Section 175 of the Criminal Code was relaxed for persons over 21 years in East Germany in 1968, with West Germany following suit in 1969. However, although this meant that homosexual activity between men was decriminalized, it was not made legal.

In 1968, East Germany decriminalised homosexuality. However it remained illegal in West Germany until 1969.

After World War II, the Nazi-era version of Section 175 remained in force in both East and West Germany. Punishments included imprisonment, however, the death penalty was no longer applied.

East Germany would decriminalise homosexuality in 1968 followed by West Germany the next year.

Section 175 of the Criminal Code was amended during Nazi rule to create harsher penalties for homosexual behavior between men. Imprisonment was to range from three months to ten years in prison. Many homosexual men died in the Nazi concentration camps they were sent to.

Section 175 of the Criminal Code of the German Empire criminalized homosexual activity between men over the age of 18.
The penalty was imprisonment or a loss of civil rights.

Germany recognizes civil unions and provides tax benefits to couples in a civil union.

Following the amendment of the Act on the Amendment of Names and Sex Determination in Special Cases, known as the Law on Transsexuality (1981) by Judgment No. 1 BvR 3295/07 (2011) of the Federal Constitutional Court, the criteria for changing the name or both the name and the gender marker were unified. Currently, the law requires applicants to (i) prove that "due to their transsexual status, they do not feel comfortable with their sex registered at birth", (ii) they have lived for at least three years "in accordance with the gender they identify with" and (iii) that their "situation of transexuality is foreseeably stable". This procedure is carried out before a municipal judge, which has to verify that these requirements are met by subjecting the applicant to an examination carried out by two expert witnesses "specialised in transsexualism". (ILGA)

In 2017, the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSJ) commissioned the Humboldt University in Berlin to prepare an expert opinion on the "need for regulation and reform for transgender people".
It found that the current assessment procedure is in many cases characterized by disproportionate time and expense as well as degrading and discriminatory experiences and violates the fundamental rights of the applicants.

The non-governmental organization Deutsche Gesellschaft für Transidentität und Intersexualität e.V. (dgti) issues a supplemental ID card which contains one's self-chosen first names, pronouns and gender before a legal name change has taken place. It is known and accepted by German ministries, the police, and many authorities. The supplemental ID card is often a condition to correct one's name at, among others, schools, universities, banks and insurance companies. In five German states, references to the ID have been included in coronavirus ordinances and associated explanations to recognize it as an identification document, e.g., together with vaccination certificates.
It has a special status of recognition in Germany. The legal basis of the supplemental ID card is the implementation of the request of the European Parliament, communicated in the 11th legislative period of the German parliament.

When the Self-Identification law was introduced, people who went through this old process could apply for a monetary compensation.

Section 8 § 1 of the German Transsexuellengesetz (Transsexuals Act of September 10, 1980) states that transgender people can change their first names and gender entry under the condition of gender-affirming surgery, sterilization, and divorce.

During the Nazi regime, transgender people were targeted repeatedly and were de facto criminalised under Paragraphs 175 and 183, which were used to prosecute people for homosexuality or cross-dressing. Previously respected "transvestite passes" which exempted trans people from Paragraph 183 were promptly ignored and revoked.

Trans people would also be targeted in the Holocaust although they were often grouped as gay men, leaving the death toll of trans victims unknown.

However some trans people could avoid the worst of Nazi persecution provided they were not Jewish and weren't considered homosexual (which was based on the assumption of an attraction to the birth sex they were assigned as). An example includes a transgender lesbian known as R. who was considered to be Aryan, non-homosexual and a good worker by the Nazis and got arrested in 1938 but released two years later under the assumption she would detransition. However she did not and was then forced to undergo conversion therapy until her death in 1943.

After the fall of the Nazis, Germany did not grant legal gender recognition until 1980.

From 1908 until 1933, transvestite passes were handed out to trans and cross-dressing Germans as a de facto recognition of their gender identity or expression. However there were no known provisions that legally changed one's gender. These were revoked when the Nazis came to power.

With the rise of the Nazi regime, transgender healthcare was banned, and the Berlin Institute for Sexual Science was closed and destroyed, it was the only institute offering gender-affirming care.

In 1919, the non-profit foundation Institute for Sexual Science was founded in Berlin by Magnus Hirschfeld, becoming the first sexology research centre in the world.

The institute provided a range of endocrinologic and surgical services, including an early form of modern sex reassignment surgery in 1931. Ludwig Levy-Lenz, the institute's primary surgeon for transgender patients, pioneered early facial feminisation and masculinization procedures, alongside developing hair removal treatments utilizing the institute's X-ray facility.

The Civil Status Act (PStG) was amended to include Parapraph 45b to allow intersex people to identify themselves as "diverse" ("divers") or remove the gender entry.

Non-binary genders are not recognized.

Same-sex couples in Germany can legally adopt a step-child, biological or not of the other partner.

Until 2021, intersex infants were not protected from unnecessary surgical genital modification in Germany.

On September 24, 2021, new guidelines were introduced. Men in monogamous relationships with men can donate blood with no deferral.

However, men who have sex with men outside of a monogamous relationship still face a 4 month deferral.

A 1-year deferral was in effect.

Banned up until 2017.