Anna Rüling

Theodora "Theo" Anna Sprüngli (15 August 1880 – 8 May 1953), better known under the pseudonym Anna Rüling, was a German journalist whose speech in 1904 was the first political speech to address the problems faced by lesbians. One of the first modern women to come out as homosexual, she has been described as "the first known lesbian activist".

Early life and education Rüling was born into a middle-class family in Hamburg, German Empire. Her parents were Adolf Sprüngli, a Swiss overseas businessman, and Caroline Sprüngli, née Dangers. Along with at least one sister, Rüling was raised in a "rigid atmosphere of a Hanseatic household". She attended a school for young ladies and, as deemed appropriate for a middle-class girl, received instructions in piano and music theory. Rüling moved to Berlin, where she worked for August Scherl for some time, writing newspaper articles on music and theatre, and earning some extra money from giving private music lessons.

The Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, the world's first LGBT advocacy group, invited Rüling to speak at its conference in Berlin on 9 October 1904. She was the only speaker that specifically addressed the issues faced by lesbians. She gave the speech "Homosexualitat und Frauenbewegung" (Homosexuality and the Women's Movement).

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." This, she claimed, made homosexual women well-suited for professional occupations.

What proved most controversial, however, were not her views themselves – it was her straightforward admission of her own homosexuality and evident taking pride in it.

Later career On 27 October 1904, Rüling gave a speech to Friedrich Radszuweit's Bund für Menschenrecht, another organisation working advocating gay rights, and was briefly a member. Two years later, she published a collection of lesbian-themed short stories: (Which among you is without sin?). These stories were unique at the time for containing happy endings to love stories between women.

Leaving Berlin, Rüling moved to Düsseldorf, where she lived for 30 years. In 1911, she joined the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, as its fourth female "chairman" at the time. From 1914 until the mid-1920s, her writings were regularly published in Neue Deutsche Frauenzeitung, a right-wing paper with moderate views on women's rights.

During the First World War, Rüling proved to be an ardent patriot, nationalist and imperialist. It does not appear, however, that she ever joined the Nazi Party. She left Düsseldorf, as well as full-time journalism, in the late 1930s, moving to Ulm. There she worked as secretary, director and script-editor at the municipal theatre. A decade later, she relocated to Delmenhorst, continuing the theatre career but also resuming journalism in 1949. At the time of her sudden death on 8 May 1953, the 72-year-old Theo Anna Sprüngli ("Anna Rüling") was one of the oldest female journalists in the Federal Republic of Germany.