Download PDF - Gedenkort für die im Nationalsozialismus ...

of his lovers purloined one of these drawings and tried to blackmail himwith it. Afraid that he would be denounced and summonsed to appearbefore the Gestapo for violating Section 175, Nielsen committed suicide in1938. Isermeyer found him hanging in his studio. After 1945, Isermeyertried to collect all of Nielsen’s artworks and keep his memory alive. In 1997,Isermeyer handed the collection over to the Schwules Museum (Gay Museum)in Berlin.Richard BarnackRichard Barnack, a agile and livelyyoung man, was born into aworking-class family in Berlin in1910. He grew up in the Berlin districtof Kreuzberg. A keen athlete,he actively participated in ‘workingclasssports’ (Fichte XI and FichteSüd sports clubs). He was not particularlyinterested in politics. Afterhe completed his apprenticeship,Richard Barnack worked for a yearas a machine fitter, before he waslaid off. He attended a ballet schooland performed as a dancer atRichard Barnack mit Freunden im Grunewald (Berlin, Mai 1929)Berlin, Schwules Museumhome and abroad with a revue company, the 3 Dixies. From March 1, 1938he worked for the Telefunken company as a technical designer. During thistime Richard Barnack had a number of homosexual relationships. Althoughhe ‘loved blond boys,’ he also had a steady girlfriend, ‘Kitty’. In 1935 and1940 he was sentenced to imprisonment for violating Section 175. After hehad served the sentence, he was probably interned in SachsenhausenConcentration Camp in January 1942, where he died shortly afterwards –on March 29, 1942 – at the age of thirty-one. Little is known about his stayin the concentration camp or the circumstances surrounding his death.Heinz Dörmer, boy scoutHeinz Dörmer was born in the Berlin district of Kreuzberg in 1912. Fromhis early youth on, he was involved in the bündische Jugendbewegung (ayouth movement similar to the boy scouts). When it was dissolved in 1933,his group of Ringpfadfinder (a branch of the movement) was compulsorilyintegrated into the Hitler Youth. as a member in the Hitler Youth Spielschar(acting company), Heinz Dörmer still tried to uphold the ideas of the bündischeJugendbewegung. His large circle of friends included a number of likemindedhomosexuals who got caught in the clutches of the Gestapo from1935 on. The principal defendants in the ensuing trial were Fritz Lippoldand his friend Arthur Kräkel. They received five to ten years in prison. Suchharsh sentences were pronounced soon after Section 175 was tightenedup. The Gestapo at the Columbia and Lichtenburg concentration campsblackmailed the accused into making statements. Heinz Dörmer was152