People with a History: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans* History Sourcebook
Section IV Europe Since World War I
Editor: Paul Halsall
Contents:
Section IV: Europe Since World War I
Go to the following pages for other parts of People with a History
Chapter 12: The German Gay Rights
Movement
Discussions:
Texts:
- Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935): Berlins Drittes Geschlecht (Berlin's Third Gender) 1905, in German [At Faded Page] [Internet Archive version here]
- Sigmund Freud: Letter to a Mother [At this Site]
Although the psychoanalytic movement in the US became a major
victimizer of homosexuals [through its dedication to the notion
of ego-normality], Freud himself, as in this letter to the mother
of a homosexual, was much more approving.
- Christopher Isherwood (1904-1986): Christopher and his kind, 1929-1939 (1977) [Internet Archive borrow facility]
Autobiographical account of Isherwood's time in Berlin in the 1930s.
Websites:
- WEB Magnus Hirschfeld Exhibit [Was at Compuserve, now Internet Archive]
- WEB Institute for Sexual Science (1919-1933)
Online-Exhibition by the Magnus-Hirschfeld Society [Internet Archive backup here]
- WEB
Schwules Museum Berlin/Akademie der Künste [The Gay Museum/The
Academy of Arts]: Goodbye to Berlin? HUNDERT JAHRE SCHWULENBEWEGUNG - 100 YEARS OF GAY LIBERATION -
CENTENAIRE DU MOUVEMENT GAI [Was ADK, now Internet Archive]
An exhibition celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of the
founding of the TheWissenschaftliche-humanitäre Komitee (Scientific
Humanitarian Committee) in May 1897 in Berlin. There are English
and German versions of the site.
Back to Contents
Chapter 13: The Nazis and the Gays
At one time it was fashionable to claim that the Nazis accepted
homosexuality. Partly this was a way to slur the Nazis [as if
they need slurring], and partly a reflection of the suppressed
homoeroticism of Nazi visual expression. What was overlooked until
the 1970s, and the publication of a series of articles by James
Steakley in the Toronto Body Politic (quite possibly the best
bi-weekly ever produced by the modern gay community), was that the Nazis
had directed laws, prisons, and the full panoply of the state
against homosexuals; had deliberately destroyed the sex research
institute set up by Magnus Hirschfeld; and added homosexuals to
the list of those to be eliminated. In other words the world managed
to "forget" the holocaust of homosexuals.
In recent years this forgetting has been overcome. Thanks to the
efforts of Steakley, Richard Plant and Burchhard Jellonek, as
well as the publication by Hans Heger [pseud.] of his memoirs,
and the play Bent by Martin Shaw, the suffering of gays
under the Third Reich has become well known. Now the Holocaust
Museum in Washington DC makes sure to explicate the issues involved.
The total number of gays killed seems to have been about 15,000
[figures from Jellonek], mostly by being worked to death. Gays
were not sent as gays to extermination camps. This is massively
smaller than the devastation visited on Jewish, Gypsy and Serbian
populations. But documenting the Nazi attacks on homosexuals is
not part of a "catch-up" game with Jews, or other groups.
It is rather an exposing of the possible effects of dehumanizing
any group.
Recently some members of the American Religious Right [a diverse
group that should no more be demonized than any other], have taken
to denying the gay holocaust, and in fact asserting that the Nazi
part was essentially homosexual. This is nonsense, and not one
serious historian countenances the charge. Nevertheless the book
- The Pink Swastika - which makes this charge has been subjected
to a line by line refutation, available via here.
Discussions:
- James Steakley: Homosexuals and the Third Reich The Body Politic 11, January/February 1974 [At this Site]
This was the first important article to discuss the Nazi attack on gays. -
Christine Mueller: Refutation of Radical Right claims Connecting Gays and Nazis 1994 [Was at LGB Handbook, now Internet Archive]
- Night of the Long Knives June 30, 1934, [At HistoryPlace] [Internet Archive version here]
An account of Hitler's attack ond, and removal of Roehm, the SA leader who was homosexual.
See also the Table of Contents and homophobic introduction to the book The Pink Swastika discussed by Professor Mueller.[Was at LGB Handbook, now Internet Archive]
- Scott Lively/Kevin Abrams: The Pink Swastika [Was At Abiding Truth, now Internet Archive]
- Citizens Allied for Civic Action (CAFCA): The Annotated Pink Swastika [At QRD] [Internet Archive version here]
Extensive point by point refutation of the Lively/Abrams book. The effort is worthwhile, but it should be noted that no serious historian takes the Lively/Abrams book seriously as anything other than evidence about the modern American far right [a phenomenon of serious historical interest.]
- Eugene Narrett: The Hidden History of Nazism,
from The Wanderer, August 8, 1996 [Was At the Wanderer, now Internet Archive]
An example of the way the Lively/Abrams book is popularized by
the Radical Religious right. This is from the extreme rightwing Catholic paper The Wanderer, owned by Paul Weyrich.
It describes
the deaths by working to death of circa 6000 gay men, and then
seeks to account for the Nazi's "leniency" by arguing
that leading Nazis were gay.
-
Rictor Norton: One Day They Were Simply Gone" The Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals [At Rictor Norton's website] [Internet Archive version here]
- Barbara Warnock: Persecution of gay people in Nazi Germany [At Wiener Holocaust Library] [Internet Archive version here]
- Anna Hájková: Queer History and the Holocaust 2019 [At IHR] [Internet Archive version here]
A possibly misguided effort to apply modern "queer theory"
to Holocaust history by a historian whose language has proved offensive to some, including gay men. [See Guardian news report].
- Anna Hájková: An Escape from Nazi Vienna: Heinrich Schrefel and Queer Holocaust history 2022 [At Notches blog] [Internet Archive version here]
An account of Heinrich Schrefel, an Austrian Jew who was persecuted by the Nazis for his homosexuality in 1938, after which he escaped to Britain.
- Nathan Andrew Wilson: The Holocaust in Gay German and American Life. MA Thesis, Dalhouse University (2006) [PDF] [At GC] [Internet Archive version here]
Texts:
Websites:
Back to Contents
Chapter 14: Post-WW I Europe to
1990
Discussions: Entire Period
Discussions: InterWar Years
Discussions: Entire Period since WWII
Discussions: 1950s
- WEB Alan Hodges: Alan Turing: The Enigma [At Turing.org.uk] [Internet Archive version here] [An a link to an much older version here]
Maintained by Andrew Hodges, who wrote the important biography of Turing, The Enigma of the Intelligence. The site contains texts, plus scans and transcripts of original documents.
- Wikipedia: Wolfenden Report 1957
Discussions: 1960s
Discussions: Gay Rights Movement
Discussions: Gay Rights Movement Since Origins
Discussions: 1970s
Discussions: 1980s
-
Hart Murphy: Foucault's Virtual Passion 1994 [Was At C Theory, now Internet Archive]
Review of James Miller, The Passion of Michel Foucault.
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993. Pb: Anchor Doubleday, 1994.
Discussions: 1990s
Texts:
-
Germany: The Federal Constitutional Court Rules on the Constitutionality of Paragraph 175 (1957) [At GHDI] + PDF version [Internet Archive version here]
- Der Speigel: Still Taboo despite Reforms (March 12, 1973)
[At GHDI] + PDF version [Internet Archive version here]
When laws covering sexual offenses were liberalized, legislators once again reformed Paragraph 175, making only homosexual acts with young people punishable by law. This Spiegel article analyzes the ongoing treatment of homosexuality as a taboo in West Germany.
- Eduard Stapel: Homosexuality in East Germany (retrospective account, 1994) [At GHDI] + PDF version [Internet Archive version here]
Eduard Stapel, a gay rights activist, paints a striking picture of the beginnings of the gay rights movement in East Germany, its role within the Protestant Church, and the response it engendered from the Ministry of State Security.
-
RFSL: Homosexuality Is Love: Lesbian and Gay the Swedish Way 1994, in English [At QRD] [Internet Archive version here]
The text of a brochure produced by RFSL. [In English] - Polari: British Gay Slang [Was At Lancashire, now Internet Archive]
Texts: Literary
Websites:
Back to Contents
Chapter 15: The Lesbian and Gay
Movement in Europe
Discussions:
Texts
- Gay Liberation Front: Manifesto (London, 1971, as revised 1979) [At this Site]
Classic example of Gay Liberationist analysis. Parts of it still
read as provocative, other parts seem dated - for instance its
attack on "butch/femme" culture! -
The Alsop Review: Background Information on the Love That Dares to Speak Its Name [Was At Hooked.net, now Internet Archive]
This page contains British press reports of the closing down of
the LGCM website, and some obituaries of Denis Lemon, the editor
of Gay News and chief defendant. It also links to the poem
and to a picture of Kirkup.
Websites:
Back to Contents
Chapter 16: Europe: Current Politics and Strategies
Discussions:
Texts:
Websites:
Back to Contents
NOTES
People with a History: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans* History Sourcebook is part of the Internet History Sourcebooks Project. Date of inception was 1997. People with a History is a www site presenting
history relevant to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered people, through primary
sources, secondary discussions, and images. Links to files at other site are indicated by [At some indication of the site name or location]. WEB indicates a link to one of small number of high quality web sites which provide either more texts or an especially valuable overview.
The Internet History Sourcebooks Project is located at the History Department of Fordham University, New York. The Internet
Medieval Sourcebook, and other medieval components of the project, are located at
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for Medieval Studies.The IHSP recognizes the contribution of Fordham University, the
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© Site Concept and Design: Paul Halsall created 26 Jan 1996: latest revision 15 November 2024 [CV]
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