Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in Germany rank among the highest in the world and have evolved significantly over the course of the last decades. During the 1920s and the early 1930s, lesbian and gay people in Berlin were generally tolerated by society and many bars and clubs specifically pertaining to gay men were opened. Although same-sex sexual activity between men was already made illegal under Paragraph 175 by the German Empire in 1871, Nazi Germany extended these laws during World War II, which resulted in the persecution and deaths of thousands of homosexual citizens. The Nazi extensions were repealed in 1960 and same-sex sexual activity between men was decriminalized in both East and West Germany in 1968 and 1969, respectively.
Bunte is a German-language weekly celebrity gossip magazine published by Hubert Burda Media. The first edition was published in 1948 under the name Das Ufer. Under the leadership of Hubert Burda, Bunte developed into a modern popular magazine. In 2014, Bunte was the 11th most popular media brand in Germany, with 10.57 million monthly users. After Patricia Riekel stepped down, Robert Pölzer took over as Editor-in-Chief in July 2016.
Hubert Burda Media Holding is a German media group with headquarters in Offenburg. It originated as a small printing business, founded by Franz Burda Snr in Philippsburg, in 1903.
Hubert Burda is a German billionaire publisher. He is the owner, publisher and general partner of Hubert Burda Media, a global media company of more than 600 media products, including websites, print magazines and other brands. It operates in 20 countries, predominantly in Germany and the UK. Its brands include Focus, Bunte and Radio Times.
Focus is a German-language news magazine published by Hubert Burda Media. Established in 1993 as an alternative to the Der Spiegel weekly news magazine, since 2015 the editorial staff has been headquartered in Germany's capital of Berlin. Alongside Spiegel and Stern, Focus is one of the three most widely circulated German weeklies. The concept originated from Hubert Burda and Helmut Markwort, who went from being Editor-in-chief to become publisher in 2009 and since 2017 has been listed in the publication's masthead as founding editor-in-chief. As of March 2016 the editor-in-chief of Focus was Robert Schneider.
Hans Karl Breslauer, born Johann Karl Breslauer, later often known as H. K. Breslauer, was an early Austrian film director, also an actor, screenwriter and author.
Kai Diekmann is a German businessman and former journalist. From 1998 until 2000 he was editor of Welt am Sonntag. From January 2001 to December 2015 he was chief editor of Bild. He is also a member of the executive board of the Turkish daily Hürriyet.
Richard Allen Grenell is an American political operative, diplomat, TV personality, and public relations consultant who served as Acting Director of National Intelligence in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet in 2020. A member of the Republican Party, Grenell served as the United States Ambassador to Germany from 2018 to 2020 and as the Special Presidential Envoy for Serbia and Kosovo Peace Negotiations from 2019 to 2021.
The Internationaler Sozialistischer Kampfbund or ISK was a socialist split-off from the SPD during the Weimar Republic and was active in the German Resistance against Nazism.
Franz Burda was a German publisher. He inherited his father's publishing business, which he developed into what is now the Hubert Burda Media conglomerate.
Jens Georg Spahn is a German politician who served as Federal Minister of Health in the fourth cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2018 to 2021. A member of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he has been the member of the lower house of the federal parliament, the Bundestag, for Steinfurt I – Borken I since 2002.
Gottfried Hermann Gröhe is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as Minister of Health in the third cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2013 until 2018.
Daniel Freund is a German politician who has been serving as a member of the European Parliament since July 2019. He is a member of the Alliance 90/The Greens at the national level and sits with the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance in the European Parliament.
Philipp Amthor is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been a member of the Bundestag since the 2017 German federal election. From 2018 to 2020, he worked as a lobbyist for the now inactive IT-company Augustus Intelligence.
Kai Wegner is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as Governing Mayor of Berlin since April 2023. He served as a member of the Bundestag, the German federal parliament, from 2005 to 2021. In 2019, he became the chairman of the CDU in Berlin.
Thomas Heilmann is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Born in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, he has served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Berlin since 2017.
Michael Hennrich is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Baden-Württemberg from 2002 to 2023.
Mario Czaja is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as a member of the German Bundestag since the 2021 elections.
Franz Josef Wagner is a German author and journalist. He was editor-in-chief of Bild, Germany's largest newspaper, launched Elle magazine's German edition, and has written a number of books, one of which was adapted for television.
