Memorials in Berlin and Vienna

I've just returned from mooching around Northern Europe for the entire month of September to mark my 40th Birthday, and I thought that others might like to know about the memorials to the persecution of homosexuals and lesbians that exist in Germany.

Some of you may already know about them, but others probably don't.

Each memorial (two in Berlin and one in Vienna) has a separate thread and picture(s) and translation where necessary.

PS. If anyone has a problem with the fact that bisexuals aren't mentioned or acknowledged on these memorials, well, you obviously have too much time on your hands, be thankful that these memorials exist at all.

Beaten to Death
Hushed Up

To the Homosexual victims of National Socialism

The "Pink Triangle" was the sign by which the National Socialists could charactise homosexuals in [a] defamatory manner in concentration camps.

From January 1933 onwards almost all gay bars centred around Nollendorfplatz were closed by the National Socialists or, through the drawing up of "pink lists" (card indices of homosexuals), abused through raids.

Never Forget

Here stood the Gestapo Headquarters. For the Religous of Austria it was a hell. For many of them it was the doorway to [their] death. It [the memorial] is sunk in the rubble [of the HQ], like the Thousand Year Reich. But Austria has risen again, and with it, our dead, the immortal victims

This memorial is the latest and long awaited memorial in Berlin's Tiergarten, opposite the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. When I was living in Germany on and off between 1996 and 1998, the debate about such a memorial and someone saying that if a group is strong enough to call for a memorial and raise it to the public consciousness then it probably does not need one.

Nonetheless, one now exists, and was put up sometime between my last visit back to Berlin (August 2007) and my return in September 2008.

The memorial features a small film clip playing on a loop of two young men kissing. The memorial has been attacked several times and appeared to have been spat on prior to my visit (judging by the stains on the small glass window).

The plaque providing some detail to the persecution of gays and lesbians under the Nazis (the first picture) is hopefully legible enough.

Thanks for the pictures, Germanicus. It is quite interesting reading about the topic of homosexuality in the 3rd Reich. Ironically enough, a known homosexual was heading up the SA, a fellow named Ernst Rohm. *Many of the SA leadership were out homosexuals* Of course, after he became somewhat uncontrollable to Hitler, he was arrested and executed during the Night of Long Knives.

Funfact: One of the two men whom executed Rohm was Theodor Eicke. Eicke is considered the father of the concentration camp system and was the first commander of the 3rd Waffen SS Division "Totenkoph".

Source:
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/...ird_Reich.html
The SS: Hitler's Instrument of Terror by Gordon Williamson.

I think that Nazism was an example in the extreme, of those who have homosexual desires and such---to hate that part of themselves---and to destroy anyone who at all seemed homosexual---it has been much joked about all these years about how so much of the "pagentry" and such of Nazism--is pretty damn gay-----hell----many of those in Hitler's inner circle at one time or another were gay or bi---the foremost person being Ernest Rohm, who headed the SA--the Nazi Party's first strong arm enforcer group--- Hitler protected Rohm till he thought that Rohm was a threat to him---then he let him get wasted and swept away as part of an inner party purge as Zwitter noted in his post.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History..._the_Holocaust

Yes, you might want to read "The Hidden Hitler", by Lothar Machtan. The author puts forward a strong case for saying that Hitler was gay, or that many aspects of his life and behaviour, especially prior to 1918, can be interpreted in such a light.

I was dubious about the book since I expected something more lurid - when I was university I read some research papers on Hitler's sexuality that were the crudest of Freudian explanations in every sense of the word. Nonetheless, the book has been well received by even some of the dullest academics I used to meet at conferences (I've a PhD on the Nazi Party hence my interest), and Machtan does have a quote from Thomas Mann (paraphrased here) that "even if Hitler is like us, it does not make him one of us". The author is very keen to assert that just because he believes that Hitler was gay, or gay at certain points in his life, he is not seeking to tarnish all other gay people with the guilt and responsibilty that Hitler bears for his actions.

Thank you. We should never forget what a country can be talked into by fear.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HighEnergy

Thank you. We should never forget what a country can be talked into by fear.

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.. eventually fear wos a real factor HE babes... but before that ther wos huge reparations, hyper inflation, poverty, starvation an a desperation jus 2 survive... Hitler promised the world.. not 2 sure germans or ne 1 else undastood quite wot e meant by it...

I just wanted to say to Germanicus--thanks for posting this thread--I had no idea there was such a memorial---

Well, its was a long time in coming, and eventually there will also be a memorial to the Sinti and Roma (Gypsies) murdered by the Nazis, which will also be placed in the Tiergarten.

I'm not aware of any other memorials to the murder of gay people by the Nazis in Germany, or outside of it. There are all-inclusive memorials to the victims of Nazi terror and repression (incidentally another in Vienna, which I will dig out shortly since I've 3000 photos from my trip to work through), which can be taken to include gay people as well as Jews, Sinti and Roma, Jehovah Witnesses, the mentally and physically incapacitated, and those who just didn't "fit in".