"... in the awareness that men who love men and women who love women still face persecution."
On remembrance of the persecution of homosexuals
To homosexuals, homosexuality simply feels normal – and it should seem that way to everyone else, too. Historically, heterosexual majority societies like the German Reich were not very tolerant of sexual diversity. Laws like Sec. 175 of the German Criminal Code, adopted in 1872, were enacted to suppress homosexuality. Although criminal prosecution for homosexuality is a thing of the past these days, a certain percentage of the population still vocally rejects people who are openly gay or lesbian. This makes it all the more important to raise awareness of the history and ongoing issue of discrimination. That is the purpose of events like the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Intersexism and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT), on May 17, and Christopher Street Day (CSD), which is observed on different dates around the world.
When World War II was over, bringing the Nazi dictatorship to an end in May of 1945, homosexual survivors faced the same uncertainties as others persecuted by the regime: Had their partners been deported as well, or even killed? Had their homes been cleared by the state, their possessions seized or destroyed? On top of that, the Nazis had made Sec. 175 of the Criminal Code even stricter, a situation that remained unchanged until 1969. It was not until 1994 that this provision was finally abolished.(1) Compensation for their suffering and losses was impossible, since compensation was limited to those who had been persecuted for "racial," political, or religious reasons. Worse, outing oneself by seeking compensation could be used as grounds for a new criminal investigation.
In 1994, the year Sec. 175 was abolished, the LGBTI* community in Frankfurt am Main presented the public with the first full sculpture erected in the memory of the Nazi persecution and murder of homosexual men and women. The work, known as the Frankfurter Engel , was created by German artist Rosemarie Trockel. Angels are a familiar element in the monotheistic religions of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Created by God, they are generally androgynous and symbolize beauty and innocence. The base of the statue in Frankfurt reads as follows:
"Homosexual men and women were persecuted and murdered under the Nazi regime. These crimes were denied, the victims covered up, the survivors scorned and judged harshly. We remember this in the awareness that men who love men and women who love women still face persecution."
Before the monument was installed on the square in Frankfurt that was renamed for Klaus Mann a short time later, it was displayed as part of the exhibition Widerstand – Denkbilder für die Zukunft at the Haus der Kunst in Munich. Haus der Kunst was first opened by the Nazis in 1937 as Haus der Deutschen Kunst; today, it is among the world's best-known museums of international contemporary art.
Now, Rosemarie Trockel has created a version of the Frankfurter Engel for the exhibition titled Tell me about yesterday tomorrow at the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism. To create the larger than life-size new version, the bronze angel was scanned first and then reproduced using 3D printing. The sculpture's size echoes the monumental proportions of the classicist buildings erected by Ludwig I on Munich's Königsplatz and the neoclassicist relics from the Nazi era. Placed prominently in the foyer of the Nazi Documentation Centre, it invites the viewer to situate it visually in the context of the built environment.
By returning to her 1994 work, Trockel makes clear that the subject is still with us today. People still – or perhaps again – face discrimination due to their sexual identity or orientation, having to fight for equal rights.
Still, homosexuality is definitely a bigger presence and more widely accepted in our society than before. Berlin had a gay mayor starting in 1994 ("I'm gay – and that's perfectly fine," Klaus Wowereit said in 2001), Germany has had a gay foreign minister (2009–2013, Guido Westerwelle), and a growing number of prominent members of parliament, TV personalities, and elite athletes are also openly gay or lesbian. And yet, the sexual identity of people who deviate from the supposed heterosexual "norm" is still a problem for many in our society. This issue often stems from a person's own fears and a sense of conflict with traditional values and norms.
But homophobia, a sense of fear or hatred that extends to gay men, lesbians, bisexual, transgender, and intersex people, is more than just the sum of knee-jerk individual fears. It is a problem in social policy – especially when people become the target of hostility, which restricts their freedoms. When lesbian girls do not dare to kiss in public for fear of being insulted or attacked, when gay boys shy away from walking hand in hand – when they cannot do just what heterosexual people do, in other words – then their freedoms are limited, and society needs to step in to actively protect them. Almost half, 45 percent, of all queer people in Germany are fearful about openly embracing their identity in public, and 36 percent report that they have been harassed.(2)
Just a few steps away from the new version of the Frankfurter Engel, near the forecourt of the Nazi Documentation Centre, election posters put up by the Munich voter association rosa liste, which advocates for issues affecting the LGBTI* community, were defaced in mid-January 2020. rosa liste has been a presence in municipal elections since 1989, and one member, Thomas Niederbühl, has been on the city council for 24 years.
The word "gay" was scrawled across one poster showing Niederbühl, and on another, a sticker was placed over his mouth, with "No Sec. 175..." written next to it.
Is this meant to show regret that the law prohibiting homosexuality was abolished, or to urge people not to elect a "175-er" – as gay men were known, especially during the Nazi period and the 1950s and 60s – to the city council? Radical right-wing and conservative groups are once again trying to question the rights the LGBTI* community has fought to gain, or at least to harm the sense of security of those affected, thereby trying to push them out of public life.
The words "gay" and "lesbian" are still used to denigrate queer children and teens or those that others merely believe to be so – especially in schoolyards. The suicide rate among LGBTI* teens who feel excluded and threatened due to their sexual identity or orientation is four to six times as high as among heterosexual teens.(3) In Germany, as in other countries, violence against LGBTI* people is on the rise; Maneo, a violence prevention project in Berlin, noted a 32 percent increase last year.(4) The Bavarian state government has thus far seen no need to take action to protect gays, lesbians, transgender and intersex people, even failing to issue a plan of action against homophobic violence, which has long been demanded and is already in place in every other state in Germany.(5) This makes it all the more important to show children and teens the diversity of our world and explain that all people are equal, regardless of their ideas, identities, and orientation. This subject should be incorporated into early childhood education and curricula, but unbiased education for children and teens about sexual identity and self-determination, like that provided by Queere Bildung e.V., is still impossible in this country.
After decades of denying homosexuals equal rights, the institution of the "registered life partnership," created in 2001, was celebrated. Ultimately, though, this very institution helped to solidify the discrimination that continued to exist in many of the detailed provisions, and the mere fact that it was noted in places like passports, where a person's marital status appears, meant that it identified people as homosexuals. "Marriage for all" has been the law of the land since June 2017. But serious discrimination remains in areas like medical services (reproductive medicine)(6) and the law of descent. Children born to married lesbian mothers have only one parent; the second mother has to apply to adopt the child as her stepchild.(7) Homosexual and bisexual men are still barred from donating blood.(8) Homosexual people still hesitate to out themselves in their work environment for fear of bullying and career obstacles.
Many Lutheran state churches and the entire Catholic church prohibit marriages for gay and lesbian couples like those performed for heterosexual couples.(9) This means Christians are still being told that an LGBTI* partnership is not equal to a heterosexual one, and the situation is not much better in many cases in other religious communities. Only very liberal Jewish or Muslim congregations, for example, hold LGBTI* relationships to be largely equal to heterosexual ones.
In many areas, the churches and society at large have learned from the violent history of the Nazi era – but when it comes to treatment of gay, lesbian, transgender, and intersex people, the learning process is far from complete. For that reason, it would be important to dedicate the central remembrance event in the Bundestag to this group of victims of persecution as well.(10) The event should also highlight the convictions that took place for violation of Sec. 175 of the Criminal Code even after the war was over, and the unfortunate fact that LGBTI* people still face threats around the world, as the inscription on the Frankfurter Engel so accurately points out.
By Angela Hermann, Research Associate at the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism
Sources
(1) The new version of Section 175 of the German Criminal Code, enacted on June 28, 1935, codified that any kind of "fornication" between men was a punishable act. Unlike previous versions, the new law did not require that there have been intercourse or "intercourse-like" actions.
See Werner Hoche (Ed.): Die Gesetzgebung des Kabinetts Hitler. Die Gesetze in Reich und Preußen seit dem 30. Januar 1933 in systematischer Ordnung mit Sachverzeichnis, Vol. 14: June 1–August 15, 1935. Berlin 1935, p. 194; Albert Dalcke: Strafrecht und Strafverfahren. Nachtrag. Berlin, Munich 311940, p. 158, also notes 46 and 46a.
Also see: https://taz.de/Abschaffung-des-Paragrafen-175/!5599062/ (accessed on June 30, 2020).
(2) https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/gesellschaft/rund-die-haelfte-lebt-orientierung-nicht-offen-aus-a-bc3a5143-3564-4c3e-bc12-4bde55b7357e (accessed on June 26, 2020)
(3) See https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abstract/2704490?widget=personalizedcontent&previousarticle=0 (accessed on June 26, 2020).
(4) https://www.sueddeutsche.de/panorama/kriminalitaet-berlin-bericht-so-viele-uebergriffe-gegen-homosexuelle-wie-noch-nie-dpa.urn-newsml-dpa-com-20090101-200515-99-71825 (accessed on June 26, 2020)
(5) https://www.lsvd.de/de/ct/424-Welche-Bundesl%C3%A4nder-haben-Aktionspl%C3%A4ne-gegen-Homo-und-Transphobie (accessed on June 26, 2020)
(6) https://www.bento.de/queer/kinderwunsch-wie-lesbische-paare-von-deutschen-kliniken-benachteiligt-werden-a-15f578f4-81bb-464e-bef8-9e23e31cef74 (accessed on June 26, 2020)
https://www.queer.de/detail.php?article_id=33223 (accessed on June 26, 2020)
(7) https://www.zeit.de/2020/05/familie-lesbisches-paar-ehe-kinder-elternteil-sorgerecht (accessed on June 26, 2020)
(8) https://www.aidshilfe.de/blutspendeverbot-schwule-bisexuelle-maenner (accessed on June 26, 2020)
(9) https://www.br.de/nachrichten/bayern/streit-um-homo-hochzeit-segnen-ja-trauen-nein,RXEQZD0 (accessed on June 26, 2020)
(10) https://www.queer.de/detail.php?article_id=35375 (accessed on June 26, 2020)
all articles
![[Translate to English:]](/fileadmin/_processed_/b/f/csm_Nacht-Samborski_200120-Tell-me-about_583_web_76a55a26a2.jpg "[Translate to English:]")
"... in the awareness that men who love men and women who love women still face persecution."
On remembrance of the persecution of homosexuals
To homosexuals, homosexuality simply feels normal – and it should seem that way to everyone else, too. Historically, heterosexual majority societies like the German Reich were not very tolerant of sexual diversity. Laws like Sec. 175 of the German Criminal Code, adopted in 1872, were enacted to suppress homosexuality. Although criminal prosecution for homosexuality is a thing of the past these days, a certain percentage of the population still vocally rejects people who are openly gay or lesbian. This makes it all the more important to raise awareness of the history and ongoing issue of discrimination. That is the purpose of events like the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Intersexism and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT), on May 17, and Christopher Street Day (CSD), which is observed on different dates around the world.
When World War II was over, bringing the Nazi dictatorship to an end in May of 1945, homosexual survivors faced the same uncertainties as others persecuted by the regime: Had their partners been deported as well, or even killed? Had their homes been cleared by the state, their possessions seized or destroyed? On top of that, the Nazis had made Sec. 175 of the Criminal Code even stricter, a situation that remained unchanged until 1969. It was not until 1994 that this provision was finally abolished.(1) Compensation for their suffering and losses was impossible, since compensation was limited to those who had been persecuted for "racial," political, or religious reasons. Worse, outing oneself by seeking compensation could be used as grounds for a new criminal investigation.
In 1994, the year Sec. 175 was abolished, the LGBTI* community in Frankfurt am Main presented the public with the first full sculpture erected in the memory of the Nazi persecution and murder of homosexual men and women. The work, known as the Frankfurter Engel , was created by German artist Rosemarie Trockel. Angels are a familiar element in the monotheistic religions of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Created by God, they are generally androgynous and symbolize beauty and innocence. The base of the statue in Frankfurt reads as follows:
"Homosexual men and women were persecuted and murdered under the Nazi regime. These crimes were denied, the victims covered up, the survivors scorned and judged harshly. We remember this in the awareness that men who love men and women who love women still face persecution."
Before the monument was installed on the square in Frankfurt that was renamed for Klaus Mann a short time later, it was displayed as part of the exhibition Widerstand – Denkbilder für die Zukunft at the Haus der Kunst in Munich. Haus der Kunst was first opened by the Nazis in 1937 as Haus der Deutschen Kunst; today, it is among the world's best-known museums of international contemporary art.
Now, Rosemarie Trockel has created a version of the Frankfurter Engel for the exhibition titled Tell me about yesterday tomorrow at the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism. To create the larger than life-size new version, the bronze angel was scanned first and then reproduced using 3D printing. The sculpture's size echoes the monumental proportions of the classicist buildings erected by Ludwig I on Munich's Königsplatz and the neoclassicist relics from the Nazi era. Placed prominently in the foyer of the Nazi Documentation Centre, it invites the viewer to situate it visually in the context of the built environment.
By returning to her 1994 work, Trockel makes clear that the subject is still with us today. People still – or perhaps again – face discrimination due to their sexual identity or orientation, having to fight for equal rights.
Still, homosexuality is definitely a bigger presence and more widely accepted in our society than before. Berlin had a gay mayor starting in 1994 ("I'm gay – and that's perfectly fine," Klaus Wowereit said in 2001), Germany has had a gay foreign minister (2009–2013, Guido Westerwelle), and a growing number of prominent members of parliament, TV personalities, and elite athletes are also openly gay or lesbian. And yet, the sexual identity of people who deviate from the supposed heterosexual "norm" is still a problem for many in our society. This issue often stems from a person's own fears and a sense of conflict with traditional values and norms.
But homophobia, a sense of fear or hatred that extends to gay men, lesbians, bisexual, transgender, and intersex people, is more than just the sum of knee-jerk individual fears. It is a problem in social policy – especially when people become the target of hostility, which restricts their freedoms. When lesbian girls do not dare to kiss in public for fear of being insulted or attacked, when gay boys shy away from walking hand in hand – when they cannot do just what heterosexual people do, in other words – then their freedoms are limited, and society needs to step in to actively protect them. Almost half, 45 percent, of all queer people in Germany are fearful about openly embracing their identity in public, and 36 percent report that they have been harassed.(2)
Just a few steps away from the new version of the Frankfurter Engel, near the forecourt of the Nazi Documentation Centre, election posters put up by the Munich voter association rosa liste, which advocates for issues affecting the LGBTI* community, were defaced in mid-January 2020. rosa liste has been a presence in municipal elections since 1989, and one member, Thomas Niederbühl, has been on the city council for 24 years.
The word "gay" was scrawled across one poster showing Niederbühl, and on another, a sticker was placed over his mouth, with "No Sec. 175..." written next to it.
Is this meant to show regret that the law prohibiting homosexuality was abolished, or to urge people not to elect a "175-er" – as gay men were known, especially during the Nazi period and the 1950s and 60s – to the city council? Radical right-wing and conservative groups are once again trying to question the rights the LGBTI* community has fought to gain, or at least to harm the sense of security of those affected, thereby trying to push them out of public life.
The words "gay" and "lesbian" are still used to denigrate queer children and teens or those that others merely believe to be so – especially in schoolyards. The suicide rate among LGBTI* teens who feel excluded and threatened due to their sexual identity or orientation is four to six times as high as among heterosexual teens.(3) In Germany, as in other countries, violence against LGBTI* people is on the rise; Maneo, a violence prevention project in Berlin, noted a 32 percent increase last year.(4) The Bavarian state government has thus far seen no need to take action to protect gays, lesbians, transgender and intersex people, even failing to issue a plan of action against homophobic violence, which has long been demanded and is already in place in every other state in Germany.(5) This makes it all the more important to show children and teens the diversity of our world and explain that all people are equal, regardless of their ideas, identities, and orientation. This subject should be incorporated into early childhood education and curricula, but unbiased education for children and teens about sexual identity and self-determination, like that provided by Queere Bildung e.V., is still impossible in this country.
After decades of denying homosexuals equal rights, the institution of the "registered life partnership," created in 2001, was celebrated. Ultimately, though, this very institution helped to solidify the discrimination that continued to exist in many of the detailed provisions, and the mere fact that it was noted in places like passports, where a person's marital status appears, meant that it identified people as homosexuals. "Marriage for all" has been the law of the land since June 2017. But serious discrimination remains in areas like medical services (reproductive medicine)(6) and the law of descent. Children born to married lesbian mothers have only one parent; the second mother has to apply to adopt the child as her stepchild.(7) Homosexual and bisexual men are still barred from donating blood.(8) Homosexual people still hesitate to out themselves in their work environment for fear of bullying and career obstacles.
Many Lutheran state churches and the entire Catholic church prohibit marriages for gay and lesbian couples like those performed for heterosexual couples.(9) This means Christians are still being told that an LGBTI* partnership is not equal to a heterosexual one, and the situation is not much better in many cases in other religious communities. Only very liberal Jewish or Muslim congregations, for example, hold LGBTI* relationships to be largely equal to heterosexual ones.
In many areas, the churches and society at large have learned from the violent history of the Nazi era – but when it comes to treatment of gay, lesbian, transgender, and intersex people, the learning process is far from complete. For that reason, it would be important to dedicate the central remembrance event in the Bundestag to this group of victims of persecution as well.(10) The event should also highlight the convictions that took place for violation of Sec. 175 of the Criminal Code even after the war was over, and the unfortunate fact that LGBTI* people still face threats around the world, as the inscription on the Frankfurter Engel so accurately points out.
By Angela Hermann, Research Associate at the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism
Sources
(1) The new version of Section 175 of the German Criminal Code, enacted on June 28, 1935, codified that any kind of "fornication" between men was a punishable act. Unlike previous versions, the new law did not require that there have been intercourse or "intercourse-like" actions.
See Werner Hoche (Ed.): Die Gesetzgebung des Kabinetts Hitler. Die Gesetze in Reich und Preußen seit dem 30. Januar 1933 in systematischer Ordnung mit Sachverzeichnis, Vol. 14: June 1–August 15, 1935. Berlin 1935, p. 194; Albert Dalcke: Strafrecht und Strafverfahren. Nachtrag. Berlin, Munich 311940, p. 158, also notes 46 and 46a.
Also see: https://taz.de/Abschaffung-des-Paragrafen-175/!5599062/ (accessed on June 30, 2020).
(2) https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/gesellschaft/rund-die-haelfte-lebt-orientierung-nicht-offen-aus-a-bc3a5143-3564-4c3e-bc12-4bde55b7357e (accessed on June 26, 2020)
(3) See https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abstract/2704490?widget=personalizedcontent&previousarticle=0 (accessed on June 26, 2020).
(4) https://www.sueddeutsche.de/panorama/kriminalitaet-berlin-bericht-so-viele-uebergriffe-gegen-homosexuelle-wie-noch-nie-dpa.urn-newsml-dpa-com-20090101-200515-99-71825 (accessed on June 26, 2020)
(5) https://www.lsvd.de/de/ct/424-Welche-Bundesl%C3%A4nder-haben-Aktionspl%C3%A4ne-gegen-Homo-und-Transphobie (accessed on June 26, 2020)
(6) https://www.bento.de/queer/kinderwunsch-wie-lesbische-paare-von-deutschen-kliniken-benachteiligt-werden-a-15f578f4-81bb-464e-bef8-9e23e31cef74 (accessed on June 26, 2020)
https://www.queer.de/detail.php?article_id=33223 (accessed on June 26, 2020)
(7) https://www.zeit.de/2020/05/familie-lesbisches-paar-ehe-kinder-elternteil-sorgerecht (accessed on June 26, 2020)
(8) https://www.aidshilfe.de/blutspendeverbot-schwule-bisexuelle-maenner (accessed on June 26, 2020)
(9) https://www.br.de/nachrichten/bayern/streit-um-homo-hochzeit-segnen-ja-trauen-nein,RXEQZD0 (accessed on June 26, 2020)
(10) https://www.queer.de/detail.php?article_id=35375 (accessed on June 26, 2020)