Eleven years after the introduction of registered homosexual civil partnerships, these partnerships are to be equated with marriage in many laws, according to a newspaper report. As was announced on Wednesday, the Federal Ministry of Justice has forwarded a corresponding bill to the other ministries. Important stages in the dismantling of discrimination against homosexuals.
1872: Paragraph 175 of the new German Imperial Penal Code criminalizes sexual acts between persons of the male sex.
1935: The National Socialists tighten Paragraph 175, among other things by raising the maximum penalty from six months to five years in prison. In addition, the offence is extended from acts similar to coitus to all "lewd" acts. For "aggravated cases" the punishment is increased even more – up to ten years in prison. The castration of homosexuals is made possible by laws on the "prevention of hereditary offspring".
1950: The GDR returns to the old catch of Paragraph 175. From the end of the 1950s, however, homosexuality among adults is no longer prosecuted.
1957: The Federal Prosecution Court declares the Nazi-era version of Paragraph 175 to be constitutional.
Homosexual intercourse remains forbidden in the Federal Republic of Germany.
1968: The GDR gives itself its own criminal law. In section 151, only homosexual acts with juveniles are now punishable for both women and men.
1969: In the course of a liberalization of legislation, consensual homosexual acts between adults are no longer punishable in West Germany.
1979: The first Christoper Street Days take place in Bremen and Berlin. Lesbians and gays demonstrate against exclusion.
1991: Celebrities such as Cornelia Scheel and Hella von Sinnen as well as Hape Kerkeling and Alfred Biolek are outed as gay in the media.
1992: In the "action registry office" apply on 19. August about 250 lesbian and gay couples in about one hundred congregations all over Germany the bidding. In case of refusal they sue.
1994: In the course of reunification, Paragraph 175 is repealed without replacement for the whole of Germany.
2001: The law on registered civil partnerships comes into force.
2002: The Federal Constitutional Court confirms the law. It does not violate the special constitutional protection of marriage and the family.
2006: The new anti-discrimination law prohibits, among other things, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in labor law.
2009: The Federal Constitutional Court declares unequal treatment of marriage and registered civil partnerships in the area of civil service survivors' pensions to be unconstitutional.
2010: Karlsruhe decides that homosexual life partners may not be disadvantaged in inheritance tax compared to married couples.
8.8.2012: The Federal Constitutional Court rules that homosexual couples may not be discriminated against in land transfer taxes.