"" (German for "The Lavender Song") is a German cabaret song written in 1920 with lyrics by and music by Mischa Spoliansky and is considered one of the first gay anthems.
The song is a product of Germany's Weimar Republic, during which time lesbians and gay men enjoyed a short period of improvement in quality of life when the government established basic democratic rights that covered the LGBT community and abolished censorship.
The song was written after the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute for Sexual Science) under Magnus Hirschfeld made worldwide news with its "First International Conference for Sexual Reform" which called for regulations on sexual behavior to be based on science instead of religion or other unscientific tradition.
The first line of the chorus, "Anders als die Andern" (English: different from the others) is the same as the title of a 1919 gay rights film issued by Magnus Hirschfeld. This has been seen as the affirmation of a differentiated queer identity outside the hetereosexual mainstream.[1]
de:Anno Mungen
. Sheila Whiteley. Jennifer Rycenga. 'Anders als die Anderen', or Queering the Song Construction and Representation of Homosexuality in German Cabaret Song Recordings before 1933. Queering the Popular Pitch. 2006. New York and Milton Park. Routledge. 978-0-415-97805-7. 67–82 (68).