In 'Great Freedom,' a man is eed om the Nazis, and re-imprisoned for beg gay : NPR

Contents:

• ‘ON THE SAME LEVEL AS THE NAZIS’: THE FILM ABOUT GERMANY’S POSTWAR PERSECUTN OF GAY MEN
• TURNS OUT, BARBIELAND ISN'T AS GAY AS S QUEER FANS HAD HOPED
• ‘GREAT FREEDOM’ AND THE LONG SHADOW OF AN ANTI-GAY LAW GERMANY
• 'PASSAG' DIRECTOR NOUNC 'DANGERO' NC-17 RATG ON A FILM PICTG A GAY LOVE STORY
• KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY
• LOST DURG NAZI LE GERMANY, ONE OF THE WORLD’S FIRST PRO-GAY FILMS HAS FALLY BEEN RTORED FOR MORN VIEWERS
• GREAT FREEDOM REVIEW – POWERFUL GAY​​ PRISON DRAMA​ ​SET POSTWAR GERMANY
• IN 'GREAT FREEDOM,' A MAN IS EED OM THE NAZIS, AND RE-IMPRISONED FOR BEG GAY
• GREAT FREEDOM REVIEW – FORMIDABLY TELLIGENT GAY PRISON DRAMA THAT FDS LIBERTY SI

‘ON THE SAME LEVEL AS THE NAZIS’: THE FILM ABOUT GERMANY’S POSTWAR PERSECUTN OF GAY MEN

Most prompts for gay porn, meanwhile, explibly flt to people of ambiguoly LatX scent wh an unrcut hairstyle.

Is that ditive of the typ of gay porn the mols were traed on? A gay uple, as picted by Unstable Diffn. But as the award-wng new film Great Freedom mak clear, was fact a vdictive article of the German penal that crimalised male homosexualy and blighted the liv of 140, 000 men, more than a third of whom received prison sentenc.

TURNS OUT, BARBIELAND ISN'T AS GAY AS S QUEER FANS HAD HOPED

” A “pk list” of known gay men, which the Nazis had piled, was still circulatn by the late 1970s, Meise says.

Trends may change but homophobia never falls out of fashn. “We approached some of them a gay fe Vienna. “There are laws parts of the US which are siar to sectn 28 the UK, where you n’t talk about homosexualy schools.

‘GREAT FREEDOM’ AND THE LONG SHADOW OF AN ANTI-GAY LAW GERMANY

Germany has been churng out gay hs for nearly a century. Here, 11 gay movi, om the dramatic to the edic, om the absurd to the touchg, om the Weimer Republic to unified Berl, straight out of Germany. Madchen Uniform ("Girls Uniform"), 1931: While homosexualy was simply allud to the aforementned flicks, was on full display Madchen Uniform, the tale of a boardg school girl who falls for her teacher.

Anrs als du und Ich ("Different From You and Me"), 1957: Not to be nfed wh the siarly gay 1919 movie Anrs als die Anrn ("Different om the Others"), this mid-20th Century narrative revolv around rich kid Kls's affair wh a lower-class peer named Maned.

'PASSAG' DIRECTOR NOUNC 'DANGERO' NC-17 RATG ON A FILM PICTG A GAY LOVE STORY

And drama also ensued when the picture me out -- not only were nservativ displeased wh the gay ntent, early gay activists were livid over an endg which, spoiler alert, Kls is "cured" of his homosexualy. Nicht r Homosexuelle ist pervers, sonrn die Suatn, r er lebt ("It Is Not The Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But The Society In Which He Liv"), 1971: Perhaps one of the most ntroversial gay featur ever to e out of Germany, or anywhere else, this mouthful of a movie and s portrayal of gay men as shallow, fashn-obssed, limp wristed weaklgs created such a stir that the viotaped cricisms om gay activists nstute their own short.

KEV MAXEN BE FIRST MALE ACH A US MEN’S PROFSNAL SPORTS LEAGUE TO PUBLICLY E OUT AS GAY

It's lled "Audience Rponse to It's not the Homosexual... Fstrecht r Freihe ("Fox and His Friends"), 1975: Inic New Cema filmmaker Raer Werner Fassbr directed, wrote, and starred this story of a gay man who falls for a wealthy heir. Taxi zum Klo ("Taxi to the John", or "Taxi to the Toilet"), 1981: Frank Ripploh's semi-tobgraphil drama about a prim and proper school teacher wh a hardre after-hours sex life was groundbreakg and sensatnal for s time, and ed remas a cult classic (and one of the sexit gay films acrdg to director John Cameron Mchell).

Lola und Bilidikid (Lola and Billy The Kid), 1999: Wrer/Director Kutlug Ataman had hoped to film this story of a young man tryg to rencile his homosexualy wh Islam Turkey, the ma character's fay's homeland, but he uldn't shore up enough support. Instead, Sherry Hormann's rom- tackl homophobia sports by stg Maxiian Bckner as Ecki, a closeted soccer player who back strong after beg booted om his team for beg gay. His sensibily as a gay artist has shaped and elevated the magaze’s athetic, but he has to keep his creativy check lt Mx be seen as a magaze for gay men.

But fish strong, as the nflict over Richie’s bathhoe project grows and Mx has to nsir whether ’s too risky for the magaze to speak to gay men, or even gay moments like this, the historil fictn feels not entirely historil.

LOST DURG NAZI LE GERMANY, ONE OF THE WORLD’S FIRST PRO-GAY FILMS HAS FALLY BEEN RTORED FOR MORN VIEWERS

“First of all, I’m gay, ” he said, “and this movie is gog to be gay non. "Alex AvilaAnd Gay Tim, a Brish LGBTQ news se, celebrated Friday, the day of the film’s official release, as “Barbie day“ and lled the world-renowned doll a “queer cultural phenomenon.

GREAT FREEDOM REVIEW – POWERFUL GAY​​ PRISON DRAMA​ ​SET POSTWAR GERMANY

PicturIn an terview wh Fandango, actor Kate McKnon, who is openly gay and plays “Weird Barbie” the film, said Barbie is about “imagatn. Many also flagged the teased scene which Barbie, now the real world, exchang a longg look wh Ameri Ferrera’s Gloria character; though, the relatnship between the two turns out to be a tribute to motherhood and the tradnal, nuclear before the film’s release, Robbie all but squashed the mors that some or any of the Barbi and Kens would be gay, tellg the Brish LGBTQ magaze Attu: The dolls don’t “actually have sexual orientatns. There are brief appearanc by Earrg Magic Ken and Palm Beach Sugar Daddy Ken, both of which Mattel has always nied were tentnally gay-d.

”As far as the queer-d trailers and promotnal clips for the new “Barbie” film, Rand poted to a phenomenon known as “gay wdow advertisg, ” or the practice of advertisers gturg to queer dienc a way that will go over the heads of those who would disapprove. ” Victor (Ge Friedrich) stammers disbelief, more to himself than to Hans (Franz Rogowski) fictnal character of Hans, liberated om a Nazi ncentratn mp at the end of World War II only to be sent directly to prison, is based on a chillg and often overlooked chapter German postwar is repeatedly arrted unr Paragraph 175, a law crimalizg sex between men that the Nazis expand jt a uple of years to their regime, and which was kept on the books for s law was ed, sometim wh elaborate stg operatns, to nvict up to 50, 000 gay men Wt Germany between 1945 and 1994 — roughly as many as were arrted durg the which the Nazis ed .

“For gay men, the Nazi era did not end 1945, ” said Peter Rehberg, the archivist of Schwul Mm, a gay cultural stutn Sebastian Meise, the director of “Great Freedom, ” read about the men who went om the ncentratn mps to prison bee of their sexualy, “really changed my unrstandg of history, ” he said a telephone terview om Vienna. But for many s, postwar Germany’s treatment of gay men was also neher liberal nor 1935, the Nazis strengthened Germany’s law crimalizg homosexualy, which was origally troduced the 1870s.

IN 'GREAT FREEDOM,' A MAN IS EED OM THE NAZIS, AND RE-IMPRISONED FOR BEG GAY

This allowed the regime to crimalize not jt gay sex, but almost any behavr that uld be seen to n afoul of heterosexual norms, cludg lookg at another man. Bermbach spent four weeks jail and was fed 5, 000 marks — a hefty sum at the he paid off the fe, he beme one of the thoands of gay and bisexual men who fled Paragraph 175.

He moved to Paris 1960 search of more and his wrg partner Thomas Reir llected many stori om Bermbach’s generatn of gay men durg the six years they spent rearchg and wrg the script for “Great Freedom, ” visg the archiv at the Schwul Mm and the Magn Hirschfeld Foundatn, which llects terviews wh men affected by the, Paragraph 175 did not stop gay culture om evolvg Wtern Germany; the German tle of the film, “Grosse Freihe, ” is a nod to a venerable gay bar Berl where the penultimate scene tak place.

But did ph many aspects of gay life unrground, acrdg to Kls Schumann, 84.

GREAT FREEDOM REVIEW – FORMIDABLY TELLIGENT GAY PRISON DRAMA THAT FDS LIBERTY SI

He remembered Berl police pullg up large vans ont of bars known to be gay hot spots the late ’40s and ’50s.

“As for beg nounced for beg homosexual, I’ve long fotten about that. A versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn C, Page 3 of the New York edn wh the headle: The Long Shadow of Germany’s Anti-Gay Law. Kev Maxen has bee the first male ach a US men’s profsnal sports league to e out as gay.

Per Outsports, as of September 2022, there have only ever been 16 players NFL history to publicly e out as gay or bisexual. Carl Nassib beme the first active NFL player league history to announce that he is gay 2021. Per Outsports, Maxen is the “first publicly out male ach a major Amerin men’s pro sports league, ” wh WNBA ach Curt Miller, who publicly me out to the media as gay 2015, also a publicly out male ach an Amerin profsnal sports league.