They were called "the 175s". These men were sometimes arrested while making love, often at work, or the police picked them up from home. A few hours later, they were often already in custody, and it was usually not long before they were dismissed by their employer. Their crime: consensual sex between adult men. This was a violation of Paragraph 175, which stated that "unnatural fornication committed between persons of the male sex" was punishable by imprisonment. This is what the German Criminal Code said when it was introduced in 1871.

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