The film by Austrian director Sebastian Meise, Große Freiheit, reveals interesting connections and intricacies between LGBTQ+ lives both after liberation from Nazi Germany and life for LGBTQ+ people today. The film is centered around the life of Hans, bringing a large-scale issue down to a personal story that was manifested from Meise’s interviews with gay men in Vienna. Große Freiheit explores different types of relationships and their individual significance to Hans as well as explores the long-term mental and systemic effects of LGBTQ+ persecution dating as far back as, religiously, pre-500 C.E. and legally, 1328 C.E.
Große Freiheit is a gut wrenching film about LGBTQ+ life post-Nazi Germany that follows the story of Hans during three major eras of his life. The first segment of the film begins with Hans’ arrest after being caught having homosexual relationships in a public restroom and explores the initial animosity with his fellow cellmate Viktor (Große Freiheit). Viktor’s initial antagonism softens when he learns Hans was held in a concentration camp before being thrown into prison after liberation due to anti-sodomy laws. Viktor, an amateur tattoo artist, helps Hans cover up his concentration number with a tattoo. The second plot line focuses on Hans’ romantic relationships with Leo, a teacher whom Hans legally sacrifices himself for, and Oskar, his long-term romantic partner and the distance the prison forces between them. Finally, viewers see Hans’ offered a life of freedom after the abolishment of paragraph 175, and possibly due to years of life as a prisoner or desire to return to Viktor and the known, he has himself arrested and voluntarily returns to the prison.
Große Freiheit travels through three major periods and relationships for Hans. Hans’ first relationship after spending time in a concentration camp was with Oskar in the 1960s. Their relationship embodies the challenge of falling in love with someone. Flashbacks show them galavanting around hanging out in the sun soon before they get caught and imprisoned for publicly displaying their affection for one another. Oskar speaks about their relationship over the flashbacks and expresses his love for Hans. In the end, Oskar could not handle the pressure of his identity and committed suicide. When Hans learns about Oskar’s death, he appears shocked and then, when Viktor gives him a hug to comfort him, Oskar breaks down sobbing and falls to the ground. As the guards approach them to break them apart, Viktor and Hans hold closely onto each other until they are ripped from one another (Große Freiheit). The relationship with Oskar truly showcases how the anti-sodomy laws directly affected gay relationships causing a strain not only in their romance outside of prison but inside as well and the mental health issues that can stem from these hateful policies. In addition, the scene where Viktor hugs Hans signifies Viktor and Hans’ emerging relationship. Viktor is Hans’ companion in ways that neither the selfish Leo, nor the pure Oskar are.
After Oskar passes, Hans gets into a relationship with Leo. His relationship with Leo raises Hans’ spirits and helps Hans realize that love is still possible (Meise). Unfortunately, this relationship teaches Hans about conditional love, because Hans is left hurt in the end. They function best when they both get something out of the relationship whether that be comfort, sex, or friendship in the yard. However, Leo used Hans in order to get himself a shorter sentence again emulating their very transactional relationship. Leo and Hans both were sentenced to imprisonment under paragraph 175. Leo claimed that Hans forced himself onto him. Distraught, Hans confirmed in a false testimony that he took advantage of Leo so that Leo could be released from the prison. Hans risked a longer sentence to protect Leo so that Leo could go back to teaching. After Hans gives his testimony, Leo asks Hans why he protected him. Hans answers that he lied so that at least one of them could go back to living their normal lives. Although Hans sacrificed himself for Leo, Hans makes it clear that he did not do so for their relationship and goes as far to assert that they never had one in the first place (Große Freiheit). It can be assumed this romance teaches him about utilitarian relationships, conditional love, and self-sacrifice, on his part, for the people he loves.
Hans and Viktor’s story plays out through the whole of the movie but is primarily focused on during the third period of Hans’ life. Hans and Viktor have a seemingly unconditional platonic bond. They gradually moved from an antagonistic relationship because of homophobia to a tenuous friendship based on mutual understanding to an unconditional friendship founded on platonic love and respect. They support each other in all the ways they can through physical touch, helping Hans through his grief, helping Viktor through his addiction and withdrawal. The two clearly take care of each other in every way they can. For example, Hans is there to stop Viktor from doing drugs and Viktor is there to give Hans a tattoo to cover up the number on his arm from his time in a concentration camp (Große Freiheit). This is a lesson for Hans in change, as Viktor’s attitude towards Hans changes from hate to understanding and from fear and reservation to openness about himself and his identity.
The final scenes in the movie are emblematic of the film’s major themes. In the end of the movie, Hans is released from prison after paragraph 175 was abolished. With his new found freedom, Hans goes to a gay bar called “Große Freiheit” (“Great Freedom” in English”), where he does not appear particularly thrilled to be. Afterwards, Hans breaks the glass display at a jewelry store. The movie ends with Hans sitting on the sidewalk outside of the store waiting for the police to come take him to jail (Große Freiheit). Hans may have done it for a plethora of reasons; for example, having spent most of the last few decades in prison, Hans may not know how to react to his new freedom. However, it is more than likely that Hans decided to break the display at least partially so that he could see Viktor again, because they had a special bond and Viktor was there for him when he needed him the most. The last scene raises questions about what it means to be free- to be free to show one’s individuality, but also to be physically free from prison. It also raises questions about friendship, i.e. about friendship that is more important than freedom.
In addition to exploring both romantic and platonic relationships between characters, Große Freiheit also looks at the long-term effects of imprisonment on LGBTQ+ people during and after the Holocaust. In the beginning two-thirds of the movie, viewers see Hans long for freedom and for the legalization of gay relationships. He even contemplates running away to the GDR which under Russian control at the time did not criminalize LGBTQ+ love as a stance against the policies in place during Nazi Germany (Große Freiheit). However, towards the end of the film, Hans struggles with his new found freedom. It is probably a culmination of this removal from his routine, support network, and familiarity that drives Hans to return to prison on different charges.
One topic that peaks interest in this film is that while the director is Austrian and conducted research in Vienna about the reality of being queer in Austria, the movie takes place in a prison in Germany. This can spark a question on why it was chosen to have it take place in Germany and if there are many differences between LGBTQ+ people or how they are treated differently in Germany and Austria. The director, Sebatian Meise, describes how he chose to have the film set in Germany because of the greater demand and relatability with Germany. The film focused more on paragraph 175 in West Germany instead of in Austria, but citizens of both countries had to take part in this ruling. When it comes to whether one country is more forward with legalizing things, there is not a big enough difference to say that one country is definitive more open, but Austria tends to lag behind a bit when it legalized same sex marriage in 2019 while Germany went through with it in 2017 (“Timeline of LGBT History in Germany”). This can be seen in contrast with Spanish-speaking countries doing the same with Uruguay in 2013, Argentina in 2010, and Spain in 2005.
Homosexuality in the German-speaking tribes was something that was deemed as bad even before the Roman Catholics tried to push their religion in about the 500s. They also ignored how the Romans took care of homosexuality and continued their tradition of drowning them in swamps instead of burning them at the stake like the Romans. In 1328, however, a law book was created that said that they must be burned. This did not go into practice as much though and most people were allowed to die a fast and painless death like a sword to the neck for example. It is hard to find too much information about it from these times however because all legal documents that had mentioned the reasoning for their execution were burned as well as even the mention was deemed sinful. The death penalty for homosexuality in Prussia was officially banned in 1796 (“Timeline of LGBT History in Germany”). In the nineteenth century, the topic of homosexuality started to pop up across different medias and the first gay magazine worldwide, called Der Eigene, was first published in Berlin in 1896. The first lesbian magazine worldwide, called Die Freundin, was founded in Berlin in 1924 (“Timeline of German LGBT History”).
In summation, Große Freiheit is a valuable exploratory film that brings a broad issue down to a personal level and creates a complicated character and storyline through Hans further humanizing the experiences of LGBTQ+ people after World War II. By exploring his romantic and platonic relationships Meise brings a rare depth to LGBTQ+ representation in media and rather than diminishing Hans’ character to reflect his partner at each third of the movies, gives each of them their own identity, motives, and consequences as they teach Hans different aspects of love. Additionally, by exploring the systemic issues and effects of LGBTQ+ criminalization in the prison and on Hans’ personally, viewers can better connect with LGBTQ+ struggles in the present and continue to understand how historically LGBTQ+ people were affected by homophobia and anti-sodomy persecution.
Isabel Hastings, Riley Callahan, Hannah Dobler
Sebastian Meise has won countless awards for Große Freiheit, such as the Prix du Jury in the Un Certain Regard Section of the Cannes Film Festival. Meise was also shortlisted for an Oscar for Best International Film for Große Freiheit. His success extends to countless other acclaimed films, including Prises De Vues and Outing. Sebastian Meise has captured international attention since 2011, when his first feature film Still Life played at the San Sebastian International Film Festival. To add to his list of accomplishments, Meise co-founded FreibeuterFilm based in Vienna
Bibliography
“Timeline of German LGBT History.” Gsafewi.org.
https://gsafewi.org/wp-content/uploads/German-Timeline-Student-Teacher-Copy-UPDATED.pdf. Accessed 22 Apr. 2023.
Große Freiheit. Directed by Sebastian Meise, performances by Franz Rogowski, Georg
Friedrich, and Anton von Lucke, FreibeuterFilm, 2021.
Meise, Sebastian. Personal interview. 21 April 2023.
“Sebastian Meise.” FreibeuterFilm, https://www.freibeuterfilm.com/wp/member/sebastian-meise/?lang=en. Accessed 8 Apr. 2023.
“Timeline of LGBT History in Germany.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Apr. 2023,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_LGBT_history_in_Germany.
