LGBT history in Germany

This is a list of events in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) history in Germany.

Medieval and early modern periods

• 1007 – The Decretum of Burchard of Worms equates homosexual acts with other sexual transgressions such as adultery and argues, therefore, that it should have the same penance (generally fasting).^[1]
• 1532 – Holy Roman Empire makes sodomy punishable by death.^[1]
• 1620 – Brandenburg-Prussia criminalizes sodomy, making it punishable by death.^[1]
• 1721 – Catherina Margaretha Linck is executed for female sodomy in Germany.
• 1794 – The Kingdom of Prussia abolishes the death penalty for sodomy.^[1]

19th century

• 1867 – On August 29, 1867, Karl Heinrich Ulrichs became the first self-proclaimed homosexual to speak out publicly for homosexual rights when he pleaded at the Congress of German Jurists in Munich for a resolution urging the repeal of anti-homosexual laws.
• 1869 – The term "homosexuality" appears in print for the first time in a German-Hungarian pamphlet written by Karl-Maria Kertbeny (1824–1882).
• 1871 – Homosexuality is criminalized throughout the German Empire by Paragraph 175 of the Reich Criminal Code.^[2]

20th century

1901-1930

• 1907 – Adolf Brand, the activist leader of the Gemeinschaft der Eigenen, working to overturn Paragraph 175, publishes a piece "outing" the imperial chancellor of Germany, Prince Bernhard von Bülow. The Prince sues Brand for libel and clears his name; Brand is sentenced to 18 months in prison.^[3]
• 1907–1909 – Harden-Eulenburg Affair in Germany^[4]
• 1919 – In Berlin, Germany, Doctor Magnus Hirschfeld co-founds the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute for Sex Research), a pioneering private research institute and counseling office. Its library of thousands of books was destroyed by Nazis in May, 1933.^[5][6][7]
• 1919 - Different from the Others, one of the first explicitly gay films, is released. Magnus Hirschfeld has a cameo in the film and partially funded its production.
• 1929 - On October 16, a Reichstag Committee votes to repeal Paragraph 175; the Nazis' rise to power prevents the implementation of the vote.

1931-1970

• 1931 - Mädchen in Uniform, one of the first explicitly lesbian films and the first pro-lesbian film, is released.

Students of the Deutsche Studentenschaft, organized by the Nazi party, parade in front of the Institute for Sexual Research in Berlin on May 6, 1933; they later attacked it, looting the archives, and setting afire much of the material

• 1933 – The National Socialist German Workers Party bans homosexual groups. Homosexuals are sent to concentration camps. Nazis burn the library of Magnus Hirschfeld's Institute for Sexual Research, and destroy the Institute
• 1937 – The first use of the pink triangle for gay men in Nazi concentration camps.
• 1945 – Upon the liberation of Nazi concentration camps by Allied forces, those interned for homosexuality are not freed, but required to serve out the full term of their sentences under Paragraph 175
• 1950 - East Germany partially abrogates the Nazis' emendations to Paragraph 175.
• 1968 – Paragraph 175 is eased in East Germany decriminalizing homosexual acts over the age of 18^[2]
• 1969 - Paragraph 175 is eased in West Germany.^[2]

1971-2000

• 1974 - General Gay Association, the second openly-LGBT rights organization in German history, is established.
• 1985 - Herbert Rusche becomes the first openly-gay member of the Bundestag.
• 1987 - Jutta Oesterle-Schwerin becomes the first lesbian member of the Bundestag.
• 2000 - the Bundestag officially apologizes to gays and lesbians persecuted under the Nazi regime, and for "harm done to homosexual citizens up to 1969".

21st century

• 2001 - Germany recognizes civil partnerships for same-sex couples (without joint adoption until Oct 2004, then with step-adoption); Klaus Wowereit becomes the first openly-gay politician elected mayor of Berlin (and, by virtue of Berlin's status as a state, one of the two first openly-gay premier of a German state; also makes Berlin the largest city in the world with an openly-gay mayor); Ole von Beust becomes the first openly-gay mayor of Hamburg.
• 2004 - same-sex stepchild adoption is legalized; Guido Westerwelle, leader of the FDP, becomes the first leader of a major party to come out.
• 2009 - Westerwelle becomes the first openly-gay member of the Federal Cabinet (Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister under Angela Merkel coalition government).

See also

• LGBT rights in Germany

References

1. (Fone, 2000)
2. "Where is it illegal to be gay?". BBC News. Retrieved 11 February 2014.
3. Marc Vargo. Scandal: infamous gay controversies of the twentieth century Routledge, 2003. pp 165–7.
4. Steakley, James D. (revised 1989). "Iconography of a Scandal: Political Cartoons and the Eulenburg Affair in Wilhelmin Germany", Hidden from History: Reclaiming the Gay & Lesbian Past (1990), Duberman, et al., eds. New York: Meridian, New American Library, Penguin Books. ISBN 0-452-01067-5.
5. hirschfeld.in-berlin.de, The first Institute for Sexual Science
6. Famous GLBT & GLBTI People - Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld stonewallsociety
7. Atina Grossmann. Reforming Sex. Oxford University Press, 1995.