Homosexuality was a criminal offense in Austria long before the Nazis came to power. Article 129lb of the Criminal Code, which banned love between persons of the same gender, both men and women, was introduced in 1852 and abolished only in 1971.

The »Third Reich« brought a massive intensification in the persecution of homosexuals as a result of the völkische (nationalistic-racial) ideology of the Nazis – homosexuality was a »disease,« which would infect more and more German men. The Nazis wanted population growth and considered homosexuality as a kind of unexploded bomb in terms of infection.

The police observed meetings and places where homosexuals met and carried out house searches. Denunciation was quite common on the part of neighbors, work colleagues, spouses, and other family members. Those affected faced the threat of severe prison sentences or were sent to concentration camps, subjected to pseudo-medical experiments, many of them were murdered.

Homosexuals who survived had no entitlement to compensation until 1995 (establishment of the National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism).