Research

The Trial of Gustav Graef: Art, Sex, and Scandal

in Late Nineteenth-Century Germany 

(NIU Press, 2017)

Available Here!

 Summary: Although largely forgotten now, the 1885 trial of German artist Gustav Graef was a seminal event for those who observed it. Graef, a celebrated sixty-four-year-old portraitist, was accused of perjury and sexual impropriety with underage models. On trial alongside him was one of his former models, the twenty-one-year-old Bertha Rother, who quickly became a central figure in the affair. As the case was being heard, images of Rother, including photographic reproductions of Graef’s nude paintings of her, began to flood the art shops and bookstores of Berlin and spread across Europe. Spurred by this trade in images and by sensational coverage in the press, this former prostitute was transformed into an international sex symbol and a target of both public lust and scorn. Passionate discussions of the case echoed in the press for months, and the episode lasted in public memory for far longer.

The Graef trial, however, was much more than a salacious story that served as public entertainment. The case inspired fierce political debates long after a verdict was delivered, including disputes about obscenity laws, the moral degeneracy of modern art and artists, the alleged pernicious effects of Jewish influence, legal restrictions on prostitution, the causes of urban criminality, the impact of sensationalized press coverage, and the requirements of bourgeois masculine honor. Above all, the case unleashed withering public criticism of a criminal justice system that many Germans agreed had become entirely dysfunctional. The story of the Graef trial offers a unique perspective on a German Empire that was at the height of its power, yet riven with deep political, social, and cultural divisions. This compelling study will appeal to historians and students of modern German and European history, as well as those interested in obscenity law and class and gender relations in nineteenth-century Europe. 

Selected Reviews: 

“Hartston’s microhistorical method of using the dramatic events of the Graef trial as a window into broader societal themes in German history follows the work of recent cutting-edge modern and early-modern European historiography. This book is a very welcome addition to scholarship on Germany, which lacks English-language studies in this mode. Hartston has a strong narrative style with wonderfully clear, jargon-free prose.”

—Ann Goldberg, author of Honor, Politics, and the Law in Imperial Germany, 1871–1914

 “This fascinating microhistory of the Gustav Graef trial uses the scandal as a lens through which to view multiple developments in imperial Germany: changes in the art world, the status of lower-class women, transformations in the court system, and the material and legal status of potentially obscene images. Hartston brings together histories that are often treated separately and offers a broad, original portrait of the legal, artistic, and social tensions at work in late nineteenth-century Germany.”

—Sarah L. Leonard, author of Fragile Minds and Vulnerable Souls: The Matter of Obscenity in Nineteenth-Century Germany  

 "Hartston gives his readers a compelling story that serves as a window into the larger debates of the time: debates concerning the freedom of artistic expression, the role of the press as intermediary between the court system and the broader populace, and the supposed decline in sexual morality, just to name a few… It is Hartston’s deft balancing of a particular focus on the Graef trial and a broader view of its historiographical implications that makes this book a successful example of microhistory."

—Jill S. Smith , author of Berlin Coquette: Prostitution and the New German Woman, 1890-1933, in the American Historical Review. 

Sensationalizing the Jewish Question: Antisemitic Trials 

and the Press in the  Early German Empire

(Brill, 2016)

Available Here!

Summary: Historians have generally assumed that the French Dreyfus Affair had no counterpart in turn-of the-century Germany. However, while no single anti-Semitic trial in Germany had the social and political impact of the Dreyfus Affair, a series of sensational court cases did have a significant influence on the growth and development of anti-Semitism in Imperial Germany. These trials, which included prominent libel cases and several ritual murder accusations, frequently spurred debates in the German press about the nature of Judaism and the role and influence of Jews in German society. This book examines the nature of these anti-Semitic affairs, assesses their role in German politics, and evaluates their effect on the overall development of German anti-Semitism. 

Reviews:

"Readers of German-Jewish newspapers of the Kaiserreich will immediately recognize the importance of Barnet Hartston's book. Those newspapers were full with reports concerning the latest libels, the most outrageous defamation charges, and the ceaseless attempts of anti-Semites to transform the judicial courts into a forum for their religious and racial prejudice. Hartston has brought these cases together, analyzing the famous, the infamous, and the long forgotten among them; in the process he has illuminated a central but overlooked aspect of anti-Semitism in the Kaiserreich. [...] Hartston has written a fine book. Graced with clear prose and balanced judgment, it guides the reader through a maze of cases that, if now forgotten, were very much a part of the public vocabulary of late nineteenth-century Germany. He has also added a very useful appendix, detailing the range of newspapers, Jewish and non-Jewish, that discussed the Jewish question. And he has set his contribution in the context of the considerable new literature on anti-Semitism in the German Empire a literature that has significantly broadened our sense that electoral politics hardly exhausted the byways of prejudice." 

-- Helmut Walser Smith, Central European History 39 (2006), 712-714 

"Barnet Hartston s examination of antisemitic trials and the press in the early Imperial German context, Sensationalizing the Jewish Question [...] has much to offer scholars interested in a more sophisticated understanding of the complexities of the Non-Jewish Question." 

-- Lars Fischer, The Journal of Modern History vol. 82 (2011), 887-888. 

"In addition to uncomplicating the legal procedures and principles of the German judicial system, the author provides a useful overview of the political press. Also of value is his running commentary on the controversy-prone historiography of imperial era antisemitism. His presentation of the opposing views is fair and succinct; his own positions are always cautious and balanced. The thorough archival research makes new and underutilized sources available to other scholars. In summary, the book delivers on its promises and is a welcome addition to the literature." 

-- Richard S. Levy. H-German, H-Net Reviews. June, 2006.