German writer and artist Elisar von Kupffer was BOTD in 1872. Born in Sophiental in Baltic Germany (now modern-day Estonia) to an aristocratic family, he was a sickly child but an excellent student, writing his first play aged 9. He studied in St Petersburg in his teens, where he met his life partner, the writer and philosopher Eduard von Mayer. The pair moved to Berlin in 1895, living together while Kupffer studied at the Berlin Art Academy. After extensive travel through Continental Europe, von Kupffer edited an anthology of homoerotic writing Lieblingminne und Freundesliebe in der Weltliteratur (The Beloved and Friendly Love in World Literature), published by Adolf Brand‘s advocacy group Gemeinschaft der Eigenen (Community of one’s own). In 1911, he and von Mayer founded their own publishing house, through which von Kupffer published a series of plays, poetry and essays under the pseudonym “Elisarion”. Like many 19th century German aristocrats, he advocated a masculinist vision of male homosexuality, heavily influenced by Classical Greek culture and his fascist and white supremacist beliefs. Later that year, he and von Mayer created their own religion, “Klarismus (Clarity)”, establishing religious communities in Germany and Switzerland. With the outbreak of World War One, they moved to a villa in Locarno, which they named Sanctuarium Artis Elisarion and decorated with von Kupffer’s homoerotic paintings. His centrepiece, a 26 metre circular mural Il Chiaro Mondo dei Beati (The Clear World of the Blessed Souls), depicts naked young men (most of them based on von Kupffer) frolicking in idyllic rural settings. The villa became a popular tourist attraction until the rise of Fascism in the 1930s, eventually closing to the public by the outbreak of World War Two. Throughout his life, von Kuppfler consistently rejected a homosexual identity and homoerotic interpretations of his work. An enthusiastic supporter of Nazism, he wrote a number of adoring fan letters to Hitler. He lived with von Mayer until his death in 1942, aged 70. His work faded into obscurity until the 1970s, where he was hailed as an LGBT pioneer and the villa was reopened as a museum. His life and reputation has undergone a critical reappraisal in recent years, in light of his support for Fascism.