Anna Rüling

**Anna Rüling**, pseudonym of **Theodora "Theo" Anna Sprüngli** (August 15, 1880 – May 8, 1953), was a German journalist and one of the first modern women to come out as gay. Her speech in 1904 was the first political speech to address the problems faced by lesbians; because of this, Rüling has been described as "the first known lesbian activist".

## Early life

Rüling was born into a middle class family in Hamburg, she originally trained as a violinist, but after she injured her arm she turned to journalism. She began her career with a local newspaper before moving to Berlin where she worked for newspaper magnate August Scherl writing about theatre and music.

At some point prior to 1904, Rüling entered into a lesbian relationship.

## Career

On October 9 1904, Rüling was invited to speak at the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, the world’s first LGBTQIA+ advocacy group. She delivered her speech *Homosexualitat und Frauenbewegung*, where she expressed her view that the lesbian mindset had more in common with men than that of other women. She argued that homosexual people were a third gender, and that lesbian women were more reasonable than heterosexual women and more suited to working in professional roles.
On October 27 of the same year, Rüling was invited to speak at Friedrich Radszuweit's Bund für Menschenrecht, another organisation working advocating gay rights, and was briefly a member.

She went on to publish a book of short stories, some of which being lesbian-themed. In 1906, she moved to Dusseldorf where she lived for next thirty years. She became a regular contributor to the Neue Deutsche Frauenzeitung, a right-wing paper with moderate views on women’s rights.
During the First World War, Rüling was an ardent patriotist, nationalist and imperialist. However, there is no evidence that she ever joined the Nazi party. She moved to Ulm in 1930, where she worked as a secretary, director and script editor at a local theatre company.

## Activism and Views

> If we weigh all the contributions which homosexual women have made to the Women's Movement, one would be astounded that its large and influential organizations have not lifted a finger to obtain justice in the state and in society for the not so small number of its lesbian members...
>
> Anna Rüling

Unaware of her sexual orientation, Rüling's family pressured her into a heterosexual marriage. This experience helped Rüling form her opinion about the dangers of forcing gay men and lesbians to conform to a straight mold. Rüling's marriage was not a happy one. She would later speak about the disgust and indifference that lesbians felt toward marital relations with men. She declared that a lesbian who married a man out of social pressure would find "no happiness and be incapable of creating happiness". She called upon the nascent women's movement to publicize "how very destructive it is for homosexuals to enter into marriage".

Rüling believed that homosexuals constituted a third gender, distinct from men and women. She argued that homosexual women were more reasonable than "clearly heterosexual women", and that a lesbian, "like an average normal man, was more objective, more energetic and goal-oriented than the feminine woman". What proved most controversial, however, were not her views themselves, but rather her straightforward admission of her own sexual orientation and evident taking pride in it.

## Later Life

A decade later, Rüling moved to Delmenhorst, where she continued working in theatre but also resumed her career as a journalist. She died suddenly in 1953, aged 72. At the time of her death she was one of the oldest female journalists in Germany.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 "On This Gay Day: In 1880 Anna Rüling is born in Hamburg" (August 15, 2021). outinperth.com. OutInPerth.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Rowold, Katharina. *The Educated Woman: Minds, Bodies, and Women's Higher Education in Britain, Germany, and Spain, 1865-1914.*. Routledge, 2011. ISBN 978-1134625840.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Neumann, Caryn E.: "Rüling, Anna (Theo Anna Sprüngli) (1880-1953)" (August 15, 2021). web.archive.org. QLBTQ. (Archived on July 11, 2014).
4. ↑ Hirschfeld, Magnus. *Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischen-stufen unter besonderer Berucksichtigung der Homosexualitat*. Harald Fischer, 1996. ISBN 978-3891311325.