Ralf Bogen:
"Zum Schrecken der Homosexuellen Stuttgarts ..."
Ralf Bogen:
"To the dread of Stuttgart’s homosexuals ..."
The ostracism and persecution of homosexual men in Württemberg
English abstract
In the postwar years, the German state of Baden-Württemberg was a leader in the legal persecution of homosexual men. Ralf Bogen begins by describing the persecution methods used by Stuttgart’s criminal investigation department in the 1950s and 60s. Five short biographical sketches are presented to illustrate the fates of homosexual men in the years after 1945. These repressive measures are explained in part by a monstrous tradition stretching back to the radical persecution of same-sex desire from 1933 to 1945. A historical overview looks back at the different stages of persecution under the Nazi dictatorship. Here too, individual life stories are provided to give a human face to this period. Ralf Bogen concludes by arguing for a systematic appraisal of the living situations experienced during the Nazi and postwar periods by lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transsexuals, intersexuals and transgender people. Even now, this history of ostracism and persecution has yet to be systematically appraised and represented by public authorities.