Communists, Social Democrats, and the homosexual movement in the Weimar Republic

Two cliches of gay historiography concerning the relationship between homosexuals and the political parties of the Weimar Republic are here subjected to critical examination. The notion that the political left of that era was similar in its homophobia to the right-wing and centrist parties is challenged with a number of particulars showing that the goals of the homosexual movement were supported almost exclusively by the left, especially the Communist Party, and that leftist homophobia was an atypical exception. Attention is also devoted to the active involvement of homosexual men in the Nazi movement and the destruction of the Weimar Republic, which casts doubt on the notion that homosexuals were merely passive victims of Nazi homophobia and persecution. The possibility of a special affinity between homosexual men and the Nazi movement is explored using the example of the Nazi leader Ernst Röhm.