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Maximiliane Ackers (Sept. 24, 1896 in Saarbrücken – April 17, 1982 in Glonn) was a lesbian German author and actress famous for writing lesbian fiction.
Ackers was an actress in theater and cabarets in Göttingen, Riga, and Berlin.[1] In the early 1920s, Ackers began working in films, writing and starring in the silent film Burning Country (Brennendes Land).[2][3] In 1921, she was in the cast of Florentine Nights: the Adventures of the Count of Costa (Florentinische Nächte: Die Abenteuer der Gräfin da Costa), written by Heinrich Heine.[2][4]
Ackers moved to Hannover in 1927 with her partner, the artist Irma Johanna Schäfer; they moved to the small town of Glonn in 1935. Ackers died in Glonn in 1982.[1]
Ackers wrote Girlfriends: a Novel (about Women) (Freundinnen: Ein Roman (unter Frauen)), published in Hannover in 1923 and 1925 and in Berlin in 1927 and 1928.[5][6][7][8][9] The novel explores lesbian desire in the setting of the artistic and theatrical society of Weimar Berlin.[10][1] It also touches on issues of gender and sexuality: in response to being asked if one is "a girl or a boy," a character playing Puck responds: "I am what I am."[9]
Freundinnen appeared in several editions of between 7,000 and 10,000 copies.[6][9] The National Socialists banned the book in 1934 and it appeared on the official list of banned books in 1936, and was mentioned in Alfred Rosenberg's anti-lesbian pamphlet Der Sumpf.[11][1][9] In the 1990s, the book was rediscovered by feminists and academics. Freundinnen was republished in 1995 by a German feminist publishing house.[12] Selections from the book appeared in An Encyclopedia of German Writers, 1900-1933.[13]
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