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New Netflix Documentary Explores Queer Lives in Rising Nazi Germany
Klaus Mueller (pictured on the left) and Benjamin Cantu (pictured on the right)
New Netflix Documentary Explores Queer Lives in Rising Nazi Germany
By: Salzburg Global 

Eldorado - Everything the Nazis Hate shows queer lives in 1920s Berlin and the shift from the Weimar Republic to National Socialism

On June 28, 2023, the documentary Eldorado - Everything the Nazis Hate is coming to Netflix. 

The film tells the story of how a nightclub in 1920s Berlin became a haven for the queer community and explores the freedoms lost amid Hitler’s rise to power.

The director, Benjamin Cantu, explains his thinking behind the plot: “We wanted to show queer lives that took place in Berlin and who experienced the shift from the Weimar Republic to National Socialism. What was important to us was to show how homosexuality was defined at that time from different directions - socially, scientifically, and politically. 

“It was completely new at that time to talk so broadly and publicly about homosexuality. The topic was politically instrumentalized by the Nazis as well as the Social Democrats and Communists. The characters this film is about were affected by these dynamics in different ways. Within a few years, many LGBT* people experienced their sexual and emotional freedom and, at the same time, extreme oppression. The film attempts to trace these major movements.”

Benjamin Cantu is a Salzburg Global Fellow and attended the Salzburg Global LGBT* Forum, led by the Forum’s Founder and Chair, Klaus Mueller, who served as the film’s dramaturgical and historical consultant. The filmmakers behind Eldorado were also inspired by his documentary, Paragraph 175, in which Klaus interviews survivors of the Nazi persecution of queer people. 

Paragraph 175 was like a driving force for us at that time. When Nils Bökamp (Executive Producer) and I saw it, it was clear to us that this was a topic we wanted to go deeper into. We asked ourselves the question: If all happened here in Germany almost 100 years ago, what do we really know about it?”

Benjamin and Klaus talk about their cooperation, the challenges of remembering queer people often marginalized in history, and how the film is informed by the Salzburg Global LGBT* Forum here

Eldorado - Everything the Nazis Hate will be available worldwide on Netflix on Wednesday, June 28. 

92 min. Germany 2023
Directed by Benjamin Cantu
Recreation Director: Matt Lambert
Executive Producers: Felix Kriegsheim, Nils Bökamp, Benjamin Cantu, Ryan White, Jessica Hargrave 
Dramaturgic and Historical consultant: Klaus Mueller

Watch the trailer below:

 

* LGBT: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender. We are using this term as it is currently widely used in human rights conversations on sexual orientation and gender identity in many parts of the world, and we would wish it to be read as inclusive of other cultural concepts, contemporary or historical, to express sexuality and gender, intersex and gender non-conforming identities.

 

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Deep Dive Into New Netflix Documentary
Benjamin Cantu (pictured on the left) and Klaus Mueller (picture on the right)
Deep Dive Into New Netflix Documentary
By: Klaus Mueller and Benjamin Cantu 

Filmmakers Benjamin Cantu and Dr. Klaus Mueller in conversation about new Netflix documentary "Eldorado - Everything the Nazis Hate"

On June 28, 2023, the documentary Eldorado - Everything the Nazis Hate, is coming to Netflix. In conversation, Director Benjamin Cantu and Dr. Klaus Mueller, who served as the film’s dramaturgical and historical consultant, discuss the inspiration and process behind the film.

Klaus Mueller: You finished two years of production with a documentary film that I had the pleasure to accompany from the beginning as the film’s scientific and dramaturgic Consultant. Eldorado - Everything the Nazis Hate describes queer lives in the upheaval between the Weimar Republic and National Socialism and will be available on Netflix from the end of June 2023. The original idea for this film came from your long-time colleague, Nils Bökamp, who in turn was inspired by the documentary Paragraph 175 that I initiated.

Benjamin Cantu: Your film Paragraph 175, which was released a good 20 years ago, in 2001, deals with the Nazi persecution of homosexual men and women. The film was like a driving force for us at that time. When Nils and I saw it, it was clear to us that this was a topic we wanted to go deeper into. It awakened the question in us: If all happened here in Germany almost 100 years ago, what do we really know about it? At that time, you as a filmmaker, were in contact with survivors of the Nazi persecution of homosexuals.  And I'm in touch with you now. 

Klaus Mueller: I'm very glad that your reaction to the film wasn’t: "Good that I know that now", but on the contrary: "I want to know more". With Eldorado, you made a film that explores queer lives 100 years ago, and translates their stories for a younger generation. You ask the question about what this most extreme form of homosexual persecution still means today.  

Benjamin Cantu: We thought about how to reprocess this complex history today.

Klaus Mueller: Yes. Eldorado asks different questions, which of course also has to do with the state of research today. What you saw in Paragraph 175 was what we knew at the time. 

Benjamin Cantu: Now, for example, the stories of trans people have been added. They were unknown at the time, and even today we’re just at the beginning. We owe a lot to the work of the Magnus Hirschfeld Society in Berlin, and especially Ralf Dose, Raimund Wolfert and Rainer Herrn. It was Wolfert's research on the transwomen Charlotte Charlaque and Toni Ebel, two of the main characters in Eldorado, that gave us access to them in the first place. 

Klaus Mueller: More research is needed, including in the archives, to make long-marginalized lives visible. Were you planning from the beginning to tell these very different stories in one film? 

Benjamin Cantu: We wanted to show queer lives that took place in Berlin and who experienced the shift from the Weimar Republic to National Socialism. I was looking for stories that were not known to a broad audience, because they have been stigmatized and marginalized since their persecution and in post-war research. From the world-famous tennis player, Gottfried von Cramm, we come to his long-time friend and lover, Manasse Herbst. He was a discovery for us. And it was a total stroke of luck that you did research on Gottfried von Cramm already many years ago. From the likewise world-famous sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld, we focus on the story of the relationship between Charlotte Charlaque and Toni Ebel, which has never been told before. We already know a fair amount about the Nazi Ernst Röhm, who also plays a role in the film. What was important to me was to show how homosexuality was defined at that time from different directions - socially, scientifically and politically. It was completely new at that time to talk so broadly and publicly about homosexuality. The topic was politically instrumentalized by the Nazis as well as the Social Democrats and Communists. The characters this film is about were affected by these dynamics in different ways. Within a few years, many LGBT people experienced their sexual and emotional freedom and, at the same time, extreme oppression. The film attempts to trace these major movements.

Klaus Mueller: My goal for Paragraph 175 was simple at the time. The film was the last chance to tell this story in the voices of homosexual survivors themselves. The film is based on interviews with these survivors. We show their persecution not by using Nazi sources, but by listening to them. We talk about men who were nearly 90 years old, or beyond. It was a race against time. 

Benjamin Cantu: I can imagine how urgent you must have felt about this task at the time. You can still feel that urgency in the film today. 

Klaus Mueller: The gay survivors I worked with didn't experience public empathy nor political recognition as persecuted victims. Their voices are still missing from the Holocaust remembrance culture today. After all, they were never part of commemorative events, never addressed as survivors. Their persecution, even after 1945 has isolated them; they have not been able to speak with other homosexual survivors. This is a big vacuum that is hard to fill. 
That's why Eldorado is so important, because the film tries to keep people and fates in our collective memory today. 

Benjamin Cantu: Back then, you preserved memory based on lived individual experiences. I don't have that possibility today. But I want to make these experiences tangible through cinematic means that make the personal level between us today and the people back then tangible again. We do this through historically researched reenactments, that were directed by my colleague Matt Lambert. We  combined these reenactments with meticulously researched archival footage. In the end it became a character-driven historical documentary. We want to make the lives of these people experiential. 

Klaus Mueller: The generation of Holocaust survivors has almost left us. It needs new appropriations, which your film tries out. I am perhaps a mediator, having met and talked with homosexual survivors for many years. Their memories, which they shared with me, have become very close to me; they are firmly rooted in me. I hope that Eldorado will in turn inspire new stories that have never been told before. It's actually amazing how few are aware of what a significant role Germany has played in the history of homosexuality and transsexuality.

Benjamin Cantu: In Western Modernity....

Klaus Mueller: Yes, this is a little-noticed part of German and Western history. In the German Historical Museum in Berlin, queer history is a small subchapter. What does it say about Germany that the first LGBT movement in history evolved here, and shortly thereafter the worst oppression and persecution of homosexuals that we have ever experienced took place?  The fact that all of that happened here is not in Germany’s DNA. 

Benjamin Cantu: I feel that we met in a context that also had an influence on our work on Eldorado: during the Salzburg Global LGBT* Forum, which you founded in 2013 and built up over years with the Salzburg Global Seminar, and which is about LGBT human rights on a global level. In your and also my conversations with activists from all over the world during the LGBT* Forum it increasingly is about the growing backlash that leads to renewed discrimination and violence against LGBT people in many countries. Although Eldorado is a historical film, it also seeks to bridge the gap to the present day, now that the freedoms of queer people are once again being lost in many parts of the world.

Klaus Mueller: Yes, I think that sense of concern we discussed within the Global LGBT* Forum also shaped the film. We see historically how quickly a recognition of equal rights that seemed to be developing in the late 1920s turned into a complete destruction of the world's first LGBT community. Today we hear from our Fellows of the LGBT* Forum how their situation is deteriorating again; from the massive transphobic campaign in the US, new draconian laws in Uganda and other African countries or the state anti-LGBT campaigns in Hungary, Poland, Russia or Turkey. 

Benjamin Cantu: Besides you, other protagonists appear in Eldorado. Among them Zavier Nunn, Morgan M. Page, Robert Beachy and Ben Miller. Each of you describes history as a queer person, who is simultaneously affected by the experience of today’s backlash. There is no Safe Distance to history. Eldorado is not only about coming to terms with the past, but also about the growing tensions in the present.  

 

* LGBT: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender. We are using this term as it is currently widely used in human rights conversations on sexual orientation and gender identity in many parts of the world, and we would wish it to be read as inclusive of other cultural concepts, contemporary or historical, to express sexuality and gender, intersex and gender non-conforming identities.

 

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Asian Fellows Discuss Global Visions: A Workshop by Salzburg Global LGBT* Forum
Salzburg Global Fellows pose for a group photo at the ILGA Asia ConferenceSalzburg Global Fellows pose for a group photo at the ILGA Asia Conference
Asian Fellows Discuss Global Visions: A Workshop by Salzburg Global LGBT* Forum
By: Salzburg Global Seminar 

Salzburg Global Fellows convene at ILGA Asia Conference to help plan future initiatives

Salzburg Global Fellows from the Philippines, Thailand, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Vietnam, and the United Kingdom convened for an in-person workshop at the latest ILGA Asia Conference, held in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Fellows received a joint invitation from the Salzburg Global LGBT* Forum and ILGA Asia to attend the conference between November 28 and December 2, 2022.

In recent years, the LGBT* Forum has developed a close working relationship with ILGA Asia. Both are discussing how this relationship can be strengthened further and what future initiatives can be created to support the next generation of LGBT leaders.

ILGA Asia and the LGBT* Forum share a vision that a stronger connection of global networks of LGBT human rights defenders will help to confront urgent international and regional challenges that a new generation of leaders is facing. This vision is also currently being discussed as a joint project with the ILGA World leadership.

Henry Koh, executive director at ILGA Asia, said, “Our joint goal is to create aspirational spaces for emerging LGBTIQ leaders across Asia and across the globe to enact solidarity and model effective advocacy."

At the ninth ILGA Asia Conference, Fellows were asked to discuss this vision further as part of a workshop titled “Asian Fellows Discuss Global Visions: A Workshop by Salzburg Global LGBT* Forum.”

During the workshop, Fellows were asked to consider how the LGBT* Forum and ILGA Asia could strengthen the engagement of young leaders who could participate in future initiatives. Fellows were also asked to consider some of the most urgent themes future initiatives could highlight and why a combined global network could be important.

The workshop was moderated by Brenda R. Alegre, an executive board member at ILGA Asia, and Gurchaten Sandhu, director of programmes at ILGA World. Speakers were:

  • Cha Roque, filmmaker, filmmaker; communications director, Dakila - Philippine Collective for Modern Heroism, Philippines
  • Sukhdeep Singh, founder and editor-in-chief, Gaylaxy Magazine, India
  • Bao-Chau Nguyen, co-founder and co-director of LumiQueer, Vietnam
  • Tashi Choedup, national coordinator (India) at the Foundation for Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition, India

Download a report of “Asian Fellows Discuss Global Visions: Workshop by Salzburg Global LGBT* Forum”


*LGBT: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender. We are using this term as it is currently widely used in human rights conversations on sexual orientation and gender identity in many parts of the world. We wish it to be read as inclusive of other cultural concepts, contemporary or historical, to express sexuality and gender, intersex and gender non-conforming identities.

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For a Church Without Fear
Left to right - Headshots of Klaus Mueller, Eva Dreier and Michael BrinkschröderLeft to right - Klaus Mueller, Eva Dreier, and Michael Brinkschröder
For a Church Without Fear
By: Salzburg Global Seminar 

Salzburg Global LGBT* Forum in conversation with Eva Dreier and Michael Brinkschröder from #OutInChurch

Salzburg Global LGBT* Forum and the German initiative “#OutInChurch – For a Church without Fear” met online several times in 2022 for conversations about their mutual work on bridging LGBT* and Faith communities.

The Forum’s Global LGBT* and Faith initiative conducted various programs to address religion, cultural history, and LGBT inclusion (and exclusion), convening global LGBT human rights defenders and cultural and religious leaders across faiths, geographies, and generations between 2020 and 2022. The Forum also curated a series of blog posts by faith leaders, scholars, and activists and produced an accompanying podcast with ILGA Asia.

In early 2021, #OutInChurch dared to start its open work within the Catholic Church and received massive public attention and support for its courageous work. Nearly a year after they stepped forward, Forum Founder & Chair Klaus Mueller talked with #OutInChurch members Eva Dreier and Michael Brinkschröder about their success, hopes, and next steps.

Michael and Eva, how did #OutInChurch start?

We were inspired after reading about the collective coming-out of 185 actors in the German campaign #ActOut. Inspired by this step, an openly gay lay minister from Hamburg, Jens Ehebrecht-Zumsande, asked the question if such a coming-out would be possible in the Catholic Church – where many could still lose their job due to being LGBTQIA+. Others agreed with him. The idea of a shared organized campaign started to grow.

Out of this conversation of a few, how did this initiative develop into headline news across Germany and attract a lot of media attention in many countries?

Our initiative “#OutInChurch – For a Church without Fear” emerged from this initial inspiration and the firm hope that together we can be strong and create change. Through existing networks and shared acquaintances, new people joined, all of them being part of the Catholic Church in Germany and part of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Instead of rushing things, we decided to take our time to prepare our collective coming-out properly. Zoom meetings helped us to form the Network and to collectively develop a manifesto and core demands. But we realized that our efforts would need media support. With caution, we contacted German media. This led to a cooperation with the lead German public broadcasting channel ARD. That changed all. Having such a strong media partner ensured that our collective coming-out could not be overlooked by mainstream media.

#OutInChurch public coming-out dominated the news in Germany and was reported globally. How were you able to do this?

We knew if we want to change things, we not only need to clearly put our demands forward to our employer – the Roman Catholic Church. We also need the pressure from public solidarity. We decided to produce a 60-minute documentary called ‘How God created us’ (“Wie Gott uns schuf”), which portrays the life of queer Catholics working for the Catholic Church. Our film portrays people who had to hide their true lives and deny their true selves out of fear of losing their jobs and being discriminated against. Their stories are very emotional and touching.

The documentary was shown at primetime on the 24th of January 2022 on the German public broadcasting channel ARD. Together with 100 interviews from #OutInChurch-members, the documentary is available online on the website of the ARD, where it has become one of the most successful documentaries of the last years.

Congratulations. That must have been a lot of work! What was the key to reaching this level of visibility and public media attention?

Everything was focussed on the 24th of January 2022: [a] few teaser interviews were published beforehand, a press release was prepared, a media office [was] set up, 36 Catholic organizations from Germany were prepared to declare their solidarity, our manifesto and core demands were translated into 12 languages, and our international colleagues in the Global Network of Rainbow Catholics were informed in advance to be able to respond quickly to this unforeseen moment.

In concordance with the publication date of the documentary, we published our campaign on our website, [and] 125 people outed themselves at the same time. Some people chose to publish their full name, picture, and their sexual and gender identity; others outed themselves anonymously because even being one of many would still be too dangerous to their personal or professional safety. The rush to our website was so big it crushed the site. We also launched a petition that more than 120,000 people have signed. An enormous wave of media interest, lasting for several months, pushed our issues forward and required all our energy.

What have been the reactions from the Catholic Church so far?

Some bishops responded promptly by promising that no church employee would be fired because of being LGBTIQA+ and that they would revise the current version of the Catholic labor law. In November, this new labor law [was] published, and it marks a huge step forward. It says: “All employees can be representatives of God’s unconditional love and thus of a church that serves people, regardless of their specific tasks, their origin, their religion, their age, their disability, their gender, their sexual identity and their way of life.”

It emphasizes human dignity, recognizes diversity, and considers relationships and intimacy as private matters being irrelevant for the church as an employer. The remaining caveat we have is that trans and non-binary employees still have not received the same level of explicit legal protection.

This was a big step. Do you feel that progress can be made in faith communities worldwide, of whatever domination? Are you more hopeful?

Before the #OutInChurch campaign, LGBTQIA+ Catholics in Germany have used trustful dialogues with open-minded bishops, priests, and lay leaders. This silent strategy also had its benefits and definitively prepared the ground for reforms on LGBTQIA+ issues in the Catholic Church in Germany. We also had two smaller campaigns in 2021 in favor of liturgical blessings for same-sex couples that somewhat tested the water and gave evidence that #OutInChurch may find big support in parishes and among ministers. The whole campaign happened during the time of the Synodal Path, a high-level reform process of the Catholic Church in Germany in which sexual ethics was already an important issue to be discussed.

Given all these local circumstances, the opportunities to create the momentum for a campaign for LGBTQIA+ recognition may not be given in all faith communities in every country. But launching a campaign should definitively be considered as an option because it can mobilize unforeseen people and energy, and it can help to strengthen the connection between LGBTQIA+ people of faith as a community.
 
* LGBT: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender. We are using this term as it is currently widely used in human rights conversations on sexual orientation and gender identity in many parts of the world, but we would not wish it to be read as exclusive of other cultural concepts, contemporary or historical, to express sexuality and gender, intersex and gender non-conforming identities.

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LGBT & Faith Podcast Reaches Worldwide Audience
Cover art for LGBT & Faith alongside a photo by Jukka Aalho on UnsplashCover art for LGBT & Faith alongside a photo by Jukka Aalho on Unsplash
LGBT & Faith Podcast Reaches Worldwide Audience
By: Salzburg Global Seminar 

Salzburg Global LGBT* Forum and ILGA Asia’s audio series concludes after 16 episodes

An audio series designed to help others understand global changes happening in LGBT* and faith communities has concluded after 16 episodes.

Salzburg Global Seminar and ILGA Asia’s audio series LGBT & Faith featured 16 leading voices from the Global Online Forum on LGBT* and Faith, a program held from 2020 to 2022 by the Salzburg Global LGBT* Forum.

This program convened members and leaders of faith communities from within Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism, as well as agnostics, atheists, anthropologists, and cultural believers.

Worldwide, LGBT* people increasingly insist on inclusion in faith communities and cultural traditions. In response, many religious congregations have begun to interpret their beliefs more inclusively.

LGBT & Faith is available to listen to on Anchor, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. Its listeners represent different generations and range from more than 50 countries across six continents.

The most popular episodes include:

Our podcast authors come from diverse countries such as Ecuador, the Philippines, Switzerland, Lesotho, Romania, India, South Africa, the United States, Egypt or the Netherlands.

Klaus Mueller, founder and chair of the Salzburg Global LGBT* Forum, said, “When we started our LGBT and Faith initiative, in part, we mentally still held on to an imagined separation of LGBT and faith communities as two communities in opposition to each other. However, listening to our Fellows, it became obvious that this juxtaposition is part of the problem.

“It does not do justice to the lived reality of many LGBT* individuals around the world. LGBT* people have been, are, and will be part of faith communities, and people of faith have been, are, and will be part of LGBT* communities. In fact, this supposed opposition between LGBT and Faith communities is often used by a globally connected movement misusing religion and the so-called ‘protection of the family’ to push an authoritarian agenda.

“We are encouraged that the podcasts reached an audience in countries that imposes the death penalty for consensual same-sex sexual acts like Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, or Pakistan, and countries where national or religious leaders support or even inspire homo- and transphobic violence, such as Egypt, Russia, Turkey, Poland, or Malaysia.”

Henry Koh, executive director at ILGA Asia, said, “The notion that faith and discussions on sexuality and gender should not be conflated is untrue — and it contributes to further misunderstanding and perpetuates stigma on all sides of the conversation.

“LGBTI people often face harmful impacts when this occurs, and it becomes clear that we need to engage issues of faith and religion through progressive methods and discourses in order to advance the conversation on acceptance and rights for LGBT people.

For this reason, ILGA Asia decided to collaborate with the Salzburg Global Seminar’s richly diverse fellows through producing this meaningful podcast series — where we explore life-changing and affirming conversations on how LGBT and faith can and must co-exist.”

Salzburg Global LGBT* Forum and ILGA Asia thank the authors for sharing their deeply personal visions and journeys of faith with great honesty.

* LGBT: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender. We are using this term as it is currently widely used in human rights conversations on sexual orientation and gender identity in many parts of the world, and we would wish it to be read as inclusive of other cultural concepts, contemporary or historical, to express sexuality and gender, intersex and gender non-conforming identities.

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Scot Sherman: “I Could No Longer Unsee What I Was Seeing, or Unhear What I Was Hearing”
This is a quilt called "Molehills”, created by my wife, Catherine C. Sherman, a San Francisco-based quilt artist. Her quilts join vintage fabrics and modern materials together, “treasures old and new, colliding and creating new meaning.” They are meditations on hope and healing, and an artistic embodiment of the beauty of the process of “ressourcement” and “aggiornamento.” (You can find more on her website piecemovement.com).
Scot Sherman: “I Could No Longer Unsee What I Was Seeing, or Unhear What I Was Hearing”
By: Scot Sherman 

A candidate for the priesthood in the Episcopal Church explains how disruptive empathy and storytelling are required for faith communities to move forward with inclusion and change 
 

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Paola Paredes: “These Staged Images Allow Us To See What Was Never Meant To Be Seen”
Paola Paredes: “These Staged Images Allow Us To See What Was Never Meant To Be Seen”
By: Paola Paredes 

Ecuadorian photographer documents illegal anti-LGBT, conversion clinics through her “visual activism” project Until You Change

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