A Scandal in Königsberg

A moral panic over a lurid sex scandal becomes culture war fodder for a polarized nation in this nuanced unearthing of a little-remembered episode in 1830s Prussia. Historian Clark (Revolutionary Spring) recaps how, in the sleepy university town of Königsberg, two Lutheran pastors, Johann Wilhelm Ebel and Heinrich Diestel, began to preach outlandish teachings, including that the universe emerged from the mixing of a “fire egg” with a “water egg.” Women from prominent families flocked to the “Ebelian” movement, and the attempts of “two female adherents... to eject their husbands from their house” over their newfound religious differences led to a torrent of public accusations against the group. Ebel in particular was singled out, accused of encouraging female followers to “engage in... sexual impropriety.” Rumors even circulated that two young women adherents had “died of exhaustion caused by excessive arousal.” What followed, Clark observes, was a remarkably modern “media storm.” The Ebelians became a flash point for a divided public that was easily riled about religion. The media, he explains, was built to cater to this appetite for controversy, and was rampant with disinformation. Clark astutely notes that, much like with today’s moral panics, concern about gender conformity seemed to be the panic’s prime motivator. (Ebel himself was described by one detractor as “a hermaphrodite.”) This meticulously researched history astonishes in its timeliness. (Mar.)