Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) rights in Germany rank among the highest in the world, having evolved significantly over the course of the last several decades. During the 1920s and the early 1930s, lesbian and gay people in Berlin were generally tolerated by society and many bars and clubs specifically pertaining to gay men were opened. Although same-sex sexual activity between men was already made illegal under Paragraph 175 by the German Empire in 1871, Nazi Germany extended these laws during World War II, which resulted in the persecution and deaths of thousands of homosexual citizens. Same-sex sexual activity between men was decriminalized in both East and West Germany in 1968 and 1969, respectively.
Same-sex marriage has been legal since 1 October 2017, after the Bundestag passed legislation giving same-sex couples full marital and adoption rights on 30 June 2017. Prior to that, registered partnerships were available to same-sex couples, having been legalised in 2001. These partnerships provided most though not all of the same rights as marriages, and they ceased to be available after the introduction of same-sex marriage. Same-sex stepchild adoption first became legal in 2005 and was expanded in 2013 to allow someone in a same-sex relationship to adopt a child already adopted by their partner.
Discrimination protections on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity vary across Germany, but discrimination in employment and the provision of goods and services is banned nationwide. Transgender people have been allowed to change their legal gender since 1980. Effective from 1 November 2024 individuals over 18 can change gender by self-determination. The law initially required them to undergo surgical alteration of their genitals in order to have key identity documents changed. This has since been declared unconstitutional. In May 2020, Germany became the fifth nation in the world to enact a nationwide ban on conversion therapy for minors.
Despite the biggest party being socially conservative on the issues of LGBTQ rights (CDU/CSU), Germany has frequently been seen as one of the most gay-friendly countries in the world. Recent polls have indicated that a large majority of Germans support same-sex marriage. Another poll, conducted by the Pew Research Center, in 2013 indicated that 87% of Germans believed that homosexuality should be accepted by society, which was the second highest score in the 39 countries polled, following Spain (88%). Berlin has been referred to by publications as one of the most gay-friendly cities in the world. Former Mayor of Berlin Klaus Wowereit is one of the most famous openly gay men in Germany, next to the former Mayor of Hamburg, Ole von Beust, the former Federal Minister of Health, Jens Spahn, the deceased former Minister for Foreign Affairs and Vice-Chancellor, Guido Westerwelle, the former Federal Ministry of the Environment, Barbara Hendricks, comedians Hape Kerkeling, and Hella von Sinnen, or political journalist Anne Will. Founded in 1981, the Akademie Waldschlösschen, an adult education conference center near Göttingen, has developed into a national networking hub for LGBTI teachers, lawyers, clergy, gay fathers and gay and lesbian student groups at German universities. Other famous gay rights activists include Rosa von Praunheim, whose film It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives (1971) triggered the modern gay liberation movement in Germany.
History of laws regarding same-sex sexual activity
Homosexuality was punishable by death in the Holy Roman Empire from 1532 until its dissolution in 1806 and from 1620 to 1794 in Prussia. The influence of the Napoleonic Code in the early 1800s sparked decriminalisations in much of Germany outside of Prussia. However, in 1871, the year the federal German Empire was formed, Paragraph 175 of the new Penal Code recriminalised homosexual acts. The first homosexual movement unsuccessfully campaigned for the repeal of the law both under the German Empire and in the Weimar Republic.
Under Nazism the persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany resulted in convictions multiplying by a factor of ten to about 8,000 per year. Penalties were severe, and 5,000–15,000 suspected offenders were interned in concentration camps, where most of them died. The Nazi persecution is considered the most severe persecution of homosexual men in history.
The Nazi additions were repealed in East Germany in 1950, but homosexual relations between men remained a crime until 1968. West Germany kept the more repressive version of the law, legalising male homosexual activity one year after East Germany, in 1969. The age of consent was equalized in East Germany at 14 years in 1989, and in unified Germany in 1994. It is now 14 years (16/18 in some circumstances) for female-female, male-male and female-male sexual activity.
East Germany (1949–1990)
East Germany inherited Paragraph 175. Communist gay activist Rudolf Klimmer, modelling himself on Magnus Hirschfeld and his Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, campaigned in 1954 to have the law repealed, but was unsuccessful. However, his work prevented any further convictions for homosexuality after 1957.Manfred Herzer, J. Edgar Bauer (Hrsg.): Hundert Jahre Schwulenbewegung, Verlag rosa Winkel, 1998, , S. 55.
In the five years following the Uprising of 1953 in East Germany, the GDR Government instituted a program of "moral reform" to build a solid foundation for the new socialist republic in which masculinity and the traditional family were championed, while homosexuality, seen to contravene "healthy mores of the working people", continued to be prosecuted under Paragraph 175. Same sex activity was "alternatively viewed as a remnant of bourgeois decadence, a sign of moral weakness, and a threat to the social and political health of the nation".
In East Germany, Paragraph 175 ceased to be enforced from 1957 but remained on the books until 1968. Officially, homosexuality was decriminalized in East Germany in 1968.
According to historian Heidi Minning, attempts by lesbian and gay activists to establish a visible community were "thwarted at every turn by the GDR Government and the SED party". Minning writes: Police force was used on numerous occasions to break up or prevent public gay and lesbian events. Centralized censorship prevented the presentation of homosexuality in print and electronic media, as well as the import of such materials.Mining, Heidi (2000) Who is the 'I' in "I love you"?: The negotiation of gay and lesbian identities in the former East Berlin in Anthropology of East Europe Review, vo. 18, no.2 Autumn 2000. Retrieved 20 October 2018
The Protestant Church provided more support than the state, allowing meeting spaces and printing facilities. Eduard Stapel was an important figure in the creation of meetings in Protestant Church spaces, in his case in Leipzig. In a 1994 interview, conducted and published by researcher Kurt Strake, Stapel emphasized the importance of these meetings as one of the first gathering spaces for the gay community in East Germany. Stapel mentioned attempts to create a community before the 1980s, but still considered the meetings in the church starting in 1982 as the most important.
On 11 August 1987, the East German Supreme Court affirmed that "homosexuality, just like heterosexuality, represents a variant of sexual behavior. Homosexual people do therefore not stand outside socialist society, and the civil rights are warranted to them exactly as to all other citizens".
In 1988, the German Hygiene Museum in Dresden commissioned the state-owned film studio, DEFA, to make the documentary film Die andere Liebe ("The Other Love"). It was the first DEFA film about homosexuality, and its aim was to convey official state acceptance.The Other Love (Die andere Liebe) on DEFA Library website . Retrieved 6 July 2018 In 1989, the German Hygiene Museum also commissioned DEFA to make the GDR's only HIV/AIDS prevention documentary, Liebe ohne Angst ("Love Without Fear"). This did not focus on homosexuality directly but pointed out that AIDS was not a "gay disease."Love Without Fear (Liebe ohne Angst) on DEFA Library website . Retrieved 7 July 2018Liebe ohne Angst on the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum. eMuseum database . Retrieved 7 July 2018
In 1989, DEFA also produced the film Coming Out, directed by Heiner Carow, telling the story of an East German man coming to accept his homosexuality. Much of the film was shot in East Berlin gay bars. It was the only East German feature film about same-sex desire ever produced.Wagner, Brigitte B. (ed.) (2014) DEFA after East Germany, pp. 229-232. London: Camden House. It won a number of awards, including a Silver Bear and Teddy Award at the 40th Berlin International Film Festival, and awards at the National Feature Film Festival of the GDR.Berlinale: 1990 Prize Winners . Retrieved 7 July 2018Teddy Award - Coming Out . Retrieved 7 July 2018
is considered one of the most prominent East German gay rights activists and has published a book on the subject (Gay Voices from East Germany, English edition published in 1991). Lemke claimed that the gay community was far more united in the GDR than it was in the West.
West Germany (1949–1990)
West Germany inherited Paragraph 175, which remained on the books until 1969. However, as opposed to East Germany, the churches' influence in West Germany was very strong. Fundamentalist Protestants and the Roman Catholic Church were staunchly opposed to LGBT rights legislation.Whisnant, Clayton. Male Homosexuality in West Germany: Between Persecution and Freedom, 1945–69 . New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 2013
The Frankfurt Homosexual Trials of 1950/51 constituted a significant chapter in the persecution of homosexual men within the Federal Republic of Germany, representing a continuity from the Nazi era while also occurring under the new administration of the Adenauer era. Primarily instigated by the Frankfurt public prosecutor's office, these trials were propelled forward with the aid of sex worker Otto Blankenstein, who served as a pivotal witness.Daniel Speier. "Die Frankfurter Homosexuellenprozesse zu Beginn der Ära Adenauer – eine chronologische Darstellung." Mitteilungen der Magnus-Hirschfeld-Gesellschaft 61/62 (2018): 47–72
Amidst prevailing socially conservative sentiments, the German Christian Democratic Union, wielding considerable political influence in post-war West Germany, generally disregarded or actively opposed gay rights issues. Conversely, their frequent coalition partners, the Free Democratic Party, often espoused stronger advocacy for civil liberties. However, as a smaller political entity, the Free Democratic Party was often reticent to antagonize the more socially conservative factions within the larger Christian Democratic Union.
During the Cold War era, support for gay rights in Germany was generally restricted to the Free Democratic Party, the Social Democratic Party and, later in the 1980s, the Greens. At the national level, advancements in gay rights did not begin to happen until the end of the Cold War and the electoral success of the Social Democratic Party. For example, in 1990, the law was changed so that homosexuality and bisexuality were no longer grounds for being discriminated against in the military.