Harden-Eulenburg Affair

The Harden-Eulenburg affair, often simply Eulenburg affair, was the controversy surrounding a series of courts-martial and five regular trials regarding accusations of homosexual conduct, and accompanying libel trials, among prominent members of Kaiser Wilhelm II's cabinet and entourage and the chancellor von Bismarck during 1907-1909. It is often considered the biggest domestic scandal of the German Second Reich. While the controversy centred on Philipp Prince zu Eulenburg-Hertefeld and his accuser, journalist Maximilian Harden, accusations and counter-accusations quickly multiplied with the phrase "Liebenberg Round Table" being used to describe the gay male circle around the Kaiser.

Source

• Steakley, James D. (revised 1989). "Iconography of a Scandal: Political Cartoons and the Eulenburg Affair in Wilhelmin Germany", Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay & Lesbian Past (1990), Duberman, et al, eds. New York: Meridian, New American Library, Penguin Books. ISBN 0452010675.