The first homosexual movement thrived in Germany from the late nineteenth century until The movement began in Germany because of a confluence of factors, including the criminalization of sex between men Paragraph and the country's relatively lax censorship. German writers in the mid-nineteenth century coined the word homosexual and criticized its criminalization. In , Magnus Hirschfeld founded the world's first homosexual organization, the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee , whose aim was to use science to improve public tolerance of homosexuality and repeal Paragraph During the German Empire , the movement was restricted to the wealthy elite, but it greatly expanded in the aftermath of World War I and the German Revolution.
Reduced censorship and the growth of homosexual subcultures in German cities helped the movement to flourish during the Weimar Republic. The first publicly sold, mass-market periodicals intended for a gay, lesbian, or transvestite readership appeared after , although they faced censorship lawsuits and bans on public sale after the Trash and Smut Law [ de ]. The first mass organizations for homosexuals, the German Friendship Society and the League for Human Rights, were founded in the aftermath of the war.
These organizations emphasized human rights and respectability politics , and they excluded prostitutes and effeminate homosexual men, who were considered harmful to the movement's public image. The homosexual movement had limited success with the general public, in part because many Germans believed that homosexuality could be spread as a communicable disease.
The movement began to wane in with the Great Depression , an increasingly hostile political climate, and the failure of the movement's main goal, the repeal of Paragraph It effectively ended within a few months of the Nazi takeover in early , and the relative tolerance of the Weimar era was followed by the most severe persecution of homosexual men in history.
The Weimar Republic has held enduring interest as a brief interlude in which gay men, lesbians, and transvestites took advantage of unprecedented freedoms, leaving a strong influence on later LGBTQ movements. Homosexuals have faced persecution throughout German history. It is unclear how much laws against homosexuality were enforced prior to the modern era. In some parts of Germany, homosexuality was decriminalized or punishment lessened from death to imprisonment as a result of the Napoleonic wars.
