Justus Lockwood

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In 1904, German physician and sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935) mentioned in his book "Berlins Drittes Geschlecht" (Berlin's Third Sex) an "uranian artist" who about a year prior had hosted "jour fixe" gatherings in his stately home. According to Hirschfeld, the host received visitors in "a kind of intermediate attire, something between a princess dress and an official uniform" (Hirschfeld 1991: 65).[[1] The musical presentations – and here Hirschfeld thought primarily of the host's songs for baritone and alto voice, as well as the piano playing by a "Danish pianist" – were said to have been of high quality. Psychiatrist Paul Näcke (1851-1913) wrote something similar in an article later (cf. Näcke 1991). Neither Hirschfeld nor Näcke mentioned names, but today there is no doubt that the "uranian" artist they spoke of was the Baltic nobleman Willibald von Sadler-Grün. He was an excellent singer and a "master of travesty" who loved to perform as queen or princess, and before World War I he belonged to the circle of friends and guests around Magnus Hirschfeld and his Scientific-Humanitarian Committee (WhK), the world's first advocacy organization for homosexuals (cf. Hergemöller 2010: 1015). The identity of the "Danish" pianist who accompanied him had long been unknown. But today we can assume that he was not Danish at all, but Norwegian, and that his full name was Justus Henry Lockwood.[[2]

It is not yet possible to paint a complete picture of Justus Lockwood's life, but various documents and written statements from people who knew him shed light on his life's journey. Justus Henry Lockwood was born in Bergen on January 26, 1852, as the son of wealthy merchant Henrich James Lockwood (1817-1874) and his wife Rasmine Christine, née Kleve (1827-1889).[3] FHis grandfather Justus Busch Lockwood (1784-1839) was American and moved to Bergen around 1814. His mother Rasmine Christine Kleve came from a musical family; her father Rasmus Cornelius Kleve (1798-1833) had been an instrument maker and cellist (cf. Berg 1945: 72). Around 1865, the family lived at Klosteret in Nordnes, Bergen, at that time one of the city's more prestigious addresses.

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According to childhood friend and later renowned Bergen author John Paulsen (1851-1924), who came from more modest circumstances, the parental home of the "curly-haired Justus" was almost "a new world":

Here reigned a modern elegance. On the walls hung paintings by well-known artists in golden frames [...], and portieres by the doors, on the floor thick Brussels carpets. There was also a piano, which we in my home only got when my youngest sister grew up and was to learn to play. And if I am not mistaken, the ceiling in the dining room was decorated with flowers and birds, which was a rarity in Bergen homes of that time (Paulsen 1911: 92).

In Paulsen's descriptions, clear admiration comes through, and a certain envy aroused by the facts that young Lockwood owned a large puppet theater and that, thanks to his family's financial circumstances, he could early on live out his interest in literature and theater.

Lockwood was enrolled at Bergen Cathedral School in 1862 but left in 1869, apparently without completing his education.[4] The following year, his father sold the house at Klosteret, and it is likely that the family left Norway.[5] 

In later Norwegian censuses, there are no traces of them.

John Paulsen was likely homosexual, and in his memoirs he claims that he became "especially close" to Lockwood (Paulsen 1911: 25).[6] But it is unclear what can be read into this formulation. It is also not known whether Paulsen and Lockwood maintained contact after 1870. Magnus Hirschfeld wrote in his book "Die Homosexualität des Mannes und des Weibes" (The Homosexuality of Men and Women) that one of his "sources, a uranist who had traveled extensively" had told him that "according to his experiences and observations, Bergen is the most homosexual city in the world" (Hirschfeld 1914: 534). It has been assumed that Paulsen knew Hirschfeld's "source" (Jordåen 2008: 55), and it is likely that it was precisely Lockwood who had told Hirschfeld about his impressions from his hometown.

It appears the Lockwood family moved to Copenhagen in 1870. At least, the father was living in the Danish capital when his son became a student at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Leipzig four years later. Lockwood had shown early interest in piano playing and received instruction from German-born pianist and composer Ernst Haberbier (1813-1869), who spent his final years in Bergen. Another of Lockwood's music teachers was named "Neubert," and this likely refers to Norwegian pianist Edmund Neupert (1842-1888), who lived in Copenhagen in the 1870s. Another detail suggesting that Lockwood studied for some time in Denmark is that his teacher in music theory was Danish composer Johan Christian Gebauer (1808-1884). This might also explain why both Magnus Hirschfeld and Paul Näcke later described Lockwood as Danish.

From autumn 1874 to summer 1878, Justus Lockwood was a student at the Leipzig Conservatory. In private examinations, he performed works by Bach, Clementi, Beethoven, Chopin, and Mozart. According to two certificates preserved in the conservatory's archives, Lockwood was a talented student and an excellent pianist. Who he associated with in Leipzig is unknown, but in 1874 there were twelve musicians from Norway who became students at the Leipzig Conservatory. The most famous of them today is composer Christian August Sinding (1856-1941) from Kongsberg. A preserved photograph from 1877 also suggests that Lockwood in Leipzig was friends with Czech philosopher Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (1850-1927), who is best known today as Czechoslovakia's first president.

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Lockwood left the Leipzig Conservatory in summer 1878 and afterward led an apparently shifting existence with performances in various cities, perhaps mainly in German-speaking areas. However, he never achieved the major breakthrough as a pianist, and there is little written evidence of his work. Today, it is therefore not known exactly where he lived until his death in 1912. But it is documented that he resided at times in Munich, Mainz, Berlin, and Dresden. He must have also stayed in Denmark several times, as Danish flautist Ragna Norstrand (1878-1976) mentions him in her memoirs (Norstrand 1969: 9). On May 20, 1880, Lockwood was back in Bergen and held a concert featuring works by Grieg, Beethoven, Liszt, and others. The newspaper Bergen Adressecontoirs efterretninger carried an advertisement for the concert one day prior (BAe 1880).

In autumn 1896, French lawyer Eugen Wilhelm (1866-1951) spent several days in Munich, and on that occasion became acquainted with Lockwood. Wilhelm was homosexual and in the early 1900s one of the most active contributors to Magnus Hirschfeld's Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen (Yearbook for Sexual Intermediates). In his diary, Wilhelm describes Lockwood as Swedish and characterizes him as "friendly, very entertaining, but extremely feminine in behavior and conversation." While he disliked this latter aspect, he also noted that he would especially and particularly remember an afternoon he spent with Lockwood and three other acquaintances, including a Frenchman named Jacques. That afternoon, the men made an excursion to "Groß Hesselohe where I, lying in Jacques' arms, kissed him, where he told sweet stories of his adventures and where I, in the splendor of an admirable landscape and a wonderful autumn evening, long enjoyed the moment without worries." [7]

It is not clear why Wilhelm claimed Lockwood was Swedish. It was likely just an inaccuracy, for the contact between Wilhelm and Lockwood never seems to have become particularly deep. What to some extent connected the two was a mutual friend, the then already deceased judge Edmond North (1857-1895) from Illkirch-Graffenstaden in Alsace. As Wilhelm wrote, Lockwood was supposed to have been North's "friend." Where and how North and Lockwood became acquainted is not documented. Wilhelm did not meet Lockwood again until 1901, that is, five years later. Again, he noted in his diary about Lockwood: "He has not changed (pleasant company, but very superficial and extremely effeminate)." About ten days later, during Pentecost 1901, Wilhelm spent several days in Wiesbaden, and once stayed overnight in the neighboring city of Mainz where he and Lockwood spent "a good evening" together.[8] It is even possible that it was Lockwood who on that occasion inspired Wilhelm to make his grand tour through Scandinavia just a few weeks later (cf. Dubout and Wolfert 2013).

Although the repeated meetings seem to have been largely pleasant, it would be six years before Wilhelm and Lockwood met again, this time in Berlin. Around the turn of 1907/08, Wilhelm wrote in his diary: "At Café Continental on Potsdamer Straße well-attended gatherings every evening, there are always around 50 homosexuals there. If one were to stay in Berlin, one could find pleasant and handsome fellows and friends for a lasting relationship there. There I have also met several old acquaintances again: Kuhn, the doctor from Essen, Lockwood, the former friend of Edmond North who now lives in Berlin and whom I haven't seen in five or six years[9]

By this time, Lockwood must already have been connected with the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee for many years, for in the organization's monthly reports it was stated about a meeting in 1903 that "Mr. Lockwood and Mr. v. Sadler-Grün filled the evening pleasantly with piano and vocal performances respectively" (Herzer and Pfäfflin 1998: 19). That the two artists not only provided musical entertainment at one or more WhK meetings but were also friends privately was confirmed by Wilhelm when he mentioned Lockwood one final time in his diary. In spring 1913, Wilhelm visited Sadler-Grün in Paris – "a friend of the recently deceased Lockwood." [10]

Justus Lockwood died of pneumonia on December 10, 1912, at a hospital in Dresden. [11] 

He was 60 years old. He was still unmarried and had possibly performed as a pianist until the end, for his official address was the mondaine Hotel Bellevue right by the court opera. Where Lockwood lived permanently at the time is not known, but WhK had evidently not completely lost sight of him. However, it appears the contact had become somewhat loose. In a brief note in the Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen, Magnus Hirschfeld and his colleagues merely recorded that the "excellent artist" Justus Lockwood had died around the turn of 1912/13, without mentioning the specific date of death (JfsZ 1913: 248).

Viewed from today's perspective, it is not so much his musical talent that has given Justus Lockwood a lasting reputation. Although it is not clear how continuous his collaboration with WhK was, it is likely that it was precisely he who was Hirschfeld's "source" regarding homosexuality in Norway. Thanks to his friendship with Willibald von Sadler-Grün and Eugen Wilhelm as well as Magnus Hirschfeld's notes about more or less famous "uranians" of his time, Lockwood is still not forgotten. Along with legal historian Ebbe Hertzberg (1847-1912) from Kristiania, he is one of the very earliest homosexual Norwegians we know of today (cf. Jordåen 2015).