The media has changed things for homosexuals. The visibility now is much different. We now have shows, magazines, and movies that have started to show the homosexual life in a positive manner. Gays and lesbians are no longer the “victims of their situation” or the “victimizers of those around them.” For some of us it has become something to celebrate, as it should be! And these days, when it comes to gay pride events, Berlin is the place to be!
Christopher Street Day- Ranging in date from a weekend in June to one in August, this is one of the biggest Gay Representations Celebration not only in Germany, but across Eurote. It commemorates the Stonewall Riots that took place on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, New York. The day is commemorated with a parade full of floats, and more recently political campaigns. This is a sight to behold if you ever get the chance!
Love Parade- This is not something specifically targeted at the LGBT community. It is however very accepting of the LGBT community, considered very gay friendly. One of “Berlin’s biggest parties!”
Gay/Lesbian Reading
-Out In Berlin- reading put out by Berlin Tourism (translated link)
-Queer in Berlin- free lesbian and gay magazine
-L-Mag- magazine for lesbians (translated link)
-Lesbisches Berlin - Die Stadtbegleiterin- a Berlin guide for lesbians
Saturday, November 29, 2008
2003
So here is the contrast, one man proud of his sexual orientation, another man seemingly ashamed. Ole von Beust, the mayor of Hamburg, was ousted for being gay by his father earlier this month. The oddest thing is that recently he was pinned as being antihomosexual, and multiple gays and lesbians were protesting his mayoral position in Hamburg. I suppose that I get the idea of it not mattering when it comes to his political dealings, but to many it just seems cowardly to hide it at such great lengths. After all of the changes that have come about why do people have to be ashamed of themselves?
August 1st 2001
In world news a new law was passed in Germany today that has legalized a certain form of homosexual marriage. For the last two years informal gay partnerships have been allowed in Hamburg. This marriage gives inheritance and tenants rights to homosexuals that heterosexuals currently have. It also gives a foreigner marrying a German citizenship. Homosexual married couples do not however receive the same tax and welfare benefits that heterosexual couples receive. Three German states, Bavaria, Saxony and Thueringen, have challenged the law as unconstitutional. However previous rulings by a constitutional court stated the law must be instated.
Summer 2001
What a historic year. It has been in the news for a while, however unless you live around here you have no idea. Berlin has a gay mayor! Not a lesbian, but the next best thing I suppose. Klaus Wowereit a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). I can’t help but think that we have come a long way from the days of upstanding homosexuals being blackmailed for that fact. He is a personable guy, and obviously people like him or he wouldn’t have made it this far. One can only hope now that he will not betray the positive exposure that he has been given. In his words, “Ich bin schwul, und das ist auch gut so“, or "I'm gay, and it's okay that way."
1939-1945
Lesbians In WWII
One of the lesser known injustices of the Holocaust was the persecution of homosexuals. The sad truth however is that it was mainly a persecution of homosexual men. At this point in time there is no actual known number of how many homosexuals were killed during the late 1930’s and early 1940’s. Homosexuals were made to wear pink triangles on their coats and occasionally on their pant legs. One of the ways that the Nazis were able to apprehend so many people was through paragraph 175. The Nazis extended it to cover even fantasies of same sex actions. There is one reported case of a man being caught watching a couple in the park, but he was accused of focusing on the man and for that he was taken into custody.
It was different for lesbians however. The Nazis did not see women as a threat. Part of this was due to the fact that women were not allowed to hold real positions of power, especially within the Nazi regime. They were however expected to further the Aryan race for the Germans. The stereotype was that it was only possible to be pseudo-lesbian, and was therefore “curable”.
Lesbianism never became something convictable under paragraph 175 for a few different reasons. The first reason was that women could not “waste the seed” in the way that a man could when he engaged in homosexual acts. This was relevant because of the eugenics movement of the time. Another thought that people had was that the “natural tenderness” of women may be construed the wrong way and innocent people would be accused of illegal acts.
There were some select women however that were sent to concentration camps. These were the women that refused to “reform” their ways and conform to the ways of “real” women. The women that would not went to concentration camps. Some of them were put to death. The majority however were subject to work as prostitutes. Ravensbrück was one camp that had a brothel. Women that were classified as “anti-social” (a justifiable way for the Nazis to obtain lesbians) were lured there under the pretense that they would be released after some “service” in the brothel there. In many cases there is no record of the women that were put into these camps after the war.
-Grau, Günter, Claudia Schoppmann, and Patrick Camiller. Hidden Holocaust? gay and lesbian persecution in Germany, 1933-45. Chicago, IL: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1995.
One of the lesser known injustices of the Holocaust was the persecution of homosexuals. The sad truth however is that it was mainly a persecution of homosexual men. At this point in time there is no actual known number of how many homosexuals were killed during the late 1930’s and early 1940’s. Homosexuals were made to wear pink triangles on their coats and occasionally on their pant legs. One of the ways that the Nazis were able to apprehend so many people was through paragraph 175. The Nazis extended it to cover even fantasies of same sex actions. There is one reported case of a man being caught watching a couple in the park, but he was accused of focusing on the man and for that he was taken into custody.
It was different for lesbians however. The Nazis did not see women as a threat. Part of this was due to the fact that women were not allowed to hold real positions of power, especially within the Nazi regime. They were however expected to further the Aryan race for the Germans. The stereotype was that it was only possible to be pseudo-lesbian, and was therefore “curable”.
Lesbianism never became something convictable under paragraph 175 for a few different reasons. The first reason was that women could not “waste the seed” in the way that a man could when he engaged in homosexual acts. This was relevant because of the eugenics movement of the time. Another thought that people had was that the “natural tenderness” of women may be construed the wrong way and innocent people would be accused of illegal acts.
There were some select women however that were sent to concentration camps. These were the women that refused to “reform” their ways and conform to the ways of “real” women. The women that would not went to concentration camps. Some of them were put to death. The majority however were subject to work as prostitutes. Ravensbrück was one camp that had a brothel. Women that were classified as “anti-social” (a justifiable way for the Nazis to obtain lesbians) were lured there under the pretense that they would be released after some “service” in the brothel there. In many cases there is no record of the women that were put into these camps after the war.
-Grau, Günter, Claudia Schoppmann, and Patrick Camiller. Hidden Holocaust? gay and lesbian persecution in Germany, 1933-45. Chicago, IL: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1995.
May 12th, 1903
What is a woman supposed to be?
-nurturing
-unassuming
-fragile
-well mannered
-good housekeeper
So I am supposed to be a pushover. I know there are others that feel this way, we have met, and we have talked. I know better. I can not say these things to anyone but my few confidants. Some of them are so easily admirable. They are strong willed, independent women that know what they want and how to get it from the world. The idea of not liking the hand we have been dealt is not an option. I can imagine it now,
“Father, I can not marry Matthias because I am in love with Annie.”
He would most certainly not find that funny. The truth is however that I have no other option. I do not have my own fortune that I can go and live off of. I have no exceptional talent that could help me work through life. I am doomed. I will marry a man, have children, keep a clean house, and be miserable. The saddest thing about it is that I know I am not the only one that feels this way, but that makes no difference. I am a woman. I do not know what love is. I will never be able to be myself.
(Based off of thoughts and entries found in the book Lesbian-Feminism in turn-of-the-century Germany by Lillian Faderman and Brigitte Eriksson)
-nurturing
-unassuming
-fragile
-well mannered
-good housekeeper
So I am supposed to be a pushover. I know there are others that feel this way, we have met, and we have talked. I know better. I can not say these things to anyone but my few confidants. Some of them are so easily admirable. They are strong willed, independent women that know what they want and how to get it from the world. The idea of not liking the hand we have been dealt is not an option. I can imagine it now,
“Father, I can not marry Matthias because I am in love with Annie.”
He would most certainly not find that funny. The truth is however that I have no other option. I do not have my own fortune that I can go and live off of. I have no exceptional talent that could help me work through life. I am doomed. I will marry a man, have children, keep a clean house, and be miserable. The saddest thing about it is that I know I am not the only one that feels this way, but that makes no difference. I am a woman. I do not know what love is. I will never be able to be myself.
(Based off of thoughts and entries found in the book Lesbian-Feminism in turn-of-the-century Germany by Lillian Faderman and Brigitte Eriksson)
1862 Origins-Today
It wasn’t until 1862 that there was even a word for it. First they were called “Uranian” (Looking At Gay and Lesbian Life, Blummenfeld and Raymond). Karl Ulrich came up with this one. He published his “social and juridical” studies on love shared between two men. Many later referred to Ulrich as the “Grandfather of Gay Liberation. The term homosexual didn’t even come about until 1869. It came from a doctor named Karoly Maria Benkert that used it as a neutral term that describe any same sex relation.
The Evolution of Paragraph 175
In 1871 Paragraph 175 of the German penal code went into effect. It ruled anal sex between men a criminal offense, and was punishable by imprisonment. There was also a line along side of it making it a comparable offense to human-animal sex acts.
Come 1935 the Nazis made some of their own revisions to the paragraph. There was an attempt to get the code to cover women, however that didn’t happen. The new code however extended criminal actions to kissing, hand holding, and even homosexual fantasies. This is the case for a man that forces such things on another man, or has them done to him. The punishment was up to ten years in prison, however often times it resulted in being sent to a concentration camp. A minor was someone under 21. Often times they would be excused of their crime. If they were caught with an older man, the elder was the one that took the blame.
In the summer of 1969 West Germany revisited the code again. The year before this East Germany had abolished Paragraph 175. West Germany however revised the law to a man of 18 engaging in, or the attempted engagement in, of “lewdness” with another man 21 years old or younger can be put in prison for up to five years.
In the fall of 1973 the paragraph was revisited and reworded to state that any male over 18 that instigated or allowed sexual acts with a male under 18 to take place could be punished with up to five years in jail.
Finally in March of 1994 paragraph 175 was voided.
The Evolution of Paragraph 175
In 1871 Paragraph 175 of the German penal code went into effect. It ruled anal sex between men a criminal offense, and was punishable by imprisonment. There was also a line along side of it making it a comparable offense to human-animal sex acts.
Come 1935 the Nazis made some of their own revisions to the paragraph. There was an attempt to get the code to cover women, however that didn’t happen. The new code however extended criminal actions to kissing, hand holding, and even homosexual fantasies. This is the case for a man that forces such things on another man, or has them done to him. The punishment was up to ten years in prison, however often times it resulted in being sent to a concentration camp. A minor was someone under 21. Often times they would be excused of their crime. If they were caught with an older man, the elder was the one that took the blame.
In the summer of 1969 West Germany revisited the code again. The year before this East Germany had abolished Paragraph 175. West Germany however revised the law to a man of 18 engaging in, or the attempted engagement in, of “lewdness” with another man 21 years old or younger can be put in prison for up to five years.
In the fall of 1973 the paragraph was revisited and reworded to state that any male over 18 that instigated or allowed sexual acts with a male under 18 to take place could be punished with up to five years in jail.
Finally in March of 1994 paragraph 175 was voided.
Sources
The fallowing are all of the sources that were used when I created the posts for this blog.
Sources
Blumenfeld, Warren J., and Diane Raymond. Looking At Gay and Lesbian Life. Boston, MA: Beacon P, 1993. 272-316.
Faderman, Lillian, and Brigitte Eriksson, eds. Lesbian-Feminism in turn-of-the-century Germany. Weatherby Lake, MO: Naiad P, 1980.
Grau, Günter, Claudia Schoppmann, and Patrick Camiller. Hidden
Holocaust? gay and lesbian persecution in Germany, 1933-45. Chicago, IL: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1995.
"City Mayors: Klaus Wowereit." 11 Nov. 2008.
"German Culture: Gay and Lesbian Germany." Soccerphile. 21 Nov. 2008.
"Germany Leagalises Gay Marriage." BBC News. BBC. 1 Aug. 2001.
"Scandal In Germany." BBC News. BBC. 21 Aug. 2003.
Sources
Blumenfeld, Warren J., and Diane Raymond. Looking At Gay and Lesbian Life. Boston, MA: Beacon P, 1993. 272-316.
Faderman, Lillian, and Brigitte Eriksson, eds. Lesbian-Feminism in turn-of-the-century Germany. Weatherby Lake, MO: Naiad P, 1980.
Grau, Günter, Claudia Schoppmann, and Patrick Camiller. Hidden
Holocaust? gay and lesbian persecution in Germany, 1933-45. Chicago, IL: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1995.
"City Mayors: Klaus Wowereit." 11 Nov. 2008.
"German Culture: Gay and Lesbian Germany." Soccerphile. 21 Nov. 2008.
"Germany Leagalises Gay Marriage." BBC News. BBC. 1 Aug. 2001.
"Scandal In Germany." BBC News. BBC. 21 Aug. 2003.
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