Queer Places:
Herengracht 401, 1017 BP Amsterdam

Back row (left to right): Vincent Weyand, Peter GoldschmidtManuel Goldschmidt (October 8, 1926 - March 7, 2012) and Peter Goldschmidt, 'half-Jews' according to Nazi laws, were also student from Eerde. They belonged to the Wolfgang Frommel circle. Their non-Jewish mother arranged safe papers. Their non-Jewish appearance made it possible for them to leave Ommen without going into hiding. Manuel lived in a boarding house on the Amsterdam Singel and was a regular visitor to Herengracht 401. So was his brother Peter. Other friends and frequent visitors included Reinout van Rossum du Chattel and, from Bergen, Chris Dekker and Vincent Weyand. When the author Percy Gothein, the former apple of the eye of Stefan George, who served Wolfgang Frommel as master and lover, visited them in November 1943, a special picture of the men from the Frommel circle was taken in the kitchen of Miep and Guido Theunissen. The picture actually shows a sect-leader, Wolfgang Frommel, and his master Gothein, surrounded by disciples. In 1944 Gothein returned for a longer period of time. Because of the culture of silence created by Frommel, Reinout could only write in 1996 that Percy Gothein 'suddenly found himself in a boy's brothel'.

Rudolf Manuel Goldschmidt was born in Berlin, Germany, the son of Dr. Fritz Goldschmidt and Helene Goldschmidt. From its inception in 1942 until his retirement in 2002, Manuel Goldschmidt was closely involved in the ins and outs of Castrum Peregrini. Together with Wolfgang Frommel, Gisèle d'Ailly van Waterschoot van der Gracht and Claus Bock, he formed the center of the former Castrum Peregrini circle of friends. As Wolfgang Frommel's right-hand man and as director and publisher, he determined the course of the foundation and its publishing house for 40 years (from 1962 to 1998). Manuel Goldschmidt published several poems and collections under the pseudonym Manuel Claussner.


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