“Jewish Presence in Weimar Gay and Lesbian Culture and the German-Jewish Contribution to the Emergence of Gay Culture in Palestine/Israel, 1933-1960”
“Jewish Presence in Weimar Gay and Lesbian Culture and the German-Jewish Contribution to the Emergence of Gay Culture in Palestine/Israel, 1933–1960”
The research project, carried out together with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was funded by participant universities in the first phase (2016) and by the German Israel Foundation (GIF) in the second phase (2017–2019).
The Berlin sub-project focused on the presence of Jewish protagonists in gay and lesbian Berlin before 1933. The specific Jewish contribution to Berlin as a center of homosexual culture as well as the homosexual equality movement in the Weimar Republic was being explored. The forms of cultural commitments from Jewish activists and artists for the gay-lesbian community were of particular interest, as well as the political engagement of doctors, lawyers and economists for the abolition of the special criminal law against homosexuals. At the same time, it was also important to look at the fate of the Jewish protagonists after 1933, as well as investigating their escape routes, in particular those leading to Palestine.
The special focus in the Israeli sub-project is on the impetus the homosexual immigrants gave the development of a queer community in Palestine/Israel. To what extent could the migrants bring in, continue or develop further subcultural forms of homosexual social life, but also the political activism for the recognition of same-sex love? The project was providing fundamental research with the exploration of these aspects of Israel's history.
