Acceptable homosexual heterosexuality : Hanns Heinz Ewers's Fundvogel and national socialist ideology

J. Jones

Beginning with a description of the two chief wings of the German homosexualemancipation movement in the early twentieth century, the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee and the Community of the Self-Owners, thearticle shows how Hanns Heinz Ewers's novel, Fundvogel, is a unique combination of seemingly antithetical ideologies. The novel's rather fantastic plot centers on a sex change operation and the question of transforming heterosexual and homosexual desire. The analysis demonstrates how Ewers attempts to fuse together his earlier social attitudes toward homosexuality with his newer political beliefs as a member of the Nazi party. It is found that heterosexuality triumphs, but homosexuality is not completely eradicated; instead, masking makes it acceptable.