History of homosexuality in Switzerland

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This article deals with the history of homosexuality in Switzerland .

Christianization to Helvetic

The knight of Hohenburg and his servant were burned at the gates of Zurich because of sodomy in 1482

With the Christianization of Switzerland from the 3rd century AD, sodomy , which at that time mainly included homosexuality , was considered one of many sins. The first unmistakable legal basis for the punishment of homosexuality on Swiss soil is the " Constitutio Criminalis Carolina " of 1532, which was also introduced in many cantons of the Confederation with various deviations . Even before that, in the 13th century, the persecution of sodomites and the penalties for sodomy increased significantly across Europe. It is known for the canton of Zurich that between 1400 and 1798 there were a total of 179 death sentences for sodomy. After property crimes and homicides, sodomy was the third most common cause of death penalty. Compared to fifteenth-century Italian cities, the number of those convicted of homosexual acts in the Confederation remained relatively small.

In the German-speaking cantons of the Swiss Confederation, homosexuality was viewed as a " French " sin. Men convicted of sodomy often claimed to have been induced to practice their homosexual behavior in French or Italian-speaking countries. Conversely, the Swiss were often reviled abroad as a people who had sexual intercourse with cows. During the Reformation , Catholics were often referred to as homosexuals, while they in turn insulted the Reformed as " Kuogehyer ".

As in other parts of Europe, homosexual acts were mostly intergenerational in the Swiss Confederation. In contrast to cities in southern Europe, in court hearings for same-sex anal intercourse, it was less important who had penetrated whom, but more what age the participants were. Children and young people could avoid punishment. In 1416 in Basel , in the case of the Dominican Heinrich von Rheinfelden , he was protected from prosecution by the Grand Council despite proven homosexual acts .

How many people were sentenced to death for sodomy could depend very much on the will of the owner of the jurisdiction to detect and prosecute such crimes. During the tenure of Kyburger Landvogte Hans Conrad Heidegger between 1694 and 1698 a total of 22 young people were executed for sodomy. With the rise of Heidegger to Obervogt in Höngg, this series ended. In the surviving court files, a linguistic separation between the sodomy offenses is documented, whereby “sodomia” stood for homosexuality and intercourse with animals was designated as “bestialitas”.

19th century

Helvetic

In Helvetic (1798–1803), which was shaped by the Enlightenment and the values ​​of the French Revolution , homosexuality was not persecuted. With the end of the Helvetic Republic, homosexuality became an official offense again in most cantons and was punished with up to several years in prison .

Liberal champions

Heinrich Hössli , a cloth merchant from Glarus , was the first person of the modern era to go public with a work to defend homosexuality. In his two-volume work «Eros. The man's love of the Greeks ” (Glarus 1836 and St. Gallen 1838), influenced by liberalism , he made the demand that the recognition of homosexuality be a test for democracy and liberal civil rights.

Outside of Switzerland, two liberal champions for gay rights appeared in public in the mid-19th century and gave homosexuality its own name for the first time. In 1864 Karl Heinrich Ulrichs from the Kingdom of Hanover coined the term uranism , followed in 1868 by Karl Maria Kertbeny from Austria-Hungary with his term homosexuality .

In the 1880s and 1890s, Jakob Rudolf Forster from Brunnadern SG (1853–1926) saw himself persecuted by the St. Gallen authorities for his openly lived homosexuality. In 1893 it came with a petition to the federal councils for the elimination of discrimination against homosexuals. Karl Heinrich Ulrichs turned to the St. Gallen authorities with a pardon for Forster.

20th century

More and more cantons no longer treat sodomy ( anal intercourse ) as an official offense and only prosecute it upon request. For a conviction, the criminal offense must be proven by testimony. This leads to a drastic decrease in the number of convictions. The usage of the term sodomy is changing.

1930s: scene emerges

In the 1930s, dance clubs were founded in Basel and Zurich . In Europe, Berlin is the most attractive city for gays and lesbians. That changed suddenly when National Socialism broke out in the German Reich .

Several Swiss city police are starting to create homosexual registers, which they filled by raiding meeting places. In 1931, on the initiative of Laura Thoma , some women founded the Amicitia women's club in Zurich , the first lesbian organization in Switzerland. After Amiticia merged with the gay “Excentric Club Zurich” (ECZ) to form the “Swiss Friendship Association Amicitia”, the association launched the friendship banner from 1932 (from 1933: Swiss friendship banner , 1937–1942 human right ), the first lesbian-gay magazine in Switzerland. This calls on its readers again and again to take action against the slander in the press and to campaign for a decriminalization of homosexuality.

1940s: impunity and withdrawal

Ganymed sculpture in Zurich from 1952.

In 1942, in the middle of World War II , the first Swiss penal code came into force after 24 years of preparation . Article 194 only criminalized acts with “minors of the same sex over sixteen years of age”. In effect, this meant that homosexual acts between adults were legalized from the age of 20. According to Article 191, sexual acts of different sexes were legalized from the age of 16 years. A first step towards realizing civil rights was thus taken in Switzerland.

Due to the barbarism in Europe and the new freedom in Switzerland, the importance of Zurich as a European gay metropolis increased.

With the decriminalization of homosexuality, the militant tone of the magazine Menschenrecht became obsolete. The new editor Karl Meier renamed the magazine Der Kreis / Le Cercle / The Circle and turned it into a cultural magazine for homophiles. The magazine was now only aimed at men. His club, Der Kreis, organized parties several times a year. This and the bi-monthly publication were known throughout Europe.

1950s: adapted and hidden

Karl Meier was of the opinion that after the legal recognition, social recognition would last for years and that homosexuals could only achieve this by living in an adjusted and inconspicuous manner. In Der Kreis , edifying texts appeared in German, French and English and artistic photos of men. Members and subscribers did not associate with one another with their name, but with pseudonyms.

Still, The Circle influenced, if not inspired, the development of the post-WWII gay movement across Europe. In Germany: Comradeship «die Runde» in Reutlingen, in France: Arcadie magazine, in the Netherlands: «Cultuur- en Ontspannings Centrum» COC (still exists today), in Denmark: «Kredsen af ​​1948» and in the United States: « Mattachine Society »

1960s: end of the ice age

In some press reports on trials of gay murderers, the address of the club 's district was publicly disclosed, and from 1960 the bar was closed. The first murder victim was the musician Robert Oboussier in 1957 , who, like the later murdered, was portrayed in the press as a seductive perpetrator of a minor in the sense of a perpetrator-victim reversal . Large events were no longer possible. The climate in some European countries has also become more liberal. Subscribers broke away. The last edition of the circle appeared at the end of 1967 , whereupon younger men from the circle immediately founded the new magazine Club 68 (which appeared from 1970 under the title hey ). At the beginning of 1967 the topic of "homosexuality" was first recorded on Swiss television under the motto "Protection of minors" (broadcasts from January and February 20, 1967). In 1970, the Swiss organization of homophiles SOH was founded in this environment. The SOH was the first gay umbrella organization and was considered to be rather conservative and adapted. Above all, he could not reach left-wing and student gays. The story from the friendship banner (1932) to the SOH is called the first gay movement.

1970s: Second radical gay movement

At the beginning of the 1970s, the first news about the violent rioting of gays against police arbitrariness that had already taken place in 1969 reached Europe ( Stonewall ). This particularly mobilizes young, left-wing gays. In 1970 Rosa von Praunheim made his film "It is not the homosexual that is perverse, but the situation in which he lives " , which is subsequently shown at the universities of Zurich , Basel and Bern . Following the film screenings, the homosexual working groups are founded in Zurich (HAZ) , Basel (first HAB , then HABS ) and Bern (HAB) . Politically, the HA groups are close to the Marxist-Leninist PO groups .

In 1973, leather men formed the Lodge70 in Zurich . In 1974 the HA groups founded their first national umbrella organization, the Homosexual Working Groups Switzerland (HACH) . A variety of groups and commercial scene offers emerged. The social climate changed noticeably in favor of homosexuals. Large employers issued orders that employees may no longer be dismissed because of their homosexuality. The police still kept their gay records.

April 12, 1978: Telearena on the subject of homosexuality

For the second time in the history of Swiss television, homosexuality was an issue. In the program Telearena various game scenes were shown and in between those interested and those affected had heated discussions about the television reports shown. Gay activists from all over German-speaking Switzerland were in the audience and the few opponents of homosexuality hardly had a stage for their theses. For the first time homosexuals showed themselves without alienated images. There were some masked men who dropped them during the broadcast. One of them was subsequently so discriminated that he took his own life. The lesbians were not considered thematically. Even so, there were activists in the studio who protested loudly. ("Si make me suur, Mr. Indermuur")

June 24, 1978: The first Christopher Street Day in Switzerland

The Swiss Homosexual Working Groups (HACH) , the Swiss Organization of Homophiles (SOH) and the Homosexual Women's Group (HFG) organized Switzerland's first Christopher Street Day on Zurich's Platzspitz . The collection of a total of 5,500 signatures for the abolition of the homo register was started. Accompanied by the press, the files were forced to be destroyed. Bern and Basel followed.

See also : CSD in Switzerland

1980s: The AIDS crisis

From 1979 to 1982 gays and lesbians organized national homosexual rallies every year, which were characterized by a massive police presence. In 1982 the first news about AIDS reached Switzerland. "Gay cancer", "gay disease", GRID (gay-related immune deficiency) were the first names AIDS was given. At the time, people did not know how AIDS was caused or how it was infected. To meet this challenge, the gay medicine men were founded in 1984 (from 1997 Medi Gay ), which together with HAZ , SOH and the University Hospital Zurich held the first information events on HIV and AIDS that same year .

In 1985, Lodge 70 , all HA groups , SOH and the Federal Office of Public Health (BAG) founded Aids-Hilfe Schweiz (AHS) . In 1986 the AIDS brochure published by the AHS was distributed to all households in Switzerland. As a result, AIDS could neither be defeated nor contained, but the AHS prevention campaign is the most successful prevention campaign in Switzerland. While the periodontal disease campaign took half a century to educate the population and influence behavior significantly, the AHS and the cantonal AIDS organizations achieved this goal in a decade.

Despite the suffering of many Swiss caused by HIV and AIDS, this also resulted in a broad understanding of alternative ways of life in Switzerland. Authorities and the gay movement worked successfully hand in hand.

1988: Exhibition of men's stories

In 1988 the exhibition Men's Stories about Gay Life 1930–1980 took place in Basel's Kulturwerkstatt Kaserne . The population began to perceive gays outside of the AIDS issue again. The exhibition was such a great success that a surplus was generated, with which the Stonewall Foundation was established, which today presents the CSD Stonewall Award for outstanding achievements for gays and lesbians every year at the CSD in Zurich .

1990s: Gay Pride

In the early 1990s, in addition to the commercial gay scene, a rich party scene with and alongside the emerging techno scene emerged in Zurich, Bern, Basel and Lausanne . It all started with the GNC (Gay Night Company) in Zurich's industrial district. The deposit , which closed after the death of the founders, achieved cult status . The Aera hosted monthly parties for over a decade, the Labyrinth was initially an underground club with monthly parties, but thanks to its success it was able to quickly establish itself and take up permanent weekend operations. Until it was closed in 2007 due to drug discovery, it was known far beyond Swiss borders.

In 1994 a CSD was held for the first time since 1982. Since this year it has taken place annually in Zurich. The speech given in person by Federal Councilor Moritz Leuenberger in 2001 , which began with: «Ladies and gentlemen , will not be forgotten . Gentlemen and gentlemen ».

Politically, this “gay decade” is shaped by the entry into force of the sex criminal law revision (1992) and the campaign against the referendums on the evangelical side, all of which were won in favor of homosexual people.

In 1995 the gay groups, the companies of the gay scene and private individuals founded the national umbrella organization Pink Cross . The SOH also went into it. The gay movement, which is now very cohesive, was able to achieve the demand for legal equality of heterosexuals and homosexuals with the lesbian movement represented by the LOS ( Lesbian Organization Switzerland ) . National rallies on the Bundesplatz in Bern for a partnership law or protection against discrimination laid the foundation for the success of these concerns.

21st century

For the situation today see: Homosexuality in Switzerland

literature

  • Erasmus Walser: homosexuality. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  • Thierry Delessert, Michaël Voegtli: Homosexualités masculines en Suisse; De l'invisibilité aux mobilisations . Presses polytechniques et universitaires romandes, Lausanne 2012, ISBN 2-88914-154-3 .
  • Kuno Trüeb, Stephan Miescher (Ed.): Men's stories; Gays in Basel since 1930 . Buchverlag Basler Zeitung, Basel 1988, ISBN 3-85815-163-7 .
  • Ilse Kokula, Ulrike Böhmer (Ed.): The world belongs to us! Association of lesbian women in Switzerland in the 1930s . eFeF-Verlag, Zurich 1991, ISBN 3-905493-17-9 .
  • Ruth Ammann: Political Identities in Change; Lesbian and feminist women in Bern from 1975 to 1993 . Bautz, Nordhausen 2009, ISBN 978-3-88309-513-4 .
  • Thierry Delessert: «Les homosexuels sont un danger absolu»; Homosexualité masculine en Suisse pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale . Antipodes, Lausanne 2012, ISBN 978-2-88901-063-9 .
  • Christoph Schlatter: "Strangely enough, I got a taste for boys"; Self-images and external images of homosexual men in Schaffhausen 1867 to 1970 . Chronos, Zurich 2001, ISBN 3-0340-0524-5 .

Web links

Commons : History of Homosexuality in Switzerland  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e Helmut Puff : "A State of Sin: Switzerland and the Early Modern Imaginary"
  2. see Sodomite persecution in the Holy Roman Empire
  3. Erasmus Walser: Homosexuality. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  4. hergemoeller.de ( Memento from May 17, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Book presentation Hergemöller, Bernd-Ulrich : Chorknaben und Bäckerknechte: homosexual clerics in medieval Basel. Hamburg, MännerschwarmSkript-Verlag, 2004. ISBN 3-935596-60-X
  5. ^ Ernst Ostertag: "170 Years of Moving Swiss Gays" (PDF; 46 kB), on: www.network.ch April 3, 2005
  6. Dossier Jakob Rudolf Forster von Brunnadern (1853-1926) in the St. Gallen State Archives
  7. Swiss Federal Chancellery: Swiss Criminal Code - Chronology
  8. Federal Gazette 1937 Volume 3 Pages 625–736 as PDF: Swiss Criminal Code of 1942  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.amtsdruckschriften.bar.admin.ch  
  9. ^ André Salathé: Karl Meier. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . October 22, 2008. Retrieved June 8, 2019 .
  10. Examples of images from "Der Kreis" as deep links: man with barrel , sailor , man in the reeds