National Working Group on Repression Against Gays

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The National Working Group Against Repression Against Gays , often shortened only as the National Working Group Repression Against Gays and mostly abbreviated from this shortened (but then nonsensical) name NARGS , was part of the German gay movement as a supraregional group . It existed between 1977 and 1981. The founders of the Waldschlösschen Academy got to know each other through their collaboration .

history

At the same time as a meeting of German gay groups at Whitsun in Hamburg on 28-30. May 1977 saw the first meeting of potential supporters of the idea of ​​a 3rd Russell Tribunal on human rights violations in the Federal Republic of Germany. These efforts can be explained by the excessive reactions of politics to the actions of the RAF , which is described in the film " Germany in Autumn ", among other things . In addition to the representatives of various K groups , some members of various gay groups also went to this meeting on the Moorweide . When it was decided that a third tribunal of the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation should be organized on human rights violations in the Federal Republic of Germany, some of the gay men present decided to advocate that discrimination against gays should also be the subject of the tribunal. At a second meeting in Göttingen on June 26 and 27, 1977, one of them made this request in a speech. When asked which organization was making this request, the Luxembourg-born member of the group of gay men from different parts of the Federal Republic, who had only come together by chance, replied that this was a demand of the “National Working Group against Repression against Gays”. In the coming months a better name was discussed at further coordination meetings because the Germans were extremely unhappy with the term “national”, but it was finally decided to use the abbreviation NARGS.

The numerous preparatory meetings with members of different K groups offered the NARGS a piece of publicity, at least in the left-alternative spectrum and the hope of press coverage during the tribunal. This was particularly important because reporting on gay life was almost taboo for the media. The daily newspaper (taz) didn't exist back then. The mention of the theatrical performance "Brühwarm - a gay fair" in Spiegel 1976 is one of the rare exceptions.

The group members, who were predominantly students and lived in smaller (university) cities, met approximately every six to eight weeks in different conference houses, in which sufficient rooms could be rented at a low price, or in shared apartments. They combined the fight against social discrimination with the desire to develop appropriate models for a self-determined life, as "The Oedipus Collective" had already begun in its play "Brühwarm - a gay fair". The NARGS consisted of men who were all active in gay groups in their respective places of residence without wanting to represent them. The other view taken by Michael Glas in the Nuremberg Gay Post - the successor to the movement magazine “ Rosa Flieder”, which in 1989 merged with the Berlin gay magazine “ Siegessäule ” to form the nationwide magazine “magnus” - was possibly based on the fact that in In retrospect, it is difficult for all parts of the gay movement to recognize which position a person has taken individually and what someone has represented as a representative of a group. Although the NARGS was created at the first preparatory meeting, there remained a fierce controversy within the group as to whether participation in the 3rd Russell Tribunal was the right way to achieve its own goal. The queer fight that broke out in the HAW in 1973 was also smoldering in this group .

In fact, in the second session of the 3rd Russell Tribunal from January 3 to 8, 1979, the city of Aachen's ban on information tables against the gay group there was treated as an example and condemned as a censorship case (prevention of factual information to the public). The question of gay suppression was not made a problem in the general public even by this condemnation, because the 3rd Russell Tribunal as a whole was largely portrayed in the German press as an anti-state event by left-wing extremists.

During the almost two years of preparations, in which the aim was both to convince the various K groups that discrimination against homosexuals is a relevant human rights violation, and to fend off other K groups (especially the Communist League, which is strong in Hamburg) who tried to use resistance to bans on the profession of gay teachers and the prevention of factual information as a fight for their ideology, most group members realized that there was no objective of how a non-discriminatory society should be designed. The people involved began to develop towards a self-image of a civil rights movement without them being aware of it. Like the initiators of Tunix , the activists of the NARGS became aware that there was an awareness of the forms of discrimination against which one had to defend oneself in the entire student-dominated German gay movement. However, there was no positive vision of a better society and a self-determined gay life.

Awareness of this lack gave rise to the idea of ​​a meeting of gays from as many countries as possible to discuss perspectives together and to try out other forms of coexistence, strengthened by the largest possible community. This is how the idea for Homolulu came about , and that is why this event should also take place in Frankfurt am Main as a central and easily accessible location.

The date in the summer of 1979 turned out to be a fortunate choice: In the press there was “sour cucumber time” and that is why SPIEGEL reported on the planned event ten days before the start. Since the German press did not deal with any dramatic events during the Homolulu week either, almost all national media reported on the event, and so it came about that for the first time mainly factual reports on gay life were reported. The content-related discussions on gay policy issues, e.g. B. the recently founded AG gay teachers in the GEW Berlin, but were left to the self-printed daily sheet for the participants. Nevertheless, the factual, often even sympathetic reporting changed the general perception of gays throughout the old Federal Republic. Therefore it was easier to announce regional dates in the local press afterwards, and there was increasing coverage of events. This was a turning point, both in public perception and in the self-perception of gays, and therefore marks both the climax and the end of a phase of the gay movement as well as the beginning of a new phase that lasted until the start of the AIDS crisis. However, since it was only about gays, this increased the invisibility of the lesbians who remained hidden in the women's movement.

In order to work towards the goal of developing concrete ideas for a fulfilling way of life (instead of “Away with § 175 StGB!” “I want to go there, that's how it should be”) and, based on the practical problems, a suitable place for the frequent ones To find weekend meetings, the desire arose to rent our own rooms in the center of Germany in order not to have to look for places in some conference center for each meeting. At the end of 1980, several members of the NARGS founded an association in order to rent the vacant hotel "Waldschlösschen" from 1981 and to live in it in part, mainly to run it as a conference center. Many members of the NARGS participated in the repair of the building in 1981. When events were organized and offered, the interested parties joined the sponsoring association, which had become a sponsoring association since the foundation of the Academy Waldschlösschen Foundation , and the NARGS disbanded.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sebastian Haunss, Identity in Motion, VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2004, Section 9 (Gay Movement), p. 210 below
  2. ↑ a b Holy in “100 years of gay movement”, Manfred Herzer (ed.), Verlag rosa Winkel, Berlin 1998, page 104
  3. ↑ Jens Dobler and Harald Rimmele in Roland Roth, Dieter Wucht (eds.), The social movements in Germany since 1945, Chapter 24 Gay Movement, Section 6, p. 554 erroneously assume that the group has existed since 1975
  4. ↑ Sebastian Haunss, identity in motion, VS publishing house for social sciences, 2004, Section 9 (gay movement), p 197/198
  5. ↑ 3rd International Russell Tribunal, On the Situation of Human Rights in the Federal Republic of Germany, Volume 3 / Part 1: Censorship, Rotbuch Verlag Berlin 1979, Case 8, page 53
  6. ^ Russell-Tribunal - pro and contra, Freimut Duve and Wolf-Dieter Narr (eds.), Rowohlt (rororo aktuell), Reinbek bei Hamburg, 1978
  7. ↑ Waldschlösschen mittendrin, Rainer Marbach (Ed.), MännerschwarmSkript Verlag, Hamburg 2006, page 14
  8. ↑ Sebastian Haunss, Identity in Movement, VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2004, Section 9 (Gay Movement), pp. 210/211
  9. ^ Holy in "100 Years of Gay Movement", Manfred Herzer (Ed.), Verlag rosa Winkel, Berlin 1998, page 107
  10. ↑ Festschrift "40 Years AG Gay Teachers in the GEW Berlin", 2019, Section 4
  11. ↑ Waldschlösschen mittendrin, Rainer Marbach (Ed.), MännerschwarmSkript Verlag, Hamburg 2006, page 14 (right column above)
  12. ↑ Sebastian Haunss, Identity in Movement, VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2004, Section 9 (Gay Movement), p. 211
  13. ↑ Waldschlösschen mittendrin, Rainer Marbach (Ed.), MännerschwarmSkript Verlag, Hamburg 2006, pages 10 and 14 ff.