„Dies gibt es nicht in Tirol.“
Verfolgung von Homosexualität im Gau Tirol-Vorarlberg in der NS-Zeit
Research Project | Duration: October 2024–September 2027
"This does not exist in Tyrol," said a Tyrolean about homosexuality in 1940, who had to answer to the Vienna Regional Court for a violation of § 129 Ib, i.e. for same-sex sexual acts. The man tried to explain that he had gotten into the criminalized situation through no fault of his own, as he was not aware of anything other than heterosexual orientation. However, criminal proceedings against same-sex desiring people did not only take place in Vienna: between 1938 and 1945, 125 proceedings were conducted before the Vorarlberg Regional Court in Feldkirch under § 129 Ib, which, however, have not yet been scientifically processed. In the same period, 732 proceedings were conducted before the Innsbruck Regional Court for violation of § 129 Ib, of which 173 case files have been preserved. They, too, have only been partially processed so far, and both holdings, together with those of the Historical Archive of the Tyrolean State Police Directorate, represent the core of the study, but will be supplemented with documents from memorials and other archives. Many proceedings involved two defendants, but sometimes several people. This means that during the period under investigation, far more than 1,000 people were on trial for homosexuality in Innsbruck and Feldkirch. Naturally, the project deals with the persecution of all sexualities in the Nazi era that are documented in the binary gender system as male-male and female-female. The majority of them are men, only a small percentage of those persecuted were female.
The project sees itself as a basic study on homosexuality under National Socialism in the Gau Tyrol-Vorarlberg. This means that for the first time research will be carried out covering all existing files, the results of which are significant in many respects: Victim numbers are reconstructed and provide information about the dimension of the persecution and the persecution measures taken. A quantitative approach provides insight into the sentencing practice of the regional courts, into the legal assessment of criminalized sexualities and the (non-)exhaustion of legal possibilities by the accused. At the same time, it takes a look at ways and practices of persecution. The scope of action of the persecuted is an equally important point, because it was not passive objects that were at stake, but individuals who designed and applied strategies of action and argumentation, had varied self images and acted within the given framework conditions. Reconstructing who they were is also part of the project: on the one hand in a statistical evaluation of different characteristics, and on the other hand on the basis of detailed biographies. The latter also makes it possible to shed light on the diversity of homosexual life in Tyrol and Vorarlberg before and during National Socialism. Through this discussion, a contribution is made to the knowledge of homosexual (everyday) life in Tyrol and Vorarlberg.
Project management: SSc MMag. Dr. Ina Friedmann
Project staff: Mag. Dr. Alexandra Weiss, Moritz Moosmayer
Contact:
SSc MMag. Dr. Ina Friedmann
Institute of Contemporary History
University of Innsbruck
Innrain 52d, 6020 Innsbruck
