1927: Frauenliebe, women’s clubs and lesbian networks

In the mid-1920s, organisations for homosexuals in Germany began to set up projects in Austria (for example local distribution offices for their magazines and social ‘women’s groups’ offering leisure activities), which were aimed at lesbian women. These women took up what was offered as part of their existing networks in Austria and continued to develop them.

‘Female friends’, as many called themselves, were familiar with the lesbian, gay and trans culture of the German (self-)organisations from their specialist publications. These contained articles on clubs and associations, parties and conflicts, romantic relationships and debates about sexual identity. Austrian women contributed popular short stories, serialised romances, poems, letters and personal ads to magazines such as “Die Freundin” and “Frauenliebe”. In the main, it was working women from the lower middle classes who formed these communication networks.

The German Friendship Association, which had set up editorial offices in Austria for its magazine “Frauenliebe”, issued an invitation for 20 December 1927 to the first meeting of the Vienna Violetta Women’s Club, which was modelled on the Berlin club of the same name. Although the threat of prosecution for homosexual acts made public events more difficult, women living in Austria who identified as lesbians remained active participants in the initiatives run by the German Friendship Association and its rival organisation, the League for Human Rights, until both organisations were disbanded in 1933.