Homosexual Trials of Frankfurt

The Homosexual Trials of Frankfurt were a series of criminal procedure in the years 1950/1951, in which a wave of persecution against homosexuals culminated in Frankfurt am Main . They marked the end of the restraint exercised by the judiciary in prosecuting such crimes after the end of the Second World War.

Starting position

The gay scene in Frankfurt

With the seizure of power by the Nazi party, a massive persecution of gays began, which led to the visible gay scene in Frankfurt disappearing completely. It was rebuilt after the end of the Second World War. Well-known meeting places were the glamorous Kleist Casino at Freßgass 6 and the Felsenkeller in Luginsland 1. The Felsenkeller had a license that allowed men to dance together there. The first association of homosexuals, the "Association for Humanitarian Lifestyle" (VhL), had its seat in the Felsenkeller. In the Taunusanlage a Schwulen-Strich, where 80 to 100 male sex workers offered their services. Due to the applicable laws, these activities were criminal offenses. The police, who knew these meeting places and the scene, initially tolerated this to a large extent. This led the scene to the assumption that the relevant criminal provisions were no longer applicable.

Legal situation

Main article: § 175

The version of § 175 StGB valid in the 1950s was from 1935. At that time the Nazi party tightened § 175 StGB, so that the criminal offense was extended to all "lewd" acts, which in extreme cases could also be extended to eye contact between men . Section 175a of the Criminal Code, also newly inserted in 1935, which provides a prison was threatened with a sentence of up to 10 years.

After the war, the Allied Control Council suspended a number of laws and legislative changes from the National Socialist period. The regulations of § 175 and 175a remained in force and were incorporated into the Federal German Criminal Code in 1949. In a general clause, the Control Council had decreed that any tightening of criminal law made by the National Socialists should be checked on a case-by-case basis to determine whether they conformed to the rule of law. This also applied to Section 175a of the Criminal Code.

Investigations

The wave of persecution in Frankfurt was triggered by the minors hustlers Otto Blankenstein , who on July 16, 1950 in Frankfurt for "commercial same-sex prostitution" and against whom the investigation was opened in 1218. The investigating Public Prosecutor, Dr. Fritz Thiede, who personally took over the management of the police investigations, ran it with great commitment. During his interrogations, Blankenstein stated 70 clients with whom he claimed to have had 200 sexual contacts. He supported the investigation in every respect and went in his role as key witness which was inadmissible under the German Criminal Procedure Law at the time. He was such an important source of information for the police and the public prosecutor that he was placed in special custody was taken and not taken to remand prison. Either he remained in the police prison or he was imprisoned in the correctional facility Preungesheim. The presentation to the Detention Judge was also omitted. At times he was questioned every day. Prosecutor Thiede temporarily relocated his office to the then Police Headquarters. The public prosecutor's office justified its considerable investigative effort vis-à-vis the public with the protection of minors and later with blackmail. The latter was definitely a pretext, because it is never mentioned as the reason for arrest.

The men named by Blankenstein were summoned, treated and also photographed. The photos were shown to other stick boys. This resulted in 173 investigations against 214 people, of whom around 50 were arrested, many of them minors. This resulted in 42 indictments. The investigations initiated by Blankenstein's statements were joined by others, so that public prosecutor Thiede finally conducted 240 investigations into a total of 280 people for violations of Section 175 of the Criminal Code, had 100 people arrested and brought 75 charges by the end of the year. Even more recent research has not cast doubt on these figures, reconstructed by Dieter Schiefelbein.

The criminal trials

The trials in autumn 1950

The first trial opened on October 23, 1950. On October 1, 1950, a new version of the Courts Constitution Act came into force. The Courts Constitution Act also provides the framework for which judge is responsible for a process. The new version of the law was announced on September 12, 1950 in the Bundesgesetzblatt.

Judge Dr. Kurt Ronimi (born November 16, 1909 in Hanau; † February 1, 1958), during the “ Third Reichs "known as a tough public prosecutor in cases of § 175 StGB, but relied on the previously valid version of the law from 1937 and referred all trials of this series to the Chamber of the Regional Court Frankfurt am Main (it was a Court of Aldermen). However, this was no longer permissible in October 1950 and the proceedings should have been distributed to different chambers in accordance with the Business distribution plan. This violated the principle of the "Statuory Judge" according to the Article 101, Paragraph 1, Clause 2 of the Basic Law. This argument was also taken up by contemporary press reports, but not the judiciary.

The local press, especially the Frankfurter Neue Presse and the Frankfurter Rundschau, reported extensively on the trials. The reporting was initially approving of the law enforcement authorities, which affected the opinion of the readership. The publication of a reader survey resulted in broad approval of Section 175 of the Criminal Code and the convictions. Due to the clear evidence, the trials ended with convictions in almost all cases.

Changed public discussion

As the number of trials increased, public opinion turned. It became clear that Blankenstein was in fact acting as a key witness. Key witnesses were not permitted under the current legal situation and the public reacted critically to this manipulation. The personality of Blankenstein and thus his credibility as a witness were also increasingly discussed. As a result of these discussions, the first appeal proceedings were initiated. In one case, the defense succeeded in enforcing a psychological report on Blankenstein in the proceedings before the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court. Thereupon Blankenstein refused to testify and the process ended with an acquittal.

The trials had by then attracted nationwide attention. The press, in particular Der Spiegel and the Frankfurter Rundschau, were generally skeptical about the purpose and sense of the trials. Roger Nash Baldwin, one of the co-founders of the American Civil Liberties Union, expressed his astonishment that "such proceedings against innocent adults in the 20th century are still possible", also directly to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, which said it was not responsible.

At the turn of the year 1950/51, Ronimi was "promoted" to the Landgericht Hanau. There he immediately further sentenced according to § 175 StGB. His successor in Frankfurt, Dr. Brückner, used some work to dissolve the chamber's special jurisdiction constructed by Ronimi, and had public prosecutor Dr. Thiede to cede 60 investigations to colleagues and 60 more to discontinue - a very high number that made “Thiede's zeal appear even more sinister” . In Frankfurt, the wave of persecution came to an end.

Trial of Blankenstein

The trial of Blankenstein took place on February 15, 1951. The public prosecutor's office and court did their best to prove that an unlawful leniency agreement had not been made. Since Ronimi and Thiede were largely eliminated from the event, their possible agreements with Blankenstein no longer protected them. The criminal proceedings were heard in public, which was very unusual in proceedings under the Youth Courts Act. Blankenstein was sentenced to two and a half years youth penalty, which was quite high. Out of seven months in pre-trial detention, only four were credited to him.

Consequences and reactions

The Frankfurt homosexual trials in the Adenauer era put an end to the restraint of the judiciary in prosecuting such crimes that had been practiced since the end of the Second World War.

A total of six of the persecuted men committed suicide: a 19-year-old jumped from the Goetheturm, a dental technician and his friend poisoned themselves with illuminating gas. Others fled abroad. Many of the accused were harmed professionally or socially. However, current research assumes only two suicides were related to the trials.

The psychiatrist Reinhard Redhardt examined some of the homosexuals involved in the processes and prepared a study about it. This is accompanied by an appendix, which contains biographical sketches for some of the examined.

The trials were the inspiration for the play "The Right to Self" by Rolf Italiaander, which premiered on April 2, 1952 at the Kammerspiele Hamburg - the first time after the Second World War that homosexuality was discussed on a German stage.

In the vicinity of the Frankfurt courthouse, the Frankfurter Engel has been commemorating the persecuted gays since 1994.

Literature

Sources

• Elmar Kraushaar: Unzucht vor Gericht. In: Elmar Kraushaar (Hrsg.): Hundert Jahre schwul. Eine Revue. Berlin 1997. ISBN 3 87134 307 2, S. 60–69.

• Reinhard Redhardt: Zur gleichgeschlechtlichen männlichen Prostitution. In: Studien zur Homosexualität = Beiträge zur Sexualforschung 5 (1954), S. 22–72.

• Dieter Schiefelbein: Wiederbeginn der juristischen Verfolgung homosexueller Männer in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Die Homosexuellen-Prozesse in Frankfurt am Main 1950/51. In: Zeitschrift für Sexualforschung 5/1 (1992), S. 59–73.

• Daniel Speier: Die Frankfurter Homosexuellenprozesse zu Beginn der Ära Adenauer – eine chronologische Darstellung. In: Mitteilungen der Magnus-Hirschfeld-Gesellschaft 61/62 (2018), S. 47–72.

• Marcus Velke: Verfolgung und Diskriminierung – Männliche Homosexualität. In: Kirsten Plötz und Marcus Velke: Aufarbeitung von Verfolgung und Repression lesbischer und schwuler Lebensweisen in Hessen 1945–1985. Bericht im Auftrag des Hessischen Ministeriums für Soziales und Integration zum Projekt „Aufarbeitung der Schicksale der Opfer des ehemaligen § 175 StGB in Hessen im Zeitraum 1945 bis 1985“ (2018), S. 134–265, 275–276. [URL: https://soziales.hessen.de/sites/default/files/media/hsm/forschungsbericht_aufarbeitung_verfolgung.pdf].

Literary processing

• H. T. Riethausen: Judasengel. Frankfurt 2016. ISBN 978-3-944485-12-6 Search this book on .

Documentary film

• Das Ende des Schweigens by Van-Tien Hoang.

External links

• Homepage: Mahnmal Homosexuellenverfolgung.
• Homepage: Queer.de.
• Homepage: Aids-Hilfe Frankfurt.
• Homepage: Frankfurter Rundschau.
• Homepage: Judasengel/ H.T. Riethausen

This article "Homosexual Trials of Frankfurt" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Homosexual Trials of Frankfurt. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

📰 Article(s) of the same category(ies)

• Bethmanns and Rothschilds

---