Manfred Bruns
German federal prosecutor and gay rights advocate (1934–2019
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Manfred Bruns (1934 – 22 October 2019) was a federal prosecutor at the Federal Court of Justice of Germany, and a famous German gay civil rights activist. He was until 2016 a member of the Board of Directors of the Lesbian and Gay Association (LSVD), today LSVD⁺ – Federation Queer Diversity.[1][2]
Early life and career
Bruns was born in 1934, in Linz am Rhein in Rhineland-Palatinate, and was brought up in a conservative Catholic household.[3] For years he concealed the possibility he might be gay.[3] In 1961, he got married and had three children.[3] Bruns worked as a prosecutor at West Germany's Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe.[3] He came out to his family in the early 1980s, and then to his work[4] He never initiated divorce proceedings with his wife.[3]
In 1985, he came out on live TV when he appeared on a TV show to talk about the subject of homosexuality.[3] The show's host inquired about his relationship with his wife, making an implication there was a "special arrangement" with her.[3] After he came out on the show, it was a turning point that helped to define Germany's political gay and lesbian movement.[3]
From then on, Bruns was determined to eliminate "paragraph 175", that was defined by law as "unnatural sexual offenses" between two men.[4] Together with Volker Beck and Günter Dworek, they worked to eradicate the so called gay paragraph, which could imprison men to a possible sentence of six months in prison.[4] The arcane law was established in 1871, under the German command.[4] When the Nazis were in power, paragraph 175 was strictly enforced.[3] On 11 July 1994, the paragraph was finally struck down.[3]
In 1994 he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class, and in 2002, he received the Magnus Hirschfeld Medal.[5][4]
Bruns died on 22 October 2019, at the age of 85.[6]