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Negotiating Gay Rights, Youth Protection, and Combat Readiness: The West German Bundeswehr and the Reform of the Criminal Code (Seminar)
March 3, 2014 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Between 1969 and 1973, the § 175 of the West German Criminal Code, which penalized male homosexuality, was liberalized. This reform was greatly influenced by political considerations about how it would affect the West German armed forces—the Bundeswehr. Jurists, politicians and military brass intensively discussed the possible effects of a liberalization of the §175 on the relation between younger soldiers and older officers. The main point of contention was the question whether the decriminalization of male homosexuality or the “protection” of young soldiers and the military’s combat readiness should take precedence.
Friederike Brühöfener is a doctoral candidate in European History in the Department of History at UNC-Chapel Hill. She is currently finishing her dissertation thesis titled “Defining the West German Soldier: Military, Society and Masculinity in West Germany, 1945-1989”.
In cooperation with the North Carolina German Studies Seminar Series
Co-Conveners: UNC-Chapel Hill: Center for European Studies, Department of History, Department of Women’s and Gender Studies; Institute for Arts and Humanities • Duke University: Department of History • Research Triangle Series on the History of Military, War and Society • Triangle Institute for Security Studies