Different from the Others
White text over a black background reads “Anders Als Die Andern, Section 175, Sozialhygienisches Filmwerk”
"Respected ladies and gentlemen, take heed. The time will come when such tragedies will be no more. For knowledge will conquer prejudice, truth will conquer lies, and love will triumph over hatred."
– Different from the Others
Different from the Others (Anders Als Die Andern) was the first film to portray queer people positively and explicitly and was released in 1919. Made by queer activists in Berlin, it remains an artifact of queer resistance.
Magnus Hirschfeld was involved in the making of the film, and as a gay Jewish man living in Berlin, Germany, pre-World War 2, his very existence was very controversial. Though during that time Berlin was the hub of queer research and culture (partially because of Hirschfeld himself and his Institute of Sexology), Hirschfeld was not universally liked, even within the queer community. Much of this was due to the rising anti-Semitism in the country, to which the queer community was not immune. That said, he was also a very flawed figure, once threatening to out all the queer people he knew in government. For a long while, his goal was to push the German government into repealing paragraph 175 in German law, the paragraph that banned relationships between two people society thought of as men.
A defining argument for this battle (and an argument the film focuses on) was not about ethics or morality but, in fact, practicality. Hirschfeld and many others believed making queer relationships illegal made blackmail a more common and easy-to-commit crime. Since queer people being blackmailed could not seek legal assistance without outing themselves and thus dealing with their identity's legal repercussions, the crime often went unreported. This is the main theme of Different from the Others, which was partly written and funded by Hirschfeld, who also acted in the film.
In this film, Paul Körner, a violinist, falls in love with his student, Kurt Sivers. Then a man blackmailing him destroys his entire existence. The film begins with Paul looking through a newspaper, seeing an article about suicide, and realizing that the person he was reading about was someone who had fallen victim to paragraph 175. In that discovery, one of the two most powerful moments in the film unfolded; a line of men, historical figures such as Oscar Wilde, Leonardo Da Vinci, and King Ludwig the Second of Bavaria are shown, and it says:
“Paul Körner senses a common thread: the sword of Damocles that is § 175 made life impossible for these unfortunate individuals. In his mind’s eye, he sees an endless procession of them, from all times and countries, passing in review.”
As the film moves, the existence of paragraph 175 affects Paul’s life and relationships. He is blackmailed, he hides his relationship with his student, and he runs away once his student discovers that they are being blackmailed. He chooses to live destitutely rather than be there if his homosexuality is exposed. Throughout the narrative, neither of the men are blamed for these misfortunes. Magnus Hirschfeld himself states in his appearance in the film that:
“You mustn't think poorly of [Paul] because he is homosexual. He is not at all to blame for his orientation. It is neither a vice nor a crime, indeed not even an illness, but instead a variation, one of the borderline cases that frequently occur in nature. [Paul] suffers not from a condition, but rather from the false judgment of it. This is the legal and social condemnation of his feelings, along with the widespread misconceptions about their expression.”
Much of the film takes on this tone, even setting a scene in a lecture hall where Hirschfeld teaches about the different forms of sexual attraction and gender expression.
As the film moves along, Paul takes legal action against his blackmailer, and the trial mirrors one that happened in real life in which Magnus was an expert witness. Here too, he plays an expert witness, convincing the judge that Paul hurt no one and did not deserve to be punished. Though the judge agreed with him, he had no choice under paragraph 175 but to sentence Paul to jail time, though he made the time as short as possible, only having him serve a week. As Paul goes home, the news gets out about his sexuality, and he is fired from his job, his friends shun him, and his family chastises him. Having lost everything, he commits suicide.
After this comes the other most powerful scene in the film. The line returns, the line of men who have been victims of laws such as paragraph 175, and Paul joins the line.
The film ends on a slightly more optimistic note; Paul’s lover and former student returns to mourn Paul, and Paul’s family and society receive condemnation from Kurt’s sister. When Kurt tries to kill himself in grief, Magnus’s character returns, saying:
“If you want to honor the memory of your friend, then you mustn’t take your own life, but instead keep on living to change the prejudices whose victim -one of countless many- this dead man has become.”
The film ends with an image of paragraph 175 being crossed out, hammering its message in one last time, before leaving the audience with their thoughts.
This film was banned quickly after its release. Once Nazis were in power, they did their best to destroy the film entirely, but Magnus hid portions of it in a different film. Since then, people have done their best to pull all these pieces together to make the film whole again. Though there are missing parts, this film is still an incredible watch and progressive even by today’s standards. It is not a surprise that Magnus Hirschfeld, who was always ahead of his time, would help create a film so ahead of its time. One must wonder, though, whether the fact it has stood the test of time so well is because of how far ahead it was or because of how slowly cinema and television have moved since. Regardless, it is a comfort to know, even though the Nazis did their best to rid the world of this film, it is now available on Youtube.
REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING
Disclaimer: some of the sources may contain triggering material
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AreTheyGay. (2016, July 22). A Brief History of Subtext [Video file]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwrTU-FnGlw
Brisman, S. Salka Viertel. Jewish Women’s Archive. http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/viertel-salka
Conochalla, C. (2015, June 15.) The Most Powerful Lesbian of 1930s Hollywood. https://lescentricguide.com/2015/06/24/lets-start-from-the-beginning/
Ellis, R. (2015, November 2). Queer Witches in Pop Culture // Something Wicked pt. 2 [Video file]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLwfi_-YlL0
HippieXena. (2015, November 30). Representation of queer women in film and TV [Video file]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L--Cg_pJX4M
Hyden, Sage. [Just Write]. (2015, July 2). History of Homosexuality on Film [Video file]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeDhMKd83r4
Media Smarts. Queer Representation in Film and Television. http://mediasmarts.ca/digital-media-literacy/media-issues/diversity-media/queer-representation/queer-representation-film-television
Mislak, M. (2015, August 15). From Sissies to Secrecy: The Evolution of the Hays Code Queer. Filmic. https://filmicmag.com/2015/08/01/from-sissies-to-secrecy-the-evolution-of-the-hays-code-queer/
(n.d.). What is Pre-Code Hollywood? Pre-Code.Com. http://pre-code.com/what-is-pre-code-hollywood/
Petersen, A. (2012, September 12). Scandals of Classic Hollywood: The Exquisite Garbo. The Hairpin. https://thehairpin.com/scandals-of-classic-hollywood-the-exquisite-garbo-72f0f9409ec#.zandhu4pf
Queen Christina (1933) Review, with Greta Garbo and John Gilbert. Pre-Code.Com. http://pre-code.com/queen-christina-1933-review-greta-garbo-john-gilbert/
Scahill, A. Queer Representation in the Cold War [Video file]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmlLcAta_6A
The Princess and The Scrivener. (2015, October 2). Queer Coding Disney's Male Animated Villains: Chilling Challenge Day 2 [Video file]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAJ-mqepq3I
University of Oregon. (2012, July 27). Community Conversations: Over the Rainbow -- Queer Coding in the Media [Video file]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbJZm3spGhc
