Excerpt from a letter by the leader of the Berlin homosexual department

This is an excerpt of a letter by Bernhard Strewe, head of the Berlin homosexual department, dated March 28, 1934. The letter is part of the name change file of transmasculine florist *Gerd Böhnke. Strewe confirmed to the Interior Ministry clerk, responsible for name changes, that, since 1933, “transvestite licences” were no longer being issued.

Even though permission to wear the preferred clothing was occasionally granted during the Nazi regime, Strewe's letter shows that the issuance of the licences in their classic form was stopped. This meant that those affected probably no longer had a document that was useful in everyday life. Regarding the decision on Böhnke's name change, the Interior Ministry clerk reported to the State Secretary two months after Strewe's letter:

“In addition, the police chief used to issue such people a so-called transvestite licence. However, in connection with the other measures to combat moral decay that were taken after the National Socialist movement seized power, the police chief abandoned the latter exercise. Nevertheless, the police headquarters officer supports the name change in this matter.”

The licences were already used by the police in the Weimar Republic to register and monitor trans people. The name change file of the presumably intersex office worker *Gerd Diede from 1933 shows that the Berlin homosexual department continued to “monitor transvestites” despite stopping to issue the licences. In Hamburg the licences were probably still issued until 1936.