Our Hour Has Come

The Weimar Republic rests in many minds as a period of new and greatpersonal freedom. Despite this new freedom gay German men still had todeal with the existence of Paragraph 175 the law against male homosexualacts. In response gay German men worked to change the law. This workfocuses on that effort and examines the actions both political and culturalof the three major gay rights organizations the Gemeinschaft der Eigenenthe Bund für Menschenrecht and the Wissenschaftlich-humanitären Komitee.It also examines the tactics of the movement and the reasons behind itssuccesses and failures. It proves that this was not the effort of some smallinsignificant voice in the wilderness but a national movement with a verypublic presence across the entire country. As a direct result of its effortsParagraph 175 was removed from the draft of a new German law code inOctober 1929. Although this draft ultimately was never passed the efforts ofthese groups during this decade opened public debate in Germany on thesubjects of homosexuality and gay rights.This book is addressed to historians of the period as well as anyone interestedin the history of gay rights.