Today, Berlin is largely seen as one of the world's most queer-friendly cities — and that was also the case roughly a century ago, before the National Socialists took power in the early 1930s.

In the 1920s, during the era known as the Weimar Republic in Germany, Berlin became not only a haven for queer nightlife but also one of the world's most important centers for early LGBTQ+ research, activism and community building, helping to shape modern thought about sexuality and gender.

In 1871, Germany introduced Paragraph 175 , which criminalized sexual acts between men. It was based on earlier Prussian legislation and enforced with varying intensity from 1872 through 1945.…