The Homosexual Scare and the Masculinization of German Politics before World War I

It may seem strange today to study aspects of the political spherefrom foreign policy to diplomacy and the militaryin the context of sexuality. But the Belle Epoque (1871-1914) was an era of prestige politics, also with respect to the politics of sexuality. This article reveals how the Eulenburg Scandal of 1906 to 1909 used sexual morality as a way to explain and interpret the tensions that pervaded Germany's domestic affairs and international relations. The reliance on sexual mores as an explanation for large-scale political events was the result of an ever-intensifying chain of national and international complicationscomplications that later undermined Germany's sense of national honor. The Eulenburg Scandal is remembered today mainly as the first major homosexual scandal of the twentieth century, but contemporaries experienced it in a wider sense: it became Germany's counterpart to the Dreyfus Affair in Francetwo examples of political, social, and cultural conflict that threatened the foundations of their respective countries.