There was legislation against (male) homosexual acts in Germany prior to the Nazi party being formed at all: Paragraph 175 was made law shortly after Germany became unified in 1871. The most famous of these symbols and imagery is the yellow star that Jews were forced to wear. This applied both to those they deemed ‘other’ otherwise known as ‘useless mouths’ and in those they deemed acceptable. They have been used to express and influence emotions not just in their creators but those around the creators: nostalgia, pride, love and identity (as well as to sell things).Īs well as using symbols to inspire belonging (the swastika) and fear (the death’s head skull or Totenkopf worn by the SS), the Nazi regime effectively used imagery to evoke feelings of ‘otherness’ in the populations under their control. Symbolism and imagery have always been at the forefront of human expression: from cave paintings to heraldry to modern logos.
But another symbol, forced on gay men persecuted by the Nazis, has since been reclaimed by the very community the Nazis sought to oppress: the pink triangle. When we think of symbols the Nazi regime forced people to wear, we think of the yellow star of David enforced on Jews.
