Theodora "Theo" Anna Sprüngli (15 August 1880 – 8 May 1953), better known under the pseudonym Anna Rüling, was a German journalist whose speech in 1904 was the first political speech to address the problems faced by lesbians. One of the first modern women to come out as homosexual, she has been described as "the first known lesbian activist". Early life and education Rüling was born into a middle-class family in Hamburg, German Empire. Her parents were Adolf Sprüngli, a Swiss overseas businessman, and Caroline Sprüngli, née Dangers. Along with at least one sister, Rüling was raised in a "rigid atmosphere of a Hanseatic household". She attended a school for young ladies and, as deemed appropriate for a middle-class girl, received instructions in piano and music theory. She finished gymnasium in Stuttgart, where she took violin lessons from Edmund Singer, and was a schoolmate of Elly Ney. She was an accomplished violinist, but had to give this up after suffering an injury to her arm rescuing a child. Her career as a journalist began at the age of 17, when she started writing for Hamburger Fremdenblatt. Rüling moved to Berlin, where she worked for August Scherl for some time, writing newspaper articles on music and theatre, and earning some extra money from giving private music lessons. Homosexuality and activism Rüling's family, unaware of her homosexuality, pressured her to marry. Rüling later spoke of lesbian aversion to marital relations with men, declaring that homosexual women married to men could find "no happiness" and would "be incapable of creating happiness." Although her father stated that "nothing of the sort can happen in my family", Rüling started a relationship with a woman by 1904 and took up activism. She was eager to see an alliance between LGBT campaigners and the growing women's rights movements, calling upon the latter to point out "how very destructive it is for homosexuals to enter into marriage." The Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, the world's first LGBT advocacy group, invited Rüling to speak at its conference in Berlin on 9 October 1904. She was the only speaker that specifically addressed the issues faced by lesbians. She gave the speech "Homosexualitat und Frauenbewegung" (Homosexuality and the Women's Movement). She agreed with the then common view that the lesbian mindset is more similar to that of men than to that of other women. Despite her attempts to unite all victims of sex-based oppression,