New Perspectives on the History of Gender and Empire by Ulrike Lindner Dörte Lerp

Author:Ulrike Lindner,Dörte Lerp
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781350056336
Publisher: Bloomsbury UK
Published: 2018-06-25T00:00:00+00:00

The trials concerning Section 175: An interpretation and contextualization of their gradual increase during the German colonial period

There were around twenty-five trials against men who were accused of violations of Section 175 during the German colonial period. All these trials took place between 1900 and 1915, with an increase from 1906 onward when nearly every year two or three persons were accused. This number may not sound very high, but regarding the rather small number of white inhabitants in GSWA it was not lower than in contemporary Germany itself on a per capita level.46 This is a first hint that maybe there was at least not a fundamental shift of the colonial government and the administration away from metropolitan policies concerning male same-sex conduct. The trials involved different constellations of sexual activities practiced by white men: sexual acts with indigenous men and boys, sexual acts with other white men which were reported by the latter, sexual acts with other white men which were reported by a third person, sexual acts with underage white boys, and in some cases also sexual acts with indigenous women and girls, when the same white men who were tried for violating Section 175 were also accused of sexual abuse of these women and girls.47

How can the complete absence of trials in the first half of the German colonial period and their increase from 1906 onward be interpreted? One relevant aspect could be the small number of white settlers in the early period of GSWA and the gradual increase in white population over time. While in 1894, only 969 white inhabitants were counted in GSWA, this number rose to 4,640 in 1903, to 11,791 in 1909, and to 14,830 in 1913.48 Accordingly, there were simply less people who could violate Section 175 in the early years of GSWA, and the gradual increase of the population corresponds with an increase in the number of trials. Besides, in the years from the outbreak of the war with Herero and Nama in 1904 onward a growing number of German soldiers were present in GSWA.49 However, one has to be cautious in attributing the significant increase in numbers of German troops in GSWA to the increase in numbers of trials. Only in two of them were soldiers involved in male same-sex encounters.

Another reason for the mentioned increase of trials related to Section 175 could be that in the first years of the century and especially in the years during the war with Herero and Nama from 1904 until 1908, huge parts of the German administration developed, as did a more diverse and capable colonial government structure. There are relatively few government and court files before 1900 in general, a significant increase afterwards, and virtually an explosion from the years 1905 and 1906 onward. Thus, it is possible that there were trials concerning violations of Section 175 before 1900, but they were not recorded or archived. This is supported by the perception that the practice of archiving official files in the respective areas before 1905 was often rather cursory.

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