Der Querschnitt (The Cross-section), 1921–1935
Flechtheim first envisioned Der Querschnitt in 1921 as a sophisticated marketing tool for his galleries than would outperform the simple catalogs he had published for years. Erika Esau, in her comprehensive and richly detailed research on Der Querschnitt, describes the genesis and trajectory of this magazine as a brainchild of strategy, creative daring and whimsy, starting with its title, selected because few magazines started with the letter q.52 As a result of sober editorial and administrative direction, along with toothsome cultural content, Der Querschnitt became one of the most circulated German magazines, no small accomplishment in the cutthroat and saturated German newspaper and magazine market.
The kaleidoscopic pages of Der Querschnitt aimed at a cosmopolitan vision of the times. Through text, photographs, and illustrations, this mixed-media magazine explored all manner of artistic, literary, theatrical, and musical topics from across continental Europe as well as the United States, including jazz and African-American culture. It also sought to distinguish itself among competing publications by featuring original writing and art by high-caliber North American and European writers and artists, including the likes of Ernest Hemingway and George Grosz. Der Querschnitt also showcased beautiful Art Deco publicity designs that furnish plentiful information on commercial, social, and cultural events of the times.
Leafing through volume after volume of Der Querschnitt, it is evident that this publication cannot simply be branded as a commercial strategy or generic publicity venture. It also, quite patently, centered on Flechtheim’s personal interests—
France and French art above all—but also his abiding intellectual and cultural passion for all things Iberian. The magazine published many articles on Picasso and other Spanish modernists (written by Spaniards and non–Spaniards), as well as opinion and literary pieces on Spain. Iberian themes and motifs were illustrations, countless painting reproductions and original illustrations, photographs, and other graphic elements. 53
Just the same, Der Querschnitt also reflected Flechtheim specifically as a Weimar citizen in that he was an enthusiastic participant and promoter of trends within his broader German context. Jean Renoir remarked, with a certain judgmental reserve, “Flechtheim was familiar with the curious aspects of the town [obviously, an allusion to the libertine nightlife of Weimar]. It is true to say that the fashionable entertainments in Berlin between the wars were boxing and homosexualism.”54 Engagement with queerness and boxing was indeed a part of Der Querschnitt. Erik N. Jensen writes that although Der Querschnitt was “clearly catering to the literary set, [it] bore a certain affinity to those other sporting magazines. It unabashedly celebrated boxing,” and noted, “it published photographs of leading athletes and dedicated an entire issue to sports in 1932.”55
Boxing, indeed, had acquired preeminence in German interwar culture, especially in Berlin, where it had become a “cultural happening for the fashionable set.” 56In regard to the magazine’s homoerotic images, Alice Kuzniar remarked that they ranged from “pictures of Eldorado [a famed nightclub] transvestites,” to “frontal photos of nude males in large groups doing physical things: skiers in snowball fights, runners splashing down a mountain stream.” 57 A glance at photos of newspaper stands in Berlin in the period shows that these types of erotic images and “risqué” topics were certainly not a rarity in the Weimar publishing world, which included a great number of gay and lesbian magazines, but it was not the customary element in other publications aiming at a broader bourgeoisie market.58
Florence Tamagne calls Flechtheim was one of the key publishing intermediaries, along with Fritz Gurlitt, in promoting an openly homosexual artistic aesthetic in the publishing world. 59 Florian Illies, in turn, has referred to Der Querschnitt “as the most liberal magazine Germany has ever known” and Michael Reynolds, Hemingway biographer, noted that the magazine was one of the few publications Ernest Hemingway knew would accept a story that touched on homosexuality.60 The magazine reflected the position that physicality, eroticism, art and literature did not need to be segregated from one another for the sake of “propriety” but were rather elements that were organically interwoven. Thus, Flechtheim was a contributor to a Weimar world that in its cinema, publishing, theatre, and nightlife, “anticipated the queer sensibilities” of today.61
Flechtheim was an intimate part of the sporting world. He hosted soirees where the intelligentsia could mingle with boxers, and Max Schmeling, boxer extraordinaire (and ultimately an avid instrument of Nazi publicity), credited Flechtheim for facilitating his own access to elite circles. 62 Flechtheim’s passion for boxing was also reflected through the Flechtheim Galleries, which owned two bronze casts of boxers, one from artist Kurt Edzard titled The Boxer Hans Breitensträter (1924) and another by Rudolf Belling titled The Boxer (Max Schmeling) from 1929.63
Boxing, of course, has strong implications for gender dynamics and the broader Weimar political context. Der Querschnitt praised boxing as a “pure men’s sports” and maligned those who would dare to criticize it as “men with women’s sensibilities.”64 Clearly such statements intended to ward off challenges against virility. It raises questions and curiosity about Flechtheim’s thoughts and sentiments around private and public self-awareness in regard to masculinity and gender, independent of sexual orientation. Moreover, these questions around sports, masculinity, and gender performance pertain to Flechtheim with particular poignancy, given that he embodied what we could label as the “(un) holy trinity” of being an intellectual, a gay man, and a Jew in Weimar culture at a time when physical strength and combat were gaining currency over Bildung as prescribed masculine cultural values.65 In this regard, Jensen notes, of boxing, that “artists and intellectuals revealed a particular attraction to the sport [boxing] that stemmed from a self-conscious attitude toward their own perceived effeteness, a self-consciousness that further underscored the declining masculine status of Bildung. These men sought to bring their own images into closer alignment with the qualities that Weimar society increasingly valued.”66
Der Querschnitt reached its pinnacle under the editorial direction of Hermann von Wedderkop, who became the magazine’s chief editor in 1924. He and Flechtheim had been underwriting the publication costs, but after they convinced the eminent publishing house Verlag to take on the magazine, the financial and professional resources at its disposal skyrocketed. 67
Der Querschnitt continued to publish until 1935, and at the end of the 1920s, the Flechtheim Galleries launched a second publication titled Omnibus. The co-editor was Curt Valentin, a gallerist employed by the Berlin branch of the Flechtheim Galleries since 1927. In addition to reflecting Flechhteim’s position as a person at the heart of Berlin’s intelligentsia, these ventures reveal his willingness to delegate and surround himself with talented people as a project execution strategy. Kahnweiler had observed that Flechtheim could be somewhat erratic and disorganized yet this assessment does not diminish Flechtheim. On the contrary–it enhances his soberness around the need to seek and receive advice and assistance in the pursuit of his visions.68
El rinconcito levantino 