‘Eldorado’: Netflix Expos the Secret Gay History of Nazi Germany – Rollg Stone

Contents:

• ERNST RöHM, THE HIGHT-RANKG GAY NAZI
• NETFLIX EXPOS THE SECRET GAY HISTORY OF NAZI GERMANY
• ‘GREAT FREEDOM’ AND THE LONG SHADOW OF AN ANTI-GAY LAW GERMANY
• THE PK TRIANGLE: FROM NAZI LABEL TO SYMBOL OF GAY PRI
• THE NAZIS TOLERATED GAYS. THEN EVERYTHG CHANGED
• GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME
• GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME - PHOTOGRAPHS
• SERI: GAY MEN AND LBIANS UNR THE NAZI REGIME

ERNST RöHM, THE HIGHT-RANKG GAY NAZI

As Eleanor Hanck explas, Röhm, his face srred om war wounds, strsed a hyper-masculy to unteract ntemporary views of homosexualy as feme.

NETFLIX EXPOS THE SECRET GAY HISTORY OF NAZI GERMANY

His open homosexualy may have threatened the psychologil secury of some other Natnal Socialists, creatg a form of ‘male homosexual panic. '” She go further, wonrg if “the purge of the SA and the killg of Röhm reprented the leral objective rrelative for the supprsn and reprsn of the homosexual sir their own Nazism?

‘GREAT FREEDOM’ AND THE LONG SHADOW OF AN ANTI-GAY LAW GERMANY

Even before Ernst Röhm was murred, the Nazis had begun crackg down on homosexualy, banng anizatns, burng books, and arrtg the first of some 100, 000. Around 15, 000 gay people were sent to ncentratn mps, where some were experimented upon bizarre efforts to fd a “cure” for sexual orientatn, a forhadowg of Amerin psychologil and later fundamentalist efforts to try the same thg. Which didn’t stop burly Hler nfidante and head of the Nazi SA paraary wg Ernst Röhm, a not-terribly-closeted gay man, om equentg the tablishment.

As the film explas, the SA had a strong homoerotic element, a disgt wh women and femy they somehow ed to jtify homosexualy – for a time, anyway.

The film never out and yells , but is also a remr of the Fal Solutn tenor that still acpani much anti-gay and anti-trans rhetoric and, creasgly, policy. He was also a bohemian spir who had a passnate homosexual relatnship wh Manasse Herbst, a Galician Jewish actor who fled Germany 1936. Hirschfeld, a groundbreakg sexologist, both gay and Jewish and therefore a prime target of Nazi Germany, was thankfully not prent when his stute was ransacked by mardg Nazi youth (here aga, there are photos).

THE PK TRIANGLE: FROM NAZI LABEL TO SYMBOL OF GAY PRI

Here we experience the nce that thrived before the fall, at a hiaway for those whose differenc would soon mark them for prison, exile, or, many s, ath ( is timated that between 5, 000 and 15, 000 gay people died the ncentratn mps for vlatg Paragraph 175). In 2017, Germany’s Cabet approved a bill that would expunge the nvictns of tens of thoands of German men for “homosexual acts” unr that untry’s anti-gay law known as “Paragraph 175. Partly drivg this new era of tolerance were the doctors and scientists who started lookg at homosexualy and “transvtism” (a word of that era that enpassed transgenr people) as a natural characteristic wh which some were born, and not a “rangement.

Durg the followg year alone, the Gtapo arrted more than 8, 500 gay men, que possibly g a list of nam and addrs seized at the Instute for Sexual Rearch.

THE NAZIS TOLERATED GAYS. THEN EVERYTHG CHANGED

Italy, wh a fascist regime obssed wh virily, sent at least 300 gay men to btal mps durg the war perd, clarg them “dangero for the tegry of the race.

GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME

Still, if they had been proment members of the gay and trans muny before the fascists me to power, as Berl lbian club owner Lotte Hahm was, was too late to hi.

GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME - PHOTOGRAPHS

He was received that day wh meras, bouquets of flowers, and a greetg om the openly gay former mayor of Berl, Kls seven s earlier, Brazda survived a spell Buchenwald, the ncentratn mp to which he was sent havg twice been arrted for vlatg Paragraph 175, the German law prohibg male homosexual activy.

SERI: GAY MEN AND LBIANS UNR THE NAZI REGIME

Published 2016, Whisnant’s book subverts the notn that the only queer people targeted durg the Third Reich were gay men, suggtg stead that the Nazi party’s broar terpretatn of Paragraph 175 meant that a small portn of terned dividuals were what we today would ll genr-nonnformg or trans. What’s more, Whisnant pots out that while lbian women were not necsarily arrted bee of their sexualy, that is neher to say that some lbian women did not end up ncentratn mps, nor that the homophobia of the time didn’t impact them more broadly. ” And bis the German public’s disda for the trans-posive physician, signs of other cracks the fa of early Berl’s tolerance beg to show when nsirg the number of gay magaz circulatg at the time.

This wasn’t exactly a well-guard secret; gay sirs om the time rell spottg the high-rankg official at gay bars, even pickg up male sex workers Munich. ” The historian ntu to scribe how some might have seen the Nazi’s emphasis on male-bondg, physil power, and homoerotic imagery as a draw toward jog the party the first place.