Manfred Bruns

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Manfred Bruns (1986)

Manfred Bruns (born July 17, 1934 in Linz am Rhein ; † October 22, 2019 in Karlsruhe ) was a German public prosecutor . Until his retirement in the summer of 1994, he was a federal prosecutor at the Federal Court of Justice (Karlsruhe). He was the spokesman for the Lesbian and Gay Association in Germany (LSVD) and the webmaster of the LSVD.

Life

Manfred Bruns was born in Linz am Rhein in 1934 into a Catholic family. In 1961 he married his wife Helga, with whom he had a traditional marriage for years , resulting in three children. 1963 began his career with the federal prosecutor in Karlsruhe . In the early 1980s he came out to his wife, and a little later to his teenage children, as homosexual . In 1983 he inaugurated his then boss, Federal Prosecutor General Kurt Rebmann , who withdrew him from all state security matters because he classified him as a security risk. In 1985 the tabloid BILD reported on Bruns: "Federal Prosecutor Manfred Bruns confesses: I am gay." Since 1993 he lived with his partner in Karlsruhe. The couple never divorced. “I was very lucky,” said Bruns. “I have found a wonderful woman who tolerates me for who I am.” Bruns is considered to be one of the “fathers” of the abolition of criminal law section 175 on June 11, 1994, which had existed since 1872 and until 1969 sexual acts by men (each Age) among themselves, then those with young people under the age of 21 and from 1973 only with male young people under 18 years of age in the Federal Republic of Germany .

Manfred Bruns died in October 2019 at the age of 85.

Gay rights

Bruns was involved in numerous articles and lectures for the rights of homosexuals and for people with HIV and AIDS . For the SPD he was a member of the “AIDS” study commission of the German Bundestag, where he successfully campaigned for a liberal AIDS policy.

With Volker Beck and Günter Dworek , Bruns campaigned for the equality of homosexual unions initially in the West German Federal Association for Homosexuality (which existed from 1986 to 1997) . From 1990 he was active in the SVD (GDR Gay Association), later the LSVD (Lesbian and Gay Association in Germany). He mediated help for gays and lesbians with legal and social problems.

He represented the LSVD at numerous hearings of the German Bundestag and before the Federal Constitutional Court .

Honors

On the occasion of his retirement from active service, the then Federal President Roman Herzog welcomed Bruns “for his social and socio-political commitment to the emancipation and recognition of homosexuals, for the protection of their rights and for the maintenance of the dignity of people who are HIV-positive or infected with AIDS are ”, awarded the Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class on October 27, 1994 . He received the Magnus Hirschfeld Medal in 2002 for special services to sexual reform .

In 2012 Bruns received the first “Prize for Commitment Against Discrimination” from the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency . On this occasion, the Hirschfeld Eddy Foundation published a commemorative publication in honor of Bruns.

In 2017 he received the “compass needle” of the NRW gay network for his commitment to the rehabilitation of men convicted under Section 175 and his commitment to same-sex marriage .

Individual evidence

  1. lsvd.de: In memory of Manfred .
  2. Hasso Suliak: champion died for gay rights. Obituary in the Legal Tribune Online , October 23, 2019. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
  3. a b c 20 years of double life. Spiegel online Einestages , June 5, 2014, accessed on March 20, 2015 .
  4. Fight for gay marriage "We want that too". Spiegel online one day , December 15, 2015
  5. Mourning for Manfred Bruns , queer.de, published and accessed on October 22, 2019
  6. Volker Beck about Manfred Bruns: His path in life was crooked, only he was straight. Obituary in the Tagesspiegel , Oct. 24, 2019
  7. A short history of the LSVD
  8. Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency: Lüders: "Bruns is a role model for all who fight for equal treatment" ( Memento from June 10, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) from September 27, 2012, accessed on August 21, 2013
  9. Hirschfeld Eddy Foundation: From prohibition to equality. The legal development towards homosexuality and transsexuality in Germany. Festschrift for Manfred Bruns. Series of publications by the Hirschfeld Eddy Foundation, Volume 3. Berlin, 2012. (PDF; 3.3 MB)