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.