Selli Engler

[1] At this time at the latest, she also became part of the lesbian scene in Berlin and dealt with sexual science writings on female homosexuality.

Franz Scott, a contemporary author on the lesbian scene of the Weimar Republic, wrote about her nature that she "always had a distinguished masculine and serious swing",[1] in 1929 she described herself with self-irony as "a pretty solid guy (who's laughing?)".

[1] Die BIF was unique among lesbian publications of the time as it was the first one published, edited and written solely by women; both competing magazines were dominated by men.

From 1926 to 1927, she ran the weekly "Damen-BIF-Klub",[6] and in September 1929, she opened the ladies' club Erâto on the premises of the Zauberflöte, a well-known gay and lesbian venue.

In 1933, 1938 and 1943, Engler filed an application for membership in the Reichsschrifttumskammer (RSK), part of the Reichskulturkammer, the state organization to which all artists were required to belong.

On the basis of the RSK-files, poems, prose texts, dramas and an opera libretto can be traced, she also gave occasional lectures, but none of her works has survived.

In 1956, she was briefly observed by the East German Stasi, whose report described her as "1.69m tall, of stable figure, has a full face and was carelessly dressed."

[1] Already contemporary, Franz Scott saw Engler in an outstanding position as one of the pioneers of the lesbian movement alongside Lotte Hahm.

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.