Hermann von Teschenberg

Hermann Freiherr von Teschenberg (6 July 1866 – 6 November 1911) was an Austrian barrister, translator, and an LGBT rights activist.

Life

Hermann von Teschenberg (1866-1911)

Born in Austria, von Teschenberg was the son of a diplomat, Ernst Freiherr von Teschenberg (1836-1886), who was of some importance in Austria which earned him the hereditary title of Freiherr and Rosa Peetz. His father was also editor of the Wiener Zeitung on behalf of the government. So he spent his childhood among elites in Austria, getting to know the future King Alfonso XII of Spain and Empress Elisabeth of Austria.

He studied law in college and married, although the name of his wife is not known. He was discovered kissing a soldier in Prater park in Vienna, after which he fled to Italy in 1893-94, and later to England. By his own account, he met Oscar Wilde and tried to mediate between the writer and the father of Lord Alfred Douglas, the Marquess of Queensberry. He translated some of Oscar Wilde's works into the German language.

In early 1898 he settled in Berlin, joining Magnus Hirschfeld, who had founded the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee. Teschenberg was even named later among the founders of the Committee, working without pay from 1898 to 1905. He was also a transvestite and photographed several times wearing women's clothing for the Committee magazine.

After 1905 he moved to Italy, where homosexuality was not illegal. He died in Naples in 1911.

References

• Laurus, Nicolai, ed. Hergemöller, Bernd-Ulrich. Mann für Mann. LIT Verlag Münster, 2010. pp. 1166. ISBN 978-3-643-10693-3
• Herzer, Manfred. Magnus Hirschfeld. Hamburg: Verlag MännerschwarmSkript. pp. 926. ISBN 3-935596-28-6
• Bristow, Joseph. Oscar Wilde and Modern Culture: The Making of a Legend. Ohio University Press, 2008. ISBN 0821418386
• Wolff, Charlotte. Hirschfeld: A Portrait Of A Pioneer In Sexology. Quartet Books, 1986. pp. 104–5. ISBN 0704325691

External links

• Leaders of the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee (photograph)
• Hermann von Teschenberg - Memory of Oscar Wilde (in German)
• A Gender Variance Who's Who: Hermann von Teschenberg