INTERNATIONAL

News from other countries; translations and selections from homofile magazines abroad.

THE HOMOSEXUAL IN

GERMANY

TODAY

When the allied powers had conquered the Nazi ideology of Germany and had begun to erect a democracy after 1945, many people in Germany were filled with a new hope. Among the famished sacrifices of the Nazi regime returning from the concentration camps were many homosexuals. But this group of the suppressed were to be shamefully disappointed: the Western Allies would not revise the laws against homosexuality. Only the Russians within their occupation-zone changed the laws and reduced them to the status they were before 1933. In West-Germany the Germans themselves were responsible for changing the laws or not, but nobody expected what happened: the laws under Hitler intensified, were more intensified by the Federal Republic. A complaint before the supreme court on a constitutional question has not been decided or even answered in four years—a request which quotes that paragraph 175 StGB disagrees with the new German constitution.

Germany in the 1920's was very gay and almost licentious. But this was followed by the cruel and inhuman "1000 years of Hitler-Regime." The present era is neither moderate nor licentious; it is instead full of tension. The question is whether we are to return to barbarism or move forward to the long desired and fought-for freedom. It would have to be the subject of a special article to show the historical developments of the different reform movements in Germany. Here, only a few words can be said about the social attitudes toward homosexuals in Germany.

Those who have enough money, or behave cleverly and choose the right employer may successfully prevent, for a long period of time, conflict with the law. Thus it follows that the homosexual of superior station, such as businessmen, academicians of the higher grades, and artists are in the safest positions. If one of these people takes too many liberties, he can always find a good lawyer to save him. Because of their money or reputation based on efficiency, they are tolerated and looked on benevolently. But the man of the street, the average-German, has a hard time. He must try for self-employment as quickly as possible, or as employee, he wants to be as independent as possible. If he does not succeed in doing this, his chances of protecting himself are small. He will be watched and investigated by his neighborhood. The press in Germany is doing a bad job by presenting this outcast group as criminals. A general scientific discussion on homosexuality in the press is almost impossible (Kinsey's work has been heavily criticized). The papers fear protest from their readers if they take a more sensible view of this situation