(The Homosexual Trials that Rocked Germany)

PART TWO:

In the last issue, we sketched the background and onset of the trials involving the Kaiser's friend, Philip Eulenberg. ..

THE ORDEAL

of

Prince Eulenberg

by Lyn Pedersen

The LOS ANGELES EXAMINER, May 9, 1909, reported:

BERLIN, May 8: Prince zu Eulenberg is under arrest. Following the testimony of two men yesterday, he was placed under custody today in his castle at Liebenberg and hurried to the Charity Hospital, forty miles away, in an automobile. There he is held, while the investigation of the perjury charges against him is being pushed. Although he has been under surveillance for weeks, his arrest is the most sensational development since the trial of Maximilian Harden, editor of DIE ZUKUNFT.

Five years after the retirement of the aging, bedridden Philip Eulenberg, closest friend and adviser of German Emperor Wilhelm II, journalist Harden had charged in his ZUKUNFT that Eulenberg and others "of abnormal temperament" formed a tight circle around the Kaiser, so that they, rather than Germany's constitutional officials, determined imperial policy.

Kuno von Moltke, Commandant of Berlin and nephew of the great Moltke, named as one of the "Liebenberg Circle," sued Harden for libel, and lost. In several confusing trials, the verdict shifted from one side to the other. Eulenberg, having sworn his innocence of any homosexual acts, now faced perjury action on the testimony of two fishermen who swore to such acts with him twenty-five years before.

Eulenberg suffered a heart attack the day after his imprisonment. He suffered constantly from severe bronchial and digestive ailments. Two armed guards blocked the door of his hospital room. Lawyers, judges, police officials, doctors, wife and children paraded in and out but few of his powerful friends.

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