A memorial site for the persecuted homosexual victims of National Socialism is to be set up in Berlin.
The Federal Republic of Germany will in this way honour the persecuted and murdered homosexual victims, help to keep alive the remembrance of the injustices done, as well as set a signal against intolerance, enmity towards and the rejection of gays and lesbians.

The long term campaign of the Initiative "Remember the homosexual victims of National Socialism" and the Lesbian and Gay Federation in Germany (LSVD) for a worthy memorial in the federal capital has been a success. There is broad support for the idea in society. The German Federal Lower House (Bundestag) took up the idea and on 12. December 2003 decided to establish a memorial site in central Berlin.

Now the idea must become reality. 60 years after liberation from National Socialism the decision on the precise form of the memorial will be taken with help of an artistic competition.

The homosexual victims of National Socialism remained for a long time excluded from the public process of remembrance of past injustices. Especially scandalous is the related almost total exclusion of the victims from compensation for their suffering under the Nazi-injustices.

A slow process of rethinking in the Remembrance process began in 1985 with the speech of the then Federal German President Richard von Weizsäcker during the 40th Anniversary of the liberation. In his speech he mentioned for the first time groups of victims who had been consciously ignored in honouring the victims.

But not until 2002 it was possible to pass a law rehabilitating the victims of the Nazi anti-homosexual Paragraph 175. For the process of public remembrance the decision of the federal Lower House has set the course for the memorial site.

The initiative and the LSVD thank all those who have supported and encouraged the work. There remains much still to be done before the memorial site is finished. We will support the artistic competition for the design and keep a close eye on the building process thereafter. For this we need your continued support.

If you have ideas or suggestions related to the form and use of the future memorial site, please put these up for discussion in a new "Forum of Ideas".

You can also learn about the process of the artistic competition at this web site.