Stanford scholar explor the history of gay rights Germany | Stanford News

Contents:

• GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME
• STANFORD SCHOLAR EXPLOR THE HISTORY OF GAY RIGHTS GERMANY
• STAT OF (GAY) LIBERATN EAST GERMANY AND WT GERMANY

GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME

It is unclear how many of the men publicly or privately intified as gay or were part of gay muni and works that had been tablished Germany before the Nazi rise to power. In ntrast, the work of gay men that veloped around thor Adolf Brand and his anizatn Gemeschaft r Eigenen (The Communy of Kdred Spirs) took a different approach. 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). 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. For the first time, gay men who had suffered at the hands of the Nazis beme eligible for moary pensatn om the German ernment for jtic perpetrated agast them.

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. 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.

STANFORD SCHOLAR EXPLOR THE HISTORY OF GAY RIGHTS GERMANY

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. Huneke found that durg the Cold War era, munist East Germany had more lenient sodomy laws and accepted gay activists’ mands more quickly than s mocratic tw. “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.

STAT OF (GAY) LIBERATN EAST GERMANY AND WT GERMANY

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. Wt Germany restated former Nazis ernment and kept the same strict Nazi-era sodomy laws, which crimalized any act perceived to be homosexual, cludg kissg and touchg. 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. BERLIN — German thori have pensated nearly 250 people who were prosecuted or vtigated unr a Nazi-era law crimalizg homosexualy that ntued to be enforced enthiastilly after World War Feral Office of Jtice said Monday that, up to the end of Augt, 317 people had applied for pensatn and had been paid out 249 s.

The adle for applitns is July 21 next lawmakers 2017 approved the annulment of thoands of nvictns unr the Paragraph 175 law, which remaed force Wt Germany s Nazi-era form until homosexualy was crimalized 1969.

It offered payments of 500 ros per vtigatn opened, 1, 500 ros for each year of time pre-trial ctody started, and 1, 500 ros for other profsnal, fancial or health disadvantag related to the law crimalizg male homosexualy was troduced the 19th century, toughened unr Nazi le and retaed that form by mocratic Wt Germany, which nvicted some 50, 000 men between 1949 and 1969.

Homosexualy was crimalized 1969 but the legislatn wasn’t taken off the books entirely until 2000, the German parliament approved a rolutn regrettg the fact that Paragraph 175 was retaed after the war. Two years later, annulled the nvictns of gay men unr Nazi le but not the post-war pensatn also appli to men nvicted munist East Germany, which had a r versn of Paragraph 175 and crimalized homosexualy all, some 68, 300 people were nvicted unr var forms of Paragraph 175 both German NBC Out on Twter, Facebook & Instagram.