The first openly gay feature film was the 1919 German picture Different from the Others by Richard Oswald. It tells the story of Paul Körner, a successful violinist who falls in love with one of his male students. When Körner’s sexuality is made public, his career is ruined and he commits suicide. In a Weimar Republic where homosexuality was illegal, this sympathetic portrayal of the subject is strikingly before its time – America would not produce an equivalent picture for more than 50 years. Sadly, prints of the film were burnt by the Nazis and only one fragmented copy survives today. Different from the Others is a landmark picture in the history of gay cinema. Körner’s screen suicide reflects the fate of gay cinema for years to come.