In 1920, the Berlin censorship office banned the public screening of the silent film Anders als die Andern (Different from Others). The year before, the film had been a success in German cinemas, but it soon provoked opposition from conservative church circles, far-right and often anti-Semitic groups. It was not dangerous because it depicted eroticism. It was dangerous because it presented homosexual love as human, dignified and worthy of protection.
The first of its kind
The 1919 film is one of the pioneering works of world cinema. It was one of the first to depict love between two men without ridicule, pathologisation or moral condemnation. This was precisely the reason for its censorship. It contained nothing that could be described as pornography or explicit eroticism, and yet the censorship board withdrew it from public screening. The official justification was that it could “seduce” young people into homosexuality.
Today this argument seems absurd, but in the context of the time it accurately captures society's fear of the visibility of homosexual people. The film did not pose a threat with its images, but with its idea: that love between people of the same sex is not a crime, an illness or a moral failure.
Hirschfeld, Oswald and film enlightenment
The film was directed by Richard Oswald, who wrote the screenplay together with Magnus Hirschfeld, a sexologist and founder of the Institute for Sexual Sciences in Berlin. Hirschfeld dedicated his entire life to scientific research into sexuality and enlightenment, which was supposed to contribute to the abolition of laws criminalizing homosexuals. He also participated financially in the production of the film.
The exceptionality of the film lay not only in the fact that it depicted the relationship of two men in a positive light. It was also an open criticism of German Section 175, which punished sexual relations between men. Hirschfeld himself appeared in the film in the role of a doctor and an enlightener. In a sense, he played himself.
The director cast Conrad Veidt, a famous German actor later known for his role in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and Fritz Schulz, who had a rich film career behind him, as the main characters.
A story of love, blackmail, and the law
Anders als die Andern tells the story of violinist Paul Körner, played by Conrad Veidt. Körner falls in love with his student Kurt Sivers, played by Fritz Schulz. Their gradually developing relationship is noticed by a blackmailer who threatens to expose Körner's orientation.
Körner initially pays him to keep quiet. However, when the blackmailer's demands increase, he refuses to continue paying. This puts him in a situation that many homosexual men at the time knew: if they resisted blackmail, they risked becoming the subject of investigation, public humiliation, and social exclusion.
The film is built on alternating present-day action and flashbacks to the past. In the opening scenes, we see Körner reading a newspaper full of reports of unexplained suicides. The viewer gradually understands that behind many of them lies Section 175, the fear of exposure, and living in an environment that denied homosexual people dignity.
Dr. Hirschfeld as a voice of knowledge
The character of Dr. Hirschfeld plays an important role in the film. In one scene, Körner's parents turn to him, who do not understand why their son does not marry and why he is different from what they expect of him. Hirschfeld explains to them that homosexuality is not a mistake, a crime, or a disease, but a natural variant of human sexuality.
His words are addressed to the parents in the film, but in fact they are aimed directly at the audience. The film makes full use of its educational dimension here: it wants not only to tell a story, but also to change the audience's perspective. Hirschfeld's message can be summed up simply: justice can only begin where prejudice replaces knowledge.
After the parents' conversation with Hirschfeld, Paul's relationship with Kurt strengthens. The men meet more often and in one scene they hold hands in a park. It is there that they are noticed by a blackmailer who begins to systematically blackmail Paul. When he finally breaks into his house, it becomes clear that he has been keeping him in fear for a long time. Kurt is frightened and runs away.
The tragedy of one victim and a challenge for all
Paul Körner decides to file a criminal complaint. He achieves a conviction for the blackmailer in court, but he pays the price for this step himself. His orientation becomes public knowledge, his parents and friends reject him, and he loses his job opportunities. Lonely and broken, he finally reaches for medication, overdoses, and dies.
When Kurt returns to him, he finds him already dead. In pain over the loss of a loved one, he also wants to end his own life. However, in the last scene, Dr. Hirschfeld re-enters the plot and stops him. His call is also the message of the entire film: “You must live. You must live in order to change the prejudices that have made this man one of the countless victims. You must restore his honor and bring justice to him, to all before him and to all after him. Justice through knowledge!”
The final image is unambiguous: an open book of the Criminal Code, section 175, and a hand crossing it out. The film does not end with just an individual tragedy, but with a political demand. It demands a change in the law that created the conditions for blackmail, shame, fear, and suicide.
The banned film and its second life
When viewed today, some scenes may seem brief, purposeful, or overly didactic. But this didacticism belongs to the era in which the film was made. Hirschfeld and other reformers believed that scientific knowledge, repeatedly explained and made available to the public, could change social attitudes. For them, film was a tool for both education and political intervention.
However, its public life was short-lived. After the ban, it was only allowed to be screened privately and only by health professionals. After Hitler came to power, the Nazis looted Hirschfeld's Institute for Sexual Sciences and destroyed most of the film's copies.
Approximately forty minutes of the original film have survived. Hirschfeld used them in his other film, Gesetze der Liebe (Laws of Love), in 1927. It made its way to Russia in the late 1920s, where it was rediscovered decades later by UCLA Film & Television Archive staff. Thanks to their work, the film was restored to be watchable and understandable to a contemporary audience.
Years later, Anders als die Andern also returned to Germany. In 2016, it was screened at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival. The film, which was supposed to be silenced, thus became part of the public memory again.
Why revisit it
Anders als die Andern is not only important today as a film rarity. It is a document of how early arguments emerged in Europe that sound modern even after more than a century: that homosexuality is not a disease, that love between adults should not be punished, and that laws can not only protect people, but also destroy them.
It is also a reminder that queer history is not just a history of suffering. It is also a history of courage, creativity, and attempts to change the world with the tools available at the time: science, art, film, public debate, and the steadfast belief that knowledge can lead to justice.
