Who was Anna Ruhling? 

Anna Ruhling, one of the first feminists to speak in favor of homosexual rights, was also among the earliest activists to come out as a lesbian. Yet for a century after her famous 1904 speech, little was known about Ruhling’s life, until biographer Christiane Leidinger identified her as journalist Theo Anna Sprüngli. 

Ruhling was born August 15, 1880, in Hamburg, Germany, to middle-class Swiss parents. She attended a school for young ladies and studied music. At age 17, she began writing for a Hamburg newspaper. In the early 1900s, she moved to Berlin, where she worked for the prestigious Scherl Publishers. During these years, she held radical views, writing occasionally for the anarchist paper The Struggle. 

The late 19th century saw the dawn of the homosexual emancipation movement in Germany, including the founding of Magnus Hirschfeld’s Scientific Humanitarian Committee (SHC) in 1897. On October 9, 1904, Ruhling addressed the SHC at its annual meeting, giving a talk entitled, “What Interest Does the Women’s Movement Have in Solving the Homosexual Problem?” 

Though Ruhling referred in her lecture to her “immense experience and thorough studies in this field,” it is unclear why the SHC asked the 24-year-old journalist to speak about female homosexuality—although few others at the time were willing to do so.

Addressing the issue in public was bold enough, but Ruhling went further, subtly alluding to her own proclivities. Regarding middle-class attitudes toward homosexuality, she noted that her father had once explained that nothing of the sort could happen in his family. “The facts prove the opposite,” she said. “I need to add nothing to that statement.” 

Stating that homosexuality was “an obvious and natural bridge” between men and women, Ruhling argued that the homosexual and women’s movements should work together. She praised the SHC for including lesbians, but criticized the women’s movement for failing to address the concerns of “Uranian” (homosexual) women, given that many of its prominent members were lesbians. 

Little is known about Ruhling’s personal relationships, including whether she had any long-term female partners. Likewise, it is unclear whether she ever married, though she spoke knowingly about the misery of lesbians pressured to marry for social or economic reasons, arguing that masculine homosexual women were unfit for marriage. 

Ruhling embraced Hirschfeld’s theory of homosexuals as an intermediate “third sex.” Though a feminist, she derided traditional femininity, leading author Biddy Martin to discern a “mean-spiritedness” in her attitudes toward women. Ruhling held stereotypical views about heterosexual women, arguing that most of them were “organically by nature determined above all to become a wife and a mother.” The Uranian woman, in contrast, was “more objective, more energetic and goal oriented than the feminine woman; she thinks and feels like a man.” 

Some feminist activists were outraged that Ruhling broached the topic, perhaps fearing that they would be tarred with the lesbian brush. Indeed, some anti-feminists cited Ruhling’s speech to support accusations that the women’s movement was comprised primarily of lesbians. he place of homosexual women in the movement would remain a bone of contention until the 1970s, when lesbian activists disrupted a feminist conference to protest National Organization for Women president Betty Friedan’s comment that lesbians represented a “Lavender Menace.” 

In 1906, Ruhling published a book of short stories, Who Amongst You Is Without Sin...Images from the Dark Side, which included two lesbian love stories with happy endings—highly unusual for the time. After that, however, there is no further record of her speaking or writing in favor of homosexual rights, and her political views became increasingly conservative. 

Around 1908, Ruhling moved to Dusseldorf, where she continued working as a journalist, mainly writing about music, theater, and cinema. She belonged to moderate and conservative women’s groups such as the Reich Association of German Housewives and the German Women’s Navy League, and wrote for patriotic publications. 

The liberal Weimar era of 1918-1933 saw an unprecedented proliferation of homosexual publications and groups, but there is no indication that Ruhling participated in gay culture or activism during this period. After the Nazis came to power, Ruhling was affiliated with various state organizations, although she did not join the National Socialist Party. When applying to join the Reich Association of German Authors, she ended her letter, “With German greetings and Heil Hitler.” 

In the late 1930s, Ruhling moved to Ulm and then to Delmenhorst, where she worked as a theater administrator and script editor. In 1949, she made a comeback as one of the oldest female journalists in Germany. She died of a heart attack at the age of 73. 

Contemporary lesbian-feminists have struggled over how to interpret Ruhling’s legacy. German author Ulrike Janz, for example, called her a “problematic foremother of lesbian herstory.” But it is hard to know whether Ruhling was a true believer or felt the need to espouse conservative views for her protection. Despite these misgivings, Ruhling’s call for unity between the women’s movement and the gay movement has proven prophetic. 

“Our ultimate goal will be reached when both movements recognize that they have many common interests for which to fight when it becomes necessary,” she said in 1904.

“Perhaps not today or tomorrow, but in the not too distant future, the women’s movement and Uranians will raise their banners in victory!”

Liz Highleyman is a freelance writer and editor who has written widely on health, sexuality, and politics. She can be reached in care of Letters from CAMP Rehoboth or PastOut@qsyndicate.com.