Print Send Add Share. Notes Abstract: Despite the Nazi campaign of terror that castrated, incarcerated, and murdered gay men, the end of the Second World War did not mark the end of brutal and homophobic National Socialist policy in Germany.
In West Germany, a Third Reich-era law that prohibited homosexual acts remained a part of the penal code until Rigorous enforcement of the law, paragraph , led to a high number of convictions in the postwar years, a level that never dropped to pre-Nazi levels. In the east, homosexuality was not decriminalized until Permission granted to the University of Florida to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes.
Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder. Geoffrey J. Giles 1 CThe cover story for a edition of the popular West German news magazine Der Spiegel The headline translates to "Paragraph The law falls does the stigma remain?
In West Germany, a Third Reich era law that prohibited homo sexual acts remained a part of the penal code until Rigorous enforcement of the law, paragraph , led to a high number of convictions in the postwa r years, a level that never dropped to pre Nazi levels. In the east homosexuality was not decriminalized until 8 The persistenc e of Nazi style justice after the war represented learn adequately from its history.
Background Since the creation of the German state in the penal c o de included a provision prohibiting sexual acts between men. However, th e men were not prosecuted unles s there was violence, prostitution, seduction of a minor or p standards of evidence made convictions rare, and thus granted homoerotically attracted men significant f r eedom from police interference in the democratic period after World War One But after the National Socialist s came to power in they element of the st ate.
