During the years of the Weimar Republic (1918–1933), women’s roles in German society changed significantly. German women exercised newly acquired rights to vote, and more women joined the workforce to support themselves or their families. Many of Germany’s so-called “neue Frauen” (“New Women”) also began visiting urban nightclubs and dressing in popular new fashions with traditionally masculine elements like short haircuts, suits, and ties.1
Some members of Germany’s emerging communities of lesbian women chose to adopt these forms of fashion and self-expression.2 Lesbian magazines such as Die Freundin (The Girlfriend) popularized this style by regularly publishing images of women wearing masculine clothing and hairstyles. Photographs of influential lesbian club operator Lotte Hahm appeared so often that Hahm’s fashion sense inspired the personal style of many women.3
A photograph of Hahm wearing a suit and tie is shown prominently in the featured advertisement, which likely was published in the pages of a Berlin lesbian magazine in November 1928. This newspaper clipping advertises events organized by the Damenklub Violetta (Violetta Ladies’ Club), which was a popular club for lesbian women founded by Hahm in 1926.4 Damenklub Violetta offered a variety of events to its hundreds of members—including lectures, jazz dances, fashion shows, and cruises. Hahm was an influential lesbian rights activist, and the lectures and discussions organized by Damenklub Violetta helped forge a sense of shared identity and political consciousness among Germany’s lesbian communities.5
Damenklub Violetta also hosted events dedicated to Germany’s emerging communities of so-called “Transvestiten” (“transvestites”).6 German sex researcher Magnus Hirschfeld coined this term to describe a wide range of people who wore clothing associated with the opposite gender or expressed their gender identities in ways that differed from traditional ideas and expectations. Hahm seems to have identified as both a lesbian woman and a “weibliche Transvestit” (“female transvestite”).7 In 1929, Hahm helped create an association dedicated to the interests and rights of “Transvestiten."8
When the Nazi Party rose to power in early 1933, the new regime tried to reshape Germany to fit Nazi ideas of race and national unity. This excluded many people from the so-called "national community" ("Volksgemeinschaft") as racial, political, or social outsiders. Although the Nazi regime did not systematically target lesbian women with a particular law of the German criminal code, it still persecuted lesbian women and “Transvestiten” as outsiders. Hahm had opened two new lesbian bars in Berlin in 1932, but the Prussian Ministry of the Interior ordered Berlin police to close the city’s gay and lesbian clubs in February 1933—less than a month after the Nazi rise to power.9 Individual acts of discrimination and denunciation also contributed to the persecution of lesbian women. In 1933, Hahm’s girlfriend’s father denounced Hahm for allegedly violating the age of consent law with his daughter.10 Hahm was also denounced as “perverse” in the late 1930s by a disgruntled employee who had allegedly been cheated out of his wages.
Sources indicate that Hahm was imprisoned for roughly two years before being released. One account describes how Hahm managed to keep organizing events for the members of Damenklub Violetta by rebranding the group as a sports club.11
Hahm survived the years of Nazi rule and opened postwar Berlin’s first lesbian bar shortly after the war ended. Hahm died in West Berlin in 1967 after decades advocating for Germany’s early lesbian and transgender communities. This advertisement shows Hahm as a central figure in the life of these communities. How did Hahm express elements of identity through fashion choices and body language?