Stanford scholar explor the history of gay rights Germany

Alex Ross on Robert Beachy’s new book, “Gay Berl: Birthplace of a Morn Inty.” * berlin homosexual history *

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.

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. 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. ” 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.

QUEER & GAY BERL: YOUR GUI FOR LGBTQ+ BERL

* berlin homosexual history *

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. 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.

More specifilly, 's about gay Berl, the gay subculture that flourished Berl the era between World War I and the rise of the Nazis, when there were nightclubs and barets that tered to a gay clientele, gay-themed theater and films and gay-oriented publitns that were sold at ksks. Gay prostutn flourished too, so did black male.This relatively open gay culture attracted English wrers and artists, cludg Christopher Isherwood, whose stori were adapted to the mil "Cabaret." My gut Robert Beachy is the thor of the new book "Gay Berl" that scrib that this culture, why flourished, how ntributed to our unrstandg of gay inty and how was eradited by the Nazis. They advertised all sorts of events, different kds of venu and they also attracted advertisers who were really appealg to a gay and lbian nstuency, and that's also really startlg, I thk.GROSS: We asked you to suggt a performer, a sger, that we uld listen to to give some sense of the mic people were listeng to then at perhaps some of the gay clubs.

GAY LIFE BERL IS STARTG TO ECHO A DARKER ERA

Wh CSD and KCSD g up (Jun 27), glter and gaiety will be out on the streets full force, but Berl has always been ahead of the queer curve. Here's a timele of the LGBTQ rights movement gay ol' Berl. * berlin homosexual history *

So and that was, I thk, very much a part of her inty.GROSS: OK, so this is Claire Waldoff, a baret sger and a lbian performer, rerd Germany 1932.(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)CLAIRE WALDOFF: (Sgg German).GROSS: That was Claire Waldoff, a song picked for by Robert Beachy, the thor of the new book "Gay Berl," which is about the gay subculture Berl the 1920s and early '30s, jt before the Nazi rise to power.What was the law regardg homosexualy the '20s and early '30s Berl?BEACHY: The law was origally opprsn, anti-sodomy statute, and crimalized certa sexual acts between men and btialy.

So was actually ma more dranian unr the Nazis 1935, and that remaed the law of the land Wt Germany until was fally reformed, startg the very-late 1960s.GROSS: So if homosexual acts were illegal Berl the '20s and early '30s, how did a gay subculture manage to flourish?BEACHY: Yeah, that's the big qutn. And, of urse, people had nsensual sexual relatns private, so the law was difficult to enforce.And what he fally end up dog - he cid that would be easier to simply observe and monor and, sence, keep tabs on spected homosexuals - spected vlators of the law - than to actually try to persecute them or prevent them om breakg the law. And what this meant practice was that the police partment, startg the late-1880s, simply tolerated all kds of different, you uld say, public acmodatns, bars, f; eventually, large transvte balls, where obv homosexuals, or, at least, obvly spected homosexuals, uld ngregate and socialize.So there was a kd of homoerotic aternizatn, you uld say, that was allowed Berl by the late 1880s, and this permted the growth of a whole work of different kds of bars and rtrants.

GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME

Everythg about Berl's LGBTQ+ scene ✓ practil ✓ queer events ✓ LGBTQ+ hotels ✓ gay bars & clubs ► Click here for the Gay Gui for Berl * berlin homosexual history *

It was somethg that really didn't exist the same way any other European cy.GROSS: Somethg really unual about how this law was enforced was that a partment lled the Department of Blackmail and Homosexualy was created to enforce the law.

BERL & GAY LIBERATN LONG BEFORE STONEWALL

The right-wg rurgence Germany rells prewar Berl. It may signal an omo turn for the untry’s gay muny. * berlin homosexual history *

And so blackmail beme a huge problem.And the same police missner and then his succsors and really the entire police partment, regnized that the bigger problem was not homosexual nduct, but the way which the law self actually allowed for the practice of blackmail. And the two, then, were always closely lked.GROSS: I thk a lot of the people that the Department of Blackmail and Homosexualy went after were prostut bee the partment, though I terpreted, didn't really want to go after, like, the middle class. And the assumptn, too, I thk, was that prostut who make money the sex tra were also willg to make money through blackmailg the people they were - who were payg them to have sex.But that leads to, like, a whole other chapter the story, which was that there was a lot of prostutn, male prostut, gay Berl at the time.

And he's the thor of the new book "Gay Berl: Birthplace Of A Morn Inty." And 's about how a gay subculture flourished Berl the 1920s and early '30s up until the rise of the Nazi regime.So we were talkg about the law - the anti-gay law Berl - which ma gay sex illegal. So there were actually lots and lots of, we uld say, gay Nazi sympathizers who joed the SA, who joed the party, who were members of the movement, so to speak, and who also believed that bee of this figurehead, they would never actually be persecuted.And this was more or ls the se for the first year and a half until the summer of 1934. And so women were also, you know, of urse targeted and nsired absolutely send-class cizens.GROSS: So what's the timatn of how many gay people were imprisoned durg the Third Reich, and how many died ncentratn mps and prisons?BEACHY: The figure that most scholars ce now is somethg like 50,000 imprisoned eher work mps, ncentratn mps, some s also ath mps, and then a kd of fataly rate of five to 15,000.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

And of urse, the late '70s to the '80s, the timat were much, much higher but they've sort of been pegged down as people have done more rearch and done some actual archival work to tablish those figur.GROSS: Durg the 1920s and the early 1930s, there were movements to try to liberalize the anti-gay law or to elimate the anti-gay law. And his theori had this credible cultural fluence, and a lot of people - people like Thomas Mann wrote, jt passg, how pervasive the ias about the Mannerbund actually were.So anyway, what out of is this ia that there are actually really, really sort of virile, natnalist and, as you put , proto-fascist dividuals who also happen to be homosexual.

He's the thor of the new book " Gay Berl: Birthplace Of A Morn Inty," and 's about gay Berl the 1920s and early '30s, jt before the Nazis me to power.I thk one of the hero of your book is Doctor Magn Hirschfeld who 1897 created the world's first gay rights anizatn which was lled the Scientific Humanarian Commtee.

He thought that was probably an imbalance of male and female sex hormon that acunted for homosexualy or homosexual behavr.He also then cid that one might be able to e sex hormon to fluence behavr and also ultimately to transn to a different genr.

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