Hans
Henny Jahnn (17 December 1894, Stellingen – 29 November 1959, Hamburg) was
a German playwright, novelist, and organ-builder. Partner Gottlieb Friedrich Harms, buried together
Queer Places:
Nienstedten Cemetery, Nienstedtener Marktplatz 19, 22609 Hamburg, Germania
Hans
Henny Jahnn (17 December 1894, Stellingen – 29 November 1959, Hamburg) was
a German playwright, novelist, and organ-builder.
As a playwright, he wrote: Pastor Ephraim Magnus (1917), which The Cambridge Guide to Theatre describes as a nihilistic, Expressionist play "stuffed with perversities and sado-masochistic motifs"; Coronation of Richard III (1922; "equally lurid");[1] and a version of Medea (1926). Later works include the novel Perrudja, an unfinished trilogy of novels River without Banks (Fluss ohne Ufer), the drama Thomas Chatterton (1955; staged by Gustaf Gründgens in 1956),[1] and the novella The Night of Lead. Erwin Piscator staged Jahnn's The Dusty Rainbow (Der staubige Regenbogen) in 1961.[1]
Jahnn was also a music publisher, focusing on 17th-century organ music. He was a contemporary of organ-builder Rudolf von Beckerath.
He met Gottlieb Friedrich Harms "Friedel" (1893-1931), with whom he was united in a "mystical wedding" in 1913, at a secondary school (the St. Pauli Realschule) which they both attended, and they lived together between 1914 and 1918.[2] They met Ellinor Philips in 1918. In 1919, Jahnn founded the community of Ugrino with a sculptor, Franz Buse.[3] In 1926, Jahnn married Ellinor, and Harms married Sybille Philips, Ellinor's sister, in 1928.
Jahnn's bisexuality, well-documented in his life, appears as well throughout his literary work. Hans Henny Jahnn is buried alongside Harms and Ellinor at Nienstedten Cemetery, Hamburg, Germany.[4]
References:
 Days of Love: Celebrating LGBT History One Story at a Time Paperback – January 29, 2026 by Elisa Rolle |
Other references:
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