Karl Heinrich Ulrichs was born on August 28, 1825, in Aurich, in the Kingdom of Hanover (Germany). Many members of his family were Lutheran pastors, while his father was a civil servant.
At the age of three, he wore girls’ clothing and later struggled when he was forced to dress as a boy; he was often excluded and humiliated by other boys and preferred playing with his sister’s friends.
At ten, he experienced his first crush on a slightly older boy, though he was never able to approach him, and around the age of fifteen, he discovered his lifelong attraction to soldiers.
He enrolled in the Faculty of Law at the University of Göttingen, and during his second year, he fully realized his attraction to men: during a dance, he saw students from the forestry school and felt irresistibly drawn to them.
He later moved to Berlin to continue his studies.
After graduating, he passed the state examination to become a judicial auditor and was then promoted to Assessor. He began taking an interest in the debate on the unification of Germany and gained a role in the Frankfurt National Assembly (1848–1849). Meanwhile, his career progressed quickly: he became Amtsassessor extra in 1852 and a judge the following year.
However, in 1854, Ulrichs was forced to leave public service after being accused of “unnatural lustful practices with other men.”
In the years that followed, he moved across various parts of Germany, often encountering legal troubles. It is unclear how he managed to support himself financially; on the one hand, he continued to offer legal aid to the poor (for which he was sanctioned), and on the other, he dedicated himself to literature.
In 1862, Ulrichs decided to publicly advocate for the rights of homosexuals. The triggering event was the arrest of Johann Baptist von Schweitzer, president of a workers’ association in Frankfurt, accused of seducing a fourteen-year-old boy. Schweitzer was sentenced to 14 days in prison, and Ulrichs studied and wrote about the case.
That same year, he revealed his condition to his family through a letter addressed to eight relatives. Due to the family’s strong religious convictions, the revelation met with negative reactions; his sister Ulrike was especially harsh, describing his nature as “disgusting.”
In the summer of 1863, he began writing his reflections in a series of booklets, later collected under the title Forschungen über das Räthsel der mannmännlichen Liebe (Research on the Riddle of Male-Male Love), published up to 1879.
In the first booklet, Vindex, he laid the foundation for his theories. First, he had to invent terminology to describe homosexuality (the word “homosexual” was not yet in use). The gay man was called Uranian (Uranier), while the heterosexual man was Dionian (Dionäer). These terms were later replaced by Urning and Dioning.
According to his theory, Urnings formed a third sex, a kind of sexual hermaphrodite (as opposed to the physical hermaphrodite): they were considered men with a woman’s soul. Since the physical hermaphrodite was a creature of God and therefore natural, the same had to apply to the sexual hermaphrodite, the Uranian. Moreover, Ulrichs argued that the Uranian’s sexual desire, being God-given, had the right to be fulfilled. Therefore, the Urning could not be prosecuted, as he committed no “act against nature,” contrary to anti-sodomy laws.
In the second booklet, Inclusa, Ulrichs attempted to provide scientific evidence that homosexuality was not immoral. He argued that Urnings were only attracted to young Dionings, and the more masculine the Dioning, the greater the attraction for the Urning. For the Dionings, allowing the Urnings to find pleasure was not an immoral act, but simply a neutral one.
However, the love an Urning felt was not just sexual satisfaction: it was love “with all the heart, tender and full of longing,” and thus, “where there is true love, there is also nature.” He concluded Inclusa by challenging those unconvinced by his theory: “Now prove to me that your love for women is innate.”
Both of the first booklets were published in 1864 under the pseudonym Numa Numantius. A copy of Vindex was sent to the Minister of Justice of the Grand Duchy of Hesse in Darmstadt, in the hope of helping those accused of “crimes against nature,” but the attempt failed, and the police confiscated all remaining copies.
After receiving numerous letters of support from other Urnings, Ulrichs continued writing additional booklets: Vindicta, Formatrix, and Ara Spei.
Vindicta was especially addressed to his fellow Urnings, encouraging them to keep fighting for equal rights. Formatrix expanded the scientific theory outlined in Inclusa. Ara Spei argued that the Urning had a right to satisfy his desires, whatever the cost.
From 1865, he settled in the town of Burgdorf. He tried again to enter public service, but by then he was known to the authorities and was denied the position. He continued to support himself by writing poetry and newspaper articles.
Also in 1865, he wrote a document titled Regulations for the Union of Urnings, a mixture of practical advice and lofty ideals aimed at improving the lives of Urnings.
He kept protesting against anti-sodomy laws, even sending a draft law proposal to the Congress of German Jurists—though it was never discussed.
In 1866, the Kingdom of Hanover was formally annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia following the Austro-Prussian War. A fierce opponent of the Prussian government, Ulrichs was arrested and imprisoned in the Fortress of Minden for four months, where he wrote poetry.
Upon his release, Ulrichs decided to bring his cause to the Sixth Congress of German Jurists in Munich (at the Odeon Concert Hall). On August 29, 1867, he was granted permission to speak before the plenary assembly, in what is now considered the first public coming out in history.
Ulrichs was deeply anxious about taking this step and nearly backed out. When he began his speech against anti-homosexual laws, the audience was divided: some urged him to continue, curious, while others insulted him and demanded he leave the podium. The latter prevailed, and he was unable to finish. An elderly man then spoke, thanking the assembly for rejecting such a proposal “in the interest of morality.”
The event was documented in the 1868 booklet Gladius Furens, which Ulrichs signed with his real name, abandoning his pseudonym.
With the publication of Memnon in 1868, Ulrichs’ writings could no longer be ignored. His arguments were dismantled by the press, medical community, and political sphere.
Memnon was a reflection on the morality of anal intercourse, which Ulrichs believed was relatively rare. He wrestled with whether to condemn the act to reduce public prejudice or defend it to advocate for dignity and rights. He chose a middle path: although he found anal penetration personally repugnant, he did not consider it immoral.
Meanwhile, Ulrichs was planning another booklet, Incubus, inspired by the trial of Carl Ernst Wilhelm von Zastrow, accused of rape. Ulrichs argued that Zastrow was never given a fair trial, as his homosexuality was known to the police, and he emphasized there was no connection between being Urning and being a criminal.
In 1869, discussions began for drafting the new Penal Code of the North German Confederation, particularly regarding the abolition of the Prussian anti-homosexuality law. Ulrichs sent five letters to the commission and submitted his booklets, but the law remained unchanged.
In 1870, Ulrichs published the first issue of his Urning journal, Uranus, titled Prometheus. There were two main reasons for publishing Uranus: growing interest in Urning love across Europe and the wealth of material Ulrichs had collected. The journal discussed topics such as the historical presence of Urning love and the social pressure faced by Urnings, including so-called “martyr marriages,” in which an Urning was forced to marry a woman. He even mentioned same-sex Urning marriages for the first time. However, the publishing project was not continued, and Prometheus remained the journal’s only issue.
That same year, he published another booklet, Araxes, continuing his protest against anti-homosexual laws. It was intended to encourage Bavaria—then the only German state never to have had such laws—to resist them. But just months later, Bavaria became part of the new German Empire and adopted Prussian laws.
The final booklet in the series was published in 1879 under the title Critische Pfeile (Critical Arrows), in which he reviewed the history of homosexual persecution, attributing its origin to an irrational repulsion toward Urnings. Since this repulsion was irrational, it could not be the foundation for rational laws. In his view, homosexual acts should only be punishable in three cases: if a child was involved, if violence was used, or if they occurred in public.
A thirteenth booklet, Der Urning und sein Recht (The Urning and His Rights), was begun but never published.
In 1880, Ulrichs left Germany, which had become too difficult for him, and moved to Italy, where he continued his advocacy work on a smaller scale. After traveling through various Italian cities, he settled in L’Aquila, hosted by the Latin scholar Marquis Nicolò Persichetti. There, he supported himself by giving lessons and writing homoerotic short stories and poetry.
He also launched a Latin journal, Alaudae, where he moved away from his previous themes and only rarely mentioned the anti-Prussian struggle or the cause of the Urnings.
Ulrichs died in a hospital in L’Aquila on July 14, 1895. He was buried in the Monumental Cemetery of L’Aquila.
During his lifetime, Ulrichs rarely achieved tangible success, but he nonetheless managed to redefine—and in many ways invent—homosexuality, bring the homosexual community together, and lay the groundwork for the future growth of the LGBTQIA+ movement.