Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 10:28:31 -0400 From: "(No Name)" Subject: Gay Culture Flourished In Pre-Nazi Germany Reprinted with permission from Update, Southern California's gay and lesbian weekly newspaper. For reprint permission, or to send a letter to the editor, email gayeditor@aol.com Gay Culture Flourished In Pre-Nazi Germany By H. Lucas Ginn For Update The horror of minority persecution during the Holocaust is etched into the mind of modern Western man. The sufferings of millions of Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, and religious minorities is painfully recreated in memorials, books, and art work throughout the world. Images of death and persecution will certainly be recalled as our community celebrates Gay and Lesbian History Month. However, it is also necessary to have some knowledge of pre-Nazi Germany so that the Holocaust can be better understood and the likelihood of history repeating itself diminishes. The German Gay rights movement began in 1896 when a small circle of Gay male friends and associates began sporadic publication of the of the journal Der Eigene (Self-Owner). The journal was a celebration of male art, literature, and camaraderie. It consisted of articles written by Gay scholars, erotic photographs, and perhaps most significantly, personal ads that allowed Gay German men to meet discreetly and network with one another. Publishing a homosexual-oriented journal was risky business in early 20th century Germany. Paragraph 175 of the strict German penal code made male homosexual sex punishable by a stiff prison sentence. The police and puritanical citizen groups wielded Paragraph 175 as a weapon against Gays. Der Eigene and its publisher Adolf Brand were frequent targets of homophobic wrath. Brand's home was searched by police on numerous occasions and Brand served two months in jail for "lascivious writings." In the face of such persecution, Brand and other contributors to Der Eigene meekly defended their work by citing its scientific and artistic value and downplaying its sexual themes. Despite intimidation from German authorities, Der Eigene continued to be published. However, the threat of police harassment probably did take a toll on the fledgling publication; historians estimate that no more than 1500 men subscribed to Der Eigene. Der Eigene was not written as a means of political activism. Indeed, most of its readers were well-educated men who had already accepted their homosexuality. The political aspect of the German Gay rights struggle was taken up by the Scientific Humanitarian Committee (SHC), founded in 1897. Led by famed sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld, the SHC had three primary goals: the abolition of Paragraph 175, educating the public about homosexuality, and forging interest among homosexuals in the Gay rights movement. To accomplish its aims, the SCH sponsored speaking tours and exhibits and donated pro-Gay publications to libraries. The centerpiece of its activism was the circulation of a petition calling for the repeal of Paragraph 175 by the German parliament. Despite gaining the support of prominent Germans, both Gay and straight, Hirschfeld and other members of the SHC were ultimately unsuccessful in their attempts to win a repeal of anti-Gay laws. However, the work of the SHC was not in vain. Due largely to the efforts of the SHC, homosexuality became a widespread topic of conversation and debate in Germany. Gay rights were debated and discussed in the leading German newspapers and in households throughout the country. Gay men emerged from the shadows of prejudice and myth to make their presence known to their straight countrymen. Both Der Eigene and the SHC worked primarily on behalf of Gay men. Lesbianism was not proscribed by law and Lesbian journals and businesses flourished in the Weimar Republic. Lesbians were invited to join the SHC, but few chose to do so, in part because of the organization's emphasis on the repeal of male sodomy laws. Lesbians and Gay men, while sharing the common bond of homosexuality, led separate lives and struggles. ... there were more Gay bars and periodicals in 1920 Berlin, the capital of Gay Germany, than there were in 1980 New York. World War I was a major turning point in German history. German participation in the war lasted from 1914 to 1919 and ended in devastating defeat. Inflation soared. Millions were unemployed. Poverty stained the cities of a once proud and militant nation. The devastation of the war caused the German people to reexamine their national values, including sexual values. Greater tolerance emerged for sexual variations and expression and it was during the 1920s that mainstream Gay life came out of the closet, out of the shadows of fear. No longer was Gay society limited to the intellectual elite. Gay bars and clubs opened in major German cities, creating coherent Gay neighborhoods. The numbers of Gay male periodicals soared. Historian Frank Rector estimates that there were more Gay bars and periodicals in 1920 Berlin, the capital of Gay Germany, than there were in 1980 New York. The infamous Paragraph 175 remained in the penal code, but many police were reluctant to enforce it in the larger cities. The success and openness of German Gays during the 1920s ultimately hurt them. The Berlin that was synonymous with Gay culture was the same city that was synonymous with government corruption and ineptitude. The German people began to look for scapegoats for the ills that had befallen their nation. The Jews and Gays of Berlin were easy targets. Gay men and Lesbians suffered under the same poverty and hardship that their straight compatriots faced. Like many Germans, Gays and Lesbians were attracted to promises of wealth and a restoration of national prestige offered by a rising political force N the Nationalist Socialists or Nazis. The Nazi glorification of manhood was reminiscent of the pages of Der Eigene and other respected Gay publications. Many Gay men joined the ranks of the Nazi party in a spirit of patriotic duty. In doing so, they attracted the attention of the party's leader, Gay-hater Adolf Hitler. Hitler relied upon stereotype and the opinions of Gays themselves to justify his discrimination against homosexuals. He viewed Gay men as effeminate and weak, a direct contradiction to the masculine ideal to which many, if not most, German Gays aspired. He used the writings of Magnus Hirschfeld to back his contention that homosexuals, both men and women, are freaks of nature. Hirschfeld, desperate to find an explanation for homosexuality that would ease prejudice, originally believed that Gays were a third biological sex. He backed away from that contention in 1910. After gaining political power, Hitler ordered a renewed enforcement of Paragraph 175 and began a purge of homosexuals within the Nazi ranks. In 1933, an anti-pornography law was used to shut down Gay- friendly publications. All Gay bars, bath houses, hotels, and cafes frequented by homosexuals were shut down by police under government order. In May, Hirschfeld's Institute of Sexual Science was ransacked and the archives and books within it were publicly burned. The terror had begun. The movement which had shown so much promise and progress was squelched by the Nazis. Gay men and Lesbians were viciously forced back into the closet and those who dared live openly or maintain their Gay contacts were rounded up and sent to the concentration camps for imprisonment and extermination. It is startling how quickly a promising and vibrant sexual revolution was crushed. Homosexuals, who had been on the cusp of sexual freedom and openness, were forced back into the shadows of fear and secrecy by Hitler's consolidation of power. Many Gays failed to realize until it was too late that under the promises of a restoration of national glory lurked tyranny and bigotry. For Further Reading Lauritsen, John and Thorstad, David. The Early Homosexual Rights Movement. New York: Times Change Press, 1974. Oosterhuis, Harry (ed.). Homosexuality and Male Bonding in Pre-Nazi Germany. New York: Harrington Park Press, 1991. Plant, Richard. The Pink Triangle. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1986. Rector, Frank. The Nazi Extermination of Homosexuals. New York: Stein and Day, 1981.