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Date
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Detail
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1871:
|
The
Penal code is applied to the entire Second Reich under Kaiser Wilhelm.
The law section, known as Paragraph 175 (§ 175), makes sexual
acts between males punishable in a court of law.
|
1877:
|
The German Supreme Court of Justice narrowly defines "unnatural
indecency" as an "intercourse-like act." This makes
convictions hard to prove and convictions are minimal.
|
1932:
|
City
leaders in Berlin, Germany, begin to enforce public morality laws
closing homosexual bars and clubs.
|
Jan 30th, 1933:
|
With
Germany in the grip of depression, many far right political groups
offering radical solutions to mass-inflation receive support. Adolf
Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany. After just a few months he
declares the Nazi party the only legal party giving them control
of the country.
|
May
6th, 1933:
|
Dr.
Magnus Hirschfeld's Institute for Sexual Science is ransacked
and destroyed by Nazi student groups and sympathizers in Berlin.
The institute was seen as the main symbol of sexual reform and
Hirschfeld, a Jewish homosexual, had long been a target of Nazi
propaganda and attack. Hirschfeld himself was away from Berlin
on a world speaking tour and never returned to Berlin. He died
in Nice, May 14th 1935.
|
May
10th, 1933:
|
Many
of the books and documents from the institute are destroyed in a
public book burning.
|
June
8th, 1933:
|
The Human Rights League and the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee,
both homosexual rights organizations, are outlawed.
|
June 29th- 30th, 1934:
|
'Nacht
der langen Messer' or "Night of the Long Knives" (from
a phrase from a popular Nazi song): SA chief Ernst Roehm, the leader
of the Nazi Storm Troopers since 1930, is arrested and his associates
murdered. False charges of trying to overthrow Hitler are brought
against him and other Nazis and political opponents. Roehm's known
homosexuality is publicly linked to his alleged treasonous politics.
Hitler orders that all
Homosexuals be expelled from military service.
|
June
30th, 1934:
|
Roehm is executed. His position as such a high-ranking officer in
Hitler's cabinet had left many homosexuals with a false sense of
security. On his murder fear spread through the gay community as
many realised that they were not safe from prosecution.
|
July
13th, 1934:
|
The public officially hear about the events of the night of the
long knives when Hitler gives a speech to the Reichstag at the Berlin
Kroll Opera House. He declares that for the duration of the arrests
and murders he and he alone was the judge in Germany and that the
SS carried out his orders without question. The speech marks a turning
point in Germany and from that point on the SS becomes a feared
force.
|
Oct,
1934:
|
Head
of the Gestapo, Heinrich Himmler, orders that all police departments
gather information about homosexual men and forward lists to the
Gestapo headquarters.
Large numbers of homosexual men are arrested thoughout Germany and
held under Paragraph 175.
|
After 1935:
|
Himmler
declares that men convicted under Paragraph 175 can "voluntarily"
undergo castration to "free themselves" from their "degenerate
sex drive." Many homosexuals agree to the operation believing
that they will be set free. After the operation they are then
re-arrested as they are still thought to be a degenerate risk
to the purity of the Reich.
|
June
28th, 1935:
|
The
Nazi judicial system publishes a revised Paragraph 175, which
expands the range of punishable acts or 'indecencies between men'.
|
Oct 10th, 1936:
|
Himmler
establishes the Reich Central Office for Combating Homosexuality
and Abortion in Berlin under SS Captain Joseph Meisinger, which
will deal with all arrests under Paragraph 175.
|
Sep 1st, 1939:
|
World War II begins when Hitler's Germany invades Poland.
|
July 1940:
|
Himmler declares that all men convicted under Paragraph 175, known
to have had more than one partner should be sent directly to a concentration
camps.
|
Nov 1942:
|
A
secret SS decree gives all concentration camp commandants the right
to order the castration of homosexual prisoners.
|
1943
|
From
the start of the SS set out a new program of "extermination
through work" in the concentration camps. The program is specifically
designed to destroy Germany's criminals and homosexuals. Inmates
are forced to complete gruelling physical work to the point of collapse.
Many die as a result from exhaustion.
|
July 24th, 1944:
|
Soviet
troops reach and liberate the Maidanek concentration camp in German-
occupied Poland about 2 miles from Lubin.
|
Jan 18th, 1945:
|
The
last roll call is taken at Auschwitz, undoubtedly the largest
of the extermination camps: The camp contains 66,000 prisoners.
The camp is quickly evacuated shortly after this with the approach
of the Red Army. 58,000 prisoners are taken on death marches to
other camps. With no time to shoot those too week to march, the
SS leave them to fend for themselves.
|
Jan
27th, 1945:
|
Auschwitz
is liberated by Soviet Red Army troops. At the point of liberation
600 bodies are found and just 7,650 survivors, among them 100
children.
The date is later chosen as the Official World Holocaust Memorial
day.
|
|
|
Nazi
Germany finally surrenders to Allied forces.
While
other groups receive global sympathy as victims of the Holocaust,
homosexuals continue to be regarded as criminals.
After
the 'liberation' many homosexuals freed from the horrors of the
concentration camps are then transferred to German prisons to
serve the remainder of their sentences. The German government
refuses to acknowledge them as victims of the Nazi regime.
After
the war, many more homosexuals continue to be persecuted under
Paragraph 175. These persecutions are thought to be one of the
main reasons why so few homosexual men ever came forward to testify
to their treatment by the Nazis and in the camps.
|
June, 1956:
|
The
Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) Reparation Law for Victims
of National Socialism declares that men held at concentration camps
under Paragraph 175 should be disqualified from receiving compensation.
|
1969
|
Paragraph 175 is revised, in West Germany, to decriminalize homosexual
relations between men over the age of 21.
|
May
8, 1985:
|
Forty years after the end of World War II, the West German Government
finally acknowledges homosexuals as victims of the Nazis, in a speech
by West German President Richard von Weizsäker.
|
Nov
9th, 1989:
|
The fall of the Berlin Wall uniting East and West Germany.
|
1994:
|
Germany finally abolishes Paragraph175 completely.
|
1995:
|
Eight homosexual survivors issue a collective declaration demanding
judicial and moral recognition of their persecution.
|
Jan,
1999:
|
Germany
holds it's first ever official memorial service for the homosexual
victims of the Nazis at the former Sachsenhausen concentration
camp.
|
Dec,
2000:
|
The
German government issues an apology for the prosecution of homosexuals
in Germany after 1949 and agrees to recognise gays as victims
of the Third Reich.
Survivors
are encouraged to come forward (before end of 2001) and claim
compensation for their treatment during the Holocaust.
|
May
17th, 2002:
|
The
official pardon is announced by the German justice minister Hertha
Daeubler-Gmelin.
|
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