It was 5 years ago when we had a guest on the show that blew our mind. He told us of a little known German man – Karl-Heinrich Ulrichs. And what was special about Karl? Well he was a German lawyer and jurist, and the first openly gay activist of the modern era. In 1867, when same-sex attraction was taboo and the term ‘homosexuality’ didn’t even exist, he argued publicly that same sex attracted people should be treated the same as everyone else.

And Ulrichs was not alone. His followers were called Urnings and for almost 40 years, that became the main word same-sex attracted men in Germany went by. They became perhaps the first queer political movement. To find out about the earliest of queer rights, we are joined tonight by Dr Douglas Pretsell – Doctoral Candidate in History at La Trobe University and author of the thesis titled – ‘The Age of the Urning: Queer Identities and Advocacy in Germany, 1864−1897’.