11 Gay, German Movi From 1924-2004

Contents:

• 100 YEARS OF PHOTOGRAPHS OF GAY MEN LOVE
• GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME
• VTAGE GAY MAGAZ, INCLUDG ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY BOOKS

100 YEARS OF PHOTOGRAPHS OF GAY MEN LOVE

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.

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.

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.

GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME

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.

The enigmatic actor, art llector, gay activist, globetrotter, and doyenne of the SoHo scene has, along wh his late partner J. Together, the pair found the Llie-Lohman Mm of Gay and Lbian Art—the first stutn of s kd—which is down the block, on Wooster, unassumg Llie happened to poke his head out to the hallway to terme the e of the ck; before he uld shut the door, a group om the art magaze I worked for had charged their way through.

This somewhat jad crew of crics was ankly awed to fd every available surface the dky, crimson Prce Street loft absolutely vered—let me repeat: vered—wh explicly homoerotic art all styl and media, cludg var se-specific murals.

VTAGE GAY MAGAZ, INCLUDG ART AND PHOTOGRAPHY BOOKS

At the start of his and Lohman’s llectg days, more than 60 years ago, “gay imagery was unfortunately the hands of pornographers exclively, ” Llie lamented.

Photo by Max Burkhalter for wi-rangg llectn gently illtrat the changg landspe of public gay life and the civil rights advanc crementally gaed sce he began discreetly buyg homoerotic art the 1950s. When the llectn began to take shape, sodomy was outlawed ( still is several stat), and gays uld be refed service at bars and other there were numerable challeng to gog about buildg such a libido, Uranian llectn.

Much like homosexualy self, gay art was hidn away—tucked the back rooms of galleri, wh entry granted by s and vert nods passed between figur who had to read the other as part of their circle.

Generally, homoerotic works “were ma for iends, ” Llie said, and they’ve only more recently been g to the market.

Born the remote town of Deadwood, South Dakota, 1933, Llie had saved enough money by the time he was 17 to take a b to Los Angel, where he enuntered his first gay muny.

After his two-year stt was up, Llie enrolled the Sorbonne Paris before travelg throughout Europe, livg Venice and Amsterdam, known as the gay pal of post-war Europe. Tipped off by a iend, Llie “found a ltle old ticky-tacky shop, ” as he relled, that trafficked the sale of homoerotic art.

Ccially, however, this perd allowed him to experience the nuanc of gay culture around the world, which drastilly changed his worldview. He relled gog to a ernment-sponsored gay bar Amsterdam: “The first thg you saw when you walked was this huge, long bar wh a gigantic picture of Queen Juliana sg out at her gay subjects.

1960, “I plunged to the gay rights movement stantaneoly bee so much bullsh was gog on this untry, ” he said. While SoHo is now one of the most chichi neighborhoods New York, was then, as Llie remd me, sentially an dtrial wasteland where only few artists—and fewer gay people—igned to live. ” The Stonewall rts on June 28, 1969—an early-hours prott agast a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay club Greenwich Village—were a major turng pot.

The tle is a le om a Constante Cavafy poem, and Llie uldn’t help but wax poetic about Cavafy, who “wrote magnificent, rhapsodic gay poetry. Photo by Max Burkhalter for flourishg of gay life the 1970s soon gave way to the AIDS epimic of the ’80s.

” Still, was durg this , 1987, that Llie and Lohman created their nonprof foundatn, which was accreded as a mm after the peak of the AIDS crisis, Mayor Rudy Giuliani—“a great, honorable Catholic, ” Llie uldn’t help but jibe—“fally managed to kill public gay life New York. ” He hop that his llectn, and the mm, will te a generatn that he perceiv to be largely uniated wh gay history.

) He remembered seeg the 2005 film Brokeback Mounta—then an unual mastream pictn of gay romance— theaters. The works were so divorced om their homoerotic subtext that even Queen Victoria and Alexanr Graham Bell owned pi. ” Von Gloen offers even further proof that gay art is by no means a new phenomenon, jt one that has only recently been permted to see the light.