Charlotte von Mahlsdorf
Encyclopedia
Charlotte von Mahlsdorf was the founder of the Gründerzeit
Museum (a museum of everyday items) in Berlin-Mahlsdorf.
, Germany. At a very young age she felt more like a girl, and expressed more interest in the clothing and articles of little girls. In her younger years she helped a second-hand goods dealer clear out the apartments of deported Jews and sometimes kept items for herself.
Max Berfelde, Lothar's father, was already a member of the Nazi Party by the late 1920s and he had become a party leader in Mahlsdorf. In 1942 he forced Lothar to join the Hitler Youth
. They often quarrelled, but the situation escalated in 1944 when Lothar's mother left the family during the evacuation
. Max demanded Lothar choose between her parents and threatened her with a gun. Shaken by this, Lothar struck her father dead with a rolling pin while he slept. In January 1945, after several weeks in a psychiatric institution, Lothar was sentenced by a court in Berlin to four years detention as an anti-social
juvenile delinquent
.
, Lothar was released. She worked as a second-hand goods dealer and dressed in a more feminine way. "Lothar" became "Lottchen". She loved older men and became a well-known figure in the city as von Mahlsdorf. She began collecting household items, thus saving historical every-day items from bombed-out houses. She was also able to take advantage of the clearance of the households of people who left for West Germany
.
Her collection evolved into the Gründerzeit Museum. She had become engaged in the preservation of the von Mahlsdorf estate, which was threatened with demolition, and was awarded the manor house rent-free. In 1960, Von Mahlsdorf opened the museum of everyday articles from the Gründerzeit (the time of the founding of the German Empire
) in the only partially reconstructed Mahlsdorf manor house. The museum became well known in cinematic, artistic and gay
circles. From 1970 on, the East Berlin
homosexual scene often had meetings and celebrations in the museum.
In 1974 the East German authorities announced that they wanted to bring the museum and its exhibits under state control. In protest von Mahlsdorf began giving away the exhibits to visitors. Thanks to the committed involvement of the actress Annekathrin Bürger and the attorney Friedrich Karl Kaul (and possibly also thanks to her enlistment as an inoffizieller Mitarbeiter or Stasi
collaborator) the authorities' attempt was stopped in 1976 and she was able to keep the museum.
In 1991 neo-Nazis attacked one of her celebrations in the museum. Several participants were hurt. At this time von Mahlsdorf announced she was considering leaving Germany
. In 1992 she received the Bundesverdienstkreuz
. Her decision to leave Germany meant that she guided her last visitor through the museum in 1995 and in 1997 she moved to Porla Brunn, an old spa near Hasselfors
, Sweden
, where she opened (with moderate success) a new museum dedicated to the turn of the 19th century. The city of Berlin bought the Gründerzeit Museum, and by 1997 it had been opened again by the "Förderverein Gutshaus Mahlsdorf e. V.".
Von Mahlsdorf died from heart failure during a visit to Berlin on 30 April 2002.
The accusation was made that her collection was largely the result of the breaking up of the households of Jews deported during the Third Reich and had grown in size from the breaking up of the households of those who had fled East Germany.
Moreover, she had supposedly become an Inoffizieller Mitarbeiter of the Stasi
on principle on November 17, 1971 and had allegedly supplied information under the code name "Park" until 1976.
Independently of this some people accused her of valuing the bourgeois
lifestyle and dissociating herself from East Germany after the Wende, calling it a "rotes KZ" (a red concentration camp) and declaring Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski
worse than Hermann Göring
.
Biologically and economically questionable comments such as "Daß die Lesben und Schwulen keine Kinder kriegen, das ist doch ganz natürlich. Die Natur sucht sich ja auch aus, was sie gebrauchen kann, was sie sich vermehren läßt und was nicht. Und wenn wir’s mal so nehmen: Wenn die Lesben und Schwulen nun auch noch Kinder kriegen würden, dann hätten wir heute noch viel mehr Arbeitslose" ("That lesbian
s and gays can't have children is after all quite natural. Nature too seeks out what it can use, what can reproduce and what can't. If we look at it like that, if lesbians and gays did have children, then we'd have a lot more unemployed people
today") - a remark made during a lecture on March 12, 1997 in Berlin http://www.whk.de/whk1100.htm - meant that she lost friends within the gay scene as well.
the founder of the Gründerzeit Museum, or for her public role as a transvestite and her foregrounding of the persecution of homosexuals in both the Third Reich and East Germany. The appeal for a memorial to von Mahlsdorf, organized by the "Förderverein Gutshaus Mahlsdorf e. V." and the "Interessengemeinschaft Historische Friedhöfe Berlin" was therefore a success.
The intention of the organizers was to erect a memorial with the inscription "Ich bin meine eigene Frau (I am my own wife) - Charlotte von Mahlsdorf - 18. März 1928 - 30. April 2002" on the first anniversary of Charlotte's death. However, von Mahlsdorf's relatives demanded the inscription be changed. As questions remained about the disposition of her estate, and the "Förderverein Gutshaus Mahlsdorf e. V." was concerned that her relatives could demand the return of her furniture, they yielded to these demands.
Although Charlotte von Mahlsdorf had been known almost exclusively by her "stage name" in recent years, her relatives pushed through the inscription "Lothar Berfelde, 1928 - 2002, genannt Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. Dem Museumsgründer zur Erinnerung" (Lothar Berfelde, 1928 - 2002, known as Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. In memory of the (male) founder of the museum).
made a film about von Mahlsdorf called Ich bin meine eigene Frau. von Mahlsdorf appears in the film.
Doug Wright
wrote the character play, I Am My Own Wife based on von Mahlsdorf's life from his own research of her biography. Since its initial run on- and off-Broadway the play has garnered every major theatre award including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama
, Tony Award
, the Drama Desk Award
, Drama League Award
, the Lucille Lortel Award, and the Lambda Literary Award for Drama
.
Because the English translation of the German word Frau can be translated as "wife", or "woman", the title can be interpreted as either "I am my own woman", or "I am my own wife". Though the latter translation used by Wright more closely correlates to the word Ehefrau, the phrase, "Ich bin meine eigene Frau" is von Mahlsdorf's answer to her mother's question, "Don't you think it's time to get married?"
German author Peter Süß, co-author and publisher of von Mahlsdorf's book, has made another play called "Ich bin meine eigene Frau". The play had its premiere in spring 2006 at the Schauspiel Leipzig.
Gründerzeit
' refers to the economic phase in 19th century Germany and Austria before the great stock market crash of 1873. At this time in Central Europe the age of industrialisation was taking place, whose beginnings were found in the 1840s...
Museum (a museum of everyday items) in Berlin-Mahlsdorf.
Early years
Von Mahlsdorf was born Lothar Berfelde, the son of Max Berfelde and Gretchen Gaupp in Berlin-MahlsdorfBerlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Germany. At a very young age she felt more like a girl, and expressed more interest in the clothing and articles of little girls. In her younger years she helped a second-hand goods dealer clear out the apartments of deported Jews and sometimes kept items for herself.
Max Berfelde, Lothar's father, was already a member of the Nazi Party by the late 1920s and he had become a party leader in Mahlsdorf. In 1942 he forced Lothar to join the Hitler Youth
Hitler Youth
The Hitler Youth was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party. It existed from 1922 to 1945. The HJ was the second oldest paramilitary Nazi group, founded one year after its adult counterpart, the Sturmabteilung...
. They often quarrelled, but the situation escalated in 1944 when Lothar's mother left the family during the evacuation
Expulsion of Germans after World War II
The later stages of World War II, and the period after the end of that war, saw the forced migration of millions of German nationals and ethnic Germans from various European states and territories, mostly into the areas which would become post-war Germany and post-war Austria...
. Max demanded Lothar choose between her parents and threatened her with a gun. Shaken by this, Lothar struck her father dead with a rolling pin while he slept. In January 1945, after several weeks in a psychiatric institution, Lothar was sentenced by a court in Berlin to four years detention as an anti-social
Psychopathy
Psychopathy is a mental disorder characterized primarily by a lack of empathy and remorse, shallow emotions, egocentricity, and deceptiveness. Psychopaths are highly prone to antisocial behavior and abusive treatment of others, and are very disproportionately responsible for violent crime...
juvenile delinquent
Juvenile delinquency
Juvenile delinquency is participation in illegal behavior by minors who fall under a statutory age limit. Most legal systems prescribe specific procedures for dealing with juveniles, such as juvenile detention centers. There are a multitude of different theories on the causes of crime, most if not...
.
Career
With the fall of the Third ReichNazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, Lothar was released. She worked as a second-hand goods dealer and dressed in a more feminine way. "Lothar" became "Lottchen". She loved older men and became a well-known figure in the city as von Mahlsdorf. She began collecting household items, thus saving historical every-day items from bombed-out houses. She was also able to take advantage of the clearance of the households of people who left for West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
.
Her collection evolved into the Gründerzeit Museum. She had become engaged in the preservation of the von Mahlsdorf estate, which was threatened with demolition, and was awarded the manor house rent-free. In 1960, Von Mahlsdorf opened the museum of everyday articles from the Gründerzeit (the time of the founding of the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
) in the only partially reconstructed Mahlsdorf manor house. The museum became well known in cinematic, artistic and gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
circles. From 1970 on, the East Berlin
East Berlin
East Berlin was the name given to the eastern part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin that was established in 1945. The American, British and French sectors became West Berlin, a part strongly associated with West Germany but a free city...
homosexual scene often had meetings and celebrations in the museum.
In 1974 the East German authorities announced that they wanted to bring the museum and its exhibits under state control. In protest von Mahlsdorf began giving away the exhibits to visitors. Thanks to the committed involvement of the actress Annekathrin Bürger and the attorney Friedrich Karl Kaul (and possibly also thanks to her enlistment as an inoffizieller Mitarbeiter or Stasi
Stasi
The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), commonly known as the Stasi (abbreviation , literally State Security), was the official state security service of East Germany. The MfS was headquartered...
collaborator) the authorities' attempt was stopped in 1976 and she was able to keep the museum.
In 1991 neo-Nazis attacked one of her celebrations in the museum. Several participants were hurt. At this time von Mahlsdorf announced she was considering leaving Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. In 1992 she received the Bundesverdienstkreuz
Bundesverdienstkreuz
The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany is the only general state decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has existed since 7 September 1951, and between 3,000 and 5,200 awards are given every year across all classes...
. Her decision to leave Germany meant that she guided her last visitor through the museum in 1995 and in 1997 she moved to Porla Brunn, an old spa near Hasselfors
Hasselfors
Hasselfors is a locality situated in Laxå Municipality, Örebro County, Sweden with 463 inhabitants in 2005....
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, where she opened (with moderate success) a new museum dedicated to the turn of the 19th century. The city of Berlin bought the Gründerzeit Museum, and by 1997 it had been opened again by the "Förderverein Gutshaus Mahlsdorf e. V.".
Von Mahlsdorf died from heart failure during a visit to Berlin on 30 April 2002.
Doubtful past
In the 1990s questions arose about von Mahlsdorf's past. It became clear that her autobiography contained several contradictions, during both the Nazi period and the GDR period.The accusation was made that her collection was largely the result of the breaking up of the households of Jews deported during the Third Reich and had grown in size from the breaking up of the households of those who had fled East Germany.
Moreover, she had supposedly become an Inoffizieller Mitarbeiter of the Stasi
Stasi
The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), commonly known as the Stasi (abbreviation , literally State Security), was the official state security service of East Germany. The MfS was headquartered...
on principle on November 17, 1971 and had allegedly supplied information under the code name "Park" until 1976.
Independently of this some people accused her of valuing the bourgeois
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...
lifestyle and dissociating herself from East Germany after the Wende, calling it a "rotes KZ" (a red concentration camp) and declaring Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski
Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski
Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski was a politician and trader in the German Democratic Republic. He was director of a main department in the Ministry for Foreign Trade and German Domestic Trade , the Deputy Minister for External Trade , and head of the GDR's Kommerzielle Koordinierung .He was born in...
worse than Hermann Göring
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring, was a German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. He was a veteran of World War I as an ace fighter pilot, and a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite, also known as "The Blue Max"...
.
Biologically and economically questionable comments such as "Daß die Lesben und Schwulen keine Kinder kriegen, das ist doch ganz natürlich. Die Natur sucht sich ja auch aus, was sie gebrauchen kann, was sie sich vermehren läßt und was nicht. Und wenn wir’s mal so nehmen: Wenn die Lesben und Schwulen nun auch noch Kinder kriegen würden, dann hätten wir heute noch viel mehr Arbeitslose" ("That lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
s and gays can't have children is after all quite natural. Nature too seeks out what it can use, what can reproduce and what can't. If we look at it like that, if lesbians and gays did have children, then we'd have a lot more unemployed people
Unemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
today") - a remark made during a lecture on March 12, 1997 in Berlin http://www.whk.de/whk1100.htm - meant that she lost friends within the gay scene as well.
Legacy
Regardless of these issues, some people still honour her memory, be it for her work asthe founder of the Gründerzeit Museum, or for her public role as a transvestite and her foregrounding of the persecution of homosexuals in both the Third Reich and East Germany. The appeal for a memorial to von Mahlsdorf, organized by the "Förderverein Gutshaus Mahlsdorf e. V." and the "Interessengemeinschaft Historische Friedhöfe Berlin" was therefore a success.
The intention of the organizers was to erect a memorial with the inscription "Ich bin meine eigene Frau (I am my own wife) - Charlotte von Mahlsdorf - 18. März 1928 - 30. April 2002" on the first anniversary of Charlotte's death. However, von Mahlsdorf's relatives demanded the inscription be changed. As questions remained about the disposition of her estate, and the "Förderverein Gutshaus Mahlsdorf e. V." was concerned that her relatives could demand the return of her furniture, they yielded to these demands.
Although Charlotte von Mahlsdorf had been known almost exclusively by her "stage name" in recent years, her relatives pushed through the inscription "Lothar Berfelde, 1928 - 2002, genannt Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. Dem Museumsgründer zur Erinnerung" (Lothar Berfelde, 1928 - 2002, known as Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. In memory of the (male) founder of the museum).
Ich bin meine eigene Frau
In 1992 German filmmaker Rosa von PraunheimRosa von Praunheim
Rosa von Praunheim , in Riga, Latvia. His given name is Holger Mischwitzky. He is a German film director, author, painter and gay rights activist. Openly gay, he is one of the initiators of the gay rights movement in Germany....
made a film about von Mahlsdorf called Ich bin meine eigene Frau. von Mahlsdorf appears in the film.
I Am My Own Wife
American playwrightPlaywright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
Doug Wright
Doug Wright
Doug Wright is an American playwright, librettist, and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2004 for his play, I Am My Own Wife.-Early years:Wright was born in Dallas, Texas...
wrote the character play, I Am My Own Wife based on von Mahlsdorf's life from his own research of her biography. Since its initial run on- and off-Broadway the play has garnered every major theatre award including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Pulitzer Prize for Drama
The Pulitzer Prize for Drama was first awarded in 1918.From 1918 to 2006, the Drama Prize was unlike the majority of the other Pulitzer Prizes: during these years, the eligibility period for the drama prize ran from March 2 to March 1, to reflect the Broadway 'season' rather than the calendar year...
, Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
, the Drama Desk Award
Drama Desk Award
The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...
, Drama League Award
Drama League Award
The Drama League Awards, created in 1935, honor distinguished productions and performances both on Broadway and Off-Broadway, in addition to recognizing exemplary career achievements in theatre, musical theatre, and directing...
, the Lucille Lortel Award, and the Lambda Literary Award for Drama
Lambda Literary Award
Lambda Literary Awards are awarded yearly by the US-based Lambda Literary Foundation to published works which celebrate or explore LGBT themes. Categories include Humor, Romance and Biography. To qualify, a book must have been published in the United States in the year current to the award...
.
Because the English translation of the German word Frau can be translated as "wife", or "woman", the title can be interpreted as either "I am my own woman", or "I am my own wife". Though the latter translation used by Wright more closely correlates to the word Ehefrau, the phrase, "Ich bin meine eigene Frau" is von Mahlsdorf's answer to her mother's question, "Don't you think it's time to get married?"
German author Peter Süß, co-author and publisher of von Mahlsdorf's book, has made another play called "Ich bin meine eigene Frau". The play had its premiere in spring 2006 at the Schauspiel Leipzig.
External links
- Literature by and about Charlotte von Mahlsdorf in the catalogue of Die Deutsche Bibliothek
- Gründerzeit Museum - Official Website
- Article in Die Berliner Zeitung on questions about Charlotte von Mahlsdorf's biography
- The play I Am My Own Wife
- I Am My Own Wife: The True Story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, memoir by Charlotte von Mahlsdorf