German Empire Codexery

Paragraph 175

A German law that criminalized male homosexual acts from 1871 to 1994, with severe Nazi-era expansions and a complex post-war history.

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Paragraph 175 was a German criminal code provision that criminalized sexual acts between males from 1871 until 1994.[1][2] The 1871 version of Paragraph 175 incorporated legal principles from the 1794 and 1851 Prussian codes.[3][2]

Quick Facts

Repealed
11 March 1994

Facts from the source article.

What the cited sources add

The Holocaust Encyclopedia notes that Paragraph 175 never criminalized identifying as a gay man, only sexual acts.[2] A review of Robert Beachy's book states that Berlin police under Commissioner Leopold von Meerscheidt-Hüllesem largely stopped enforcing Paragraph 175 and instead prosecuted blackmailers.[10] The same source reports that police created a Department of Homosexuals and Blackmailers in 1885, which effectively protected gay men from blackmail.[10] A DW article from 2019 states that former federal prosecutor Manfred Bruns called the abolition a "sheer relief" and believed unification was necessary for repeal.[11]

The Dallas Voice article notes that time spent in a concentration camp did not count toward a prisoner's two-year sentence under Paragraph 175.[12] The same article adds that Paragraph 175 was not expunged from the books until 1994.[12]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Paragraph 175" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "German 'gay' paragraph abolished 25 years ago", DW, 2019-11-06 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  2. "Paragraph 175", Holocaust Encyclopedia.. facts only, no text reused. encyclopedia.ushmm.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Paragraph 175" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Paragraph 175", Holocaust Encyclopedia. (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Paragraph 175" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Paragraph 175", Holocaust Encyclopedia.; [The quotations are from German case law, RGSt 73, 78, 80 f.]; Clayton Whisnant, "Queer Identities and Politics in Germany", Columbia University Press, 2016, p. 215; Huneke 2022, p. 31 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Paragraph 175" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Clayton J. Whisnant, "Male Homosexuality in West Germany: Between Persecution and Freedom, 1945-69", 2012, p. 29; "Statistisches Reichsamt", Jürgen Baumann: Paragraph 175, Luchterhand, Darmstadt 1968, collected in: Hans-Georg Stümke, Rudi Finkler: Rosa Winkel, rosa Listen, (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Paragraph 175" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Statistisches Reichsamt", Jürgen Baumann: Paragraph 175, Luchterhand, Darmstadt 1968, collected in: Hans-Georg Stümke, Rudi Finkler: Rosa Winkel, rosa Listen, (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Paragraph 175" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Mark Blasius, Shane Phelan, "We are Everywhere: A Historical Sourcebook of Gay and Lesbian Politics", Psychology Press, 1997, p. 134; Angelika von Wahl: How Sexuality Changes Agency: Gay Men, Jews, and Transitional Justice. In: Susanne Buckley-Zistel, Ruth Stanley (Editors): Gender in Transiti (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Paragraph 175" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Clayton J. Whisnant, "Male Homosexuality in West Germany: Between Persecution and Freedom, 1945-69", 2012, p. 29; Taffet, "Pink triangle: Even after World War II, gay victims of Nazis continued to be persecuted", Dallas Voice, 20 January 2011 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Paragraph 175" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "damit sollte nicht ausgeschlossen sein, daß diese ihrerseits zu der Auffassung kamen, gewisse Vorschriften seien so stark von nationalsozialistischem Geist gep (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. "'Gay Berlin: Birthplace of a Modern Identity' by Robert Beachy", Lambda Literary, 16 February 2015. facts only, no text reused. lambdaliterary.org
  11. "German 'gay' paragraph abolished 25 years ago", DW, 2019-11-06. facts only, no text reused. dw.com
  12. Taffet, "Pink triangle: Even after World War II, gay victims of Nazis continued to be persecuted", Dallas Voice, 20 January 2011. facts only, no text reused. dallasvoice.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Paragraph 175 (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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