Berl was a liberal hotbed of homosexualy until the Nazis me to power, Gay Berl reveals | Daily Mail Onle

Contents:

• THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC. GOALS AND TENTNS
• BERL WAS A LIBERAL HOTBED OF HOMOSEXUALY UNTIL THE NAZIS ME TO POWER, GAY BERL REVEALS
• GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME

THE GAY RIGHTS MOVEMENT THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC. GOALS AND TENTNS

Acrdg to some social historians, many men had enjoyed homosexual experienc the trench durg the First World War and, their cursy well and tly piqued, were keen to enjoy their new eedom as much as possible. Combed wh the general air of liberty and open-mdns Berl om 1920 onwards, this meant that homosexualy beme creasgly tolerated – cludg the prence of male prostut on the streets of the pal. The magaz might also feature adverts for private tectiv – many gay men were victims of attempted blackmail and there was a huge market for tectiv pable of fdg out who might be behd such a sm.

As the tle suggts, this guibook shunned the ual palac and parks and stead poted the cur visor the directn of homosexual bars like the Topp, transvte barets and plac they uld pick up a girl (or boy) for the night. Whisnant wr about the "homosexual movement" lnched Germany the 1890s and s var factns (and s sndals and polil movements) that led up to the openns of the Weimer Republic the 1920s.

While is important to strs the signifince of Stonewall for the LGBT muny, would be wrong to perceive of the gay rights movement as an entirely ntemporary phenomenon (L- rsen and Thorstad 1995: 3). Th, is important to historicize the urse of the early homosexual liberatn movement, not only to give cred to the pneers the fight for the advancement of sexual mori but also to better unrstand the origs and therefore the tactics and obstacl of today's gay rights movement and social movements general.

BERL WAS A LIBERAL HOTBED OF HOMOSEXUALY UNTIL THE NAZIS ME TO POWER, GAY BERL REVEALS

Germany is of special importance to the history of the homosexual emancipatn movement: is both the birthplace of the gay rights movement and the untry which the most gome atroci agast homosexuals were mted (Steakley 1975: 4, 103119). This brief scriptn of the homosexual emancipatn movement Weimar Germany is followed by an examatn of s four ma goals, which clus the ntext which they were pursued, the means which were employed to achieve them and how succsful the movement was s efforts.

GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME

Among them was the lawyer Karl Hez Ulrichs whose theory of homosexualy, which views same-sex love as a ngenal tra that is neher ntag nor dangero, me to be very fluential and built the basis for later theori on this topic. Ulrichs theoretil wrgs are of great signifince for the history of gay rights and homosexual emancipatn, as they reprent the first systematic and sympathetic treatment of homosexualy.

In addn to his theoretil wrgs, Ulrichs also was an active opponent of the growg fluence of Pssia among the German stat, which put prsure on smaller stat like Hanover to adopt Pssian laws and statut unr which homosexualy was illegal (Steakley 1975: 4-8). Tied to this advocy of male raship and ancient Greek culture was a feelg of superry, which kept the Communy of the Special largely om workg wh other segments of the homosexual emancipatn movement as well as wh other liberatn movements general, and led them to adopt a rather rogative attu toward certa societal groups like Jews and pecially women (Steakley 1975: 44-49, 60-62).

The foundatn of the Scientific-Humanarian Commtee marks another important pot the history of gay rights and homosexual liberatn, as was the “world's first self-nscly homosexual polil anizatn” (Beachy 2010: 805).

This publitn ntaed reports on the Commtee's activi as well as lerary, historil, anthropologil, polemil, and scientific studi on the subject of homosexualy and other sex-related phenomena (Lrsen and Thorstad 1995: 8). The approach of the Scientific-Humanarian Commtee was based on scientific rearch on homosexualy, which is reflected by s slogan “jtice through science” (Lrsen and Thorstad 1995: 30). In addn to the two tablished anizatns, a third major group emerged which some associate wh the stggle for homosexual emancipatn Weimar Germany: the Dtsche Liga für Menschenrechte (“German League for Human Rights”).