- Memorial to gay and lesbian victims of National Socialism
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The Cologne memorial dedicated to Den schwulen und lesbischen Opfern des Nationalsozialismus (English: To gay and lesbian victims of National Socialism) is a monument dedicated to homosexuals, persecuted in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. The monument was inaugurated on June 24, 1995. At that time, it became the second monument of its kind in Germany (after the Frankfurter Engel), and third in Europe (after the Amsterdam Homomonument). It is noteworthy to state, that the 1990 initiator of the memorial was the German trade union of Gewerkschaft öffentliche Dienste, Transport und Verkehr (ÖTV).
The monument stands on a prominent location at Rheingarten Embankment, between the Cathedral, Museum Ludwig and the Hohenzollern Bridge.
The design was subject to a competition, in which Achim Zinkann's design was selected to be realised. The memorial is made of pink and gray granite and has a height of 120 cm and a length of 69 cm.[1] The memorial's form renders a pink triangle, a symbol of the LGBT movement as used by the Nazis to refer to male inmates of concentration camps, who were persecuted because of their homosexuality. The memorial also bears the inscription: Totgeschlagen - Totgeschwiegen (a German language word play in regards to "death", meaning: swat to death - hushed up [to death], making an accusation of the continuous neglect of the victims until 1994, when paragraph 175, which had made sex between males a crime, was abolished.
Contents
See also
Literature
- Limpricht/Müller/Oxenius. Verführte Männer — Das Leben der Kölner Homosexuellen im Dritten Reich, Köln 1991
- Centrum Schwule Geschichte Köln. «Das sind Volksfeinde» — Die Verfolgung von Homosexuellen an Rhein und Ruhr 1933-45, Köln 1998
- Jürgen Müller. Ausgrenzung der Homosexuellen aus der «Volksgemeinschaft» — Die Verfolgung von Homosexuellen in Köln 1933—1945, Köln 2003
- Claudia Schoppmann. Verbotene Verhältnisse — Frauenliebe 1938—1945, Berlin 1999
- Burkhard Jellonnek, Rüdiger Lautmann. Nationalsozialistischer Terror gegen Homosexuelle — Verdrängt und ungesühnt, Paderborn 2002
- Pierre Seel. Ich, Pierre Seel, deportiert und vergessen, Köln 1996
- Stümke-Winkler. Rosa Winkel, Rosa Listen, Hamburg 1981
- Frank Sparing. «Wegen Vergehen nach § 175 verhaftet» — Die Verfolgung der Düsseldorfer Homosexuellen, Düsseldorf 1997
References
- ^ Gestaltung, rosa-winkel-mahnmal.de
External links
Media related to Mahnmal für die schwulen und lesbischen Opfer des Nationalsozialismus in Köln at Wikimedia Commons
Coordinates: 50°56′27″N 6°57′45″E / 50.94092°N 6.962619°ECategories:- Persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust
- Monuments and memorials in Germany
- LGBT history of Germany
- Buildings and structures in Cologne
- Holocaust commemoration
- Visitor attractions in Cologne
- LGBT stubs
- North Rhine-Westphalia building and structure stubs
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