A flamboyant porcelain vase—adorned with a gilded iguana, a fruit bouquet and a pineapple crown—sold at Lempertz in Berlin on April 24 for €300,000. The 116-centimeter piece is believed to have been a gift from Kaiser Wilhelm II to Prince Philipp of Eulenburg-Hertefeld, a relic of a relationship that would become the center of one of the German Empire’s most explosive scandals.
Wilhelm II became emperor in 1888 and soon acquired a reputation as insecure, mercurial and keenly attentive to his public image. Eulenburg, a diplomat, emerged as his most important extra-parliamentary confidant, hosting intimate hunting parties and artistic retreats at Liebenberg Castle north of Berlin. Those closest to them gave one another pet names: Eulenburg was often called “Phili” or “Philine” and the Kaiser “Liebchen” (“sweetheart”). Their correspondence and the Liebenberg circle’s rituals fostered a neo-romantic culture of intense male friendship that some contemporaries read as erotic.
Critics accused the circle of sycophancy and undue influence. Among them was nationalist journalist Maximilian Harden. Convinced that information leaked from a Liebenberg gathering had softened Germany’s stance during the First Moroccan Crisis (1905–06), Harden resolved to expose and dismantle the group. On November 17, 1906, he published an article titled “Prelude” in Die Zukunft, charging that the Kaiser’s companions wove invisible threads that stifled the Reich and singling out Eulenburg for corruption. Harden used contemporary slang for homosexual conduct to insinuate scandalous private behavior.
Eulenburg briefly withdrew to Switzerland “for health reasons,” then returned in 1907, which only intensified Harden’s campaign. What followed were a sequence of libel suits, courts-martial and public trials that transfixed Europe, drawing comparisons to the Oscar Wilde trials in Britain and the Dreyfus affair in France. Historian Norman Domeier argues the episode laid bare deep weaknesses beneath the empire’s pomp and projected strength.
One of the most sensational episodes involved General Kuno von Moltke, Berlin’s city commandant. Von Moltke resigned and sued Harden for libel after allegations that he wore rouge and feminine clothing at home. His ex-wife, Lili von Elbe, testified that his intimacy with Eulenburg had ruined their marriage and that they did not share a bed. Harden called sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld as an expert witness; Hirschfeld—who had founded the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee in 1897, the world’s first homosexual rights organization—testified that von Moltke showed a feminine side and described his orientation as innate. Harden was acquitted. Hirschfeld’s testimony circulated a then-radical idea: sexual orientation was not a moral failing but an aspect of identity.
The affair also brutalized public debate about sexuality. Berlin, long home to a lively queer subculture even under Paragraph 175 (the law criminalizing male homosexual acts), found that its nightlife and queer networks became fodder for national conversation and vilification. Rather than liberalizing attitudes, the scandal hardened homophobic sentiment. Historians including Frederik Doktor note the affair sharpened associations between homosexuality and moral degeneracy or disloyalty, intensifying calls to tighten Paragraph 175—measures later embraced and expanded by the Nazis in 1935. Press coverage at times slid into antisemitic attacks against Harden, his lawyer Max Bernstein and Hirschfeld.
Eulenburg’s reputation was devastated. In a defamation trial brought by Harden, witnesses—ranging from an elderly fisherman to petty criminals—testified about alleged youthful encounters with the prince. Eulenburg repeatedly collapsed in court and was declared unfit to stand trial; he withdrew into increasing isolation and died in 1921.
Despite the fallout, the Liebenberg circle continued to orbit the emperor. In 1908 Dietrich Graf von Hülsen-Haeseler, head of the Kaiser’s military cabinet, died suddenly at a hunting dinner while dancing; contemporary reports suggested he collapsed amid costume theatrics, an episode that added to the atmosphere of embarrassment and rumor surrounding the court. Wilhelm’s missteps, and later a public breakdown after ill-advised comments about Britain, further weakened imperial prestige.
Wilhelm II was eventually sidelined by military leaders during World War I, abdicated in 1918 and died in exile in the Netherlands in 1941. The Eulenburg Affair remains a defining episode in both queer history and the political unraveling of the German Empire: a scandal that exposed private lives to public censure, introduced modern arguments about sexual identity into courtroom and press, and deepened the cultural divisions that would shape Germany in the 20th century.