The amazing story of the German author and filmmaker Sebastian Bleisch

In the 1990s, Sebastian Bleisch [real name Norbert Bleisch] made himself a name as a gay pornographer. His movies were ambitious; they always followed an advanced script - for the genre, that is - and featured plenty of dialogue. But most of all, they featured boys. Lots of boys. Barely legal and, as it would turn out, illegal teenage boys. Mr Bleisch was busted in 1996 and had to serve two and a half years in prison for making underage boys have sex in front of the camera and each other.

The interesting part of this story though, is not the bust itself, but the fact that Sebastian Bleisch was allowed to make his movies for many years, despite everyone knew what was going on. Not only the 160 boys who acted in his movies, but the whole city of Schwerin seemed to be involved, if so only by silently looking away while the boys did "their thing".

This fascinating story is told in detail in the book Der Oscar Wilde of Schwerin by Frank Goyke and Andreas Schmidt, published in 1998 and very hard to get nowadays. The authors have not only interviewed Bleisch himself and his distributor, but also some of the boys and their parents. [...]

And even though one shouldn't romanticize, it seems that the boys too had quite a good time, judging from the interviews. Let's hear what some of the boys say:

How was your relation to Norbert? Matthias P, 18: "It was pretty good. Norbert was basically never in a bad mood, he was always pretty cool. He always has these eccentric ideas at the shooting. The relation to him was actually always quite good. One could always talk honestly with him, you know, because he also gave you honest answers. That's not too bad."

Bastian M, 17: "He's really like a buddy to me. I can talk to him about things that I don't talk to others about. I tell him there's something on my mind and he asks what it is. So I tell him what it's about, I always had some problems, but he said it was alright. I can always work things out with him. Never ever had a problem with him."

Could one describe your relation as a friendship? Andy K, 19: "Yeah definitely, a friendship. It has sort of built up over time, the friendship."

What is your relation to Norbert after the verdict? Christian J, 16: "Cordial. Very good, like between good friends, very good friends."

The authors quote from the verdict that says that Bleisch "ruthlessly used the developing sexuality of these youths, their curiosity, disorientation and natural urge to assert themselves", then laconically note that "the abused call the abuser a good friend".

source: Article 'The amazing story of the German author and filmmaker Sebastian Bleisch' by Karl Andersson; The Lover, issue 01, October 2015