history.
The Weimar Republic
The 'Weimar Republic', or officially 'German Reich', was the German federal state between the end of WWI (1918) and the rise of Nazi Germany (1933). Following the the abdication of the last German Emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, it was a federal constitutional republic and one of the most democratic systems of its time.
The Treaty of Versailles (1919), which ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers after WWI, forced Germany to disarm, make ample territorial concessions, and pay reparations, which by some were considered excessive and counter-productive. The most controversial provision of the treaty was the War Guilt clause, which required Germany to “accept the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage” during the war. Due these and other reasons, the Weimar Republic was characterised by great political instability, violence and strikes. There were eight elections in its life span, during which some forty parties were represented in the Reichstag, the German parliament. Inflation was extremely high due to an increase in money since the start of WWI and the reparation payments.
At the same time, Weimar Berlin was a shining example of a liberal society: the home of the world's first gay rights movement, the republic embodied a progressive, secular vision of sexual liberation.
Queer life in the Weimar Republic
Although homosexual acts were still illegal in Germany, the Berlin police had started tolerating different types of venues, and eventually large transvestite balls, from the late 1880s, which permitted the growth of a whole network of different kind of bars, clubs and restaurants.
Berlin’s gay scene became so notorious that it was often mentioned in tourist literature. Clubs full of men wearing powder and rouge as well as shorthaired women dressed in tuxedos must have been bewildering for the general public, but they were a safe space for members of the LGBTQ+ community and attracted writers and artists from all around the world. Several magazines for gay, lesbian and trans people were available at public kiosks and in venues.
In 1919, the German film “Anders als die Andern” (in English “Different from the Others”), which is believed to be the first pro-gay film in the world, was released. The story was co-written by Richard Oswald and Magnus Hirschfeld (see below). The latter also had a small part in the film.
In 1920, Mischa Spoliansky and Kurt Schwabach wrote one of the first gay anthem’s in the world “Das Lila Lied” (in English as “The Lavender Song”). The original version of the score contains a dedication to Dr Magnus Hirschfeld.
Magnus Hirschfeld
One of Berlin’s most prominent LGBTQ+ advocates was Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935), the 'Einstein of sex', also known as 'Auntie Magnesia’. He was the first to openly research and advocate for transgender people, and at his ‘Institute for Sexual Science’, the first modern gender affirmation surgeries were performed.
Hirschfeld, who coined the term ‘transvestite’ and described it as ‘intermediary type’, defined sexual orientation and gender identity as variable natural phenomena rather than moral matters. He observed that there was no automatic relationship between homosexuality and transvestism, but instead argued that the urge to ‘cross-dress’ derived from a discrepancy between an individual’s gender identity and the sex they were assigned at birth; he found that clothing was vital to a persons physical and mental welfare.
The influence of external advisors, institutional acceptance of scientific insights, and liberalising shifts in society more generally proved transformational in police work, which contributed to the creation of public spaces where people had the freedom to just ‘be’.
Due to Hirschfeld’s initiative, the Berlin police started issuing ‘transvestite certificates' to ‘cross-dressing’ men and women who had undergone a medical assessment. Such certificates gave protection to bearers who would otherwise have faced arrest and/or prosecution. Following a decision by the Prussian Ministry of the Interior in 1921, it became possible for men and women who had undergone a medical assessment to take new gender-specific or gender-neutral names.
At least two seminars for ‘gentlemen from the Senior Police Academy’ took place at Hirschfeld's Institute. A police instruction document from 1922 stated: ‘The still commonly held view that people who dress up are clandestine criminals […] is outdated.’
The rise of the Nazis
Being a brilliant speaker and propagandist and spurred largely by the German people’s frustration with dismal economic conditions and the still-festering wounds inflicted by defeat in WWI and the harsh peace terms of the Versailles treaty, Hitler’s form of politics gained mass support when the Great Depression brought to Germany a new series of global shocks. One of the consequences of the economic crisis was the collapse of independent newspapers, an institution Hitler always denounced as a Jewish “enemy of the people.” The Nazis had found the simple slogan they repeated again and again to discredit reporters: “Lügenpresse” (in English “lying press”, or in modern terms “fake news”), which they used against Jewish, communist and later the foreign press.
When in 1932 the extremely conservative Catholic Centre Party formed a coalition government with the Nazis, the new Chief of the Berlin Police announced “an extensive campaign against Berlin’s depraved nightlife.” Soon after, same-sex couples were banned from dancing in public.
In the - wrong - belief that Hitler could be controlled and moderated if he was part of the government, President Hindenburg appointed him as chancellor on 30 January 1933. On the 23 February 1933, Hermann Göring ordered the closure of all venues that “promote immorality”.
On 27 February 1933, the Reichstag, the home of the German parliament, was on fire. The Nazis used this as a pretext to claim that the communists were plotting against the German government, which made the fire pivotal in the establishment of Nazi Germany. On 6 May 1933, the German Student Union made an organised attack on Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute of Sexual Science, and a few days later, on 10 May 1933, the Institute’s archives and library were publicly burned on Berlin’s Opera Square. This event marked the beginning of an era of uncompromising state censorship. The Nazis banned not only “non-German” or “degenerate” literature, but art in general, including the works of Jewish composers Mischa Spoliansky and Friedrich Hollaender, whose songs are featured in Fabulett 1933.
Between 1933 and 1945, an estimated 100,000 men were arrested in Nazi Germany as ‘homosexuals’, of whom 50,000 were sentenced, and between 5,000 and 15,000 were sent to concentration camps. In the concentration camps, they were forced to wear a pink triangle badge on their breast pockets, which identified them as homosexuals. Lesbians, bi women and trans people, whose experiences remain under-researched, were also targeted. It is unclear how many LGBTQ+ people perished in the concentration camps.
The 'Weimar Republic', or officially 'German Reich', was the German federal state between the end of WWI (1918) and the rise of Nazi Germany (1933). Following the the abdication of the last German Emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, it was a federal constitutional republic and one of the most democratic systems of its time.
The Treaty of Versailles (1919), which ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers after WWI, forced Germany to disarm, make ample territorial concessions, and pay reparations, which by some were considered excessive and counter-productive. The most controversial provision of the treaty was the War Guilt clause, which required Germany to “accept the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage” during the war. Due these and other reasons, the Weimar Republic was characterised by great political instability, violence and strikes. There were eight elections in its life span, during which some forty parties were represented in the Reichstag, the German parliament. Inflation was extremely high due to an increase in money since the start of WWI and the reparation payments.
At the same time, Weimar Berlin was a shining example of a liberal society: the home of the world's first gay rights movement, the republic embodied a progressive, secular vision of sexual liberation.
Queer life in the Weimar Republic
Although homosexual acts were still illegal in Germany, the Berlin police had started tolerating different types of venues, and eventually large transvestite balls, from the late 1880s, which permitted the growth of a whole network of different kind of bars, clubs and restaurants.
Berlin’s gay scene became so notorious that it was often mentioned in tourist literature. Clubs full of men wearing powder and rouge as well as shorthaired women dressed in tuxedos must have been bewildering for the general public, but they were a safe space for members of the LGBTQ+ community and attracted writers and artists from all around the world. Several magazines for gay, lesbian and trans people were available at public kiosks and in venues.
In 1919, the German film “Anders als die Andern” (in English “Different from the Others”), which is believed to be the first pro-gay film in the world, was released. The story was co-written by Richard Oswald and Magnus Hirschfeld (see below). The latter also had a small part in the film.
In 1920, Mischa Spoliansky and Kurt Schwabach wrote one of the first gay anthem’s in the world “Das Lila Lied” (in English as “The Lavender Song”). The original version of the score contains a dedication to Dr Magnus Hirschfeld.
Magnus Hirschfeld
One of Berlin’s most prominent LGBTQ+ advocates was Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935), the 'Einstein of sex', also known as 'Auntie Magnesia’. He was the first to openly research and advocate for transgender people, and at his ‘Institute for Sexual Science’, the first modern gender affirmation surgeries were performed.
Hirschfeld, who coined the term ‘transvestite’ and described it as ‘intermediary type’, defined sexual orientation and gender identity as variable natural phenomena rather than moral matters. He observed that there was no automatic relationship between homosexuality and transvestism, but instead argued that the urge to ‘cross-dress’ derived from a discrepancy between an individual’s gender identity and the sex they were assigned at birth; he found that clothing was vital to a persons physical and mental welfare.
The influence of external advisors, institutional acceptance of scientific insights, and liberalising shifts in society more generally proved transformational in police work, which contributed to the creation of public spaces where people had the freedom to just ‘be’.
Due to Hirschfeld’s initiative, the Berlin police started issuing ‘transvestite certificates' to ‘cross-dressing’ men and women who had undergone a medical assessment. Such certificates gave protection to bearers who would otherwise have faced arrest and/or prosecution. Following a decision by the Prussian Ministry of the Interior in 1921, it became possible for men and women who had undergone a medical assessment to take new gender-specific or gender-neutral names.
At least two seminars for ‘gentlemen from the Senior Police Academy’ took place at Hirschfeld's Institute. A police instruction document from 1922 stated: ‘The still commonly held view that people who dress up are clandestine criminals […] is outdated.’
The rise of the Nazis
Being a brilliant speaker and propagandist and spurred largely by the German people’s frustration with dismal economic conditions and the still-festering wounds inflicted by defeat in WWI and the harsh peace terms of the Versailles treaty, Hitler’s form of politics gained mass support when the Great Depression brought to Germany a new series of global shocks. One of the consequences of the economic crisis was the collapse of independent newspapers, an institution Hitler always denounced as a Jewish “enemy of the people.” The Nazis had found the simple slogan they repeated again and again to discredit reporters: “Lügenpresse” (in English “lying press”, or in modern terms “fake news”), which they used against Jewish, communist and later the foreign press.
When in 1932 the extremely conservative Catholic Centre Party formed a coalition government with the Nazis, the new Chief of the Berlin Police announced “an extensive campaign against Berlin’s depraved nightlife.” Soon after, same-sex couples were banned from dancing in public.
In the - wrong - belief that Hitler could be controlled and moderated if he was part of the government, President Hindenburg appointed him as chancellor on 30 January 1933. On the 23 February 1933, Hermann Göring ordered the closure of all venues that “promote immorality”.
On 27 February 1933, the Reichstag, the home of the German parliament, was on fire. The Nazis used this as a pretext to claim that the communists were plotting against the German government, which made the fire pivotal in the establishment of Nazi Germany. On 6 May 1933, the German Student Union made an organised attack on Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute of Sexual Science, and a few days later, on 10 May 1933, the Institute’s archives and library were publicly burned on Berlin’s Opera Square. This event marked the beginning of an era of uncompromising state censorship. The Nazis banned not only “non-German” or “degenerate” literature, but art in general, including the works of Jewish composers Mischa Spoliansky and Friedrich Hollaender, whose songs are featured in Fabulett 1933.
Between 1933 and 1945, an estimated 100,000 men were arrested in Nazi Germany as ‘homosexuals’, of whom 50,000 were sentenced, and between 5,000 and 15,000 were sent to concentration camps. In the concentration camps, they were forced to wear a pink triangle badge on their breast pockets, which identified them as homosexuals. Lesbians, bi women and trans people, whose experiences remain under-researched, were also targeted. It is unclear how many LGBTQ+ people perished in the concentration camps.