The Hustler is set in Berlin in the “Golden Twenties” and describes the life of Günther, who ran away from his village at age fifteen and made his way to Berlin as a prostitute. At the same time, the bookseller Hermann Graff came to Berlin to work there; he falls in love with Günther. The authenticity of the book is no coincidence.
The German author John Henry Mack (1864-1933) visited all the gay bars in Berlin in 1924. In autumn he sat in the back room of the Marienkasino with his back against the wall at a long table, with two, three, four or more boys around him, had sausage sandwiches, cigarettes and beer brought for them and let them talk over and over again. The result is a remarkable book as a contemporary witness to the gay scene in Berlin of the 1920s. Günther flees to the big city, where he joins hundreds of other youngsters whose only chance of survival was to walk the streets depicted in this book – Friedrichstrasse, Unter der Linden and especially Die Passage – or to visit nightly bars like Adonis, to find gentlemen young and old who would pay them a few marks after having sex or just the company of these young lads that would allow the hustlers to survive another day.
Just as Mackay has his two protagonists arrive at the same hour in the Eldorado of homosexuals, he brings them together. Günther has no idea what he is looking for in the big city. Curious and full of expectation, he throws himself into the life of the metropolis, while Hermann has a very clear idea of what drives him to Berlin. What should have been an unusual love story develops into a realistic and sensitively written drama. Under the pseudonym “Sagitta” Mackay published in the world’s first gay magazine – “Der Eigene” – and worked on the project “The Books of Nameless Love”. The first two volumes appeared in 1906, were banned by the police and destroyed. In 1913 the third and fourth books were published as part of a complete edition, followed by an edition of poems and in 1926 the novel “The Hustler”. Incidentally, the original German title Der Puppenjunge is a colloquial and outdated synonym for a young prostitute and bears the subtitle “The Story of a Nameless Love from Friedrichstrasse”.
The book is entertaining and exciting to read. The sometimes overblown passages and expressions are due to the time of origin and do not disturb, but effortlessly put the reader back in time. Hermann’s and Günther’s quarrels are very emotional, the sensitive worlds of the two could not be more different. At first Hermann realizes that for him love means possession, he must possess Günther. It is only at the end of the book that he is beautifully reminded that his love is “…fleeting, let it be light as a spring day; like a sunbeam; what a happy hour it is. And don’t ask! Because it stands outside of all human laws and customs, it is freer and therefore perhaps more beautiful.” The dramatic turn in the course of history shows us once again what our predecessors took upon themselves, despite the dangers and laws, to achieve their love and to stand by their true self. Numerous men like Hermann and Günther have dared and step by step they have followed the path that has enabled us to be who we are today.
The Hustler – The Story of a Nameless Love from Friedrichstrasse | John Henry Mackay | ISBN 978 1401 044 916 | XLibris 2002