Between World Wars, Gay Culture Flourished In Berl : NPR

Contents:

• STANFORD SCHOLAR EXPLOR THE HISTORY OF GAY RIGHTS GERMANY
• GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME
• STAT OF (GAY) LIBERATN EAST GERMANY AND WT GERMANY
• WHY GAY GERMAN MEN ARE SEEKG REPARATNS FOR A HOMOPHOBIC NAZI LAW
• GERMANY TO QUASH HISTORIL NVICTNS OF GAY MEN
• BETWEEN WORLD WARS, GAY CULTURE FLOURISHED IN BERL

STANFORD SCHOLAR EXPLOR THE HISTORY OF GAY RIGHTS GERMANY

Ls than 80 years after roughly 6, 000 gay men perished Nazi ncentratn mps, Germany has bee one of the untri mostly wily acceptg of lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr (LGBT) people. That stark cultural and polil change trigued Stanford rearcher Samuel Clow Huneke, a doctoral ndidate history, who began vtigatg how East and Wt Germany alt wh homosexualy om 1945 to 1990. “There is an assumptn that the state of gay rights Germany today is somethg that’s mostly due to events mocratic Wt Germany, which had a more vibrant gay culture and a more visible gay rights movement durg the 1970s, ” Huneke said.

Prev historil rearch has vtigated how gay people fared Germany durg the Weimar perd, the terwar years that ran roughly om 1918 to 1933, and durg Adolf Hler’s Nazi dictatorship.

GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME

While the Wt’s activism died down after 1980, when a group of pro-pedophilia activists dispted a major gay rights event Wt Germany’s pal Bonn durg that year’s feral electn, activists the East ntued to anize, Huneke said. From 1985 until the Berl Wall fell 1989, the East German ernment released a s of pro-gay policy chang, grantg gay people the right to serve the ary, among other eedoms, acrdg to his rearch.

“This history troubl our assumptns about gay liberatn and how mori fare unr certa forms of ernment, as well as our lgerg Cold War expectatns about munist and mocratic regim, ” Huneke said. Gay newspapers and journals, such as Die Frndschaft (Friendship) and Der Eigene (translated varly, but this ntext implyg “his own man”), ntributed to the growth of gay works. Fally, 1936 SS lear and Chief of the German Police Herich Himmler tablished the Reich Central Office for the Combatg of Homosexualy and Abortn (Reichszentrale zur Bekämpfung r Homosexualät und r Abtreibung).

STAT OF (GAY) LIBERATN EAST GERMANY AND WT GERMANY

Unverg the histori of gay men durg the Nazi era was difficult for much of the twentieth century bee of ntued prejudice agast same-sex sexualy and the ongog enforcement of Paragraph 175.

A few years later, May 2008, the Memorial to Homosexuals Persecuted unr Nazism (Denkmal für die im Natnalsozialism verfolgten Homosexuellen) was unveiled nearby Tiergarten park central Berl.

Throughout summer, several ci around Germany are holdg events for Christoper Street Day (CSD) - now part of a global celebratn for gay rights and equaly - cludg Cologne and Berl.

WHY GAY GERMAN MEN ARE SEEKG REPARATNS FOR A HOMOPHOBIC NAZI LAW

Hirschfeld vented the term transvte, zealoly opposed Paragraph 175, and found the Scientific Humanarian Commtee Berl which pneered rearch to transsexualy and stood at the foreont of prott opposg legal discrimatn agast homosexuals. The Third Reich’s persecutn of homosexuals was immediate and relentls: Natnal Socialists stormed and stroyed Hirschfeld’s Instute for Sexual Rearch Berl, Nazi newspapers lled for the ath penalty for homosexual acts and all active gay anisatns Germany were clared illegal. Acrdg to ttimoni om survivors, persecuted homosexuals were at the bottom of the ncentratn mp hierarchy, receivg particularly btal treatment and equently subjected to horrific medil experiments which ed an excs of male hormon to try and ‘cure’ mat’ homosexualy.

GERMANY TO QUASH HISTORIL NVICTNS OF GAY MEN

This is not to say that lbians lived enviable liv unr the Third Reich; there are rerds of some lbian ncentratn mp mat and the soc-cultural climate of the Third Reich would not have been an easy one for openly gay women. When the sculpture was created 1968, homosexuals did not fall to the ‘regnised’ persecuted groups meang they were left out of the sculpture which memorated the sufferg of persecuted mori.

Many homosexuals left ncentratn mps only to be seen as mon crimals upon their return to society; many were repeatedly jailed and died before seeg the liberatn of gays or acknowledgement of and pensatn for their sufferg at the hands of both the Natnal Socialists and the post-war German ernments. Contrary to mon assumptn, was the East German ernment who, spe the strict censorship, rife surveillance amongst cizens and the feared Stasi, were ostensibly more liberal when me to gay rights. The 2013 documentary film, ‘Out East Berl, ’ told the personal histori of 13 openly gay dividuals unr the GDR ernment and the film expos the ls rosy everyday realy for homosexuals East Germany.

BETWEEN WORLD WARS, GAY CULTURE FLOURISHED IN BERL

The 2017 legalisatn of same-sex marriage Germany had a slightly bter unrtone as the former German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, voted agast the legalisatn a move nsistent wh her stance opposn of gay marriage.

Repeated vandalism of the ‘Memorial to Persecuted Homosexuals’ Berl, ongog difficulti terms of adoptn for gay upl and creas attacks agast gay upl Germany should all serve as a remr of the ntued threat to LGBTQ+ dividuals Germany. Homosexualy is still illegal dozens of untri globally and Germany's history remds that liberalism n quickly give way to a rtrictn of rights and persecutn tim of enomic crisis.

The adoptn of the LGBTI Incln Strategy is the rult of staed advocy om German civil society groups sce 2012, spearhead by the Lbian and Gay Feratn Germany (Der Lben- und Schwulenverband Dtschland, LSVD), the Hirschfeld-Eddy Foundatn, and the Yogyakarta-Alliance.

The Nazis ma more severe and imprisoned 10, 000 gay men (and some lbians, although they were not vered by Paragraph 175) ncentratn mps, where they were marked wh the pk triangle—and a majory died. But there is plenty to see today to remember the highs and lows of German LGBTQ+ history, om the Monument to Homosexuals Persecuted unr Natnal Socialism and the Schwul Mm (Gay Mm), both Berl, to the Dtsche Eiche bar and bathhoe Munich, where Freddie Mercury hung out the 1970s.