Kejne affair

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The Kejne Affair was a political scandal in Sweden in the 1950s that was in part similar to the Eulenburg Affair . The affair, which included around twenty legal processes, was the first and largest of the Rättsröta debates. The main topic of the affair was the alleged danger emanating from secret "homosexual leagues" which reached into the highest circles of society and corrupted the authorities. The affair had a major impact on Swedish society's attitude towards homosexuality, which was increasingly condemned.

procedure

The divorced pastor Karl-Erik Kejne (* 1913, † 1960), ordained since 1939 , active in the Stockholm branch of the Evangelical Alliance (Stadsmissions) , was a good speaker and known in the capital for his social work with male homeless people, convicts and those at risk Boys. Kejne could count among his friends newspaper editors, the Stockholm criminal police chief and the head of the national prison authorities. In the autumn of 1949 he came to the conclusion that an investigation into trespassing and defamation had been put on hold by the police and that the police in the capital were very inadequately investigating all matters relating to homosexuality. He further alleged that a lay preacher named Malmberg, whom Kejne suspected of trespassing, had blackmailed the police and state authorities. Malmberg is said to have operated a “boys' brothel” and secretly photographed influential customers. Malmberg was initially referred to as the leader of a gay league. Later a "Minister X." was charged with the government.

The President of the Stockholm Administrative Court of Appeal Nils Quensel. His philanthropic help led to the rumor that he must be an extorted homosexual.

Kejne discussed the question of how this league could be unveiled with friends and launched a press campaign in March 1950 that initially dealt with boy prostitution, but after a few months concentrated on the alleged homosexual league. The affair aroused great interest throughout the country. The press alleged that Kejne's charges against Malmberg also included illegal homosexuality. The city prosecution began to investigate again and, after interrogating another 80 people, was able to take the case to court.

Shortly before the trial, the police learned of a 19-year-old seaman who claimed that Kejne had invited him to his apartment a few months earlier, where Kejne had made sexual advances and the seaman had offered his body. Because the seaman was over 18 years old, it was not necessarily criminal homosexuality.

The police confronted Kejne with the seaman in his apartment, which Kejne, the group around him and the press saw as a major scandal. When the name of the minister was mentioned on anonymous leaflets in Stockholm a few days later, shortly before the first chamber election of the Reichstag, the government appointed a so-called citizens' commission, the Kejne Commission , in September 1950 , headed by the Reich Prosecutor Maths Heuman.

The seaman was sentenced to three months in prison for false suspicion. Malmberg was sentenced to four months in prison for fellatio with a 20-year-old convict who was released on parole, as well as defamation. The public prosecutor responsible for the confrontation

Social critic Jan Myrdal (December 2007)

The retired Stockholm police chief Zetterquist dedicated 65 pages of his memoirs to the Kejne affair. These were printed in three editions from 1957 and represented the most widespread criticism of the Kejne affair by the end of the century. Zetterquist is of the opinion that the Kejne affair was a legal scandal, but not as claimed in the press debate. Zetterquist admits that, as Kejne's friend in the fall of 1949, he contributed to the police showing excessive interest in the matter. Under the pressure of the press debate, Kejne was treated more favorably by the prosecution. Equality before the law has been violated. Zetterquist also criticized the state commission's abuses against Quensel. The commission spread a damning amount of slanderous rumors against a philanthropic Christian.

In 1980 the memoirs of the unknown activist Eric Thorsell were posthumously published. Thorsell, who heard about the abstinence and social democratic labor movement, had volunteered for sex education at the Institute for Sexology in Berlin (1931-1932) after half a year . During the Kejne affair, Thorsell sought contact with parties on both sides and reported the result of his "private investigations" to the police and the Kejne Commission. Thorsell mainly agrees with Zetterquist, but expresses himself more clearly and draws historical parallels. The reader cannot avoid the impression that Thorsell is criticizing the Svea hovrätt appellate court because it was impressed by press hysteria during the sentencing and the evaluation of evidence.

According to Thorsell, before the press debate, Malmberg was not even known in the homosexual scene. However, there had been rumors about Kejne for a decade, which the scene had passed on to the police. Malmberg could not be their source, and the evidence seemed weak regarding both fornication and the spread of the rumors. In court, the fellatio victim had to change his statements five times because the defense had shown that the statements could not be correct.

Moberg's writings were distributed in new editions. In the 1990s, Jan Myrdal paid homage to Moberg's achievements in relation to the Kejne affair, and it was not until 1995 that the syndicalist newspaper Arbetaren published an apology. It was interpreted as a class issue, combined with Nazism and homosexuality, and Malmberg was known as a local National Socialist. The syndicalists did not understand that Kejne also had homosexual tendencies and that the nationalist politician Per Engdahl was associated with Kejne.

In 1997 Johan Norberg , who has been a Fellow of the Cato Institute since 2007 , wrote a Moberg biography from a libertarian perspective. Moberg suspected power, especially that of the state. Moberg learned that even a democratic majority can abuse their power and fought against the oppression caused by the rottenness of the legal system . Crimes have been ignored and Moberg has requested public investigations.

At the end of the decade, a number of historical essays appeared that treated and refuted various aspects of the Kejne Group's reasoning.

See also

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Since the decriminalization of homosexual acts between adults in 1944, only the following cases have been illegal:
    • Actions with minors (under 15 years of age) - up to four years in prison;
    • Actions with a victim who was not yet 18 years old if the perpetrator was at least 18 years old - up to two years in prison;
    • Acting on a victim under 21 years of age if the victim was dependent on the perpetrator - up to two years in prison (unemployed or homeless were sometimes seen as dependent);
    • Acts with a heavily dependent victims, regardless of its age - up to two years in prison (patients and convicts were heavily dependent equal.)