Kuno von Moltke

Lieutenant General Kuno Augustus Friedrich Karl Detlev Graf von Moltke (13 December 1847 – 19 March 1923), adjutant to Kaiser Wilhelm II and military commander of Berlin, was a principal in the homosexual scandal known as the Harden-Eulenburg Affair (1907) that rocked the Kaiser's entourage. Moltke was forced to leave the military service.

Kuno von Moltke

Biography

In 1896 Moltke, a 'confirmed bachelor' in his early 50s, married Nathalie von Hayden ('Lilly'), a woman more than twenty years his junior.^[1] The couple soon became estranged, with Moltke's physician later alleging that Lilly had physically attacked Moltke several times.^[2] The couple were eventually divorced in 1902 (the formal divorce proceedings took several years to conclude).^[1]

The Eulenburg affair

Main article: Eulenburg affair

In 1907, the journalist Maximilian Harden publicly accused Moltke and Philipp, Prince of Eulenburg of a homosexual relationship. At this time, homosexual acts between men were illegal per Paragraph 175 of the German Criminal Code.

Accusations and counter-accusations quickly multiplied. Later that year, Moltke sued Harden for libel. His ex-wife Lilly (who had since remarried and was now called Lilly von Elbe) voluntarily testified against him.^[1] Magnus Hirschfeld, a physician and sexologist who supported the legalization of homosexuality in Germany, testified that he believed Moltke to be homosexual.^[1] The court "sensationally" acquitted Harden, concluding that he had been telling the truth about Moltke's sexuality.^[3] However, the verdict was voided due to faulty procedure.^[3]

In 1908, Harden was retried, and this time he was found guilty of libel against Moltke.

German press reaction

After the first trial, the German press were sympathetic to Moltke. Newspapers condemned the tactics of the defense and expressing condolence with Count von Moltke, who was declared to have presented a dignified figure in court. Berliner Tageblatt condemned Harden for his salacious articles, and argued that they amounted to the unnecessary hunting down of an old soldier.^[4]

Later life

Moltke played little further part in public life after the Harden-Eulenberg affair.^[5] He died in Breslau in 1923.^[6]

Orders and decorations

German honours^[7]

• Service Award Cross (Prussia)
• Iron Cross, 2nd Class (Prussia)
• Knight of the Order of the Red Eagle, 3rd Class with Bow and Crown; 2nd Class with Oak Leaves (Prussia)
• Knight of the Royal Order of the Crown, 2nd Class with Star (Prussia)
• Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern (Prussia)
• Commander of the Order of the Zähringer Lion, 2nd Class, 1894;^[8] Commander 1st Class, 1904 (Baden)^[9]
• Knight of the Military Merit Order, 2nd Class with Swords; Commander (Bavaria)
• Grand Commander of the House Order of the Wendish Crown (Mecklenburg)
• Grand Cross of the Order of the Griffon (Mecklenburg)
• Commander of the Order of the White Falcon (Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach)
• Commander of the Albert Order, 1st Class (Saxony)
• Cross of Honour of the House Order of Schaumburg-Lippe, 2nd Class (Schaumburg-Lippe)
• Cross of Honour of the Order of the Württemberg Crown, with Crown, 1893 (Württemberg)^[10]

Foreign honours^[7]

• Knight of the Imperial Order of the Iron Crown, 2nd Class (Austria-Hungary)
• Commander of the Imperial Austrian Order of Franz Joseph, with Star (Austria-Hungary)
• Commander of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus (Italy)
• Commander of the Order of Orange-Nassau (Netherlands)
• Order of the Medjidie, 1st Class (Ottoman Empire)
• Knight of the Imperial Order of Saint Anna, 2nd Class in Diamonds (Russia)
• Knight of the Imperial Order of Saint Stanislaus, 1st Class (Russia)
• Commander of the Most Noble Order of the Crown of Siam (Siam)
• Commander of the Royal Order of the Sword (Sweden)

Further reading

• Isabel Hull, The entourage of Kaiser Wilhelm II, Cambridge 1982.
• John Röhl, Des Kaisers bester Freund, in: Kaiser, Hof und Staat. Wilhelm II. und die deutsche Politik, Munich 1988, pp. 35–77, v.a. 64 ff.
• Nicolaus Sombart, Wilhelm II. Sündenbock und Herr der Mitte, Berlin 1996.
• Olaf Jessen: Die Moltkes. Biographie einer Familie, C. H. Beck, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-406-604997