Phantoms of Weimar: The Beautiful Bodies Buried in the East

Photography by: Mia Blackman

Germany was left a societal scorched-earth after WWI and economic instability sent it spiraling into a societal laissez-faire system propagating weak censorship. Along with the reactionary response to the criminalization of same-sex intercourse in the late 19th century, the unstable post-WWI Weimar republic left itself vulnerable to the widespread whims of Germans with a newfound connection with the recently coined identity homosexual. Pamphlets, periodicals, organizations, institutions, debates, films took advantage of the brief freedom Weimar’s instability provided and they advocated for gay, lesbian, and trans liberties. These actions, these movements laid the permanent groundwork that allows for greater freedoms today. These people were the first. 

These people have been dead for decades; the writings and photos of corpses and ghosts is all that is left of the world's first homosexual movement. But still, they are here: present within the parade’s crowds, the seats at the bar, in the clothes you wear and in the clothes you don’t, between lips and beyond written words. It’s impossible to look away from them as it is impossible to look away from the world that exists now; present liberties gifted by the immutable past. Ghosts right in front of your eyes. Once you see them, and maybe you already have, even if it’s for a second or less, you’ll see how beautiful they are. No evil, nothing is broken, they exist as they are. See that you must be as you are. Weimar’s ghosts already have and they haunt the world with their immortal beauty, beauty that cannot be taken away again as, once it began, it can never end. The beautiful bodies buried in the east had souls that cannot die and dance beaming with change, you dance with them.

Written & Directed by: Ace Guimaraes

Uploaded/Edited by: Victoria De Notaris