LGBT History Month 2025: The Unbreakable Spirit of Robert T. Odeman

Martin Hoyer, known by his stage name Robert T. Odeman, was a German classical pianist, actor, writer, and composer persecuted by the Nazi regime for living openly and unapologetically as a gay man. Born in Blankenese, which became a quarter of Hamburg, he later took his stage name of Robert T. Odeman when he began his career as an actor and musician.

In 1922, he met his first love, architecture student Martin Ulrich Eppendorf, who went by the name Muli, with whom he shared a close and enduring relationship until Muli's untimely death in 1932. But the heartbreak he must have felt did not silence him. He threw himself into his work and Odeman became musical director of the New Theater in Hamburg in 1933 and later opened a cabaret, which the Nazis shut down, claiming it to be "politically subversive." Life under the regime became more and more dangerous. He was betrayed by a boyfriend who turned Odeman in to the Gestapo and consequently arrested under Paragraph 175 (the infamous Nazi law criminalizing homosexuality) in 1937, spending nearly 3 years in prison. After his release in 1940, Odeman was subject to a Berufsverbot (an order of “professional disqualification”) and forbidden from performing in public.

But the worst was yet to come: Odeman was arrested again in 1942 and this time sent to the brutal Sachsenhausen concentration camp. In a twist of fate and unimaginable courage, Odeman managed to escape during a forced death march toward the Baltic Sea in April 1945, alongside other gay prisoners..

After the war and all the unimaginable trauma he had been through, Odeman found inspiration and focused on cultural activities, training as an actor and performing in various theatres. He also wrote satirical poems that were set to music by such notable German musicians as Charles Kálmán and Norbert Schultze. In 1959, he found love again with Günter Nöring. Since same-sex marriage was still a distant dream, Odeman adopted Nöring — a legal workaround used by many queer couples of the time to secure inheritance and other rights. Günter took the name Odeman-Nöring, a quiet but powerful gesture of unity.

Robert T. Odeman lived a full, defiant, creative life — one marked by love, persecution, survival, and ultimately, resilience. He passed away in 1985, at the age of 80, leaving behind a courageous and inspiring legacy.

LGBT History Month 2025: The Bravery and Talent of Brian Stonehouse

Born in England in 1918 to an unwed mother, Brian Stonehouse's early years were marked by societal skepticism and the looming shadow of illegitimacy. His family emigrated to France, where his British roots and sexual identity painted him as a perennial outsider and keen observer, a fate that would shape the rest of his life.

Stonehouse's journey took a dramatic turn during World War II when he became a Special Operations Executive for British intelligence. As a gay secret agent often disguised as a French art student named Michel Chapuis, he faced the horrendous trials of three Vichy prisons and survived the brutalities and torture of five Nazi concentration camps. His survival was partially due to his remarkable talent for drawing; he sketched portraits of the guards’ wives and mistresses, securing extra food and shelter in return, all while keeping his personal vow of never painting or drawing a Nazi officer in uniform. His charm and good looks also played a crucial role; in one camp, he befriended an SS guard who offered him protection.

Immediately after the war, Stonehouse returned to Dachau to sketch the crematoria, driven by a strong desire to "bear witness" to the atrocities he had seen. His commitment to documenting history brought him to the War Crimes Tribunal, where he met American Major Harry Haller. It was Haller who persuaded Stonehouse to emigrate to the United States and kickstart his career as an illustrator.

Stonehouse quickly rose to prominence, becoming one of the most sought-after fashion illustrators of his era. His work graced the pages of leading fashion magazines, and his illustrations became synonymous with elegance and style. However, the 1970s saw a shift in his artistic focus. Stonehouse began experimenting with his drawings, showcasing male models and capturing that era's blossoming gay pride and sexuality, infused with hints of his own identity. In 1979, he returned to Britain and became a portrait painter. His clients included members of the Royal family. One of his last portraits of The Queen Mother, who sat for him many times, still hangs in the Special Forces Club in London.

Brian Stonehouse lived his life like a cinematic epic, filled with adventure, artistry, and passion, but above all else, extreme bravery in the face of death. His story even includes an affair with an unnamed male Swedish film star. He passed away in 1998, leaving behind a legacy that bridged the worlds of espionage and fashion, and a life story that continues to inspire.

Left, Stonehouse in uniform. Right, Stonehouse disguised as Michel Chapuis, French art student.

BEAUTY: Painting--BENKA

I just discovered the work of  BENKA. His artist statement on his site explains it all:

BENKA opposes mankind´s dangerous game of underestimating the consequences of AI. Whether it is the digitization of our social relations through the invasion of smartphone screens, the progressive introduction of humanoids and cyber-surveillance, our contemporary society is facing a crazy mutation.

His artistic approach aims to expose the question of the robotization of our world. If we are still very far from a war against robots as seen in the series of Terminator, our time calls in his opinion to the questioning of our relationship to artificial intelligence. If A.I. has a considerable advantage in fields such as medicine or astronomy, on the other hand, it presents many drawbacks and raises both questions and concerns.

These numbers and letters in his paintings are captchas.

A captcha is a program that protects websites from bots by generating tests that humans can perform unlike malicious computer programs (robots). The captcha is used to verify, for example, that you are a human when connecting to an interface (login) or to avoid "SPAM" on your mailboxes for contact forms on your website.

These captchas are interpreted by BENKA and transformed into a symbol of his artistic struggle.

https://www.instagram.com/benka.1

BEAUTY: Clothing--Saint Laurent

Well, regular readers, I had anticipated posting something--anything--from London Fashion Week but the schedule was so light, there was nothing to post about. I think each day had only maybe three events...and maybe one of those each day was an actual show. Honestly, I think LFW is on life support. Nothing to see here, move along. Let's see if it even exists next winter.

So while Pitti Uomo cycles through (I will be sharing some photos of the Peacocks of Pitti Uomo, as usual) and we wait for Milano Moda Uomo to start, Saint Laurent showed not on a schedule, and in Berlin. The show called "Each Man Kills The Thing He Loves" is a nod to the 1982 Rainer Werner Fassbinder film "Querelle". The inspiration and connections are many and cross back and forth between France and Germany...so hang on. The legendary gay French author and playwright Jean Genet wrote his novel QUERELLE DE BREST in 1945 (published anonymously in 1947 because of the gay subject matter, with illustrations by another legendary gay artist Jean Cocteau). The legendary gay German filmmaker Fassbinder made it into a film called "Querelle" starring Brad Davis as Querelle and the legendary French actress Jeanne Moreau. In it, Moreau sings a song called "Each Man Kills The Thing He Loves" based on a line from an Oscar Wilde poem. Current head of Saint Laurent Anthony Vaccarello showed his Spring Summer 2024 collection at Berlin’s newly renovated Neue Nationalgalerie designed by another legendary German, Mies van der Rohe. A classic Parisian house, Saint Laurent, started by a legendary gay fashion icon, now headed by a Belgian designer created a collection that is Teutonic vs. Gallic, and the mash up of what is known in French as tailleur, translated as "suit tailoring" and flou which means the fluid draping of unstructured garments. Hence the cross pollination of the exquisite architectural precision of Mies van der Rohe's steel and glass Parthenon and the flowing, silk and chiffon creations of this collection. Vaccarello has been working hard to do away with gendered clothing for both men and women; he actually sees a sort of middle silhouette that is neither masculine nor feminine. I love this idea of, not the feminization of men in clothing, but the promotion of true genderless dressing.

The immense shoulders on the tuxes and suits mirror the marble monoliths that hold up the ceiling at the museum. Such tension needs its opposite and the louche, off-the-shoulder blouses trailing long Isadora Duncan-like bows tied at the neck are a statement. But after the last Saint Laurent collection from Fall Winter '23-'24 at the imposing Bourse de Commerce in Paris, posted here where I observed that the attitude of the garments were steeped in a dramatic, darkly seductive power that is thrillingly approaching the Vampiric, we have landed in Berlin. And I still think they are all vampires. I mean, just listen to the tense, frightening soundtrack for the show. Overall, I get a little bit of "The Hunger" and a little bit of the recently remade "Interview With The Vampire." Watch the models with slicked-back 1920s hair stride through the space wearing dagger-sharp, heeled boots in the video below, while chamber versions of "Each Man Kills The Thing He Loves" plays...and notice how low the arms are on the aviator sunglasses, making them sit differently on the face. So inky black, so icy, so powerful, so ethereal, so indifferent, these Berlin Vampires. They'll drain ya sure as look at ya.

https://www.ysl.com/

BEAUTY: Painting--Tina Berning

Berlin-based artist Tina Berning creates breathtaking figurative and portrait pieces that utilize very minimal brush strokes. Many have a glorious, ethereal, watercolor-y sense about them. Gauzy, rippling, fading women gaze out dispassionately, yet in compelling colors.

Visit her on-line shop to buy original works as well as prints.
https://www.tinaberning.de/
https://shop.tinaberning.com/