Marburg Declaration (2009)

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The Marburg Declaration (“For freedom and self-determination - against totalitarian efforts by lesbian and gay associations”) was a public statement by initially 370 scientists, publicists and representatives of public life, which was published in May 2009 in Marburg . Because of the criticism from the environment of the lesbian and gay associations , trade unions , left-wing political groups or the student body of the University of Marburg , which had become loud in the run-up to the 6th International Congress for Psychotherapy and Pastoral Care , the authors and first signatories saw the scientific , Freedom of speech and therapy endangered in Germany.

The declaration was issued by an initiative “For Freedom and Self-Determination” founded for this purpose and signed by several thousand people. In it, the signatories claimed that lesbian and gay associations would strive for totalitarianism , which should be prevented. Investigations into " practiced homosexuality " are, according to the initiative, criminalized as " homophobia " and " hate speech " so that so-called reparative therapies can be prevented.

Content of the declaration

As a starting point, the declaration describes the fact that after the specialist congress Religiosity in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy in Graz in October 2007 and the 2008 Christival in Bremen , attempts will now be made again to restrict freedom of speech, science and therapy. There Markus Hoffmann von Wuestenstrom and employees of the German Institute for Youth and Society had to forego their planned lectures, which the declaration interprets as the result of media campaigns and public pressure from the lesbian and gay movement .

The Marburg Declaration writes:

In the declaration, everyone is granted the dignity to “practice a homosexual way of life”, but at the same time it should remain possible to offer therapy to “people who suffer from their sexual orientation and seek therapeutic help”. A final determination of a sexual identity is presented as contradicting the alleged goal propagated by the opponents that everyone should choose their own sexual identity. Against this, according to the Marburg declaration, protests were made with “unproven allegations and defamatory means” and “intimidation” on the part of the lesbian and gay association in Germany. The right to critically examine the risks and consequences of practiced homosexuality can be claimed as long as it is not guided by “intolerance, neurotic fear or even hatred”. The declaration ends with a call for resistance to this alleged behavior and for the unhindered conduct of the Congress.

Occasion and origin

From May 20 to 24, 2009, the 6th International Congress for Psychotherapy and Pastoral Care took place in Marburg on the subject of "Identity - the red thread in my life" .

The approximately 120 speakers included Markus Hoffmann from Wuestenstrom , Michael Gerlach from the Young Christians Offensive and Christl Vonholdt , who heads a department there. They held seminars on the subjects of “Female Identity Development and Possible Problems”, “ Sexual Identity Conflicts ” and “ Maturation in Identity as Woman and Man ”.

In the run-up to the congress, the LSVD, representatives of political parties - above all from Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen , who spoke of a “homophobia congress” - and various student organizations charged that the participation of these three people would lead to the thesis that homosexuality can be changed because these people wanted to “ treat homosexuals to heterosexuals ”. The critics related this not only to the speakers objected to, but also to the organizer of the congress, who in their opinion was known for supporting anti-homosexual offers. The speakers are "clearly assigned to the evangelical direction of homophobic agitation". According to the organizer of the congress, the Academy for Psychotherapy and Pastoral Care eV (APS) from Frankenberg , neither the seminars nor the congress as a whole should particularly address homosexuality.

Sixteen psychotherapists from Marburg signed a joint declaration in which they opposed the theses allegedly put forward by Christl Vonholdt and Markus Hoffmann. In April, the action alliance "No room for sexism , homophobia and religious fundamentalism " was founded , made up of various associations, groups and individuals, mainly from student circles at the university and the political left, such as the DGB district association Marburg-Biedenkopf , connected. In the following weeks, the action alliance organized a campaign with speeches and lectures. Requests were made for the three speakers to be rejected and, if not, for the rental agreement to be terminated and for the city and University of Marburg to distance themselves from the congress.

The initiative “For Freedom and Self-Determination” was founded to support the congress . On April 19, she issued the “Marburg Declaration” with the title “For freedom and self-determination - against totalitarian efforts by lesbian and gay associations”, which when it appeared was 370 and later over 4000 people (including a number of functionaries and Professors) was signed mainly from the conservative-Christian spectrum.

The signatories include the university professor Wolfgang Stock (Frankfurt / Oder), the emeritus philosopher Robert Spaemann (Munich), the emeritus state and constitutional lawyer Martin Kriele (Cologne), the religious philosopher Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz ( TU Dresden ), the religious philosopher Edith Düsing ( FTH Gießen ), the Roman Catholic Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Salzburg , Andreas Laun , the Chairman of the Conference of Confessing Communities in the Protestant Churches in Germany , Pastor Ulrich Rüß, the Vice President of the International Conference of Confessing Communities, Andreas Späth, the Federal Chairman of the Christian Democrats for life , the publicist Gabriele Kuby (Rimsting / Oberbayern), the member of the Bundestag Norbert Geis (CSU, Kleinkahl ), the former Defense Minister Hans Apel (SPD, Hamburg ) and the European politician Otto von Habsburg (CSU, Pöcking ). On May 18, the President of Marburg University was given the 35-page list with the names of several thousand signatories from a wide range of different professions, including several alternative practitioners who offer or promote conversion therapies as psychotherapists , such as Russell Hilliard or Walter Gasser .

The Academy for Psychotherapy and Pastoral Care itself emphasized that it had "not participated in the initiative's appeal" because of the politicization of the dispute.

Reactions

The Marburg CDU parliamentary group chairman Philipp Stompfe, co-signer, said that the green mayor Franz Kahle was no longer acceptable in office because he had criticized the appeal. Kahle described the signatories as hate preachers . Kahle denied this and replied that, in his opinion, the appeal contained “bottomless insolences”.

The Marburg action alliance “No room for sexism, homophobia and religious fundamentalism” declared that there were “shocking parallels between the Marburg Declaration and the arguments of the extreme right ”. "Protest against this position is undoubtedly legitimate and necessary". Ursula Gassner countered these accusations for the “For Freedom and Self-Determination” initiative: “We, the undersigned, have no connection with any right-wing or other radical group and reject their goals in every respect.” The Bundestag member Volker Beck thought the choice of words was escalating; in his opinion, the statement therefore received applause from right-wing extremists. This criticism was shared by Hartmut Rus from the Lesbian and Gay Association in Germany, who criticized the instrumentalisation of the initiative by the NPD and DVU .

Hansjörg Hemminger from the Evangelical Central Office for Weltanschauungsfragen (EZW) also spoke of the “usual suspects on the far right” with regard to Gabriele Kuby and “a list of signatures on the Internet”, but said that they had used a “prelude from the congress opponents”. In his opinion, the “left wing of the Greens and the SPD as well as the Left Party” would try to implement an exclusion strategy in which “radicals were encouraged to socially ostracize evangelicalism, or even pietism ”. You would be playing "the game from ' Biedermann and the Arsonists '".

"Declaration for acceptance and equality"

In response to the Marburg Declaration, the Autonomous Lesbian and Gay Unit at the University of Cologne (LUSK) wrote the “Declaration for Acceptance and Equal Rights” , according to which homosexuality is just as little a disease as heterosexuality , but one of different sexual identities. They all stand side by side on an equal footing and are of equal value. Therefore, homosexuality is not in need of therapy. Sexual orientation as part of one's identity is part of human dignity . "A therapy with the aim of a change, i.e. reversing the polarity of the sexual orientation to another, is a repressive and dangerous measure and influence."

The “Declaration for Acceptance and Equal Rights” was signed by gay and lesbian university groups, a number of lecturers at German universities, members of Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen and Manfred Bruns , the spokesman for the LSVD.

Follow-up conflict over the person of Edith Düsing

The philosophy professor Edith Düsing , who works at various universities and academies, was the subject of several protests at the University of Cologne on the occasion of her signature with a full academic title under the “Marburg Declaration”. The General Student Committee (AStA) of the University of Cologne saw in the Marburg Declaration the beginnings of pathologizing homosexuality. According to AStA chairman Christian Poell, this attitude represents discrimination on the basis of sexual identity. The Cologne AStA asked the Rectorate of the University of Cologne to distance itself from Düsing because of this stance and to dismiss the professor. The rector of the university, Axel Freimuth , replied, referring to the freedom of science and expression, that he saw "no reason to comment on the work of the professor".

In autumn 2009 the Autonomous Lesbian and Gay Department at the University of Cologne (LUSK) called for a lecture by Ms. Düsing on Schiller's concept of the "higher self" to be prevented as part of the interdisciplinary Schiller lecture series on December 7, 2009. Edith Düsing's attitude is "unacceptable". While homosexual couples were demonstratively kissing and other students waving rainbow flags and making a noise, the start of the event was delayed by 45 minutes. The federal conference of gay and lesbian lectures and university groups called on Ms. Düsing to distance herself from the Marburg declaration and referred to "the statements of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), the German Bundestag and the Association of Lesbian Psychologists (VSLP)" , the conversion of homosexuals is fundamentally neither scientifically nor ethically acceptable.

Düsing himself protested in writing against the attempt to “discredit her person as 'homophobic' using the means of discrimination and slander ”. She explained her motivation for signing the declaration, with a reference to what, in her opinion, “threatened damage to the fundamental right” to freedom of science and freedom of expression . An open discussion on contentious topics must be possible without forcing it or restricting the content based on given opinions or theses. Their thinking is based on the dignity and the “inviolable worth of every human being” as well as “free, respectful tolerance”; this also includes "the freedom of homosexually oriented people to live in dignity according to their sexual ideas". The "question of which way of life is considered the ideal form of self-realization for the individual person" is "only answerable personally by themselves and their conscience" and therefore "to be respected".

Dirk Ludigs , the news chief at TIMM , who claims to be a television station for gay men, criticized the protesters for not having given good reasons for restricting the freedom of science and opinion, but having demonstrated their disturbed relationship to freedom themselves . The emeritus philosopher Robert Spaemann , who, like Düsing, had signed the Marburg Declaration, expressed the view that the case against Edith Düsing endangered freedom of speech. In his opinion, this is “not only absurd, but dangerous” because it is “an anthropological shortcoming” not to be attracted to the opposite sex (he agrees with homosexuals in his circle of friends), and one must have the right to do so to say without being accused of homophobia.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Initiative “Initiative for Freedom and Self-Determination”: Initiative “For Freedom and Self-Determination”. In: Medrum. Kurt J. Heinz, April 19, 2009, archived from the original on July 6, 2010 ; Retrieved on July 6, 2010 (press release with Marburg declaration).
  2. ↑ a b c Initiative “Initiative for Freedom and Self-Determination”: Marburg Declaration. (PDF) In: Medrum. Kurt J. Heinz, April 19, 2009, archived from the original on July 6, 2010 ; Retrieved on July 6, 2010 (with selection of first-time signatories).
  3. ↑ This refers to the actions of the Marburg Action Alliance, the Lesbian and Gay Association in Germany (LSVD) and their representatives and sympathizers.
  4. ↑ see among others: Epidemiologisches Bulletin , Edition A / 2008, p. 14, ed. from the Robert Koch Institute Berlin; TG Sandfort, R. de Graaf, RV Bijl, P. Schnabel: Same-sex sexual behavior and psychiatric disorders: findings from the Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence Study (NEMESIS). In: Archives of general psychiatry. Volume 58, Number 1, January 2001, pp. 85-91, PMID 11146762 ; DM Fergusson, LJ Horwood, EM Ridder, AL Beautrais: Sexual orientation and mental health in a birth cohort of young adults. In: Psychological medicine. Volume 35, Number 7, July 2005, pp. 971-981, PMID 16045064 .
  5. ↑ Spitzer himself withdrew his study in this regard in April 2012 and admitted that the criticism expressed was largely correct , see Ted Thornhill: Psychiatrist retracts controversial study that claimed gay men and women can be turned heterosexual by therapy. Daily Mail , April 12, 2012
  6. ^ Congress. Academy for Psychotherapy and Pastoral Care , 2009, archived from the original on July 6, 2010 ; Retrieved July 6, 2010 .
  7. ^ A b LSVD: Pole reversal seminars at the international congress for psychotherapy and pastoral care . Archived from the original on October 3, 2009. Retrieved January 2, 2010.
  8. ↑ Green Hesse: Decision of the state assembly of members on March 28, 2009 in Butzbach: Not an inch of discrimination - prevent homophobia congress!
  9. ↑ a b Gesa Coordes in Frankfurter Rundschau: Psychotherapy Congress in Marburg Vortex about "Homo-Healers" from May 14, 2009.
  10. ↑ Gesa Coordes in Frankfurter Rundschau: Therapists anger homosexuals from March 31, 2009, seen December 30, 2009.
  11. ↑ Die Standard: “Umpolungsseminare” at Congress for Psychotherapy on April 8, 2009, as seen on May 18, 2009.
  12. ^ Press release from the Academy for Psychotherapy and Pastoral Care eV (APS). (PDF; 20 kB) Academy for Psychotherapy and Pastoral Care , April 9, 2009, archived from the original on July 6, 2010 ; Retrieved July 6, 2010 .
  13. ^ Press release from the Academy for Psychotherapy and Pastoral Care eV (APS). (PDF; 26 kB) Academy for Psychotherapy and Pastoral Care , May 14, 2009, archived from the original on July 6, 2010 ; Retrieved July 6, 2010 .
  14. ^ Congress for Psychotherapy and Pastoral Care: Debate at the boiling point. In: Medienmagazin pro . Archived from the original on July 6, 2010 ; Retrieved July 6, 2010 .
  15. ↑ ExGay Observer: Marburg Congress: Specialists have their say . Retrieved February 12, 2010.
  16. ^ Gesa Coordes in Frankfurter Rundschau: "Homo healers" congress in Marburg: Gay department organizes protests ( Memento from April 11, 2009 in the Internet Archive ). Frankfurter Rundschau from April 8, 2008.
  17. ^ Action alliance "No room for sexism, homophobia and religious fundamentalism": List of the members of the alliance according to their own presentation
  18. ↑ a b Kurt J. Heinz: Ban on lectures at the University of Cologne for the philosopher Edith Düsing? In: Medrum. December 1, 2009, archived from the original on July 6, 2010 ; Retrieved July 6, 2010 .
  19. ↑ Otto von Habsburg: “I fully support this declaration!” In: Medrum. Kurt J. Heinz, May 18, 2009, archived from the original on July 6, 2010 ; Retrieved July 6, 2010 .
  20. ^ Walter Gasser: Understanding Homosexuality. 1st edition, 2005 (PDF; 388 kB)
  21. ↑ Kurt J. Heinz: Defensive love of freedom against the red-green-purple colored inquisition - 35 pages with several thousand names handed over to the President of the University of Marburg. In: Medrum. May 19, 2009, archived from the original on July 6, 2010 ; Retrieved July 6, 2010 .
  22. ^ Karl Heine: Did the appeal “For Freedom and Self-Determination” politicize the debate? - Academy for Psychotherapy and Pastoral Care: “For this reason we do not participate in the roll call!” In: Medrum. Kurt J. Heinz, May 15, 2009, archived from the original on July 6, 2010 ; Retrieved July 6, 2010 .
  23. ^ Gesa Coordes in Frankfurter Rundschau: Large-scale police operation - dispute over "gay healers" in Marburg escalated from May 15, 2009.
  24. ↑ Initiative “For Freedom and Self-Determination”: 2. Press release Initiative “For Freedom and Self-Determination” - “Infame” attempts to defame the “Marburg Action Alliance” rejected. Kurt J. Heinz, May 18, 2009, archived from the original on July 6, 2010 ; Retrieved July 6, 2010 .
  25. ↑ Volker Beck: Greetings to the critics of the 6th International Congress for Psychotherapy and Pastoral Care in Marburg and the polarity reversal seminars offered there on May 20, 2009. ( Memento from May 26, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  26. ↑ Gitta Düperthal: "A precedent could have fatal effects" , in: Junge Welt, May 25, 2009.
  27. ^ Hansjörg Hemminger: Feindbild Evangelicals. In: EZW 8. 2009, p. 283 f. , accessed July 6, 2010 .
  28. ^ LUSK Cologne: Declaration for Acceptance and Equal Rights . Archived from the original on July 1, 2012. Retrieved January 6, 2010.
  29. ↑ Kurt J. Heinz: Defamation of the declaration “For freedom and self-determination” and Edith Düsings: Campus Grün Köln disinformed, defamed and discriminated. In: Medrum. May 12, 2009, archived from the original on July 6, 2010 ; Retrieved July 6, 2010 .
  30. ↑ Leonie Seifert: Discrimination against gay baiting, strictly scientific. Time online, accessed December 16, 2009 .
  31. ↑ a b PM - Cologne university professor supports smear campaign against lesbians and gays ( memento from July 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) from April 24, 2009 (seen December 15, 2009).
  32. ↑ PM - Cologne university professor supports smear campaign against lesbians and gays. General Student Committee (AStA) of the University of Cologne, April 24, 2009, archived from the original on July 17, 2009 ; Accessed on July 6, 2010 : “Edith Düsing thus supports the view of homosexuality as a psychological disorder and pathologizing sexual orientation in a pseudo-scientific way. A clinical picture is constructed that regards the homosexual orientation as a problem. [...] To claim that homosexuality can be re-educated is hideous and reprehensible "
  33. ↑ a b religious philosopher accused of homophobia , on April 30, 2009, Merum - Christian Information Forum
  34. ↑ www.koelncampus.com: AstA of the University of Cologne calls for the dismissal of a homophobic professor . Archived from the original on July 9, 2009. Retrieved December 16, 2009.
  35. ↑ Kathy Stolzenbach: Kisses in the lecture hall. In: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger. December 7, 2009, accessed November 27, 2017 .
  36. ↑ Kurtz J. Heinz: University of Cologne: An ambivalent arena - homosexual spectacle around philosopher Edith Düsing at a lecture on Schiller's concept of the “higher self”. In: Medrum. December 8, 2009; archived from the original on July 6, 2010 ; Retrieved July 6, 2010 .
  37. ↑ Florian Krause: Support of the criticism of the LUSK at the University of Cologne to Prof. Dr. Düsing. (PDF; 79 kB) Federal Conference of Gay and Gay-Lesbian Papers and University Groups, archived from the original on October 6, 2014 ; Retrieved July 6, 2010 .
  38. ↑ Edith Düsing: Excerpt from explanation. In: Medrum. Kurt J. Heinz, archived from the original on July 6, 2010 ; Retrieved on July 6, 2010 (Edith Düsing's statement of December 7, 2009).
  39. ↑ Dirk Ludigs: Viewpoint: Queer Jacobins. (PDF) In: queer. December 12, 2009, archived from the original on September 24, 2015 ; accessed on July 6, 2010 (alternative links : from Queer (PDF) ( memento of July 6, 2010 on WebCite ); Medrum , Permalink ( memento of December 13, 2009 on WebCite )).
  40. ↑ Paul Badde: Philosopher Robert Spaemann: "Minarets are not vital for Islam". In: Welt Online. December 11, 2009, archived from the original on July 6, 2010 ; Retrieved July 6, 2010 .