The Teichmanns become even more concerned when they learn that Manfred has introduced Klaus to the antique dealer Boris Winkler, who hosts decadent all-male get-togethers at his home, featuring avant-garde electronic music and freestyle wrestling by scantily clad young men.

When Werner and Christa Teichmann get wind of this, they visit a psychologist, who cautions them that their son is in danger of being turned into a homosexual and that his parents should encourage him to socialize with girls his age.

It was the aim of Hans Giese [de], a homosexual emancipation activist who served as scientific advisor to the film, to shift public opinion toward reforming and liberalizing the law.

It was Veit Harlan, of all people, the protégé of Joseph Goebbels and director of the classic anti-Semitic propaganda film Jud Süß (1940), who in 1957 sought to rehabilitate his reputation by taking on a particularly touchy topic: the case of a mother who successfully and even heroically "saves" her son from homosexuality only to be prosecuted for procuring.

Different from You and Me was not just a remarkably frank film about homosexuality, a topic which was still highly taboo at this time, but also a moral challenge to the outmoded German law against procuring.

[1] The film is based on a screenplay written by Felix Lützkendorf [de] entitled Eltern klagen an (Parents Accuse), which was intended to serve as a warning about the dangers supposedly presented by homosexuality.

"[2][3] The film was shot between May 8 and June 3, 1957, and premiered in several Viennese cinemas on August 29, 1957, with the original title The Third Sex (German: Das dritte Geschlecht).

Harlan's attempt to polish his reputation by creating a forward-looking, enlightened film that challenged antiquated laws against "vice" ultimately backfired.

The scene where the psychologist, played by Hans Schumm, consults with Klause's parents, Werner and Christa Teichmann, is replaced with a scene where the psychologist is played by a different actor (although Schumm is credited in the opening), and consulting only with the mother, Christa: The sexual encounter between Klaus and Gerda was greatly shortened in comparison with either the Austrian version or the (tamer) West German version.