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History Nazi takeover and initial crackdown (1933) There is no evidence that homosexuals were over-represented in the Nazi Party. The Nazi Party temporarily tolerated a few known homosexuals, including Röhm, but never adopted such tolerance as a general principle or changed its views on homosexuality. The Röhm scandal fueled the long-lasting but false idea the Nazi Party was dominated by homosexuals, a recurring theme in 1930s left-wing propaganda. In 19, the Social Democrats publicized the homosexuality of Ernst Röhm, a prominent Nazi politician, in an attempt to discredit the Nazis. Nazi politicians regularly railed against homosexuality, saying it was a Jewish conspiracy to undermine the German people. In 1928, the Nazi Party responded negatively to a questionnaire about their view of Paragraph 175, saying: "Anyone who even thinks of homosexual love is our enemy". As a consequence, conviction rates were low and a significant number of those convicted were sentenced to pay a fine rather than serve a jail sentence. The Rechtsstaat limited the enforcement of the law because men were not arrested or indicted without concrete evidence. The German supreme court ruled that a conviction required proof the men had had penetrative sex, typically anal but sometimes oral sex other sexual activities were not punishable. Paragraph 175 of the German penal code, which was passed after the unification of Germany in 1871, criminalized sexual acts between males. One theory holds the Nazis' rise to power was fueled by a conservative backlash against perceived immorality, but according to historian Laurie Marhoefer, this was not a significant factor. Political compromises allowed many homosexuals to live freely in their private lives and in dedicated subcultural spaces, provided they did not significantly infringe on the public sphere.
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In the 1920s, gay culture flourished in Germany's major cities, especially Berlin. The word " homosexual" was coined by a German-language writer the first periodicals intended for a gay, lesbian, and transgender readership were published in Germany, and the world's first homosexual rights organization was founded in Berlin in 1897. Germany was the home of the first homosexual movement. The persecution came to wider public attention during the gay liberation movement of the 1970s, and the pink triangle was reappropriated as an LGBT symbol.Įldorado (pictured in 1932), the most famous gay establishment in Germany Few victims came forward to discuss their experiences. Nazi Germany's persecution of homosexuals is considered to be the most severe episode in a long history of discrimination and violence targeting sexual minorities.Īfter the war, homosexuals were initially not counted as victims of Nazism because homosexuality continued to be illegal in Nazi Germany's successor states. A smaller number of men were sentenced to death or executed at Nazi euthanasia centers.
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The death rate of these prisoners has been estimated at 60 percent, a higher rate than those of other prisoner groups. Most of these men served time in regular prisons, and between 5,000 and 6,000 were imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps. Between 19, an estimated 100,000 men were arrested as homosexuals around 50,000 of these were sentenced by civilian courts, 6,400 to 7,000 by military courts, and an unknown number by special courts. Those arrested were presumed guilty, and subjected to harsh interrogation and torture to elicit a confession. Men were often arrested after denunciation, police raids, and through information uncovered during interrogations of other homosexuals.
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The Nazi regime considered the elimination of all manifestations of homosexuality in Germany one of its goals. Persecution peaked in the years prior to World War II and was extended to areas annexed by Germany, including Austria, the Czech lands, and Alsace–Lorraine. A 1935 revision of Paragraph 175 made it easier to bring criminal charges for homosexual acts, leading to a large increase in arrests and convictions. After the Röhm purge in 1934, persecuting homosexuals became a priority of the Nazi police state. After the Nazi takeover in 1933, the first homosexual movement's infrastructure of clubs, organizations, and publications was shut down. The law was not consistently enforced, however, and a thriving gay culture existed in German cities.