Die Freundin and other lesbian magazines of that era such as Frauenliebe Love of Women represented a part-educational and part-political perspective, and they were assimilated with the local culture. The magazine also published advertisements of lesbian nightspots, and women could place their personal advertisements for meeting other lesbians.
This magazine was usually critical of women for what they viewed as "attending only to pleasure", with a article urging women: "Don't go to your entertainments while thousands of our sisters mourn their lives in gloomy despair. Die Freundin , along with other gay and lesbian periodicals, was shut down by the Nazis after they came to power in But even before the rise of the Nazis, the magazine faced legal troubles during the Weimar Republic.
From to , the magazine was shut down by the government under a law that was supposed to protect youth from "trashy and obscene" literature. During these years, the magazine operated under the title Ledige Frauen Single Women. Die Freundin appeared from to in Berlin, distributed by BfM. Die Freundin was available in major retailers across all of Germany and Austria.
Certain issues aimed to highlight the political importance of lesbian culture by printing phrases on the cover, such as "this magazine may be publicized everywhere! Though the exact circulation of Die Freundin is unknown, it is assumed that it was the most widely spread lesbian magazine of the Weimar Republic , with circulation well above that of every other lesbian magazine in the German-speaking world until the s.
Die Freundin was thereafter the "first new independent magazine of the Radszuweit publishing house". Already the first issue contained an insert titled Der Transvestit , which kept on reappearing in future editions. The publication rhythm changed: in the first year it came out as a monthly magazine; from it appeared every two weeks and later even weekly.
