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I hope no-one minds me resurrecting this thread, but I am able to add some points that might be of interest.

The german DVD of the film in the edition filmmuseum series allows us to watch the film in two ways. The film was banned in 1920 in Germany, except for screening for the health profession. In 1927, the film was re-edited into a portmanteau film entitled Gesetz der Liebe. It is the re-edited footage that exists today and was found in Russia i believe in the 1980s. The German DVD has the reconstruction of the original film (Anders als die Andern) in the same form as the Kino issue, but it also has the re-edited segment from the later film which tells the story chronologically rather than through flashbacks - which makes for quite a different experience. Vito Russo in the 1980s claimed that Gesetz der Liebe was a remake of the film, but we now know this was not the case. The 1919 film was made during a short period when German film censorship was abandoned, and it was when censorship was brought back (partly because of so-called riots at screenings of the film) that the film got banned. There are clear moments within the footage we have now that are concessions to censors. In the school sequence, Paul bends down to kiss his friend when he is upset - but we only see him bending down to him and then getting up again. Inbetween is an intertitle that my research suggests would not have been there in the original version. So, the kiss is implied but not actually seen.

Pulp, I don't think you are correct in saying that all that is left of the film is the tragedy. The film was made in order to try to encourage a change to the law in Germany (as Victim was in some respects). Therefore, the somewhat more pleasant aspects of gay life were unlikely to have been portrayed as it would have defeated the object. The film was made in order to say "life for these people is bad because of the law", and so happy moments within the film were never going to be plentiful. We should remember how positive this film was, though - especially for 1919. Hirschfeld's comments must have been revelatory to many viewers at that point in time. Through intertitles he says "You mustn’t think poorly of your son because he is a homosexual. He is not at all to blame for his orientation. It is neither a vice nor a crime, indeed, not even an illness, but instead a variation, one of the borderline cases that occur so frequently in nature. Your son suffers not from his condition, but rather from the false judgement of it. This is the legal and social condemnation of his feelings along with widespread misconceptions about their expression. "

The film wasn't made in a vacuum either. In 1916 in Sweden, Mauritz Stiller had adapted the gay-themed novel, Mikael, for the screen under the title Vingarne - which is now regarded as the first gay-themed feature film. Again, this only survives in fragmentary form. It has been shown publicly twice this year already, so I wonder if a DVD issue is imminent. The same novel was remade by Dreyer in 1924 in Germany. Although we view that film now as a "gay-themed" film, my time trawling through contemporary posters, pressbooks, programmes etc showed that in none of the publicity materials of the time were the two male leads pictured together and there is nothing to suggest this is anything other than a heterosexual romance. In 1921, Asta Nielsen, female, played Hamlet as a woman pretending to be a man. In the film, Horatio gets very confused and concerned when he falls in love with her because he thinks she is a he! Also, in 1928, a film was made called (in English) Sex In Chains, which campaigns for better rights for prisoners - because if they don't have time alone with their loves then they turn to gay sex.

As for Oswald, he had quite a long career, and while his work was often workmanlike he was more competent than anyone watching Anders would give him credit for. He was an early user of the portmanteau structure and may well have been part of the reason why it became popular during the 1920s, particularly in germany. I'm sure many here will know of his Weird Tales/Uncanny Tales from 1919 (featuring locations and cast members from Anders) which he also remade in 1932, but in 1916 he had produced the similarly structured Hoffmann's Tales - and of course Gesetz der Liebe which I have discussed above. His epic Lucrezia Borgia from 1922 (also with Veidt) is rather good and is well worth a look and currently available via Grapevine.