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| Wawright (right) with his partner |
Former Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit says it was the most important confession of his life: “I’m gay and that’s okay.” These words caused a real shock in Germany and led to important changes.
Wowereit said these words on June 10, 2001, during an extraordinary congress of the Social Democratic Party in Berlin, at which he was to be nominated as mayoral candidate. All of Germany was shocked then. For the first time, a politician of this rank has publicly acknowledged his homosexuality. For Germany, which was still too conservative at the time, this was a real revolution.
Wowereit knew that tabloids were preparing to publish information about his homosexuality. He therefore decided to make this fact public and to anticipate a possible scandal over his candidacy for mayor of Berlin.
Surprise, but also recognition of openness
The reviews of this surprising recognition turned out to be mostly positive. It has then become much easier for a number of celebrities in Germany to speak publicly about their sexual orientation.
Wowereit, who was mayor of Berlin from 2001 to 2014, later told Tagesspiegel: “I was also a little proud. It wasn’t until later that I realized what a wave this recognition of mine had unleashed – not only in Berlin and Germany, but all over the world, “he said.
This openness to a hitherto concealed question removed a significant public taboo: “Don’t ask, don’t tell” – that was the approach to the subject at the time. In the same year (2001), the Christian Democrat Ole von Boist was elected mayor of Hamburg, who also did not hide his homosexual orientation, informs “Deutsche Welle”.
Liberal Guido Westerwelle of the Free Democratic Party later did the same and became Germany’s first foreign minister to not only publicly acknowledge the fact, but also posed with his partner in many official photos. A fact that has not been welcomed everywhere – for example in Saudi Arabia, where Westerwelle arrived on an official visit in 2010. And this is a country where homosexuality is still punishable by death.
Almost the same rights as heterosexuals
Legally, homosexuals in Germany today have almost the same rights as heterosexual couples. Until 1969, homosexuality in Germany was prosecuted by law – within the meaning of the then 1872 Penal Code.
It was not until 1994 that the paragraph was removed from the Code, and since 2001 homosexual couples have had the right to be officially registered as “registered partners” – a union that is not entirely equivalent to marriage. and family law, the rights of homosexual couples are already largely equal to those of others.
The next important step in this long journey was the historic decision of the Bundestag in 2017, which became known as “marriage for all.” With it, the state finally recognized the rights of same-sex partners.
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