ULRICHS, KARL HEINRICH
Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825-1895) was the founder of homosexual scholarship. Some have called him the "grandfather of gay liberation." Born in Aurich, Hannover, on August 28, 1825, in a German middle-class Lutheran family, he went on to study law at Göttingen and Berlin universities. He then became a civil service attorney in the kingdom of Hannover, but in 1854 he left this position and afterward earned his living by writing and related activities.
After declaring his homosexuality to his family, Ulrichs became concerned that the potential union of the various German states under Prussian hegemony might well lead to the adoption of the restrictive Prussian laws on homosexuality instead of the more liberal Hannoverian ones, which were based on the Napoleonic Code. The Napoleonic Code put restrictions on age and required consent but otherwise allowed a variety of sexual activities. Over the years, he developed a theory of homosexuality that was ultimately published in some 12 booklets, the overall title of which was Forsungen über das Rätsel der mannmänlichen Liebe, or Researches into the Riddle of Love Between Men. He coined a number of terms to describe same-sex love, such as "urning" for male lovers and "urningin" for female lovers.
The key to his writing was his belief that homosexuals were a third sex and that homosexual love drives were natural and inborn. His writings proved to be extremely influential on writers such as Krafft-Ebing, who adopted many of his ideas, although not his terminology. Ulrichs continued to agitate for rights of homosexuals and went to the Congress of German Jurists to argue his case on August 28, 1867, only to be shouted down. When the harsh Prussian antihomosexual laws were extended to all parts of the country, Ulrichs emigrated to Italy, where he spent his last years, dying there on July 14, 1895.
REFERENCE
Kennedy, H. Ulrichs: Life and Works of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, Pioneer of the Modern Gay Movement. Boston: Alyson, 1987.
Vern L. Bullough
