Chronology of Hirschfeld's Life

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Chronology of Hirschfeld's Life Appendix 1 Chronology of Hirschfeld’s Life 1868 (May 14) Magnus Hirschfeld is born in Kolberg, Germany, present-day Kołobrzeg, Poland 1885 Hermann Hirschfeld dies 1889–1890 Studies medicine at University of Munich 1891–1892 Studies medicine in Heidelberg 1893 Travels to the United States 1896 Establishes medical practice in Magdeburg Relocates practice to Charlottenburg in Berlin; publishes Sappho and Socrates, treatise on homosexuality, under pseud- onym Th. Ramien 1897 Founds the Scientific Humanitarian Committee (SHC) with Eduard Oberg, Max Spohr, and Franz Joseph von Bülow 1902 Alfred Krupp homosexual scandal 1907 Secession of Scientific Humanitarian Committee Liebenberg Affair 1910 Publishes book The Transvestites 1913 Founds Medical Society for Sexual Sciences and Eugenics with Albert Eulenburg and Iwan Bloch; Participates in Fourteenth International Medical Congress in London 1918 Appointed to the hygiene council 1919 Screening of film Different from the Others; Opening of the Institute for Sexual Sciences in Berlin 1920 Attacked and severely injured by right wing students in Munich 1921 First International Conference for Sexual Reform in Berlin 152 APPENDIX 1 1921 Hirschfeld forms Action Committee for Repeal of Paragraph 175, joining forces with homosexual group leaders Adolf Brand and Friedrich Radszuweit 1922 Meets Karl Giese, who begins to work for the Institute of Sexual Sciences 1925 Forms International Cartel for Sexual Reform with Kurt Hiller 1926 Trip to Soviet Union; government invitation to lecture in Moscow and Leningrad 1928 Founding of the World League for Sexual Reform; Second Conference for Sexual Reform in Copenhagen 1929 Third Conference of World League for Sexual Reform in London 1929 Paragraph 175 is amended to legalize sex between consent- ing men of 21 years or older 1930 Fourth Conference of World League for Sexual Reform in Vienna; Co-authors Sexual History of the World War with Andreas Gaspar; Departs for world lecture tour 1931 Travels to United States, Japan, China, Indonesia, India, Philippines, Egypt, and Palestine 1932 Returns to Europe with Li Shiu Tong (Tao Li), arrives in Vienna; Exile from Germany; settles in Ascona, Switzerland; Fifth Conference for the World League for Sexual Reform in Brünn 1933 Institute of Sexual Sciences destroyed by the Nazis; Relocates from Switzerland to Paris 1934 Settles in Nice with Tao Li 1935 Hirschfeld dies in Nice, France, on his sixty-seventh birthday Appendix 2 On Paragraph 175: A History of Germany’s Anti-homosexual Law Same-sex acts between men, or sodomy, to adopt a more historical term, was a practice that had been condemned since the early days of the Christian Roman Empire. Human bodily fluids (humors), and, particularly, life-generating semen were deemed sacred in the Judeo- Christian tradition.1 Non-procreative sex was deemed a desecration of life-giving functions. It is according to this same logic that onanism and non-procreative heterosexual sex were also viewed as vices well into the beginning of twentieth century for certain countries. The punishment of sex acts between men has a long history in Europe. Constantine (306–337 CE), and, subsequently, even more severely Justinian (527–565 CE)—who declared himself the implacable enemy of unmanly lust—ordered that men accused of sodomy have their penises removed and be paraded naked in the streets. Male and female same-sex acts were brutally punished by fire and the sword throughout the entirety of the Middle Ages. Under Charlemagne, the laws against homosexuality were conflated with those against bestiality (quite liter- ally homosexuality had been “de-humanized”), and a church council at Paris explicitly endorsed capital punishment for homosexuals. In 1769, Maria Theresia of Habsburg’s Constitutio Criminalis called for the punishment by sword or fire of every “unnatural unchaste act,” including masturbation, “emission seminis,” in as much as it was a squandering of a precious substance.2 With the advent of the French Revolution and the spirit of lib- erty it propagated, there followed a sweeping abandonment of legisla- tion that punished acts of sodomy in France and a number of other European national territories. Voltaire and Condorcet were among the voices that advocated the decriminalization of sodomy.3 154 APPENDIX 2 In the German territories, it was not until 1813 that the state of Bavaria removed the laws against homosexuality. This was largely due to the Enlightenment arguments of the individual’s rights to self rule and consensual sex put forth by Anselm Feuerbach under King Maximilian I. The law had also been abolished in the states of Hannover and Württenburg. Prussia did not follow suit. Curiously, or perhaps not so curiously, due to the implications of children and property rights, adultery was not decriminalized in the Bavarian penal code. Under Paragraph 143 of the Prussian penal code, same-sex acts between men or sex acts between men and animals were punishable by imprisonment and the loss of civil rights.4 With the German uni- fication under Bismarck and the rise of Wilhelm, King of Prussia, to the imperial throne in 1871, this clause of the Prussian penal code would be extended throughout the German kingdoms and be renamed Paragraph 175. From 1871–1935, Paragraph 175 expressly outlawed anal sex between men. However, it did not proscribe milder forms of sexual contact between men, including embraces and mutual masturbation. Lesbianism was not legally prosecuted during those years, though the parliament had issued an active proposal to extend the law to lesbians in 1909. This law was never passed, largely due to the advocacy of the Scientific Humanitarian Committee, led by Magnus Hirschfeld, and the concerted efforts of various segments of the women’s movement. The end of World War I and the birth of the Weimar Republic breathed new life to the homosexual movement. Censorship was starkly reduced in the Weimar Republic. The awareness-raising efforts of homosexual advocacy groups benefited greatly from these changes. Homosexual publications could not only circulate more freely, but the number of publications representing the specific interests and political leanings of the individual groups proliferated quite notably as well. The Scientific Humanitarian Committee and other social advo- cacy groups, including the League for Human Rights, the League for the Protection of Mothers and Sexual Reform, the Society for Sexual Reform, and others formed a cartel in 1925 to have Paragraph 175 reformed to legalize same-sex acts between consenting men. In compromise, the reform groups requested that the law incorporate an age limit of 16 to protect minors from being subjected to sexual misconduct. In 1929, the German parliament came very close to repealing Paragraph 175 altogether. A parliamentary subcommittee had even prematurely reported its definitive repeal. However, the parliament APPENDIX 2 155 ultimately adjourned with issuing only an amendment and not a de-facto repeal of Paragraph 175. A severely weakened economy was cited among the causes for the failure to reform the legislation. Nonetheless, the amendment was celebrated as a partial victory on the part of homosexual emancipation movements, and progressives in general, since it legalized same-sex contact between two consenting adults. The fact that this amendment constituted only a victory of the second order for homosexuals manifested itself in a variety of ways: It increased the age of consent to 21 and specified as illegal sexual acts that were previously lawful. Embraces, mutual masturbation, and onanism, which were previously allowed, were now deemed unlaw- ful under this reform. Male prostitution was still deemed a criminal offense under this amended law. Under the Nazi regime, Hitler ordered the registration of homo- sexuals in response to the the Ernst Röhm scandal. The Gestapo was charged with the responsibility of creating dossiers on homosexu- als and other “asocials” in the Third Reich. In 1935, the Reichstag amended Paragraph 175 of the Criminal Code to close what were seen as loopholes in the current law. The new law was composed of three parts: Paragraph 175, Paragraph 175a and Paragraph 175b. Paragraph 175 foresaw punishment with imprisonment for a male who committed a sex offense with another male or allowed himself to be used by another male for a sex offense. In cases in which a party was not yet 21 years of age at the time of the act, punishment , espe- cially in minor cases, refrain from punishment. Paragraph 175a entailed punishment of up to 10 years. Under mit- igating circumstances, imprisonment of not less than three months applied to: (1) a male who, with violence or the threat of violence to body and soul or life, compels another male to commit a sex offense with him or allows himself to be abused for a sex offense; (2) a male who, by abusing a relationship of dependence based upon service, employment or subordination, induces another male to commit a sex offense with him or to allow himself to be abused for a sex offense; (3) a male over 21 years of age who seduces a male person under 21 years to commit a sex offense with him or allowed himself to be abused for a sex offense; (4) a male who publicly commits a sex offense with males or allows himself to be abused by males for a sex offense or offers himself for the same. Paragraph 175b was a reversion to the pre-1871 legislation in that it also targeted bestiality. Unnatural sex act committed by humans with animals is punishable by imprisonment; the loss of civil rights might also be imposed. 156 APPENDIX 2 Anti-homosexuality laws were significantly relaxed in East Germany in 1969 and in 1973 in West Germany. The de-facto abolishment of anti-homosexual laws in reunified Germany however did not occur until 1994. In 2001, the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany upheld registered partnerships.
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