- Summary
- "German, Jew, Muslim, Gay offers an astonishing perspective on the history of modern Germany through the vantage point of a man with multiple identities who devoted his life to religious utopias, fought for homosexual rights, wrote gay fiction, converted from Judaism to Islam (one of the few of any faith to do so), and considered himself part of a spiritual elite that held the key to Germany's salvation. Born in Posen in 1880, the son of a Jewish industrialist, Hugo Marcus converted to Islam and chose the name Hamid; he became the most important convert in Germany while retaining his membership in the Jewish community. He was renamed Israel by the Nazis and sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1938, where he was in the unique position of Muslim witness to the Holocaust. The imam of his mosque gained his release and he escaped to Switzerland, where he wrote gay fiction under the pen name Hans Alienus. He died in Basel in 1966. The book challenges deeply ingrained perceptions of Muslim-Jewish relations during World War II and illuminates their interconnected histories in modern Europe. It also tells the unknown story of Marcus' orientalized Islam that, in echoing Goethe's, revitalized an essential strand of Germany's spiritual heritage"-- Provided by publisher.
- Series
- Religion, culture and public life
Religion, culture, and public life.
- Format
- Book
- Author/Creator
- Baer, Marc David, 1970- author.
- Published
- New York : Columbia University Press, [2020]
- Locale
- Germany
Europe
- Contents
-
Introduction: Goethe as pole star
Fighting for gay rights in Berlin, 1900-1925
Queer convert: Protestant Islam in Weimar Germany, 1925-1933
A Jewish Muslim in Nazi Berlin, 1933-1939
Who writes lives: Swiss refuge, 1939-1965
Hans Alienus: yearning, gay writer, 1948-1965
Conclusion: a Goethe mosque for Berlin.
- Notes
-
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Introduction: Goethe as pole star -- Fighting for gay rights in Berlin, 1900-1925 -- Queer convert: Protestant Islam in Weimar Germany, 1925-1933 -- A Jewish Muslim in Nazi Berlin, 1933-1939 -- Who writes lives: Swiss refuge, 1939-1965 -- Hans Alienus: yearning, gay writer, 1948-1965 -- Conclusion: a Goethe mosque for Berlin.
