Die BIF – Blätter Idealer Frauenfreundschaften

Die BIF was published by Selli Engler, later known as a prominent lesbian activist. According to the imprint it was located at Großbeerenstraße 74 III in Kreuzberg. Engler acted as publisher, editor and writer[2] but, as a result of financial difficulties and illness, had to delay publishing twice.[3] Die BIF was printed at Mitsching's Buchdruckerei in Berlin. The 1927 issues were distributed by the GroBuZ company in Berlin. Advertising offices were available in many large towns in Germany, including Dresden, Munich, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Duisburg.[1]

Only three issues are known to have been published: Issue No. 1 (date unknown) and Issues No. 2 and 3 from 1927. The only known originals belong to the collection of Deutsche Nationalbibliothek in Leipzig. Copies can be found in the special libraries Spinnboden – Lesbenarchiv und Bibliothek, Schwules Museum and Magnus-Hirschfeld-Gesellschaft in Berlin and at the library of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.[1]

The exact dates of publication of Die BIF are still unknown, as the first and the last issues contain no information on when they were published. For many years researchers suggested either 1924[4] or 1926[3] as possible dates for the first issue. As 1924 has since been discounted, publication is believed to have started either in 1925 or more likely 1926. The two other issues are from 1927, the year Engler discontinued Die BIF and started writing for the competing magazine Frauenliebe.[1]

Die BIF had 24 pages and was released as a monthly magazine on the first of the month, sold at a price of 1 Mark, a relatively high price, as well as by subscription. In Issue No. 3, Engler announced a lower price for a reduced number of pages, down to 50 Pfennig for 12 pages.[5]

Die BIF was the first lesbian magazine to be owned, published, edited and written by women, all known former magazines (Die Freundin and Frauenliebe) were owned, published and even partly written by men.[6]

Die BIF published mainly literary works such as fictional prose and poems along with the occasional historical or analytical article on lesbianism.[3] The intention was to offer a magazine with a standard higher than that of its competitors, considered by Engler to be inadequate. In contrast to Freundin and Frauenliebe, it refrained from reporting on Berlin's contemporary lesbian social life.[4]

All original content of Die BIF was written by women. While many articles were written by Engler herself, other prominent writers included Olga Lüdeke and Ilse Espe. All in all, there were at least ten contributors, five of whom went on to write for Frauenliebe. In addition to their articles, there were occasionally excerpts of works by men, selected by the publisher for their interest to readers, for example snippets from Alexandre Dumas, Magnus Hirschfeld or Otto Weininger.[1]

Only few contemporary comments on Die BIF are known. Franz Scott wrote in 1933, that Die BIF has been launching "excellent artistic and literary contributions", which in accordance with its standards made Die BIF superior to Freundin and Frauenliebe. It failed because the target group was undemanding.[7] Scott's judgement has been heavily criticized as biased, contradictory and one-sided by Hanna Hacker in 2015.[8] As a visual record a photograph exists by Magnus Hirschfeld from 1927, showing along other gay papers two issues of Die BIF from the archive of the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft.[9] In 1938 the national socialist jurist Rudolf Klare mentioned Die BIF in his article "Zum Problem der weiblichen Homosexualität" (On the problem of female homosexuality) as an example of the "abundant press" by "organisations of female homosexuals" of the 1920s in Germany.[10]

Since the discovery of Die BIF in the 1980s, German and international researchers acknowledge its pioneering role as the first lesbian magazine run by women (and the only one until Vice Versa was published in 1947).[3] Florence Tamagne highlighted Die BIF's "unique quality".[6] Referring to its contents, in 2016 Claudia Schoppmann referred to Die BIF as "a monthly magazine with a low literary standard".[11]