Editing Paragraph 175 (section)

==The Nazi era==
{{main|Persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany}}
{| border="0" align="right" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="margin:0px 0px 15px 30px; background:#F3F3FF"
|+''Table 3: Convictions under §§&nbsp;175,&nbsp;175a&nbsp;and&nbsp;b (1933–1943)''
|-
!valign="top" align="left" | Year&nbsp;
!valign="top" align="right" | &nbsp;&nbsp;Adults&nbsp;&nbsp;
!valign="top" align="right" | &nbsp;Youths under 18
|-
|1933 || align="center" | &nbsp;853 || align="center" | 104
|-
|1934 || align="center" | &nbsp;948 || align="center" | 121
|-
|1935 || align="center" | 2106 || align="center" | 257
|-
|1936 || align="center" | 5320 || align="center" | 481
|-
|1937 || align="center" | 8271 || align="center" | 973
|-
|1938 || align="center" | 8562 || align="center" | 974
|-
|1939 || align="center" | 8274 || align="center" | 689
|-
|1940 || align="center" | 3773 || align="center" | 427
|-
|1941 || align="center" | 3739 || align="center" | 687
|-
|1942 || align="center" | 3963 || align="center" | n/a
|-
|1943* || align="center" | 2218 || align="center" | n/a
|-
|colspan="3" align="center"|<small>* 1943: 1st half-year doubled<br />Sources: "Statistisches Reichsamt"<br />and Baumann 1968, p.&nbsp;61.</small><ref name="stats"/>
|}
In 1935, the [[Nazism|Nazis]] strengthened Paragraph 175 by redefining the crime as a felony and thus increasing the maximum penalty from six months' to five years' imprisonment. Further, they removed the longtime tradition that the law applied only to 'intercourse-like' acts (meaning the police could not prosecute unless substantial proof of intercourse was given).<ref>Holocaust Encyclopedia: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/paragraph-175-and-the-nazi-campaign-against-homosexuality {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230112154217/https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/paragraph-175-and-the-nazi-campaign-against-homosexuality |date=12 January 2023 }}</ref> A criminal offense would now exist if "objectively the general sense of shame was offended" and subjectively "the debauched intention was present to excite sexual desire in one of the two men, or a third".<ref>[The quotations are from German [[case law]], RGSt 73, 78, 80 f.]</ref> Mutual physical contact was no longer necessary.<ref name="Queer">{{cite book|title=Queer Identities and Politics in Germany|page=215|author=Clayton Whisnant|year=2016|publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-1939594105}}</ref> This formulation was fundamentally different from traditional [[sodomy law]]s, but similar to the law against [[gross indecency]] in the United Kingdom since 1885.{{sfn|Huneke|2022|p=31}}

Beyond that{{spaced ndash}}much as had already been planned in 1925{{spaced ndash}}a new Paragraph 175a was created, punishing "qualified cases" as ''schwere Unzucht'' ("severe lewdness") with no less than one year and no more than ten years in the penitentiary.<ref name="Queer"/> These included:
* homosexual acts forced through violence or threats (male rape),
* sexual relations with a subordinate or employee in a work situation,
* homosexual acts with men under the age of 21,
* male prostitution.
"Unnatural fornication with a beast" was moved to Paragraph 175b (this section applied to both men and women).

According to the official rationale, Paragraph 175 was amended in the interest of the moral health of the ''[[Volk]]''{{spaced ndash}}the German people{{spaced ndash}}because "according to experience" homosexuality "inclines toward plague-like propagation" and exerts "a ruinous influence" on the "circles concerned".<ref>{{cite book|title=Ethik und Herrschaftsordnung: ein Beitrag zum Problem der Legitimation|author=Georg Geismann|year=1974|page=77|isbn=3165358516}}</ref>

[[File:Gestapo anti-gay telex.jpg|thumb|A [[Gestapo]] [[Teleprinter|telex]] about arranging preventive detention of an "incorrigible homosexual"]]
This aggravation of the severity of Paragraph 175 in 1935 increased the number of convictions tenfold, to 8,000 annually.<ref name="stats"/> Only about half of the prosecutions resulted from police work; about 40 percent resulted from private accusations (''Strafanzeige'') by non-participating observers, and about 10 percent were denouncements by employers and institutions. So, for example, in 1938 the [[Gestapo]] received the following anonymous letter:

<blockquote>We{{spaced ndash}}a large part of the artists' block [of flats or studios] at Barnayweg{{spaced ndash}}ask you urgently to observe B., living with Mrs. F as a subtenant, who has remarkable daily visits from young men. This must not continue. [...] We ask you cordially to give the matter further observation.<ref name="Pretzel 2000">Andreas Pretzel: ''"Als Homosexueller in Erscheinung getreten."'' ("Going into combat as a homosexual") In Kulturring in Berlin e. V. (Hrsg.): ''"Wegen der zu erwartenden hohen Strafe" : Homosexuellenverfolgung in Berlin 1933{{spaced ndash}}1945.'' (Because of the Severe Punishment that Can Be Expected: The pursuit of homosexuals in Berlin 1933{{spaced ndash}}1945) Berlin 2000. {{ISBN|3-86149-095-1}}, p.&nbsp;23</ref></blockquote>

In contradistinction to [[Ordnungspolizei|normal police]], the ''[[Gestapo]]'' were authorized to take [[gay men]] into [[preventive detention]] (''Schutzhaft'') of arbitrary duration without an accusation (or even after an [[acquittal]]). This was often the fate of so-called "repeat offenders": at the end of their sentences, they were not freed but sent for additional "re-education" (''Umerziehung'') in a [[concentration camp]]. Only about 40 percent of these [[pink triangle]] prisoners{{spaced ndash}}whose numbers amounted to an estimated 10,000{{spaced ndash}}survived the camps.<ref name="Encyclopedia"/> Some of them, after their release by the [[Allies of World War II|Allied Forces]], were placed back in prison, because they had not yet finished court-mandated terms of imprisonment for homosexual acts.<ref name="vonWahl">Angelika von Wahl: How Sexuality Changes Agency: Gay Men, Jews, and Transitional Justice. In: Susanne Buckley-Zistel, Ruth Stanley (Editors): Gender in Transitional Justice (Governance and Limited Statehood). Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, p.&nbsp;205.</ref>