Paragraph 175

Many People believe that the Nazis made it illegal to be Gay in Germany, but that is not the case.

(The Memorial to Homosexuals Persecuted Under Nazism in Berlin)

Paragraph 175 (which made it illegal to be Gay, but not a Lesbian) was created in 1871.

Anyone convicted of being Gay was sent to a Regular German Prison.  

Between 1902 and 1918 (when World War 1 ended) 9,384 Gays were convicted in Germany and sentenced to Prison.

Between 1919-1932 (during the Weimer Republic) 9,257 Gays were convicted in Germany and sentenced to Prison.

In 1935, the Nazis amended Paragraph 175, to make it easier to denounce Gays with just the belief that a Man liked another Man with no evidence needed. It also included imprisoning Gays in Concentration Camps as well as in Regular Prisons.

In 1936 the Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion, working with Gestapo Special Bureau II S was established in Berlin. It worked with the Regular German Police to arrest any suspected Gay Man.

In April 1941 Hitler declared that any Gay Man in the Hitler Youth (which was made Compulsory for all Non-Jewish German Boys and Teenagers in 1936) get the Death Penalty. They were not usually sent to the Camps, but killed privately with their numbers kept secret.

In November 1941 Hitler declared that any Gay Man in the SS, the Gestapo or the Regular German Police get the Death Penalty. They were not usually sent to the Camps, but killed privately with their numbers kept secret.

In 1943 Hitler declared that any Gay Man in the Regular German Military (which was Compulsory for all Non-Jewish German Men) get the Death Penalty. After the great German losses at Stalingrad in February 1943 (where 235,000 German Soldiers and 22 German Generals were captured by the Soviets) the Death Penalty for being Gay in the Military was not followed. Instead any Gay Soldier was sent to Special Battalions that did dangerous jobs (like clearing minefields or trying to kill Partisans in the Forests and Swamps of German-Occupied Eastern Europe – where the majority were killed.)

 

Between 1933 – 1945 the Nazis arrested at least 100,000 German and Austrian Men for being Gay or the suspicion of being Gay.

50,000 of these Men were sentenced in German Civilian Courts; 7,000 by German Military Courts and an unknown number by Special Closed Courts.

15,000 were imprisoned in Concentration and Death Camps (where they were made to wear the Pink Triangle on their Prisoner Uniform or a Yellow Star with a Pink Triangle if they were Jewish and Gay.)

60% of those imprisoned in Concentration Camps and Death Camps died or were murdered (the highest rate of all other Prisoner Groups except the Jews.) Those not killed in the Gas Chambers were either killed through Forced Labor or during Experiments carried out by the German Nazi Doctors at the Camps.

Some of these Experiments included forcing Gay Men to have intercourse at the Camp Brothel (known as the Lagerbordell) in order to see if it would “cure” them.

10 Concentration and Death Camps had their own Brothels for the Non-Jewish Prisoners (that doesn’t include the Brothels for the SS and the Wehrmacht throughout German-Occupied Europe) which the Non-Jewish Prisoners could use if they filled their Quota.

34,140 Female Prisoners (mostly Political Prisoners and Gypsies, but no Jews) were forced into these Brothels during the War.

Gay Men were forced to be with these Women while Nazi Doctors watched. The Gay Men were then almost always killed immediately after to be studied. If a Woman became pregnant the Baby was taken to a State Orphanage and the Mother was killed.

Other Experiments on Gays included Castration, Lobotomies and Hyperthermia Tests.

Gay Men were arrested from all over German-Occupied Europe and sent to Concentration and Death Camps, but they were usually recorded as being Political Prisoners and not Gay so their numbers are not known.

When World War 2 ended in 1945 Gays continued to be imprisoned some went from a Death Camp or a Concentration Camp to a Regular Prison.

Gay Homosexuality (but not Lesbian Homosexuality) was illegal in the United Kingdom, France, the Soviet Union and the United States so the Allies did not recognize Gays as Victims of the Nazis, but as Regular Criminals.

The 1935 Version of Paragraph 175 – one of the few Nazi-era laws that remained in force and unaltered in West Germany – was upheld by the West German Federal Constitutional Court in 1957 and remained in force until 1969, when Homosexuality was partially Decriminalized.

From 1946-1968 (from when World War 2 ended until it was Decriminalized) West Germany sent 58,361 Homosexuals to Prison.

From 1968 – 1990 (from when it was Decriminalized until Reunification) West Germany sent 4,904 Homosexuals to Prison.

In East Germany, the Pre-1935 Version of Paragraph 175 was kept into law. Homosexuality was rarely prosecuted after 1957, was Decriminalized in 1968 and Paragraph 175 was repealed there in 1988.

Paragraph 175 not only continued in West Germany and in East Germany, but also in United Germany.

From 1990 to 1994 United Germany sent 283 Homosexuals to Prison.

 

Paragraph 175 was not repealed in Germany until 1994.

 

Since 1994 Homosexuals have been allowed to openly serve in the German Military (German Men had to serve as Conscripts until 2011.)

 

Until 2000 Officers in the German Military were forbidden to be Homosexual.

 

Same-Sex Civil Unions became legal in Germany in 2001.

 

In 2002, Germany finally annulled the Nazi-Era judgements under Paragraph 175 and in 2017, Victims were offered Compensation (the Annulment and Compensation extended to Men convicted from 1945-1994.)

Each Person convicted under Paragraph 175 received €3,000 Compensation, plus €1,500 for each year spent in Custody as a result of a Conviction.

The Memorial to Homosexuals Persecuted Under Nazism opened in Berlin in 2008. Inside is a Video showing 2 Men Kissing. Every 2 Years the Video is changed to show 2 Women kissing.

 

Same-Sex Marriage became legal in Germany in 2017.