Milo Todd grounds The Lilac People in the real history of queer and gender-diverse communities in Germany during the Weimar Republic and their systematic prosecution after the Nazis came to power. Berlin in the 1920s and early 1930s developed a visible gay, lesbian, and trans or gender-nonconforming culture, with clubs, publications, political organizations, and medical institutions serving communities that remained stigmatized and only partially protected by law. The Eldorado, where Bertie meets Sofie in the novel, was a real Berlin nightclub frequented by members of the queer community before Nazi authorities closed it in 1933. The Deutsches Historisches Museum similarly describes Berlin’s lively queer subculture and identifies the Eldorado as one of its best-known venues (Wieler, Florian and Katja Hauser. “Queer History.” DHM Journal. 3 May 2018).

Central to this culture was Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, or Institute for Sexual Science, founded in Berlin in 1919. Hirschfeld and those associated with the Institut conducted research on sexuality and gender, provided medical services, advocated for the repeal of laws criminalizing sex between men, and assisted trans and gender-nonconforming people seeking legal and medical recognition. Among the limited protections available were Transvestitenscheine, police certificates issues after medical evaluation that formally acknowledged a person’s practice of wearing clothing associated with another gender and helped protect the holder from arrest for doing so. Historical scholarship notes that these certificates existed before the Weimar Republic but became more common during it, providing an unusual form of state recognition while still making recipients dependent upon both medical and police approval (Nunn, Zavier. “Trans Liminality and the Nazi State.” Past & Present, Volume 260, Issue 1. Aug. 2023).

The Nazis rapidly dismantled much of this infrastructure after taking power in 1933. On May 6, Nazi students accompanied by members of the SA ransacked Hirschfeld’s Institute and confiscated its library, archives, and clinical materials. Four days later, materials taken from the Institut were among the approximately 20,000 volumes burned publicly at Berlin’s Opernplatz during the May 10 book burning (“Nazi Book Burnings.” Holocaust Encyclopedia. 28 July 2025). The Lilac People incorporates these events directly into Bertie’s story, including the destruction of the Institut and the loss of records documenting the community that had developed around it.

Prosecution intensified further through Paragraph 175, the German law criminalizing sexual acts between men. The law predated the Nazis, but in 1935 the Nazi government broadened it, making prosecution easier and increasing penalties. Approximately 100,000 arrests for Paragraph 175 violations occurred during the Nazi period, with about 53,400 resulting in conviction. Between 5,000 and 15,000 men were eventually imprisoned in concentration camps as gay offenders, where many were identified by pink triangles and subjected to particularly severe abuse (“Paragraph 175 and the Nazi Campaign Against Homosexuality.” Holocaust Encyclopedia. 4 May 2021). Nazi prisoner classifications were more complicated for other gender- and sexuality-related groups. Black triangles identified prisoners categorized broadly as “asocial,” a designation that could encompass various social outsiders and nonconformists. Some lesbians, for example, were imprisoned under this classification rather than under Paragraph 175.

The defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 did not immediately end this discrimination. Although the Allied powers abolished many Nazi laws, they permitted the Nazi-expanded version of Paragraph 175 to remain because laws criminalizing sex between men had existed before Hitler came to power. As a result, men who were still serving sentences for Paragraph 175 offenses could remain incarcerated after the war, and criminalization continued. Paragraph 175 was not completely removed from the German criminal code until 1994. Furthermore, gay activity was also criminalized at the time in the Allied nations; US states did not start the decriminalization process until 1962; the United Kingdom did not decriminalize sex between men until 1967; and the Soviet Union had only recently re-criminalized gay activity (1934), which remained a crime until 1993.

In The Lilac People, this historical reality is an immediate danger facing Karl after Dachau. Allied victor has ended Nazi rule, but it has not guaranteed freedom or safety for people whose identities remain criminalized. Bertie and Sofie face a similar reality, as they wait on the fame for news of liberation only to learn that the country is still unsafe for them. The days spent helping Karl hide his identity reflect the conflict that gay and gender non-conforming people faced: hide their true identity and conform or face criminal prosecution or further imprisonment. The novel ends on a note of hope as Bertie, Karl, and Sofie arrive in the United States, but even there their safety remains uncertain given the lack of protection the Allied forces afforded those in post-Nazi Germany, as well as the concurrent legal oppression of American queer people.