GAY BERLIN | Kirk Reviews

Contents:

• ‘GAY BERL,’ BY ROBERT BEACHY
• GAY BERLIN
• QUEER & GAY BERL: YOUR GUI FOR LGBTQ+ BERL
• GAY BERL: BIRTHPLACE OF A MORN INTY PAPERBACK – 13 OCT. 2015
• ‘GAY BERL: BIRTHPLACE OF A MORN INTY’ BY ROBERT BEACHY
• GAY BERL: BIRTHPLACE OF A MORN INTY KDLE EDN
• 'GAY BERL,’ BY ROBERT BEACHY: REVIEW
• GAY BERL
• UNVERG QUEER HISTORY ‘GAY BERL’
• JAGUARS ACH KEV MAXEN OUT AS GAY HISTORIC ANNOUNCEMENT
• DIPLOMATIC TENSN REPORTEDLY RISG BETWEEN UNED STAT AND JAMAI OVER GAY AMERIN DIPLOMAT

‘GAY BERL,’ BY ROBERT BEACHY

Instead, he tak the rear to the other end of the spectm of opn — that homosexualy is and has always been a sexual orientatn fixed om birth, that same-sex love is as normal as heterosexualy, a ndn not amenable to treatment but rather an endowment of nature that should be rpected as part of a person’s ls important, Beachy, an associate profsor of history at Unrwood Internatnal College at Yonsei Universy Seoul, South Korea, lot the origs of this view of human sexualy Germany the mid-19th century, a culture that also produced morn scientific sexologil rearch.

His book refully evaluat the arguments of a number of dividuals this perd who wrote about the subject and agated for the aboln of the wispread legal discrimatns of the elsewhere Europe, the enforcement of anti-gay laws was an issue, and here the book ntas a surprise.

GAY BERLIN

While other German ci pursued stricter polici, was Pssian Berl, unr a police missner named Leopold von Meerscheidt-Hüllsem, that more liberal polici were adopted, a velopment that occurred after unrver officers nclud that private clubs and bars for homosexuals were peaceful tablishments and did not nstute a public threat or nuisance. Activists anized popular assembli, often workg-class districts, that attracted up to a thoand cur listeners, evintly keen to learn ’s study ntas a fascatg chapter on pre-1914 “outg” sndals, the most notor of which ultimately led to the nvictn of one of the emperor’s clost iends, Philipp Prce zu Eulenburg-Hertefeld, though not for illic homosexualy. Some genr reassignment operatns were also attempted, but had to be abandoned as too risky and signifince of Beachy’s book go beyond his fdgs on the German roots of the ncln that homosexualy is a blogilly fixed tra.

Wh medil termologi emergg that dited that same-sex affectns were hardwired, Michel Fouult famoly lled the mid-neteenth century the birth place of a morn homosexual inty that created s own ‘speci’. 1 Robert Beachy challeng Fouult on historil grounds sayg that his foc on medil disurse only allus to an ia of a ‘laboratory tt tube which medil profsnals ncted new sexual inti’ but fails to take to acunt the particular German ntext of the medilisatn of homosexualy (p.

Drawg on a broad range of sourc, cludg homosexual perdils, memoirs, diari, tourist guis, rrponnc, ntemporary novels, medil (psychiatric and sexologil) lerature, he highlights the fertile terplay between scientists, the police, gay rights activists, the prs and middle and upper class homosexuals that, all together, nurtured Berl's vivid gay culture.

QUEER & GAY BERL: YOUR GUI FOR LGBTQ+ BERL

In batn of mostly well- and sometim ls well-known paths, Gay Berl is one of the few books givg a prehensive overview of German gay history om the mid-neteenth century until the Nazi seizure of power 1933. The tle of the chapter, “The German Inventn of Homosexualy, ” telegraphs a prcipal argument of the book: although same-sex love is as old as love self, the public disurse around , and the polil movement to w rights for , arose Germany the late neteenth and early twentieth centuri.

Beachy, a historian who teach at Yonsei Universy, Seoul, ends his book by notg that Germans hold gay-pri celebratns each June on what is known as Christopher Street Day, honor of the street where the Stonewall prott unfold.

GAY BERL: BIRTHPLACE OF A MORN INTY PAPERBACK – 13 OCT. 2015

By the begng of the twentieth century, a non of gay lerature had emerged (one early advote ed the phrase “Stayg silent is ath, ” nearly a century before aids activists ed the slogan “Silence = Death”); activists were bemoang negative pictns of homosexualy (Thomas Mann’s “Death Venice” was one target); there were bat over the ethics of outg; and a schism opened between an clive, mastream factn and a more rto, anarchistic wg. The episo suggts the gree to which the German cultural and tellectual tradn, particularly the Romantic age, which stretched om Goethe and Schiller to Schopenher and Wagner, embolned those who me to intify themselv as gay and lbian.

”) Schopenher proceed to expound the dub theory that nature promoted homosexualy olr men as a way of disuragg them om ntug to surprisgly, Karl Herich Ulrichs seized on Schopenher’s cur piece of advocy when he began his mpaign; he quoted the philosopher one of his g-out letters to his relativ. Magn Hirschfeld, his 1914 book “The Homosexualy of Men and Women, ” noted that the Wagner ftival Bayrth had bee a “favore meetg place” for homosexuals, and quoted a classified ad, om 1894, which a young man had sought a handsome pann for a Tyrolean bicyclg expedn; was signed “Numa 77, general livery, Bayrth. The most revelatory chapter of Beachy’s book ncerns Leopold von Meerscheidt-Hüllsem, a Berl police missner the Wilhelme perd, who, perhaps more than any other figure, enabled “gay Berl” to blossom.

A week later, a grim irony, this enigmatic protector killed himself—not on acunt of his homosexual associatns but bee he was exposed as havg taken brib om a lnaire banker acced of statutory rape. ) Hirschfeld, who was born 1868, a year after Ulrichs’s speech Munich, began his radil activi 1896, publishg a pamphlet tled “Sappho and Socrat, ” which told of the suici of a gay man who felt erced to marriage. His tert effemacy among homosexual men, his attentn to lbianism, and his fascatn wh cross-drsg among both gay and straight populatns (he ed the word “transvtism”) offend men who believed that their lt for fellow-mal, pecially for younger on, ma them more virile than the rt of the populatn.

‘GAY BERL: BIRTHPLACE OF A MORN INTY’ BY ROBERT BEACHY

” There is no mentn, for example, of the theatre and mic cric Theo Anna Sprüngli, who, 1904, spoke to the Scientific-Humanarian Commtee on the subject of “Homosexualy and the Women’s Movement, ” helpg to gurate a parallel movement of lbian activism. Employg the alias Anna Rülg, Sprüngli proposed that the gay-rights and femist movements “aid each other reciprolly”; the prcipl at stake both stggl, she wrote, were eedom, equaly, and “self-termatn.

After Sprüngli gave her historic speech—one that may have exacerbated the spl between the “masculist” and the “sexologil” factns of the gay movement, as Beachy lls them—she said nothg more about lbianism. Yet her sudn silence suggts how quickly gas n slip the goln years of the Weimar Republic, which occupy the last chapters of “Gay Berl, ” gays and lbians achieved an almost dizzyg gree of visibily popular culture. Disdaful reprentatns of gay life were not only lamented but also protted; Beachy pots out that when a 1927 Komische Oper revue lled “Strictly Forbidn” mocked gay men as effemate, a monstratn at the theatre prompted the Komische Oper to remove the offendg sk.

GAY BERL: BIRTHPLACE OF A MORN INTY KDLE EDN

The openns of Berl’s gay scene attracted visors om more benighted lands; Christopher Isherwood lived the cy om 1929 to 1933, enjoyg the easy availabily of htlers, who, Beachy’s book, have a somewhat exhstg chapter to the gay muny, the masculist-sexologil spl persisted. Some of Brand’s associat were flirtg wh Nazism, and not jt a metaphoril sense; one of them later beme the lover of Ernst Röhm, the head of the Brown the First World War, a new figure entered the ay: Friedrich Radszuwe, an entreprenr who tablished a work of gay publitns, cludg the first lbian magaze, Die Frnd.

Röhm never ma a secret of his homosexualy, and Hler chose to overlook ; although the Nazi lear had nounced Hirschfeld and the gay movement as early as 1920, he was too pennt on Röhm’s army of thugs to reject him.

'GAY BERL,’ BY ROBERT BEACHY: REVIEW

A number of lbian women, cludg Johanna Elberskirchen and Toni Schwabe, take a pro-active stance and fight to bee actively volved the gay movement, argug favour of havg their say Magn Hirschfeld's Scientific-Humanarian Commtee. Magaz for gays and lbians are available at public ksks and the venu: they clu Die Frndschaft (Friendship), the Blätter für Menschenrecht (Magaze for Human Rights), Die Frnd (The Girliends), Frenliebe (Women's Love), and Das drte Gchlecht (The Third Sex) for transvt and transsexuals.

GAY BERL

Numero hotels and gut ho, bety and hairdrsg salons, tailors and photo studs, doctors and lawyers private practice, librari, cigarette and shoe shops, and even a r rental pany, a travel agency and a distributor for potency pills advertise gay and lbian magaz.

The owners of the all-night bar for lbians, Mai & Igel, are also affected by the forced closur, while the rnival stume balls for gays and lbians held at the In n Zelten amement strip Berl's Tiergarten, which were also hugely popular among heterosexuals, are banned wh immediate effect. Homosexuelle Aktn Wtberl is found Berl 1971, om which the femist awakeng emerg 1975 wh the foundg of the Lbian Aktnszentm – along wh the lbian archive Spnbon as an iative for the disvery, and prervatn, of female love. In September 2017, a monument to the world's first gay and lbian emancipatn movement, which was iated by the gay and lbian associatn, is unveiled on Magn-Hirschfeld-Ufer, behd the Feral Chancellery.

UNVERG QUEER HISTORY ‘GAY BERL’

It is a symbol of the diversy of sexualy and genr, and a metaphor for a nfint, flourishg scene – a landspe that was first nceived of, put to the tt, and ma possible the 1920s – when Berl was a role mol for an ternatnal gay and lbian pal which all queer people uld fd a haven and refuge. On 1 October 2017 – a Sunday – the first gay and lbian upl marry Germany, cludg Volker Beck, a polician for the Green party, who marri his spoe Berl-Krzberg after a long fight to be able to say “I do”.

It is said that there were more than 100 venu for homosexuals at that time, rangg om the famo Eldorado to the ladi dance hall Zur Manuela through to the large balls anised by var homosexual associatns. After the supprsn of the entire gay and lbian muny and subculture by the Nazis, wasn’t until 1971 that the homosexual scene revered aga – which is when the gay movement Homosexuelle Aktn Wtberl (Homosexual Actn Wt Berl) was found. Sce 1993, the gay/lbian cy ftival has been celebrated every year – is the largt of s kd worldwi and ensur to this day that Berl is home to the most diverse, vibrant and popular gay/lbian scen Europe.

Throughout eight chapters Beachy monstrat that although the road to societal and legal acceptance for gay men was long and tortuo, followg the proverbial haltg pattern of two steps forward and one step back, nearly every setback ntaed untend nsequenc that migated s effect, and even ultimately bolstered the movement for homosexual acceptance.

JAGUARS ACH KEV MAXEN OUT AS GAY HISTORIC ANNOUNCEMENT

The “vectors of German history” were the tablishment of Paragraph 175 (the 1871 legal crimalizg certa homosexual practic while allowg aternizatn by gay men); rearch and publitn the new field of sexology by psychiatrists and forensic scientists; the growg unrt agast Paragraph 175 among Germany’s ted middle-class; and fally the untry’s remarkably ee prs. The police partment’s lax enforcement of Paragraph 175 agast gay men favor of prosecutg their blackmailers led to gay men g out of the cy’s shadows and tablishg their own meetg plac parks, bars and nightclubs. In a strange reversal of the law’s origal tent, s agents the police partment beme effect the protectors of homosexuals agast the nstant threat of blackmail and disgrace that drove a number of proment men to suici.

The world’s first openly homosexual activist was Karl Herich Ulrichs who published a seri of seven pamphlets that would fluence the sexologist Richard von Krafft-Ebg his standard work Psychopathia Sexualis, prt sce 1886. The book nclus at this solate moment but an Epilogue adds a happier endg, notg that today Germany’s annual gay pri paras are held on ‘Christopher Street Day, ’ “an alln to the 1969 rts at the Stonewall Inn, the putative birthplace of the ‘morn homosexual rights movement. At the same time, Beachy enlarg our unrstandg of how the ternatnal gay-rights movement eventually prospered, spe the setbacks that experienced not only Nazi Germany but also mid-century Ameri.

DIPLOMATIC TENSN REPORTEDLY RISG BETWEEN UNED STAT AND JAMAI OVER GAY AMERIN DIPLOMAT

" –Publishers Weekly (starred)"A superb work of historil reclamatn–by far the bt acunt we have of the formative years of homosexual inty and emancipatn, is brilliantly rearched and betifully wrten.