that unjust
persecution be undone by removing legal punishments for sex between males. |
Hössli himself was a married man with
two sons, and no one is sure if he was a practitioner of the "Greek Love" he
defended. He claimed that he was selflessly motivated by his horror at
the execution of Franz Desgouttes who was convicted of the 1817 murder of his male lover.
Desgouttes met a horrible death when he was broken on the wheel, a form of
execution in which the victim is first tied to a cartwheel, then has his bones broken with
metal rods or clubs, and finally is left exposed outdoors to die.
In 1819, fearing that his own talents were not up to the task, Hössli approached a popular writer, Heinrich Zschokke, to
write a book on male love. Zschokke did produce Eros or On Love in 1821, but he
was disappointed because Zschokke would not defend same-sex love as natural.
Zschokke argued that same-sex love is driven by a base sensuality instead of higher
spiritual sentiments.
Out of frustration, certainly not out of any capacity to write, Hössli decided to produce his Eros. He worked
on it for 17 years and ultimately published a two volume 700 page work at his own
expense. When the first volume appeared, authorities in Glarus, the Swiss canton
where Hössli lived, disliked the book so much that
they ordered him not to sell it, so Hössli was forced to
publish it in another town.
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The central argument in Eros is a defense of traditional Greek
pederasty. He cited Plato and other Ancients as models
of the love of a man for a youth. He argued that male-male
love is not friendship, which is a relationship between two equals, but is instead a
pederastic connection between an older man who serves as an example and teacher for his
younger beloved. Such a relationship is not abusive, according to Hössli, because
the youth is not forced to grant sexual favors to his mentor, but |
An Older Heinrich
Hössli
photo credits |
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offers them willingly
out of gratitude. |
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The pederastic model Hössli
endorsed was eventually displaced by egalitarian models in the work of Ulrichs and Hirschfeld, but has been episodically revived by
literary figures like Oscar Wilde and, early in the 20th Century,
by the Gemeinschaft Der Eigene.
The books never sold well, partly because of their subject and partly
because they were so badly written. Authorities universally pan his work as a
well-meaning but nearly unreadable rant written by an amateur. In his own time, the
book garnered no critical recognition and never achieved the popularity that greeted
Karl Ulrichs' work twenty years later. Nonetheless, Hössli was the first to publicly defend "Greek
Love" in modern Europe.
Acknowledgement, Sources and Further
Reading
Acknowledgment
Hubert Kennedy's critique of this article has sharpened my understanding
of Hössli.
Photo Credits
"Hoessli as a Young Man" is reproduced
from a photograph in the Jahrbuch für Sexualzwischenstufen, vol. 5, 1903,
courtesy of the Archiv für Sexualwissenschaft, Berlin.
"An Older Heinrich Hoessli" is
reproduced from a photograph in the Jahrbuch für Sexualzwischenstufen, vol. 5,
1903, courtesy of the Archiv für Sexualwissenschaft, Berlin.
Sources and Further Reading
Hekma, Gert, 1988. "Sodomites, Platonic Lovers, Contrary Lovers: The
Backgrounds of The Modern Homosexual". Journal of Homosexuality Vol. 16 Nos.
1 & 2.
Johansson, Warren, 1990. "Hössli,
Heinrich" in Wayne Dynes, ed., Encyclopedia of Homosexuality. New York:
Garland.
Kennedy, Hubert, 1998. "Review of Eros: Die Männerliebe der Griechen, ihre Beziehungen zur Geschichte,
Erziehung, Literatur und Gesetzbebung aller Zeiten." Journal of
Homosexuality, Vol. 35, No. 2.
Kennedy, Hubert, 1988. The Life and Works of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs,
Pioneer of the Modern Gay Movement. Boston: Alyson.
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© 1999
Andrew Wikholm
All Rights Reserved |
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