Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet on Wednesday approved a measure to wipe the criminal records of gay men convicted under a Nazi-era law, and offer them compensation. The proposal was presented by Justice Minister Heiko Maas, and would offer gay men convicted under the law a lump sum of €3,000 as well as an additional €1,500 for each year they spent in prison and thus “suffered a deprivation of liberty”. The measure marks a triumph for activists after a decades-long struggle to clear the names of gay men who lived with a criminal record under Article 175 of the penal code....
