Baroness Gertrud von Puttkamer (Gertrud Freifrau von Puttkamer in German; born Gertrud Günther, 4 April 1881 – 30 September 1944), also known by her nom de plume Marie-Madeleine, was a German writer of lesbian-themed erotic literature and homoerotic poetry. Her first book, Auf Kypros, sold over one million copies during her lifetime.
Gertrud Günther was born on 4 April 1881 in Eydtkuhnen, East Prussia in the Kingdom of Prussia to Jewish parents.[2] Her father was Karl Günther, a merchant, and her mother was Emmy Siemssen, a housewife. She grew up within Eydtkuhnen’s middle class Jewish community. In 1900, at the age of nineteen, she married Baron Heinrich Georg Ludwig von Puttkamer, a member of the Pomeranian nobility who was 35 years her senior.[3] Upon her marriage, Baroness von Puttkamer moved into a villa with her husband in Grunewald, Germany and frequently traveled to Vienna, Paris, Nice, and Monte Carlo where she socialized with Hollywood actors, European royalty and nobility, artists, and writers and began using morphine recreationally.[4] Her husband’s death in 1914 led to her morphine addiction.[5][6] Her son, Baron Jesco Gunther Heinrich von Puttkamer, joined the Nazi Party and was later captured by the Allies during World War II.[7]