Between World Wars, Gay Customs Flourished In Berlin
GROSS:. Rohm had been assassinated - pardon my German (laughter).
BEACHY: No, generally not very.
GROSS: Pardon my pronunciation. As he had been assassinated, Heinrich Himmler took over enforcement regarding the law that is anti-gay. And things got actually bad then.
BEACHY: Appropriate, and Himmler and Rohm had for ages been sworn enemies. Himmler had been head of this other Nazi militia - smaller company, the SS - more ideological, more elite as well as least during the early many years of the motion, maybe perhaps perhaps not almost as powerful - also formed much later on. However with the removal of Rohm, Himmler then managed to assume more energy in the regime and in addition inside the motion. In which he had been additionally then single-handedly in charge of pressing to really have the statutory legislation revised and made more draconian. And then he really spear-headed the campaign then to basically eradicate homosexuality from Nazi Germany.
GROSS: Robert Beachy may be right straight back into the last half of this show. Their book that is new is "Gay Berlin. " I am Terry Gross, and also this is OXYGEN.
GROSS: This Might Be OUTDOORS. I am Terry Gross right straight back with Robert Beachy, writer of "Gay Berlin. " It really is concerning the homosexual subculture that flourished in Berlin between your end of World War I and also the increase associated with the Nazis. Beachy is composing a book that is follow-up homosexuality in Nazi Germany.
Where did homosexuality fit to the Nazi concern with contamination?
BEACHY: which is a question that is great. The Nazis really rejected the theory that homosexuality had been somehow congenital, biological, natural, plus they embraced the thing that was a much older - a more conservative and conventional view.Read more
