Denazification in socialist Germany opened door to gay rights
By Leslie Feinberg
Articles appeared in many newspapers advocating the elimination of Paragraph 175. In Saxony, which later became a part of East Germany, the legislature endorsed repeal of the Paragraph.
One communist in particular deserves credit for these efforts: Dr. Rudolf Klimmer.
As a medical student in Dresden during the Weimar Republic, Klimmer, a gay man, had traveled to Berlin many times to follow developments within the homosexual emancipation movement. He particularly developed an association with Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld’s Scientific-Human itarian Committee.
Klimmer was a member of the Communist Party. So was the committee’s secretary and later chairperson, Richard Linsert.
During 12 long years of fascism, Klimmer kept his political views and sexuality under wraps, marrying a lesbian for mutual protection. After the Nazis were defeated, he chose to live in the Soviet Occupied Zone and joined the Communist Party once again.
Steakley noted, “He launched a one-man campaign which aimed at repealing all laws against homosexuality, re-establishing Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sexual Science, and agitating with Soviet and local authorities for the full equality of gay people.”
More by Leslie Feinberg on LGBT rights in East Germany:
Same-sex rights in East Germany: Legal and material progress
East Germany in the 1970s: Lesbian & gay movement blossoms
East Germany: Forming of gay groups ignites church struggle
Lesbians and gay men: Great gains in 1980s East Germany
(via classe)
Fonte: fuckyeahmarxismleninism
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