Berlin was queer sooner than you think. What was the gay scene like in Germany before Hitler?
What was the situation in Germany before the First World War? Even before the actual unification of Germany in 1871, Prussia (which will be the subject of most of the discussion) introduced its own regulations against sodomy, which was the contemporary term for certain sexual deviations, and which also covered homosexuality. It had also previously been the subject of medical studies and there was a lively debate as to whether it was innate or learned. However, the prevailing view in the public sphere was that it was a degeneracy, and this narrative remained popular after the First World War.
After German reunification, the so-called Paragraph 175 entered the penal code, which, among other things, criminalized homosexual intercourse between men. However, its interpretation was not entirely unambiguous - at first it was limited to penetration alone, but over time it came to prosecute all other erotic practices that somehow resembled heterosexual intercourse. The evidence itself often turned into a farce in court, but all bad things are good for something. In fact, the courts often used expert witnesses, whose opinions were often taken into account by the courts and on the basis of which sentences were commuted.
It is not without interest that Section 175 was introduced against the advice of the Prussian Medical Commission, which in its opinion declared that consensual intercourse between men was no more harmful than, for example, infidelity. Homosexual intercourse between women was on the very periphery of the whole debate, if at all, and was not explicitly addressed by the law.
Sexual (r)evolution
As early as the 1890s, opposition to the law began to gather, with the Social Democrats making their presence strongly felt. In the end, it was not repealed, even for the second time in the late 1920s. By this time, the NSDAP was already gaining strength and liberal tendencies were gradually taking hold.
However, the "Hundred and Seventy" only really remembered sexual intercourse, so that what we might now call the "gay scene" gradually took shape - there was nothing to prevent people from meeting freely, and specialised bars and press were established. It was at this time, for example, that Der Einige, the first gay magazine, was founded.
After the Great War, the shift was even more noticeable - the Kölnische Zeitung, one of the most widely read newspapers, even used the term "sexual revolution". Prussia, in particular, was seen as a kind of safe haven - each German state had its own government responsible for enforcing the laws. The Prussian one was dominated by the Social Democrats, and they did not insist on compliance with the relevant paragraph.
Magnus Hirschfeld and the first researches
On 14 May 1868, a son, Magnus, was born in Kolberg (now Poland) into the family of the physician Hermann Hirschfeld. He followed in his father's footsteps and studied medicine and philosophy. He followed the events around him closely, not only because of his field of study, but also because they concerned him personally: he himself was gay. And it wasn't just observation; Hirschfeld the younger was to influence history significantly.
After his studies, he went to America for an experience, where he noticed that Chicago's gay scene, for example, was very similar to that of Berlin. He verified his forming suspicions in 1896 on the occasion of the German Industrial Exhibition. There he met many people from the colonies and came to the clear conclusion that homosexuality appeared across countries and cultures. A year later, he founded the Scientific Humanitarian Commission to research and educate about homosexuality. In Germany, its main goal was to fight against Paragraph 175. Today, this commission is considered one of the first, if not the first, organization for the rights of LGBTQ+ people.
But it was not only his insights from the US and industry trade shows that led him to this. In fact, he ran a psychology practice in Berlin and his clientele was largely made up of gay men. Many of his patients faced social pressure and many of them attempted or considered suicide because of it. Hirschfeld saw that the vast majority of the people who came to him were people like everyone else and were not hurting anyone, quite the opposite. He firmly believed that you cannot criminalize something that is innate and harmless to society. He began to coined the slogan "Science to Justice".
He extended his research to queer people in general. In 1910, he coined the term "transvestitism". Hirschfeld used the word, by which we now mainly understand dressing in a way that is stereotypical of the opposite sex, to describe the phenomenon we now refer to as transgender. He was also interested in bisexuality and asexuality.
But he was aware of one thing - if he was to truly educate society and at the same time help sexual minorities, he could not do it alone and psychological practice was not enough. So in 1919 he bought a house in Berlin from the Weimar Republic and founded the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft - the Institute of Sexology.
Unfortunately, his work did not last long. With the advent of Nazism, the institute was forcibly liquidated. Nevertheless, it contributed significantly to the understanding of human sexual behavior and to improving conditions for queer people. Read more about it in the next part of this series.
