Between World Wars, Gay Culture Flourished In Berl : NPR

Contents:

• BERL & GAY LIBERATN LONG BEFORE STONEWALL
• 10 FACTS ON THE ORIGS OF GAY RIGHTS BERL
• GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME
• QUEER & GAY BERL: YOUR GUI FOR LGBTQ+ BERL
• BETWEEN WORLD WARS, GAY CULTURE FLOURISHED IN BERL
• GAY LIFE BERL IS STARTG TO ECHO A DARKER ERA
• GAY BERL: BIRTHPLACE OF A MORN INTY
• SCHWUL MM (GAY MM)
• STANFORD SCHOLAR EXPLOR THE HISTORY OF GAY RIGHTS GERMANY
• BERL'S GAY NEIGHBOURHOODS
• BERL MM SHEDS LIGHT ON GAY HISTORY GERMANY
• BERL CY GUI: WORLD-CLASS GAY CULTURE
• RACG TO PRERVE THE HISTORY OF MAE’S 1ST GAY RIGHTS ANIZATN

BERL & GAY LIBERATN LONG BEFORE STONEWALL

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.

10 FACTS ON THE ORIGS OF GAY RIGHTS BERL

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.

GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME

) 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. ” 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.

QUEER & GAY BERL: YOUR GUI FOR LGBTQ+ BERL

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. They uld see themselv onscreen films like “Mädchen Uniform” and “Different om the Others”—a tale of a gay vlist driven to suici, wh Hirschfeld featured the supportg role of a wise sexologist.

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.

BETWEEN WORLD WARS, GAY CULTURE FLOURISHED IN BERL

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 LIFE BERL IS STARTG TO ECHO A DARKER ERA

The guid tour about Berl’s History of Sex Augmented Realy starts jt like the history of the world’s first LGBTIQ rights movement: wh Karl Herich Ulrichs–a man born long before the emergence of the ia of a homosexual inty. In the guid tour, people learn how, 1864, Ulrichs published the first of a total of 12 wrgs lled “Forschungen über das Räthsel r mannmännlichen Liebe” (Rearch on the Mystery of Male-Male Love) – a masterpiece of gay history. In the guid tour, people disver why von Meerscheidt-Hüllsem believed would be easier to enforce §175 and ntrol male homosexualy if gay and bisexual men were allowed to have their bars, clubs, and other lotns.

1935: Two years after burng down Hirschfeld’s Instute of Sex Rearch, the Nazis step up their persecutn of homosexuals, expandg Paragraph 175 to clu “lewd acts” and sendg offenrs to ncentratn mps, where they are forced to wear pk triangl. 1971: Activist anisatn Homosexuelle Aktn Wt Berl is found outsi Ko Arsenal after a screeng of Rosa von Prnheim’s It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society Which He Liv, markg the begng of a new gay rights movement Germany. Fally, 1936 SS lear and Chief of the German Police Herich Himmler tablished the Reich Central Office for the Combatg of Homosexualy and Abortn (Reichszentrale zur Bekämpfung r Homosexualät und r Abtreibung).

GAY BERL: BIRTHPLACE OF A MORN INTY

A few years later, May 2008, the Memorial to Homosexuals Persecuted unr Nazism (Denkmal für die im Natnalsozialism verfolgten Homosexuellen) was unveiled nearby Tiergarten park central Berl. 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.

There are now around 80 venu for gays and lbians Berl: beer-soaked div and distilleri, bourgeois rtrants, we bars and clubho, dance halls and dance palac, ballrooms and smopolan night-time bars.

SCHWUL MM (GAY MM)

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.

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”.

STANFORD SCHOLAR EXPLOR THE HISTORY OF GAY RIGHTS GERMANY

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. 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. 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 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.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)CLAIRE WALDOFF: (Sgg German) 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 was the law regardg homosexualy the '20s and early '30s Berl? 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 So if homosexual acts were illegal Berl the '20s and early '30s, how did a gay subculture manage to flourish? And, of urse, people had nsensual sexual relatns private, so the law was difficult to 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.

BERL'S GAY NEIGHBOURHOODS

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 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. It was somethg that really didn't exist the same way any other European 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 MM SHEDS LIGHT ON GAY HISTORY GERMANY

And so blackmail beme a huge 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 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.

BERL CY GUI: WORLD-CLASS GAY CULTURE

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 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. 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 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 So what's the timatn of how many gay people were imprisoned durg the Third Reich, and how many died ncentratn mps and prisons?

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 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 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.

RACG TO PRERVE THE HISTORY OF MAE’S 1ST GAY RIGHTS ANIZATN

He thought that was probably an imbalance of male and female sex hormon that acunted for homosexualy or homosexual also then cid that one might be able to e sex hormon to fluence behavr and also ultimately to transn to a different genr. And they would then be charged, ually unr the anti-homosexualy what Hirschfeld argued was that the dividuals felt this sort of strong drive to cross-drs public and should be allowed to do so. But 's certaly documented that there were both venu and different kds of anizatns that really tered specifilly to So now you're the procs of wrg another book lled "Long Kniv: Homosexualy In Nazi Germany.

The prence of a lot of gay-intified, some s openly homosexual, dividuals who were volved the Nazi movement and who participated at least the early years and then up until the so-lled Night of Long Kniv - up until the assassatn of Rohm.

BEACHY: Well, you know, after pletg this book and after wrg about what I thk is really the birth of morn homosexual inty and homosexual rights activism, I have trouble unrstandg why Germans still regnize the Stonewall rt or rts at the end of the '60s 1969 as the begng of the morn homosexual rights I thk the Germans need to sort of honor their own history and regnize the importance of somebody like Magn Hirschfeld and the scientific humanarian mtee found 1897, you know, almost 70 years before the begng of the so-lled morn homosexual rights movement. So I thk some ways that the Germans have almost been brawashed, and so that's - I gus that explas my ironic tone at the end of the Well, Robert Beachy, thank you so much for talkg wh Thank you so much for havg me on the show, Robert Beachy is the thor of "Gay Berl.