Lex Heinze

Basic data
Title:	Law on amendments and additions to the Criminal Code
Short title:	Lex Heinze ( coll. )
Type:	Imperial Law
Scope:	German Empire
Legal matter:	Criminal law
References :	RG No. 2683
Issued on:	June 25, 1900 ; ( RGBl. P. 301)
Entry into force on:	July 14, 1900
	Please note the note on the applicable legal version.

The so-called Lex Heinze was a controversial law amending the German Penal Code , which in Germany in 1900, the public display of "immoral" actions in works of art , literature and theater censored and the offense of pimping was introduced. After numerous public protests and resistance from broad circles of the liberal bourgeoisie and social democracy , the German Reichstag defused the draft law and approved the "moral paragraphs" of the Reich Criminal Code in a compromise version. The law was named after the Berlin pimp Gotthilf Heinze, who was charged and convicted of “ bodily harm resulting in death ” in 1887 . His name stands for "immorality" in the broadest sense, as it came up in this process.

history

To lex Heinze . Caricature by Ferdinand von Rezniček from the Simplicissimus of February 27, 1900.

The draft law was initiated by the emperor and the first version was available as early as 1892. On February 6, 1900, at the end of the second reading, Lex Heinze was adopted. The "art and shop window paragraph" was intended to prevent the distribution of images and writings, "... which, without being lewd, grossly offend the sense of shame ..." . The “employers paragraph” threatened employers with punishment who “instruct their workers to tolerate or commit indecent acts” . In addition, there was a “theater paragraph”, which provided for prison for everyone “... who publicly organizes theatrical performances, singing games, singing or declamatory lectures, shows of people or similar performances which cause offense by grossly violating feelings of shame and morality are suitable " .

In particular, the art and theater paragraphs aroused strong public protest. The opponents criticized the arbitrarily interpretable censorship and pointed out that numerous valuable and generally recognized works of art from antiquity to modern times could no longer be publicly exhibited. On March 15, 1900, around 150 artists, politicians and scholars founded the Goethe-Bund under the leadership of the prominent writer Hermann Sudermann in order to preserve artistic and scientific freedom. In addition to him, the Munich theater entrepreneur Otto Falckenberg appeared with a campaign against the proposed law: Das Buch von der Lex Heinze, a cultural document from the beginning of the twentieth century ( Staackmann , Leipzig 1900), which contained numerous statements by well-known personalities from the fields of art, literature and science gathered. Besides Falckenberg himself, Michael Georg Conrad , Fanny zu Reventlow , Ernst von Wildenbruch and the youth editor Georg Hirth were among the authors . With the support of the Social Democrats in the Reichstag , these protests achieved a number of changes that led to a compromise version in the third reading on May 22nd, in which both the “art” or “shop window” and the “theater paragraph” were deleted without replacement. In any case, censorship was circumvented by labeling events as “closed societies”.

law

Section 184 of the Reich Criminal Code - "Distribution of indecent writings" - read in its final version:

“Whoever is punished with imprisonment of up to one year and a fine of up to one thousand marks or one of these penalties

sells, sells, distributes, displays or otherwise disseminates indecent writings, images or representations in places that are accessible to the public, produces them for the purpose of dissemination or keeps them in stock, announces or advertises them for the same purpose;
surrenders or offers indecent writings, images or representations to a person under the age of sixteen for a fee;
Exhibits objects that are intended for indecent use in places accessible to the public or announces or advertises such objects to the public;
issues public announcements intended to induce lewd intercourse.

In addition to the prison sentence, the loss of civil rights and the admissibility of police supervision can be recognized. "

The Lex Heinze can be used as precursor of offenses indecent exposure , dissemination of pornography , promotion of sexual acts of minors and pimping in today's German Penal Code are considered.

literature

The book from Lex Heinze. A cultural document from the beginning of the twentieth century. Edited by Otto Falckenberg . L. Staackmann, Leipzig 1900 online .
Georg von Vollmar : For the freedom of art! Speech against §§ 184 a and b of the so-called Lex Heinze, given at the session of the Reichstag on March 15, 1900. L. Pickelmann, Munich 1900.
Meyers 1908
Hermann Roeren : The Lex Heinze and its danger to art, literature and morality. J. P. Bachem, Cologne 1910.
Peter Mast: Artistic and Scientific Freedom in the German Empire 1890–1901. Subversion bill and Lex Heinze as well as the Arons and Spahn cases at the intersection of the interests of the bourgeoisie, Catholicism and the state. 3. Edition. Schäuble Verlag, Rheinfelden 1994, ISBN 3-87718-018-3 .

Web links

Wikisource: Law on amendments and additions to the Criminal Code. June 25, 1900 - Sources and full texts

Commons : Caricatures for the lex Heinze collection of images, videos and audio files