I’m shocked that this still exists. I would have thought that Nazi Germany would have done everything in their power to see that it was erased.
Edit: Holy shit! The history of this!
From Wikipedia: "Censorship laws were enacted in reaction to films like Anders als die Andern and by October 1920 only doctors and medical researchers could view it. Prints of the film were among the many “decadent” works burned by the Nazis after they came to power in 1933. "
Also:
“This film, along with other moral and sexual enlightenment films, incited a cultural debate in Germany.[5] Shortly after the premiere, conservative Catholic, Protestant, and antisemitic groups started to protest and disturb the public screenings.[10] Conservative and reactionary sides called for a reintroduction of censorship policy, claiming that they wanted to protect young people.”
“In response to this controversy, censorship laws for cinema were re-launched in the Weimar Republic. These new film censorship laws were entitled the Reichslichtspielgesetz (Reich Cinema Act), and they were reinstated on May 12, 1920.”
“The judgment was that the film was biased towards Paragraph 175 and thus presents a one-sided view, confuses young audiences about homosexuality, and can be used for the recruitment of underage viewers to become homosexuals.[10] The film was banned in several cities, including Munich and Stuttgart.[11] Many copies of the film were destroyed after the film was banned and performances were restricted, only being allowed to be shown to preapproved groups such as doctors and other medical professionals in educational and scientific institutions.”
There were forty prints originally - after both contemporary and later Nazi censorship only one survived. But one is enough to preserve the film digitally forever. It only takes a few brave men or women - or obsessive archivists - to defeat such reactionary goons.
It’s insane to me that the “save the kids” argument is still being used today…over a century later.
Because it’s a defense argument.
Defending the weak or defending oneself are the only legitimate causes for violence in most Western societies. Even the Nazis framed much of their violence as defense of the race (and by extension, humanity) against Jews and bolshevists. Hardly any group says downright “fuck those guys, because I really don’t like them”, is almost always a threat. Immigrants take our jobs, welfare state or women, gays make our poor little kids gay, etc. etc. So you never hate a human, you hate a threat agent.
It’s insane to me that it still works on so many.
You are right to think that. Interesting story about what we do have, though:
The original version of the film is no longer preserved, as the film copies were banned and destroyed. Because of this, large parts of the film were lost beyond recall.[9] The current versions of the film were reconstructed from the shortened version of the film in Laws of Love.
More about Laws of Love and its survival:
Magnus Hirschfeld also filmed a documentary film entitled Laws of Love (Gesetze der Liebe) in 1927 which used a shortened version of the film Different from the Others to discuss the subject of homosexuality. Shortly after it was released, Laws of Love also fell to censorship laws, but not before a copy made its way to Ukraine, where it was subtitled in the local language. This version of Laws of Love was discovered by the city museum of Munich in the 1970’s.
Weird how familiar this sounds. It’s so strange that modern conservatives use the exact same rhetoric as soon to be Nazi Germany. Weird.
Weird and strange.
Weird.
And strange.
