Enlightenment and Nazi's Quick Cards Flashcards
How did Enlightenment thinking change perceptions to homosexuality?
Enlightenment was an age of reason. (Louis Crompton)
Move away from the church doctrine and towards the individual (Micheal Sabilis)
Montesquieu- devotes a page to the crime against nature, links it with heresy/witchcraft executions and thus the archaic thinking of the church! Degrades it to a minor social problem.
Moving away from the homosexual as a sin? More of a social disease?
Who were the important sexologists in the late nineteenth century and what did they do?
Karl Heinch Ulrichs (1825- 1895)- 'intermediate sex'- a male homosexual had a female soul in a male body! Neil Miller says that Ulrichs ideas became quite widespread throughout the course of the twentieth century Richard Von Krafft- Ebing (1840- 1902), Thought by many as the father of sexology, thought that it was a congenital abnormality-but was not a degenerative state. Havelock Ellis (1859- 1939)- First medical textbook on homosexuality- didn't treat it as a disease- 2% of pop. homosexual!
Who was Magnus Hirschfeld and what did he do?
A German Jewish sexologist- researched and found that around 2.2% f German adult males homosexual.
1897- set up the Scientific humanitarianism committee- which wanted to support gay rights- tried to get paragraph 175 abolished, collected around 5000 figures.
Believed up until 1910 that the boundaries of gender were fixed and that homosexuals represented a third way, which would later be exploited by the Nazi’s (Richard plant).
Set up the institute for scientific research in 1919, which housed books etc. Was later burnt down on May 6 1933 when Hitler came to power. Erwin Haeberle- writes that when Hitler came to power the work of sexologists was very much persecuted because it was carried out by Jews.
Did a gay subculture flourish before WW2?
Yes
1. Around 40 gay bars and 30 publications in gay Berlin.
2. There were 22,000 known male prostitutes in 1929
3. Neil Miller- fascinating to those who visited- Christopher Isherwood ‘Berlin meant boys’.
4. Richard Plant says that women seemed to have a sort of immunity- could have lesbian balls etc.
5. Gad Beck b. 1923- Ran home to his mother after visiting a gay bar ‘today I had my first man’/
6. Heinz.F. Says it was very wild in Berlin- everything went ‘topsy turvey’ after WW1.
No.
1. Florence Tamagne said that between 1919 and 1934, 704 arrests annually in Germany- though varied in regards to bigger cities.
2. Hirschfeld- assulted in 1921 and 1922 (Neil Miller).
Why did Nazi’s hate homosexuality?
- Masculinity- needed to be strong to conquer and survive- Himmler wishes to created a Mannerstaadt (Neil Miller).
- Harry Oosterhuis- concerned with population- Himmler too attributes this as a reason in a 1937 speech.
- Biological- blood purity- the difference in the treatment of Poland and the Netherlands.
- Diseased- 1940 - Harry Oosterhuis, those who had seduced more than one man- deported to concentration camps. Fuhrer talked of the ‘plague of homosexuality’.
- Eliot. H. Boden- family at the forefront of German culture and christian morality- homosexuality danger to this?
- Political reasons- used homosexuality as a tool to persecute rivals? Like Ernst Rohm and then latter in 1938 Von Fritsch (Richard Plant).
How was homosexuals persecuted under the Third Reich?
- 50,000 sentenced under Nazi law- only 10- 30% of these sent to concentration camps (Harry Oosterhuis).
- Gunter Grau splits into 3 sections
1933- 1935: 1. Surpressed scientific institutions
2. First attacks included Ernst Rohm
3. Extension of paragraph 175.
1936-39- Establishment of the special administrative body: ‘The third Reich Office for the combating of homosexuality and abortion’, increase in sentencing 853 in 1933, 2,106 in 1935 and 8,562 in 1938 (Neil Miller)
1939- 45: July 40- men arrested for homosexual activities must be transferred to prison camp after having served their prison sentences
What was paragraph 175?
1871- Introduced Paragraph 175 to the German Penal Code- which made homosexual acts criminal.
1935- extended unnatural sex act to sex offense which broadened category, those who were under 21 and offenders could be punished with up to 10 years in prison
East Germany got rid of Nazi version, but West Germany continued with it.
50,000 convicted between 1945 to 1969.
1969- West gov eased para 175 to under 21s, then to 18 in 1973 and repealed it in 1994.
East Germany lowered age of consent in 1973 and then repealed in 1988.
Justice minister Heiko Maas just apologized and lifted sentences 11 May 2016.
Were lesbians persecuted?
No-
not illegal under paragraph 175, though R. Klare wanted them to be.
- E Mexger- would cause a lot of unnecessary paperwork- hard to tell with lesbians.
yes
- Richard Plant looks at 6 lesbians who were thrown into camp Butzow.
-Gunter Grau- suffered from loss of subculture, and many forced to feminize and to enter into unhappy heterosexual marriages.
- Gunter Grau- ‘women were definitely not persecuted systematically like male homosexuals- but they did face some persecution’.
Else (b. 1917), went to Flossenberg and stationed at the camp brothel (Gunter Grau).
What was life like in Concentration camps for homosexuals?
Neil Miller (had a worse time)- 53% died as opposed to 40% political prisoners, and 34.7% amongst jehovahs witnesses. David Fernbach- level three conditions- weren't expected to live a long time! Could be offered treatments? Castration and Carl Vaernets Hormone therapy (at Buchenwald), 600 castration cases from the years 1934- 1945.
Why are sources on the Nazi persecution of homosexuals a problem?
- Less people
- Records destroyed
- Still criminal
- Taboos
- No network of support- Heinz Dormer ‘Nobody ever wanted to hear about it’.
- Discredited because of the links between Nazi’s and homosexuality!
