Homosexuals In The Röhm-Putsch

1. Introduction

Homosexuals were not immediately persecuted more after Hitler rose to power, but that would change with the Röhm-Putsch on June 30, 1934, when the openly homosexual leader of the SA (Sturmabteilung), Ernst Röhm, as well as other leading SA officials and opponents of the state were imprisoned, with Röhm being executed on July 1, 1934. The stated objective to the public was to eradicate homosexuality from the National Socialist ranks, (Jellonnek, 1990, p. 96), and this justification found immense support from the German public, who "were relieved to see that the Führer was ready to eliminate homosexuality within the ranks of his most loyal followers" (Moeller, 2010, p. 523). This support from the public enabled the revision of §175 in 1935, a law that had prohibited sexual relations between men since the

24). This gave way to a "revival of a homosexual male subculture in many West German cities" (Moeller, 2010, p. 530), a clear indicator that homosexual men thought the tides would turn. This hope was undermined by the inclusion of §175 in its 1935 state into the German Basic Law (Grundgesetz) by the newly founded Federal German Republic (Whisnant, 2012, p. 25). Even though the Allies suspended most other laws of the Nazi era, they left the decision over §175 to the West German government (Moeller, 2010, p. 530) who saw it fit for inclusion, because it was considered "consistent with a "democratic political order"" (Moeller, 1994, p. 428). This development spelled the end of that short period of freedom for gay men after the war, who came to the conclusion that their country would not change much for them under a new democratic rule (Whisnant, 2012, p.