Charlotte von Mahlsdorf

Charlotte von Mahlsdorf (March 18, 1928 - April 30, 2002) was the founder of the Gründerzeit Museum (a museum of every-day items) in Berlin-Mahlsdorf.

Early life

Charlotte von Mahlsdorf was born on March 18, 1928 in Berlin-Mahlsdorf as Lothar Berfelde, son of Max Berfelde and Gretchen Berfelde (née Gaupp). According to her autobiography as a child she was already interested in girls' clothes and "old stuff".

Although she was physically male, from childhood Lothar felt more like a girl. In her younger years she used to help a second-hand goods dealer to clear out apartments - mostly those 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.

Later life

With the fall of the Third Reich, 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 Charlotte 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 Mahlsdorf estate, which was threatened with demolition, and was awarded the manor house rent free. In 1960, Charlotte 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 Charlotte 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 Charlotte's enlistment as an inoffizieller Mitarbeiter or Stasi collaborator) the authorities' attempt was stopped in 1976 and Charlotte 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 Charlotte 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 in 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.".

Charlotte von Mahlsdorf died from heart failure during a visit to Berlin on 30 April, 2002.

Doubtful past

In the 1990s questions arose about Charlotte 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 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 disassociating 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 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 lesbians 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 [1] - meant that she lost friends within the homosexual scene as well.

The memorial inscription

Regardless of these issues, some people still honour her memory, be it for her work as 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 Charlotte 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, Charlotte's relatives demanded the inscription be changed. As questions remained about the disposition of Charlotte's 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).

Note

In the English translation of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf's phrase "Ich bin meine eigene Frau" the term "Frau" is usually given as "wife", however the primary translation of "Frau" is "woman". Thus it can be argued that the translation should be "I am my own woman". The term "wife" is an acceptable, but secondary meaning, and the more specific German correlate is "Ehefrau". However, the line: "Ich bin meine eigene Frau" is Charlotte's answer to her mother's question: " don't you think it' time to get married?"(aproximately). Therefore, the translation "wife" is more appropriate in my opinion.

Books

Charlotte von Mahlsdorf wrote the following books: -

I Am My Own Woman: The True Story of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, by Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, ISBN 1-57344-200-3, published by Cleis Press
Ich bin meine eigene Frau (I Am My Own Woman), Munich: dtv (1995), ISBN 3-423-12061-4. (filmed by Rosa von Praunheim)
Ab durch die Mitte (Beat It!), Munich: dtv (1997), ISBN 3-423-20041-3, written in co-operation with Peter Süß.

Film

In 1992 the German filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim made a film about Charlotte von Mahlsdorf called Ich bin meine eigene Frau. Charlotte appears in the film.

Play

The American author Doug Wright has made Charlotte von Mahlsdorf's life the subject of a one-man play, based on his own research. The play, also called "I Am My Own Wife" and performed to acclaim by Jefferson Mays, won the 2004 Tony Award for Best Play and the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play also won the Lambda Literary Award for Drama in 2005.

The German author Peter Süß, co-author and publisher of Charlotte 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