Selli Engler

Selma "Selli" Engler (27 September 1899 – 30 April 1972) was a leading activist of the lesbian movement in Berlin from about 1924 to 1931.

In 1931, Engler withdrew from the movement and focused on her career as a writer. After the end of World War II, she lived in Berlin and unsuccessfully attempted to continue her literary work. She did not return to activism, and died in obscurity in Berlin in 1972.

Engler's work as an activist began either in 1925 or 1926 (probably the latter) with the founding and editorship of the magazine Die BIF – Blätter Idealer Frauenfreundschaften ("Papers of ideal women's friendship"). Die BIF ceased publication after three monthly issues in 1927.

In an analysis of Englers novel Arme kleine Jett, Doris Claus emphasizes the emancipatory value of Englers literary work. By drawing a lesbian way of life without massive conflicts with social environment and society in the realistically drawn Berlin female artist milieu, she sketches a utopia and offers possibilities for identification. and a "prominent lesbian fighter during the Weimar Republic". In 2015, the naming of a Berlin street after Engler was considered, but due to Engler's somewhat ambivalent behaviour during National Socialism, this was controversial, the naming did not take place.

Works Erkenntnis 1927 Das Leben ist nur noch im Rausch zu ertragen 1929, incomplete Arme kleine Jett 1930 Kleine Novellen 1932