Ines Rieder
Aktenlesen 1946–1959
Ines Rieder
Reading Files 1946–1959
Lesbians targeted by the legal authorities in Vienna
English abstract
While, lesbian desire and the social situation of lesbians in Vienna in the first half of the 20th century have already been analysed, the same cannot be claimed for the post–war period.
Information by contemporary witnesses are hard to achieve because lesbian sex was prosecuted in Austria until 1972. Yet, the files of the Vienna Regional Criminal Court are one of the few sources for studying lesbian life and official interaction with lesbians in the 1940s and 1950s – the prejudiced language of the judicial system notwithstanding. The study of the sources revealed that the women accused of same–sex acts came from all social classes and age cohorts. Just how these women confirmed or denied their love for other women in the legal process depended on their personal circumstances. In the first years after the war, no–one seemed to have questioned the criminalization of lesbian sexuality. However, in the late 1950s first traces can be found of the growing medical–psychological discourse that also generated attempts to decriminalise lesbian sexuality through pathologization.