Magnus Hirschfeld, the West Berlin and West German Gay Movement of the 1970 s and Its Effects

摘要

The first critique of Hirschfeld's sexology to charge it with an affinity to degeneration theory dates from 1970 and was voiced by Gisela Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg. Starting in 1974, militant gay activists, largely affiliated with the universities in Frankfurt am Main and West Berlin, discovered a link with the fascist persecution of gays from 1933 to 1945. Drawing upon the writings of a like-minded French activist, Guy Hocquenghem, which had been published at about this time in German translation, they held that Hirschfeld's sexology was directly, if perhaps unintentionally, fascist, tracing this back to his political naivety and scientific shortcomings. Advanced as it is at present by a growing number of proponents, this standpoint is reconstructed here historically and critically with the aim of demonstrating its untenability. More moderate authors such as James Steakley are cited approvingly.