I like a man in a uniform:
Explaining Nazi approaches to
homosexuality and the homoerotic
MAYA AUSTEN
Abstract
Research Question: What best explains the
Nazi construction of sexual identity, and
specifically homosexuality?
Puzzle: Hypocrisy and inconsistency that
Nazis were anti-homosexual and yet
arguably displayed homoerotic qualities.
Background
In 1933, Nazis purged gay clubs in Berlin, banned all
gay organizations, and burned scholarly books about
sex.
During the Second Reich German criminal code
regarding sex was difficult to enforce.
In 1934 Hitler killed Rohm during the Night of the Long
Knives and used the fact that he was gay to quell SA
outrage.
In 1935, the Nazi regime turned homosexuality from
being minor offence into a felony by revising Paragraph
175.
Pink Triangle: 50,000 homosexuals were killed in Nazi
concentration camps
Primary Sources
Reaction
Because homosexuality was associated with
the Weimar era, the Nazis had to oppose it.
Respectability
In order to secure itself broad legitimacy with
small town bourgeois Germany, the Nazi
Party largely abided by notions of
heterosexual decency, family values, sex in
wedlock, and prohibitions on public displays
of nudity.
Refinement
Nazis wanted an organic homogeneity, a
Volksgemeinschaft with sexual and social
conformity that did not cross what they, and
obliging medical scientists, regarded as
natural boundaries.
Repopulation
Although Nazis may not have been against
the act of male on male sexual activity itself,
their pro-birth campaign left no room for sex
that did not lead to the proliferation of
German offspring.
Rearmament
Rather than condoning homosexuality,
homoeroticism idealized militarized
masculinity and camaraderie.
Analysis
Theory
Brown Plague
Nude Male Book
Reaction
Strong
Weak
Respectability
Medium
Weak
Refinement
Strong
Strong
Repopulation
Weak
Medium
Rearmament
Medium
Strong
Conclusion
Strong: Rearmament, Refinement
Medium: Reaction, Respectability
Weak: Repopulation