Pink list
Pink list is the name for lists that are kept by law enforcement agencies and are used to collect data on - real or alleged - homosexuals . The term is probably based on the black list . Since the German Empire there have been lists of male homosexuals in Germany that the police had drawn up to facilitate the prosecution of crimes against Section 175 .
The creation of the Pink Lists
The recording, processing and prosecution of criminal offenses as well as the preventive fight against crime were increasingly concentrated in the criminal police in the course of the 19th century . She used the possibilities of science and technology for her work early on. In Germany she has been using photography since the 1870s , a measuring method developed by the French criminalist Alphonse Bertillon since the 1890s that recorded unchangeable body features, and finally the fingerprint method ( dactyloscopy ) since the beginning of the 20th century . These forensic methods led to lists and files being created that were soon subdivided into special files .
The first "homosexual lists" or "lists of homosexual suspects" were created as early as the 19th century - these are the terms that have been used since the end of the 19th century. However, female homosexuals were not registered in it, as Section 175 did not threaten sexual acts between women with punishment.
The term pink list probably came into being after the Nazi era , based on the pink angle that male homosexuals had to wear in the concentration camps .
Empire
For the first time in 1869 mentioned Karl Heinrich Ulrichs "Urningslisten" the police: "I will be informed, the Berlin police lead secret lists and ongoing personal notes on more than 2000 in Berlin resident urnings ."
In 1898 August Bebel , chairman of the SPD and signatory of the first petition of the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee to abolish Section 175 in the Reichstag, pointed out that the Berlin police kept lists of names of homosexuals:
"But the number of these people is so large and so intervenes in all social circles, from the lowest to the highest, that if the police were dutifully doing their duty, the Prussian state would be immediately compelled, solely to prosecute the crime against § 175, as far as it is committed in Berlin, to atone for building two new prisons. "
Since consistent application was impossible, Bebel demanded that Section 175 be deleted from the Criminal Code.
The Berlin homosexual list was created by Leopold von Meerscheidt-Hüllessem , the founder of the local identification service and the first known head of the homosexual inspection of the Berlin criminal police. Hans von Tresckow , his successor as head of this inspection, confirmed in the Eulenburg trial that there was a list of homosexuals at the police headquarters .
There are numerous references to police homosexual lists in contemporary publications , but concrete information is missing. According to the WHK, the Berlin criminal album is said to have included photographs of 663 pederasts at the end of 1905 . Most of the information, however, comes from second hand. With one exception, the originals and files are not known.
In Hauptstaatsarchiv Dusseldorf records were found more than 120 pages. They date from 1912 to 1914 and document the attempt by the Cologne hat manufacturer Albert Mertés to have his name deleted from the Cologne and Düsseldorf homosexual lists.
time of the nationalsocialism
The data files collected by the police of the Weimar Republic fell into the hands of the Nazis after 1933 . They were an important tool in the persecution of homosexuals by the Gestapo and Kripo . This historical experience is one of the reasons why homosexuals later in the Federal Republic were and are extremely sensitive when it comes to collecting their data. At all Stapo and Kripo authorities, the simple files were supplemented by photo files.
The anonymity of the sexual partners in terms of names and private addresses could be broken in this way. It is reported from Düsseldorf that the hustler and blackmailer Franz A. had to look through the photo files of homosexuals there in order to identify suitors and colleagues. "I was presented with 432 photos of Düsseldorf homosexuals and stick boys, I declare that I have not had anything with any of the people shown."
In addition to the general data collections on homosexuals, special files were created at the police stations, such as the stick boy card index. Hustlers were seen as a particular danger because they were made responsible for the "spread" of homosexuality.
In addition, a secret decree in 1936 ordered the establishment of the Reich headquarters to combat homosexuality and abortion . Not all homosexuals should be recorded in the index of the Reichszentrale. Their central tasks were the fight against the "stick boy insanity" and the so-called seducers . In addition, information on deviant sexual behavior should be collected from members of the party and its organizations, as well as from political opponents. This data collection was a means in the political struggle and was intended to provide additional protection against the "intrusion" of homosexuality into one's own ranks.
Federal Republic since 1945
Contrary to the hopes of many homosexuals, § 175 remained in force after 1945 , in the version tightened by the Nazis. Files that had not been destroyed during the war continued to be used by the criminal investigation department in the Federal Republic of Germany . In 1969 , when consensual homosexual acts among adults were exempt from punishment, 3,000 men were recorded in Munich and 4,500 in West Berlin .
The collection of data from homosexuals continued after this point. In the journal Kriminalistik , shortly before the reform of Section 175 , a public prosecutor raised concerns:
“Even if Section 175 of the Criminal Code may be abolished, it should be considered whether, in the interest of the general public , especially male youth , a certain level of police registration and monitoring of the relevant group of people should be retained. [...] There is nothing like a homosexual register that is kept with the utmost care. Because it cannot be denied that it is from these circles that the dangerous pedophile sex offenders come . "
In 1978, the Handbuch der Kriminalistik still saw the keeping of homosexual files as a necessary measure for carrying out police security tasks. Entries in the criminal record were actually deleted after 1969. The police data collections were not or only partially destroyed. The data protection officer for North Rhine-Westphalia confirmed in 1980 that “a general cleanup of these old files had not taken place” - “because of the size of the files to be checked”.
The European police authority Europol also uses information on “a person's sex life”.
IGVP scandal
For the police authorities in Bavaria, Thuringia and North Rhine-Westphalia, homosexuals were a special group of perpetrators. The investigators used a computer program with a special register for gays and lesbians, and their meeting places were classified as potential crime scenes.
For some time the police have been using a process and administration program called IGVP, in which traffic accidents, criminal charges, reports of administrative offenses and reports with complete data sets of offenders, victims and witnesses were recorded. This program also enabled a classification according to the characteristic “homosexual”, which in turn could then be used for targeted research in the system. This data collection came to light through a complaint from the Association of Lesbian and Gay Police Officers eV (Velspol) in North Rhine-Westphalia in May 2005. According to the association, which is usually well informed about internal administrative procedures, the North Rhine-Westphalian police have been using the IGVP software for some time, in which the authority recorded the occurrences. In the computer program used by the police authorities of the three German states of Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia and Thuringia, information on the stay of homosexuals in certain places could be entered and returned in a search mask under the key number 901 or the keyword * omosex . The program was developed and distributed by the Bavarian police. According to Velspol, this program enables “a search for the location of the crime with a period of time to be entered”. As a result, it was no problem to find out which people had been when and how often at gay meeting places. The program also makes it possible to link personal data on passers-by at a "Strichplatz" used for street prostitution with the numerical code 902 provided for this purpose. According to Spiegel publications, employment offices and registration offices were also able to access these files and identify and monitor people who were stored under * omosex . According to "Spiegel", the interior ministries in North Rhine-Westphalia have stopped the feature residence of homosexuals in the "IGVP" software, but the "homosexual" option in the area of groups of offenders is still available in the "PVP" program, in which the data records are entered.
The interior ministries were asked by written requests from VelsPol NRW eV to block the storage options in question. While the Ministry of the Interior in North Rhine-Westphalia blocked the code numbers 901, 902 and the search term * omosex , the states of Bavaria and Thuringia initially refused on the grounds that this "serves to protect homosexuals". Due to massive public pressure and scheduled small inquiries in the state parliaments, these countries also blocked the storage and search options in the IGVP. While the officers of the police in North Rhine-Westphalia had not made use of this, corresponding data records were already available in Bavaria and Thuringia that had to be deleted.
literature
- Günter Grau: Homosexuality in the Nazi Era - Documents of Discrimination and Persecution . ISBN 3-596-11254-0
Individual evidence
- ↑ Erwin In het Panhuis, Herbert Potthoff: "Homosexual lists" of the Cologne and Düsseldorf criminal police. Files from the imperial era . In: Invertito, 3rd year (2001) pp. 124-135
- ↑ Article 15, paragraph 2 of the Implementing Rules regulating Europol's relations with other bodies from 2009
- ↑ Author: Norbert Blech, North Rhine-Westphalia: Pink List scandal with police . From May 19, 2005. In the gay and lesbian magazine “Queer.de”. " Shortly before the state elections, it became known that the police were collecting data on gays - also in Thuringia and Bavaria ". Retrieved September 27, 2011
- ↑ More articles and information on pink lists . From "Queer.de". Retrieved September 27, 2011
- ↑ New discussion about pink lists . Preliminary report from the mirror. From "Queer.de". Retrieved September 27, 2011