The German Bundestag has accepted a petition outlining children’s rights which was drafted by men involved in a pro-pedophilia activist organization. Krumme-13, a lobby group which advocates for lowering the age of consent and legalizing child pornography, announced on its website that a resolution developed by the group’s founder, Dieter Gieseking, had achieved enough votes to be added to the constitution, or Basic Law.
Gieseking’s petition amends Article 6 of the Basic Law to add statements regarding children’s rights, and states that “children should be viewed as legal subjects with their own rights.” It was first submitted to the Bundestag on May 22, 2019, and has been the subject of lengthy review process.
Among the rights listed within the petition’s text is the assertion that children have “the right to have a say in all matters that affect their emotional, mental and physical well-being,” and “the right to the free development of their personality.”
“Sexual self-determination” is included in Article 2 of the Basic Law under the phrase “free development of personality,” a fact that Gieseking made certain to point out to his followers on his website.
As a reference, the petition as well as the German Bundestag both cite the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Typically, a petition to amend the national constitution must gather the support of more than 50,000 citizens. However, Gieseking was informed by the Petitions Committee that a decision had been reached on February 14, 2021, to bring the pro-pedophile group’s petition to a vote alongside similar petitions on children’s rights that were being considered.
This grouping of multiple petitions was formally finalized on October 11. Due to the petitions being considered as a bundle, when representatives voted during the October 19 session, neither Gieseking’s name nor the title of his organization, Krumme-13 (K13), appears on the Bundestag website for that day.
Instead, the pro-pedophile group’s demands to add “children’s rights” to the constitution is listed under the numeric code 20/8782, petition 4-19-07-10000-043821.
In order to be approved, at least two-thirds of the vote was needed. It was supported by representatives of the Socialist Democrats, Free Democratic Party, and Green Party.
The amendment on “children’s rights” is one of several petitions that Gieseking has submitted to the government, but the first to have been voted on and accepted. Initially the proposal was included alongside statements calling for the recognition of pedophilia as a sexual identity.
“In addition to all of the proposed children’s rights, sexual self-determination must also be protected and included in the Basic Law,” reads a K13 blog post about the petition dated July 2022.
“Pedophilia must also be included in sexual identity. Pedophiles in particular must be fundamentally protected from discrimination in the Basic Law. And this is completely independent of sexual criminal law. The vast majority of the estimated 250,000 pedophiles do not commit any of these types of crimes. Pedophilia is a separate sexual identity.”
The activists have been demanding that the “pedophile [sexual] identity” be “protected from discrimination, criminalization, exclusion and persecution” under Germany’s equality laws.
The German language does not distinguish between biological sex and the concept of socially constructed gender. The word Geschlecht is used interchangeably for both, and Geschlechtsidentität is the equivalent of the term “gender identity” and “sexual identity.” Therefore, the demands of trans activists to include “gender identity” as a protected characteristic share a linguistic overlap with the stated political aims of the pro-pedophile activists.
Through K13, Gieseking and his supporters lobby for lowering the age of consent and legalizing child pornography. K13 also campaigns for decriminalizing sexual relations between adults and children.
“Legalizing clearly self-determined sexuality between older people and those under 14 is the best protection against actual sexual violence against children,” Gieseking wrote in another petition to the government, while calling for the abolition of Sections 176 [Sexual Abuse of Children] and 188 [Dissemination, Acquisition and Possession of Child Pornographic Content] of the legal code. Gieseking advocates for a distinction to be made between “sexual consent” and “sexual violence” when it comes to sexual acts between adults and children. As it is his belief that children can consent to sex with adults, he promotes the view that only the latter should be criminalized.
Gieseking, a 68-year-old former Federal Border Guard official, founded K13 in Trier in 1993 and promoted the group as a “self-help” organization for “pedosexuals.” He has been repeatedly charged with the possession of child pornography.
In 1996, Gieseking was sentenced to eighteen months, for which he served one year in prison, on charges related to operating a mail order child pornography service from a van. In 2003, Gieseking again appeared in court accused of possession of child sexual abuse materials obtained between July 1999 and January 2001. The pornography was found on Gieseking’s computer after a search of his residence in August 2001. His devices contained a total of 216 image files of naked children, and he was sentenced to eight months in prison.
At the time, Gieseking was also accused of linking to a child pornography page on his website. This link was discovered by jugendschutz.net, an organization set up by the federal government to protect minors online.
In a 2014 interview with Taz Online, Gieseking called for lowering the age of consent to 12 years of age, and said that adult sexual interactions with toddlers would have to be “discussed separately.”
“The taboo of pedophilia must finally be broken at all levels of society. If a pedophile can come out without fear of exclusion or even demonization, then this is the best prevention against child abuse,” Gieseking told the outlet.
“For babies and toddlers and elementary school students, the sexual component in such a ‘relationship’ is problematic. This would have to be discussed separately. From a sexual policy perspective, an age of consent (age of consent) of 12 is appropriate and long overdue in today’s enlightened society. There are boys and girls who take the initiative in a friendly and sexual relationship with a pedosexual. Therefore, there is a need for sexual criminal law reform that does justice to everyone involved.”
Women’s rights campaigner Rona Duwe, who has been repeatedly targeted for questioning what she sees as possible connections between pro-pedophilia activism and transgender activism, told Reduxx that the situation was “worrying.”
“Despite the exposure of organized child abuse in Germany only a few years ago and the research on the Kentler network – political interests and goals of pedo activists continue to find their way into legislative processes,” Duwe said, referencing sexologist Helmut Kentler’s infamous experiment, approved by the Berlin senate, which saw foster children placed in the homes of pedophiles.
“Some of the same actors are involved here as in the 1980s, and they also use the same strategies to silence opponents. Queer politics, with its demands, opens up new possibilities for these circles of perpetrators to make their interests heard and to give them a serious veneer. Demands such as ‘sexual identity in the Basic Law’ already existed in 2010, but at that time this demand was rightly rejected,” Duwe explained.
“In 2023, a petition by a criminal pedo activist, who makes no secret of his interests, makes it to the committees of the Bundestag. Pedo activists have always abused children’s rights to achieve their own goals. Through the contributions on K13 it is also possible to understand why a self-determination law is welcomed by people like Dieter Gieseking and why these are by no means fantasies of feminists: A self-determination law that leaves children to decide their gender identity opens the door for further demands of alleged ‘sexual self-determination’ of children, but which in reality benefit perpetrators.”
Last July, K13 boasted that members of their group displayed a “MAP flag” during one of Europe’s largest Pride celebrations in Cologne. “MAP” is an acronym used in some pro-pedophile circles which stands for “minor-attracted person.”
At the Pride event in Cologne, pro-pedophile activists also carried signs opposing their “censorship” by the organization Queer.de and advocated for a “diversity of opinions” within the LGBT community.
Last month, K13 endorsed Germany’s new gender self-identification law, stating that “trans kids” are “politically important” for advancing pedophile rights. Gieseking directed K13 members to watch a movie about an 8-year-old boy who is transitioned to live as a “girl.”
“Why is gender identity also politically important for pedophiles/pedosophists?” K13 asked. “Gender and sexual identity does not only begin on the 14th birthday, when the so-called protection age limit ends. Children can and want to experience their childhood sexuality self-determined beforehand.”
Notably, Gieseking has mocked lesbians and feminists on the K13 website, stating: “The ethos of feminism and lesbians becomes clear… they ignorantly claim there are no consensual sexual relationships between adults and children.”