O was an international fetish magazine published in Germany. The one-letter title comes from the French sadomasochistic novel Story of O. For readers tracking European fetish print, it sits in a specific slice of time: the late-1980s club boom through the glossy mid-1990s. It succeeded the German edition of Skin Two, and its energy later fed Marquis, one of the best-known European fetish glossies. That places it inside the pan-European fetish network.
The magazine launched in 1989 and ceased in 1994. From the start until 1994 it was owned by Techcom GmbH. Ronald Brockmeyer then acquired it. The text ran in German and English, mixing fashion, fantasy art, and fetish lifestyle, and moving latex, leather, and SM aesthetics from underground parties onto a bilingual newsstand. Peter W. Czernich published issues 1 through 24 under the subtitle the Art of Fetish, Fashion and Fantasy. Brockmeyer published the last two issues, with the subtitle changed to the Art, the Fashion, the Fantasy. Issue 25 was designed by David Sparks, who later published the fetish “who’s who” magazine Mirror Mirror.
O gave adult readers SM aesthetics without a technical rope manual. It documented the era’s fashion photography, club style, and fantasy illustration, and it sat in a network of parties, designers, and the web culture that followed. The run was short. For a while the letter O had a fashion-and-fantasy life on the newsstand. Marquis carried that position on, as one of the best-known European fetish glossies.
Outside fetish circles the title became known because of a trademark fight. This German SM-fashion magazine and Hearst Magazines’ O: The Oprah Magazine, built around Oprah Winfrey, fought over the same letter. The lawsuit is what made the title famous beyond the fetish press. The magazine’s own newsstand life was the stretch from 1989 to 1994. After it stopped, the energy went into Marquis.
