LGBTQ culture in Berlin

Berlin was the capital city of the German Empire from 1871 to 1945, its eastern part the de facto capital of East Germany from 1949 to 1990, and has been the capital of the unified Federal Republic of Germany since June, 1991. The city has an active LGBTQ community with a long history. Berlin has many LGBTIQ+ friendly districts, though the borough of Schöneberg is widely viewed both locally and by visitors as Berlin's gayborhood. Particularly the boroughs North-West near Nollendorfplatz identifies as Berlin's "Regenbogenkiez" (Rainbow District), with a certain concentration of gay bars near and along Motzstraße and Fuggerstraße. Many of the decisive events of what has become known as Germany's second LGBT movement (the first beginning roughly in the 1860s and ending abruptly in 1933) take place in the West Berlin boroughs of Charlottenburg, Schöneberg, and Kreuzberg beginning in 1971 with the formation of the Homosexuelle Aktion Westberlin [de; es; ru] (HAW). Whereas in East Berlin the district of Prenzlauer Berg became synonymous with the East Germany LGBT movement beginning in 1973 with the founding of the HIB (Homosexuelle Interessengemeinschaft Berlin [de]). Schöneberg's gayborhood has a lot to offer for locals and tourists alike, and caters to, and is particularly popular with gay men.
Berlin's large LGBT events such as the Lesbian and Gay City Festival, Easter Berlin Leather and Fetish Week, Folsom Europe, and CSD center around Schöneberg, with related events taking place city-wide during these events. Nevertheless, with roughly 180 years of LGBTIQ+ history, and a very large community made up of members with very varied biographies, it is hard to find a place in Berlin completely without LGBT culture past or present. Berlin's present-day neighborhoods with a certain concentration of LGBTIQ+ oriented culture vary somewhat in terms of history, demography, and where the emphasis in each neighborhoods' queer culture falls along the LGBTIQ+ spectrum. Over the course of its nearly two centuries of queer history (herstory), definitions not with standing, Berlin's LGBTIQ+ culture has never ceased to change, not only in appearance and self-understanding, but also in where the centers of queer culture were located in the city.
Berlin has a long history of LGBT culture and activism. By the 1920s the city had a reputation, among insiders at least, for being relatively LGBT friendly. By that time LGBT-oriented publications and organizations already existed in Berlin. The world's first gay magazine, Der Eigene (The Unique) was published in Berlin beginning in 1896. Magnus Hirschfeld, a German physician, founded the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee (German: Wissenschaftlich-Humanitäres Kommittee (WHK)) in May 1897 in the context of his Institute for the Science of Sexuality. Though there are earlier German proponents of decriminalization and de-stigmatization of romantic love and sex between men (Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825-1895) is often mentioned in this context), the WHK was the first to do so in a collaborative and organized fashion. The Scientific-Humanitarian Committee was also the first not to concern itself only with men's sexuality and gender. The WHK took a liberal, scientific, and legalistic approach to what now would be called LGBT-activism. Hirschfeld and his peers used other terms at the time and viewed themselves as reformers. Men of letters and breeding like Hirschfeld or Ulrichs invented their own terms based on Greek mythology or scientific Latin.
Words like "gay" or its German counterpart "schwul" are words historically alluding to prostitution and things associated with it, and so to an extent even to the present day not deemed appropriate for "scientific" parlance. "Activist" is the vocabulary of the workers' movement, of which neither Ulrichs nor Hirschfeld were an active part. Such or similar vocabulary might have been used by some of Hirschfelds patients and objects of study, but he and his peers were, to their own minds scientists, reformers, "Urnings" (a term coined by Ulrichs), or "members of a third sex" (a phrase coined by Elsa Asenijeff popularized by Ernst von Wolzogen in his eponymous 1899 novel), to name just a few phrases that could have been used at the time without causing more offense than the very idea of "such things" generally caused at the time, and for quite some there after.
Schöneberg's gay nightlife in the 1920s and 1930s has become the stuff of legends. Schöneberg's nightspots catered to LGBT clientele as well as to curious Moderns seeking the risqué and the "unusual". Bars, cabarets, and ballrooms offered same-sex dancing, cross-dressing, racy shows, exotic dancers, and prostitutes seemingly willing to satisfy any imaginable desire to regulars and diversion seekers just coming to look, marvel, and titter. Visitors at the time, steeped in Victorian and Wilhelmine prudery, were reminded of the biblical "Babylon". But, the 1920s and early 1930s were a time of rapid cultural change. It was an era in which the unimaginable horrors of World War I had called into question formerly held truths and presumptions, and discredited the old order. Experimentation of all kinds was not only possible but the order of the day. Ideas, and forms of expression affecting everything from how people imagined the state and societal norms, to artistic expression in all fields including the relatively new art form, film, to how people dressed, moved, styled their hair, even the shape of everyday items were up for debate. Non-heterosexual people were poised and ready to throw themselves wholeheartedly into this atmosphere of anything goes. The names, images, and ideas that gain prominence in this period go on to influence what we today call "queer sensibility". People viewed as freaks, and poor wretches deserving of sympathy at best before WWI begin to radically self-define and demand to be seen and taken seriously. But also ideas about living together change radically: The labor movement calls the bourgeois family model into question from a leftist perspective, while liberal minded bosses and industrialists begin to see the charm of women in the work force from a business management point of view. A women living without having to depend on a man's income (and without having to eke out an existence in the "shadow economy") becomes a real possibility. Marriage, child raising, systems of kinship and how societies "should" work, were all up for negotiation in many places after The Great War, but especially in Berlin.
Many artists, actors, writers and thinkers who are household names to this day get there starts in Berlin of the 20s and 30s. Cabaret singer Claire Waldoff and actress Marlene Dietrich and many more are frequent guests and performers in Berlin's many famous, notorious, and infamous establishments. The first gay demonstration ever also started in Berlin in 1922. The Reichstag nearly decriminalized homosexuality in 1929, but the time was not opportune for change of this kind. In February 1933 a coalition of former nobility, industry moguls and those who pined for the old order essentially handed the chancellorship over to Hitler and his NSDAP. The SA in collaboration with the police then immediately began bullying and intimidating Social Democrats, communists, and anyone else they saw fit to. Homosexual men, as well as women who did not look or act the part the Nazis had chosen for "the German woman" were ideal targets for this kind of "sanitizing" operation. The mysterious Reichstag fire gave the now NSDAP lead parliament the wherewithal to suspend civil liberties, and parliamentarianism indefinitely, essentially making Adolf Hitler the Generalissimo of the Reich. The Eldorado, having gained notoriety beyond the city limits of Berlin, had already been the target of raids ordered by the new police chief before the Nazis were officially in power in 1932. It now was hurriedly turned into an SA base and torture house, and things got quiet around Nollendorfplatz. But the Eldorado eventually re-opened under the watchful eye of the Gestapo and things almost went back to normal. When the wealth tourists came for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, there was much praise form all sides about how Hitler had "cleaned Berlin up", and what a "safe" city Berlin had become, how he and his Brownshirts had "put Germans back to work, and how grand it all was. What went unnoticed by many was what was no longer to be seen. Communists, social democrats and other dissidents, and those who by NS standards had been labeled "undesirables" had been either tortured to death by the SA [de] in cooperation with the regular police force, incarcerated, or had fled the country. Any reference to their having existed was erased. The sacking of Magnus Hirschfeld's villa and institute on In den Zelten [de] on May 6, 1933 (incidentally not by the SA but by organized members of the student body of the university with the explicit backing of the faculty who marched the bust of Dr. Hirschfeld stolen from Hirschfeld's institute down Unter-den-Linden to the May 10, 1933 book burning Opernplatz themselves wearing their full academic regalia), is only one example of the fascist purge that began with the Reichstag Fire as a justification only one month after the government had been handed over to Hitler's Nazis. So thorough was the Nazi purge against real and presumed adversaries of the new German government, that those histories that were not lost forever, had to be painstakingly pieced back together after 1945. So to the history of the first gay movement. The works, the biography, the very existence of one even so prominent and prolific as Magnus Hirschfeld had to be reconstructed in minute archival work beginning in the 1970s. This can largely be credited to the activists of the Verlag rosa Winkel [de; es] publishing house, established in 1975 in West Berlin by activists of the Homosexuelle Aktion Westberlin [de; es; ru] (HAW).
Of the millions of people killed in German SA dungeons, work camps, through slave labor, and in exterminations camps between 1933 and 1945 several thousand were men who had been sentenced according to section 175 of the Reichs Criminal Code. About 6000 were actually interned to camps. The death rate is presumed to be high. Reliable numbers are not available. Fear of re-incarceration upon the liberation of the camps was great, and proved to be sadly justified. The number of queer women interned during the Nazi period is the subject of great debate in the present. As there were no explicit laws against women having sex with women, or against exhibiting non-gender-conforming behavior, law enforcers had to find other ways to criminalize queer women. Women could be incarcerated for so-called anti-social behavior. The definition of what this constituted was extremely vague. Many thousands of people were arrested on the basis of laws against anti-social behavior. Here again, reliable numbers are not available.
The Memorial to Homosexuals Persecuted Under Nazism is across in the Große Tiergarten across Ebertstraße from Peter Eisenman's Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, and down the road from the Porajmos memorial (The Memorial to the Sinti and Roma Victims of National Socialism) in Tiergarten.
In 1950 the GDR (East Germany) returned to the pre-NS version of Section 175; Section 175a continued to be applied. From the late 1950s homosexual acts among adults were no longer punishable. In 1968, the GDR enacted a completely new penal code, which made same-sex sexual acts with minors a punishable offense for both women and men in § 151. With effect from July 1, 1989, this paragraph was deleted from the East German law books completely.
For two decades, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) stuck to the versions of Sections 175 and 175a from the National Socialist era. During the period from 1945 to 1969 50,000 men were convicted according to Section 175 in West Germany. That is roughly the same amount of convictions as during the Nazi era. The first reform came in 1969 and the second in 1973. These changes effectively made only sexual acts with males under the age of 18 punishable by law. The age of consent for lesbian and heterosexual acts at the time was 14 years. Only in 1994, four years after the unification of East and West Germany was Section 175 completely repealed for the territory of the old Federal Republic. Those who had punished under the broader version of Section 175 in effect until 1969, and many of whom had suffered imprisonment, and an entry under their names in the national criminal record leading to life-long consequences for their employment and housing situations, were not rehabilitated until 2017. Compensation payments, provide those affected were eligible for them at all and still alive, were negligible. Compensation of 3,000 euros and an additional 1,500 euros "for each year of detention suffered" was only granted to those men who were actually convicted.
The Homosexuelle Aktion Westberlin [de; es; ru] (HAW) (Englisch: Gay Action West Berlin) was the first founded in 1971. In 1985, Berlin opened the world's first gay museum, otherwise known as the Schwules Museum, "an institution dedicated to preserving, exhibiting, and discovering gay and lesbian history, art, and culture". Contemporary Berlin actively promotes tourism in gay neighborhoods, including Schöneberg.
Contemporary LGBTQ culture in Berlin is a vibrant tapestry woven from the historical threads of the city's divided past and the subsequent reunification. Today the obstacles for the community to overcome are very much tied to contemporary issues like the balance of inclusivity and exclusion of diverse identities, migration and gentrification.
While a globally renowned, and at times, infamous openly queer scene existed during pre-war Berlin it would be historically inaccurate to attribute contemporary queer culture to these beginnings. Rather, many sexual and gender minorities left Germany in mass exodus during the Nazi regime, while those who did not were persecuted in concentration camps. Sadly many did not live to tell their tales nor play a role in shaping Berlin’s queer culture. The memory of what once was died with these people, and historians have had to reconstruct representations of this past. This work has been a challenge because much of the documentation of the gay liberation movement given wings by Hirschfeld and his Institute for Sexual Science prior to the first world war was lost. When the Nazis came to power they burned down the Institute and the decades of research it held. This included studies of the first gender affirming surgeries and philosophical argumentation on same-sex attraction as inborn and many more ideas we will never know. While it is tempting to look back at this time and romanticize it, especially for queer readers desperately searching for fuel to imagine a better world, doing so would be presentist. That is, falling prey to the temptation to interpret past events in terms of modern values and concepts. As historian Klaus Mueller argues in Eldorado: Everything the Nazis Hate, “today’s queer Berlin certainly isn’t a continuation in any shape or form of the 1920s. That really was lost. No names. No memory. Nothing.”
Perhaps a more accurate way to conceptualize this pasts’ relation to contemporary Berlin is the cyclical model of history. In this view events and stages of society and history generally repeat themselves in cycles. Queer rights they have historically opened up in Berlin, and then retracted, only to reopen again. Contemporary Berlin is reflective of this reopening period prior to the Nazi regime and GDR.
The evolution of queer life in Berlin has been significantly influenced by the contrasting experiences of East and West Berlin before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. This historical backdrop has shaped the current landscape of LGBTQ identities, communities, and cultural expressions in the city.
In West Berlin, a liberal and open environment fostered a flourishing queer culture from the late 1960s onwards. The city became a haven for LGBTQ individuals, characterized by a plethora of bars, clubs, and cultural events that celebrated diverse sexual identities. The emergence of gay and lesbian activism during this period, particularly in the 1970s, laid the groundwork for a robust community that advocated for rights and visibility. The influence of capitalist consumer society also played a role in shaping queer lifestyles, as commercial spaces began to cater to LGBTQ clientele, further normalizing queer identities within the public sphere.
In contrast, East Berlin's queer culture was marked by repression and secrecy. The German Democratic Republic’s (GDR) policies criminalized homosexuality until 1968, creating an environment where queer individuals had to navigate their identities discreetly. Despite this, underground networks and informal gatherings emerged, allowing for a semblance of community among LGBTQ individuals. From what historians have been able to discern, these spaces took the place of bars hidden behind the mask of a store front, abandoned public restrooms and private spaces. Researchers argue engaging in sexual practices were both a form of resistance and a means of community building. Activism in East Germany, although limited, began to take root in the 1970s, with groups advocating for gay and lesbian rights, albeit under the constant threat of state surveillance. The fall of the Berlin Wall catalyzed a dramatic shift, as East Berliners gained access to the more liberated queer culture of the West, while allowing their own underground community to come to the surface. This led to a blending of communities and spaces.
The AIDS epidemic in Berlin primarily unfolded during the 1980s and 1990s, with significant developments occurring both before and after the reunification of Germany in 1990. The initial emergence of AIDS as a public health crisis began in the early 1980s, a period characterized by a lack of awareness and understanding of the disease, particularly within the gay community, which was disproportionately affected.
Before reunification, Berlin's nightlife and sexual liberation movements created an environment conducive to the spread of HIV. The city's reputation as a hub for sexual exploration and experimentation meant that many individuals engaged in unprotected sex, often without knowledge of the risks associated with HIV.The first cases of AIDS were reported in West Berlin in the early 1980s. Though, this is not to say it is the first place HIV was contracted and led to AIDs. The less tolerant culture toward queer people in the GDR acted as an obstacle for queer people to find help. Thus documentation on the East may be limited. By the mid-1980s, the epidemic had begun to take a significant toll on the gay community, leading to widespread fear and stigma.
In the early years of the epidemic during the 1980s, Berlin's vibrant gay scene became a focal point for HIV/AIDS transmission. The city was known for its open and often hedonistic nightlife, which included numerous bars, clubs, and events that facilitated sexual encounters especially among men who have sex with men (MSM) to whom many of these spaces catered. The lack of awareness about HIV/AIDS in the initial stages of the epidemic contributed to its rapid spread, as many individuals engaged in unprotected sex without understanding the risks involved. The perception of AIDS as a "gay disease" led to significant stigma, which marginalized those affected and complicated public health responses.
During the AIDs epidemic, West Germany held public health campaigns that were inclusive and broad, with slogans like "AIDS geht alle an ("AIDS concerns us all"). This contrasted with East Germany's focus on specific groups, particularly homosexuals, as a "risk group," reflecting different ideological priorities. In the West the affected people’s voices were highlighted through grassroots activism from the gay community to initiate AIDS education campaigns, while East Berlin's efforts were more state-directed and medically oriented. Being part of the Soviet Union, it was a more tightly controlled environment. This contributed to a minimized public hysteria but limited diverse perspectives on the epidemic. In contrast, West Berlin's free press facilitated both critical discussions and sensationalist narratives.
The socio-economic conditions following reunification also facilitated the development of a vibrant clubbing culture. The availability of cheap urban space in the early 1990s allowed for the establishment of numerous underground venues, which became incubators for queer culture and nightlife. As these spaces evolved, they attracted a diverse crowd, including both locals and international visitors, further enriching the cultural fabric of Berlin's nightlife. The adaptability of these venues, often described as part of Berlin's "queer archipelago," has enabled them to thrive despite the pressures of gentrification and changing urban dynamics.
The reunification of Germany catalyzed a cultural renaissance in Berlin, where the influx of new ideas and the dismantling of previous restrictions on sexual expression led to the proliferation of sex-positive clubs. These venues became spaces where queer people could freely explore their sexuality without the fear of persecution that characterized the GDR era. Naturally this provided safe havens for those living in East Berlin to bring their culture of sexual community spaces to the club. The already established queer party culture in the West only further watered this growth. This has created a culture whereby queer individuals express their identities and engage in sexual practices openly across various nightlife venues in Berlin.
The emergence of clubs like Berghain in 1992 and other sex-positive venues can be traced back to this historical context. They provided safe havens for queer individuals to express their identities and engage in sexual practices openly. This culture spoke especially to the hyper-sexual culture of MSM which faced significant repression in the East. This culminated in the emergence of clubs like Berghain hosting a male-only fetish club night called Snax. Snax is still hosted, now biannually.
This environment was particularly welcoming to queer communities, which had long been marginalized. The establishment of venues like Berghain during this period exemplifies how queer culture has influenced the nightlife scene, creating spaces where sexual exploration is not only accepted but celebrated. The club's architecture and atmosphere promote a sense of anonymity and liberation, allowing patrons to engage in sexual encounters without societal judgment.
Furthermore, the reunification of Germany in 1990 brought about significant changes in the LGBTQ landscape. The influx of ideas and practices from West Berlin helped to invigorate queer activism in the East, leading to the establishment of new organizations and events that celebrated LGBTQ identities.
The reunification of Germany in 1990 brought about a shift in the public health landscape, as the newly unified Berlin faced the dual challenges of addressing the ongoing AIDS crisis while integrating the healthcare systems of East and West Germany. The influx of resources and attention to public health issues following reunification allowed for more comprehensive responses to the epidemic. Activism from community organizations gained momentum during this period, advocating for better healthcare access, education, and treatment options.
The introduction of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in the mid-1990s marked a significant turning point in the AIDS epidemic, transforming HIV from a fatal disease to a manageable chronic condition. This medical advancement occurred after reunification, reflecting the broader changes in healthcare policy and public awareness that emerged in response to the crisis. The activism and community mobilization that characterized the AIDS response in Berlin during this time laid the groundwork for ongoing efforts to combat stigma and promote health equity within the queer community.
The roll out of PrEP as a preventative medication has influenced the MSM portion of the LGTBQ+ community. Its introduction would lead to the return to sexual behaviour prior to the virus at least for some of this demographic. While historians debate on argue a return to the past is not possible, rather parallels to the past emerge, PrEP's distribution led to increased condomless anal sex among MSM. The culture has not returned however. Prior to HIV while STIs and STDs were present, members of this group did not view sex as something that could lead to their death. This period has left a ripple of precaution, hesitation and fear among MSM. It likewise led to an increase in stigma towards MSM by associating anal sex and MSM with disease.
The contemporary queer scene in Berlin is characterized by a strong emphasis on critical engagement with inclusivity and intersectionality, reflecting an understanding of LGBTQ identities that encompasses various gender expressions and sexual orientations. This is evident in the rise of queer spaces that cater to marginalized groups within the LGBTQ community, such as people of color and transgender individuals.
Furthermore, the question of inclusion and exclusion in the queer spaces pertaining to nightlife is ever present in Berlin. Places like Lab.Oratory and Boiler historically cater exclusively to male patrons. However, there have been cases where feminine men and gender queer individuals have been rejected from these spaces. This excludes people phenomenon is still being navigated among the community. Historically the existence of male only spaces was to provide a safe space for gay men to experiment and express their sexuality away from a heteronormative gaze which would otherwise stifle one’s ability to do so. In effect the aim is to create a space where the expression of male same-sex attraction will not be othered. The inclusion of gender queer individuals in these spaces does not propagate the problem of the heteronormative gaze, so the entry policy has been evolving since the 2000s to include a diversity of non-female gender expressions in these spaces. Instances of exclusion on this basis still occur from spaces like this, but the emergence of concepts like queer masculinities which includes gay, bi, trans and queer men operates to reshape how people seeking entry are selected.
Likewise the creation of FLINTA spaces reflects the critical questioning of intentional exclusion to create safe community spaces. FLINTA is a German originating abbreviation that stands for "Frauen, Lesben, Intergeschlechtliche, Nichtbinäre, Trans und Agender Personen”. In other words, it's a term that includes those who don't fit into a cis male gender identity. This is motivated by the fact that the queer community is inherently diverse and not all feel as comfortable around cis men, and that having these spaces helps foster bonds for these members of the community. In fact, many of the queer spaces are male dominated particularly by white middle class individuals, a phenomenon representative across queer spaces in the western world. This topic is discussed in books like Jeremy Atherton Lin's Gay Bar: Why We Went Out.
On the other hand there are likewise queer venues like we.are.village which aim to foster a sense of community and growth for various queer people in spaces distinct from the nightlife scene. Spaces like this are known for holding contact-improv sessions for queer masculinities, which aims to explore the question of what happens when queer masculinities's bodies touch without any expectations attached. This can be prominent given the culture for MSM where interactions are frequently sexualized. Desexualized contact allows for exploration of these norms and provides queer men agency in how they communicate desire, boundaries and experience touch with one another. It also creates a space where diverse expressions of masculinity can coexist. This contrasts with traditionally male exclusive spaces like Lab.Oratory, where a hyper-masculine performance is the norm. Another example at we.are.village is group vocal sessions for queer BIPOC migrants aimed to empower one to explore their voice and foster comfort in one’s vocal expression. For many migrants language and cultural barriers contribute to a sense of silencing. This further intersects with race and ethnicity where especially non-white migrants voices may be overlooked in day to day interactions.
While initiatives aiming to foster a strong queer community in Berlin are effective and renowned among queer people across the globe, many of these initiatives have been in response to obstacles the community faces. Concepts like queer joy, queer liberation and the urban studies view of Berlin as a queer archipelago frame the culture in a positive light. However, the community today is birthed from an intense history of systemic oppression and systematized violence towards queer folk. This history has left its mark. This is especially visible in the multifaceted relationship queer people have to Berlin’s nightlife.
The city's nightlife has become a focal point for queer expression. The interplay of music, art, and sexuality creates a unique environment for social interaction and community building. Some humanists highlight how this promotes queer joy. However, the dynamics of drug use are layered. Some studies indicate that gay, lesbian, trans individuals especially may engage in drug use as a means of coping with societal marginalization and discrimination. For queer people from more conservative backgrounds, where acceptance of one’s queer existence is scrutinized, the prevalence is higher. This is typically exacerbated for individuals who experience multiple forms of minority stress due to one’s race, ethnicity and gender identity among others. In short, this highlights the need for harm reduction strategies that are inclusive and sensitive. While drug use can cause harm, it can also open doors. On the later point, it can help in overcoming one’s inhibitions - a particularly poignant experience for people in these communities who may otherwise struggle to engage in sexual relations. In short, while drugs for this community can be a coping mechanism they also help individuals overcome sexual repression through loosening one’s inhibitions.
Furthermore certain sexual subcultures evolve through the use of recreational drugs often associated with the clubbing experience such as GHB, mephedrone and methamphetamine. Among MSM this has been linked to intentional use for enhanced sexual encounters. This phenomenon, referred to as "chemsex," reflects a broader trend where sexualized drug use becomes intertwined with nightlife, creating a culture that embraces both pleasure and risk. While this both contributes to and has been shaped by a nightlife culture that celebrates sexual freedom and experimentation it is not without risks. The city has been at the forefront of implementing harm reduction policies, such as drug testing services at festivals and clubs, which aim to promote safer drug use practices. For instance, sexual health clinics like Checkpoint.BLN offer counselling and support for those navigating chem sex and education on harm reduction. The prevalence of such practices in East Berlin's club scene has contributed to a distinctive nightlife culture that celebrates sexual freedom and experimentation.
The risks of normalized chem-sex were further brought under scrutiny following a string of murders in Friedrichshain. While according to specialists interviewed in the documentary Crime Scene Berlin: The Night Life Killer, the murder was a sexually repressed gay man whose experience of sexual repression and speculated sexual assault in childhood led to the worsening of his mental health. While the news and this documentary sensationalize the case, it provides a case study which speaks to the risks at the extreme end of the spectrum which can emerge from Berlin’s unique combination of accessible anonymized sex, hypersexuality and normalized drug culture. The drug used was GHB commonly referred to as liquid ecstasy. It requires only a several mili-litre difference from one’s safe dosage to having lethal effects. In response, policies banning this drug were implemented with patrons being banned from Berghain as a consequence of its use in the club. Similarly, Boiler Sauna and gay bars alike put up signs telling their patrons to keep careful watch of the drinks with an image of GHB being dropped into a cup with a vial. During this period member of the queer community, but especially MSM, felt increased homophobia from people outside the community. Within the community this led to a period the MSM demographic became cautious to have sex in darkrooms and accept drugs from strangers. The owner of Grosse-Freiheit 114, the bar where first death was recorded, said 12 years after the murder in 2024 that he was still bouncing back from it.
In recent years, Berlin has also become a destination for queer migrants, further enriching the city's cultural landscape. The experiences of these individuals often intersect with issues of identity, belonging, and solidarity, as they navigate their queer identities within the context of their ethnic and cultural backgrounds. This dynamic has led to the establishment of support networks and organizations that address the specific needs of queer migrants, fostering a sense of community and belonging.
While Berlin has a more welcoming attitude towards migrants than the rest of Germany, queer migrants (especially those from non-western nations and/or non-white racial identity) experience xenophobia and discrimination propagated via these policies and in day to day interactions. This is especially poignant in Germany after the rise of neo-nazism. This led to violent attacks on migrants by mobilized neo-nazis. A case of this is documented in Jacob Kushner's White Terror: A True Story of Murders, Bombings and a Far-Right Campaign to Rid Germany of Immigrants.
The queer migrant experience can be isolating for some and individuals can feel excluded from both their traditional cultural spaces and queer spaces. Many queer migrants many come from conservative cultures where they may not be able to express themselves thus experiencing exclusion on the basis of sexual identity, while non-white migrants may also experience exclusion from queer spaces in Berlin via implicit and explicit racism and xenophobia. This can produce challenges for these individuals to find community.
Since 2020, instances of migrants particularly from more conservative backgrounds, where physical and verbal violence towards queer people can be more normalized, has sparked heated discourse in Berlin. At extremes, these cases are said to fuel xenophobia and racism particularly on the right, while also leading to people on the left turning a blind eye to the events. The cases of assaults (both physical and verbal) are on the rise in Berlin since at least 2018 and especially prominent in neighbourhoods like Neukölln which have a large migrant Muslim population. This has contributed to an increase in anti-immigration politics among queer people in Berlin which previously held a pro-immigration stance. This provides an instance where the politics of xenophobia, islamophobia, racism and conservation of queer rights intersect.
Research indicates that clubbers often view drug use as a form of cultural accommodation, where the act of consuming drugs is seen as a rite of passage or a means of enhancing social interactions. This perspective is particularly prevalent among younger adults who frequent clubs, as they often associate drug use with fun, freedom, and a sense of belonging. Doing so facilitates queer joy - the celebration of happiness, resilience, and authenticity for queer people. The social networks formed within these nightlife spaces further consolidate the cycle of normalization, as individuals share experiences and encourage one another to partake in drug use.
The socio-economic landscape of post-reunification Berlin has facilitated the emergence of diverse nightlife venues that cater to various segments of the queer community. Early on, the availability of affordable spaces has allowed for the establishment of pop-up events and underground parties. The culture surrounding these events was liberation. This was particularly evident in the case of gender and sexual minorities who benefited from the culture of questioning gender roles and sexual liberation emphasized in the night life spaces. This allowed these spaces to often serve as safe havens for queer people, providing opportunities for social connection and community building. However, in the face of gentrification many traditionally queer spaces in Berlin’s nightlife are at risk of closing due to increased rent prices.
Furthermore, to survive, many clubs are raising entrance fees which makes the nightlife less accessible for the more economically marginalized queer people. In effect this risks perpetuating the ongoing problem of white, upper-middle class domination of queer spaces who can more easily afford the increase in nightlife fees.
Fostering spaces that cater to specific identities especially when the demographic in Berlin is small can be a challenge. Space is becoming increasingly difficult to find in the city, due to factors like gentrification, but nonetheless the community is resilient and adaptable. The “queer archipelago” which describes the chain of interconnected queer spaces scattered across Berlin’s urban sphere contributes to the persistent growth and stability of the queer spaces despite these contemporary challenges. While many spaces are independently run and of a grass roots nature, some also receive funding from the city government. In 2024, severe threats to culture sector funding (proposed as 30% of what it once was) will likely impact the evolution of Berlin’s queer community whose existence is significant to Berlin's cultural sector.
The area near Nollendorfplatz, locally known as "Motzkiez", "Fuggerkiez", or "Nollendorfkiez" ("der Kiez" is a word for neighborhood in the local idiom, Berlinerisch), may be the best known of Berlin's roughly 4 neighborhoods with some explicitly LGBTIQ+ history, a reputation for being LGBT-friendly, and for having a large concentration of LGBTIQ+ locations. A hand drawn map from 1938 (5 years after the begin of Nazi rule) shows no fewer than 57 active or former gay and/or lesbian friendly spots hugging Nollendorfplatz and extending eastward down Bülowstraße. What is striking about the list is the relatively large number of lesbian oriented establishments relative to the more chic neighborhood of Charlottenburg to the west. Charlottenburg comes in, in a solid third, where LGBT friendly locals are concerned, with 52. Mitte tops the list with 99 places of LGBT interest at the time according to the chronicler. The comparison is somewhat skewed to Mitte's advantage however, as the area shown on the map of Mitte is larger. The venues mentioned range in style from the very posh Café Kranzler on Unter-den-Linden, to the somewhat more risque but no less fancy Moka Efti [de; no] on Friedrichstraße, to the tiny bar and brothel Mulackritze [de] in the Scheunenviertel that is so small (it still exists today in the basement of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf's Gründerzeitmuseum [de]) that the entire bar with séparée fits in the basement of the Museum. The Gründerzeitmuseum is not a large building. Schöneberg is often called the world's oldest gay village, but in light of its history, perhaps "the world's oldest lesbian village" would be more accurate, were it not for the fact that there is only one single lesbian establishment left in the neighborhood, Begine, Potsdamer Straße [de; fr; it; nl; sv] 139.
In the first third of the 20th century the working-class neighborhoods lying roughly between Wittenbergplatz and "Bülowbogen" (the sharp curve in Bülowstraße where it turns southward toward Klumerstraße and Goebenstraße) were popular for their red-light character, racy cabarets, and dance bars, though they had likely already existed for half a century at the time. It can be assumed that Potsdamer Straße, as a main trading artery to the south and west, never had a time in which there were no brothels along it. Klaus Mann's first novel The Pious Dance, Adventure Book of a Youth (1926) is set in this milieu. However, northern Schöneberg owes much of its post-World-War-II renown to an English-American writer Christopher Isherwood's Novels Mr Norris Changes Trains (1935), and Goodbye to Berlin (1939) which take place there, and to the Broadway musical Cabaret (1966) and later Film Cabaret (1972) based loosely upon Isherwood's novels. The author himself only moved to the neighborhood a year after he had followed fellow writer W. H. Auden to Berlin, and he and Auden spent the majority of their time in the area around Hallesches Tor where their regular bar became the (no longer existent) Cosy Corner on Zossener Straße. The area from the southern end of Friedrichstraße well into the district of Neukölln was known at the time for its inexpensive bars and café where people loitered in the hope of being picked for odd jobs, bartered and traded on the unofficial market, and engaged in prostitution. The area around Hallesches Tor, and the queer life that once boomed there is humorously immortalized in Claire Waldoff's song Hannelore (1928, M.: Horst Platen, T.: Willy Hagen). To Auden and Isherwood, both from upper class British backgrounds and educated in England's most prestigious schools, this relatively permissive and inexpensive atmosphere, where you could have a group of young men entertain you in the hope you might buy the next round of beer, must have felt like a manner of El Dorado. Isherwood's initially found lodging not far away from Hallesches Tor in Kreuzberg, before moving to a boarding house at Nollendorfstraße 17 near Nollendorfplatz in December 1930 where he remained until May 1933. Isherwood's The Berlin Stories did not come out until well into the Nazi era.
During the 1920s and 30s, the area lying roughly to the south of KaDeWe gained notoriety through the German author of vice novels, Konrad Haemmerling [de]'s booklet, Führer durch das „lasterhafte“ Berlin (roughly Guide to licentious Berlin), published under the pseudonym Curt Moreck, Leipzig, 1931 (republished 2018). Führer durch das lasterhafte Berlin was aimed at higher income people "slumming", and promised to show interested visitors the "pleasures" of the "shadows". It is Haemmerling who initially made the cabaret Eldorado infamous, which in its Motzstraße 15 (present house number 24) location provided the inspiration for the cabaret in Isherwood's Berlin novels. When the slap-sticky show at the Scala [de; fr] on Lutherstraße ended, the more adventuresome could find "spicier" fare just around the corner. Not that Schöneberg's tingle-tangle [de] clubs and makeshift brothels were necessarily unique to this area of Berlin. They could be found in all of Berlin's slums at the time. But northern Schöneberg was uniquely well situated close to Berlin's high income Neuer Westen with its fancy clubs and cabarets, and also easily accessible with the new Berlin subway (built 1909) which connected the fashionable eating and drinking establishments, and "serious" entertainment venues near Friedrichstraße and Unter-den-Linden to Berlin's new upper-middle class and upper-class neighborhoods in Berlin's South-West. And as opposed to places that were likely not dissimilar, such as the area around Hallisches Tor that was first hit by the bombs of 1943–1945, and then was the site of some of the most tenacious fighting of the Battle of Berlin, or places not far from Alexanderplatz, which was given a "car city" face lift in the 1950s through 1970s, history largely spared the area near Nollendorplatz the Battle of Berlin, and the bulldozing of the neighborhood in the 70s and 80s (as in the case of nearby Lietzenburger Straße in the 1960s) was prevented by the very determined West Berlin squatters' movement. The more fashionable establishments (hand drawn map of lesbian and gay "friendly" venues in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf in 1938) of around Kurfürstendamm and Auguste-Viktoria-Platz (after 1947 called Breitscheidplatz) were not only heavily damaged by the air-raids of WWII, much of what little remained disappeared during the automotive city remodeling of Breitscheidplatz in the early 1950s and the plans to build Bundesautobahn 106 [de; pl], the so-called Südtangente ("Southern Tangent") by rerouting Lietzenburger Straße [de].
But the neighborhoods early 20th century heyday was to be cut short. Already in July 1932, Berlin's new Police President Kurt Melcher announced an "all-encompassing campaign against Berlin's licentious nightlife" (umfassende Kampagne gegen Berlins lasterhaftes Nachtleben) and in December of that year it was decreed that all "dancing events of a homosexual nature were prohibited" (Tanzlustbarkeiten homosexueller Art zu unterbleiben [hätten]), see, e.g., the closing of Eldorado. During the ensuing NSDAP rule of the German Reich (1933-1945) the neighborhood's nightlife was all but halted but for a few night spots left open to ensnare, and turn over to the police and Gestapo, those who according to the sharpened Nazi version of Section 175 of the German Criminal Code, "objectively offended the general sense of shame, and subjectively, the debauched intention was present to excite sexual desire in one of the two men, or a third" (objektiv das allgemeine Schamgefühl verletzt und subjektiv die wollüstige Absicht vorhanden war, die Sinneslust eines der beiden Männer oder eines Dritten [zu] erregen). The incendiary bombs of 1943/1945 turned most German cities into moon landscapes, so too the neighborhoods of northern Schöneberg. Nevertheless (or to a certain extent as a result there of), soon after World War II there was again thriving red-light district in the area, and also several venues popular with an LGBTIQ+ clientele. Waltherchens Ballhaus, Bülowstraße 37, or Kleist-Kasino [de], Kleiststraße 35 are frequently-named examples from this period.
Now in the American Sector of Berlin, queer people in northern Schöneberg were not spared the disruption of their lifes through the official atmosphere of suspicion associated with the so-called McCarthy era. LGBTIQ+ life does not come to a stand still, but there is an atmosphere of isolation and caution that pervades queer life in many parts of the world during this period, so too around Nollendorfplatz. For visitors today it may seem hard to imagine that Nollendorfplatz and its side streets were ever anything but quiet tree-lined streets with spruced-up facades and flower boxes. This was as little the case for half-century after WWII as it was in the half-century before. Well into the 1980s the fashionable bars and parties were to be found closer to Kurfürstendamm, and the somewhat queerer places there were to an extent near the eastern end of the grand boulevard roughly between Kurfürstendamm and Kantstraße. But for a very long time visible queerness, except in some very specific settings was discouraged, even to an extent, out of fear of reprisal, among LGBTIQ+ people themselves. It is not until the student revolts in Europe widely associated with the year 1968, that what has come to be called "queer visibility" becomes a liberation strategy and northern Schöneberg is no exception. As in many parts of the world, what was then called the Gay Liberation Movement gains momentum in the early 1970s. In North America the events in 1969 surrounding the Stonewall Inn are seen as the "beginning" of the Gay Liberation Movement. For the West German LGBTIQ+ movement, it is a movie screening in Kino Arsenal at Welserstraße 25 of Rosa von Praunheim's film It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives (Nicht der Homosexuelle ist pervers, sondern die Situation, in der er lebt). Forty viewers were present. All were men, by all accounts. Most were more or less loosely associated with the protest movements of the period, in West Germany perhaps best described as Spontis. In the discussion ensuing the screening, the group decided to form a gay rights organization, which was to become the Homosexuelle Aktion Westberlin [de; es; ru] (HAW). The founding meeting and naming of the Homosexual Action West Berlin (HAW), one of Germany's most influential lesbian and gay groups, took place on November 21, 1971, in the hand drugstore [de; fr], Motzstraße 24, a cooperatively run space for young adults. The lesbian group Lesbisches Aktionszentrum Westberlin [de] (LAZ) was founded out of this organization in the months that followed. Unlike in the U.S. where the Stonewall Inn has been made a national historical site, Welserstraße 25 is a childcare center today. Nothing about the building or the former cinema reminds passersby what was set in motion here. If you look very carefully above the door of the childcare center you can see where the former Kino Arsenal's marquee used to be. The original is in the basement of the Deutsche Kinemathek at Potsdamer Platz marking the entry way to the new Kino Arsenal, in the Arsenal Institute for Film and Video Art [de]. The original marquee is discreetly located in the underground portion of the foyer below the Deutsche Kinemathek marking the entry way to the new Kino Arsenal.
There is very little left of the original atmosphere of anarchism around Nollendorfplatz, nor of the raucous punk, alternative, rock and new-wave clubs that existed here up until the new underground club-scene in the eastern boroughs of Prenzlauer Berg, Friedrichshain, and Mitte became the places to be. The area is symbolic as Berlin' "Regenbogenkiez" (Rainbow Neighborhood), and is rife with history but it has, with several notable exceptions, as some of Berlin's best cruising bars are here, become sedate. Middle-aged and elder gentlemen tend pleasant shops. There are street cafés selling rainbow colored Bundt Cake. The fetish attire shops, though excellently assorted, have tourist prices. Nevertheless, or precisely because of it, Berlin's best known gayborhood is well worth the visit, and local pride is ardent, especially around the time of the Lesbian and Gay City Festival (Lesbischwules Stadtfest), Christopher Street Day, The Easter Berlin - Leather and Fetish Week, Folsom Europe, and all of the other festivities that take place in the "Regenbogenkiez" (Rainbow Neighborhood/District).
Other especially LGBT-friendly neighborhoods of Berlin are Kreuzberg, Prenzlauer Berg, and Neukölln. And historically parts of Charlottenburg were known as "Artist's Quarters" (among other things a euphemism for LGBT). From the 1950s well into the 1990s the somewhat "more discerning" set could be seen in the more sedate locales of this tendentially petty bourgeouis part of town. Many places were, and still are in the area between and around Kurfürstendamm and Kantstraße's ends nearer Bahnhof Zoologischer Garten (The Zoo Station). Classics like the Vagabund, Knesebeckstraße 77 (est.: 1969) are still very much there.
Kreuzberg still has some of the atmosphere of anarchistic rebellion that characterized the beginnings of the Lesbian & Gay Liberation Movement the 1970s and 1980s. Always a working-class neighborhood, and bordered by the Berlin Wall to the north and to the east from 1962 to 1989, Kreuzberg was, and still is to an extent a sociopolitical micro-climate. The history of Kreuzberg is well documented by the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Museum, Adalbertstraße 95a in Berlin-Kreuzberg, near many of Kreuzberg's queer / queer-friendly landmarks, like Möbel Olfe, SüdBlock / Aquarium, Café Kotti, Roses, AYO queer women's collective café, SO36 and others. The culture space and club SO36 remains the heart of "alternative" scene, and is implicitly and explicitly queer, with the clubs queer flag-ship event the regular legendary Gayhane parties organized by activist and artist Fatma Souad [de; fr], and SO36 resident DJane DJ Ipek (İpek İpekçioğlu [de; tr]). When a Monika Herrmann [de; fr] (Alliance 90/The Greens) became district mayor in 2013, the fact that District Mayor Herrmann is a lesbian was no longer a topic of public debate even in the tabloid press. This is certainly in no small part due to Governing Mayor Klaus Wowereit's (Social Democratic Party of Germany) bold example in 2001, where upon his nomination, against a backdrop of media speculation, candidate Wowereit took would-be detractors' wind out of their sails with the now legendary proclamation, "I am gay, and that is as it should be!" (German: Ich bin schwul, und das ist auch gut so!) at a public party caucus. Nevertheless District Mayor Herrmann's accomplishment was no mean feat even in tendentially liberal-minded Berlin.
Kreuzberg has also gained a certain of notoriety beyond the Berlin's city limits among LGBTIQ* people and others for having "its own CSD". The event has gone by among other names " TransGenialer CSD", "Kreuzberg CSD", and "X*CSD". It has taken place most years since 1997 on or around the date of the larger CSD parade. One on-line tourist information mentions the event in one sentence with ancillary Pride events like "Gay Night at the Zoo". Admittedly the event's coming into being is connected with animals, however not of the caged sort but with common rats. Not the rodents as such, but rats as an analogy for undesirables. Before the Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin, on February 27, 1997, the chair of the Christian Democratic Union Party of Berlin, Landowsky [arz; de] expressed his impatience with what in his opinion was the city's hesitance to eradicate what he and his party associates viewed as the ills that afflict Berlin:
This did not sit well with many committed citizens who strive day in and day out to make Berlin and the world a more livable place. For one, the word "Gesindel" (Eng.: rabble) has a decidedly 1933-1945 ring to it in German, and furthermore a great many of those who took offence to the statement were not entirely sure chairperson Landowsky was not thinking of them. Against the backdrop of an on-going factional dispute within the LGBTIQ* movement that dates back to the mid-1970s (see Tuntenstreit [ast; de; es]), and with tempers flaring over Landowsky's most recent remarks, the organizers of the larger CSD event decide that beginning that year there would be an entry fee for vehicles and floats taking part in the Berlin pride parade. At a meeting in Club SO36 a group of queer activists decided to construct their own float, dress as rats, and equipped with plenty of mud for the throwing, to pay an unannounced visit to the 1997 Pride Parade. The reaction was as was to be expected, and Berlin's "alternative" queer protest event Kreuzberg Pride was born.
The East German Gay and Lesbian Movement has contributed greatly to LGBTIQ+ history and contemporary life. The East German HIB (Homosexuelle Interessengemeinschaft Berlin [de]) (English: Homosexual Interest Group Berlin) was formed in 1973 not long after the West German HAW (Homosexuelle Aktion Westberlin [de; es; ru] ) (founded 1971), and both groups were in close contact. Members of both groups shared a common cause in working for Lesbian and Gay Liberation. In addition, most in East and West were also interested in reforming socialism, and the societies they lived in - Marxist–Leninist "actually existing socialism" in the East, and liberal, social-democratic capitalism in the West. This fact brought the HIB to the attention of East German State Security Service, as it did the HAW to the attention of the Verfassungsschutz in the West. One further commonality is their shared initial spark. Both were conceived after a screening of Rosa von Praunheim's 1971 film It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives (German: Nicht der Homosexuelle ist pervers, sondern die Situation, in der er lebt). Albeit in different places and with about 2 years between them but with some of the same members of the audience. Some of the West German fellow activist were also present at the private East Berlin screening in 1973.
The perhaps best known figure of the East German LGBTIQ+ movement is Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. She was an educator, trans* rights pioneer, and the creator of the Gründerzeutmuseum [de] (Gründerzeit - a period of rapid industrialization and economic growth in the German Reich between 1873 and 1890) in the former manor house in Berlin-Mahlsdorf. Charlotte von Mahlsdorf was an organizer and crystallization figure of the LGBTIQ+ rights movements in East and West, as well as during the period after the political turn-around in the GDR. One of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf's long list of achievements was the salvage, restoration of the Mulackritze [de] and its reconstruction on the premises of her Gründerzeitmuseum. The small early 20th century bar and brothel had originally been located at Mulackritze 15 in Berlin's historically poorest and historically Jewish district, the Scheunenviertel just north-west of Alexanderplatz. The Mulackritze was a typical establishment like many that where to be found in Berlin's slums of the late 19th early 20th century; so to in Schöneberg, whose fame is owed as much to Christopher Isherwood's Novels, and the Broadway musical Cabaret becoming queer iconography in the late 20th century, as it is to the boroughs uniqueness among Berlin's many impoverished neighborhoods, in which, in order to but food on the table and coal in the stove, paying guests were entertained in whatever way possible. In the Mulackritze, even the "Hurenstube" is still visible, a room set aside in a small bar or private flat to provide a bit of privacy when engaging in sex work. The little bar is still on display in Charlotte von Mahlsdorf's museum, which during her life was also her place of residence. Because renting a space for a meeting or a function was difficult in East Germany unless it was for a company party or some other officially sanctioned purpose, Frau von Mahlsdorf hosted many meetings of the HIB and other queer related events. Von Mahlsdorf's museum and grounds are still open to the public.
Sonntags-Club [de] (English: Sunday Club) was an important part of the LGBTIQ+ movement in the GDR. It was formed in 1987. In the 1990s Sonntags-Club became a registered association under German law (German: eingetragener Verein). The henceforth Sonntags-Club e.V. remains an important event, information, and counselling center for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and trans* people, and for all allies and other interested parties.
Prenzlauer Berg was, along with neighboring Berlin-Friedrichshain, a center of dissent and critical thinking in East Germany. The ramshackle 19th century tenement buildings (part of a Wilhelmine Ring that hugs the city limits of Wilhelmine Berlin) were ideal havens for misfits of all kinds, and there was a squatters scene that developed here in some ways analogous to its counterpart in the Western boroughs of Charlottenburg, Schöneberg, and Kreuzberg. A major obstacle in East German LGBTIQ+ people's lifes was the distribution of housing. In as much as a person's income did not decide how, or whether or not a person was housed, some system of how to distribute this precious good had to be devised. East German decision makers decided, that should be along the lines of who was planning to start a family. When these policies were made "family" meant a woman and a man who married and produced children. In fact there are rumors to this day that young people would conceive a child precisely in order to be "forced" to marry and thereby become eligible for their own flat (and to be able to move out of their parent's home). How often that actually was the reason for having a child is not statistically studied, but it is the case that East German adults became parents at a significantly younger age. Clearly this was not the only reason young East Germans chose to have children at a younger age than their counterparts in the West. There were many ways in which having children was simply easier and less of an existential risk in the East than in the West. This did however have the effect that many LGBTIQ+ East Germans had children, and either had been or still were married (to someone of the other sex) when they began to self-identify as LGBTIQ+. The implication of the housing dilemma for queer people in East Germany, was however that chances of moving out of the parental home were in direct conflict with the possibility to live a non-heteronormative life. This explains in part the allure of the Prenzlauer Berg "alternative" scene for queer people. It was possible to squat, stay with other similarly minded people, while remaining officially residing with one's parent or spouse until a work-around (for which all aspects of life in the GDR were renowned) could perhaps be found. Prenzlauer Berg, for many of the same reasons was a neighborhood where many critical voices in the GDR could be heard, which in turn influenced and were influenced by the East German gay and lesbian activism. The East German environmental movement was very active in Prenzlauer Berg. Their Umwelt-Bibliothek [de] archives are still curated by the Zion Church [de; ru]. Churches in East Germany were in a special position to provide meeting space for various purposes, so it was also Lutheran churches like the Gethsemane Church in Prenzlauer Berg or the St. Elizabeth's Church [cs; de; fr; it; nl] in nearby Spandauer Vorstadt who hosted meetings of the "Kirche von Unten [de]" movement of the mid- to late-1980s. "Kirche von Unten" was vital to the critical movements who eventually broke the power monopoly of the SED, the state party of East Germany, though many activist were similarly critical of the West as they were of Erich Honecker's "actually existing socialism", and had hoped for a reform of "their" state the GDR, more than the (now seemingly) inevitable absorption of the GDR by West Germany which took place at the German reunification in 1990.
After 1990 many clubs, bars, and underground parties sprang up along the streets and alley ways of Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg. The residents of Prenzlauer Berg had laid the groundwork for an art and oppositional scene that boomed there for over a decade after the German reunification. Some remains, though Prenzlauer Berg's reputation as Berlin's most gentrified borough is not entirely undeserved, and many a wonderfully odd haunt has become the stuff of urban legend.
The former East Berlin borough of Friedrichshain has a queer history somewhat similar to Prenzlauer Berg, to which it is somewhat analogous in many ways, were it not for the Stalin era prestige project Karl-Marx-Allee (1949-1961 Stalinallee) which runs north–south through the neighborhood, dividing it down the middle. The "workers' palaces" on Karl-Marx-Allee were reserved for meritable citizens of the "workers' and peasants' state" East Germany, in stark contrast to the buildings behind them on both sides.
It is in Friedrichshain that a further major impulse in the East German Lesbian and Gay Movement arises in the context of the East German Peace Movement of the late 1970s / early 1980s. After having read Martin Siems: Coming out: Hilfen zur homosexuellen Emanzipation former seminarian Christian Pulz [de; arz], theologian Eduard Stapel [de], and Matthias Kittlitz formed the first "'Arbeitskreis Homosexualität' in der Evangelischen Studentengemeinde" (English: "Work-group Homosexuality" in the Lutheran Students' Congregation) in Leipzig. First contacts between future members were made while "cottaging" at a "tea room" near Leipzig City Hall. Meetings were held in Christan Pulz's flat in Leipzig until Pulz relocated to East-Berlin in 1983, where he remained a driving force in the East-German Lesbian and Gay Movement, as well as the East-German Peace, Environmentalism and Human Rights Movement (Opposition und Widerstand in der DDR [de; fr]). Upon arriving in Berlin in 1983 Pulz founded an informal gay organization, and inquired with several church communities about the use of their space for meetings. In the Spring of 1983 Pulz turned to the peace work group of the Church of the Samaritan in Berlin-Friedrichshain (Samariterkirche (Berlin) [de]). Though there was some support from members of the parish, no separate gay work group was established initially, the reason being the (logistical as well as political) pressure which already existed on the church community due to the peace work group and the so-called "Blues Masses" (Blues-Messe [de]), Blues, Rock, and Punk church services already being held at the church. In spite of this temporary setback, lesbian and gay activist remained in contact the church community, and in April 1984, the first formal meeting of the "Schwulen- und Lesbenarbeitskreise der DDR" (English: Gay and Lesbian Work Group in the GDR) took place in the Samariterkirche (Berlin). Christian Pulz organized the first, public LGBT demonstration, sometimes hailed as the first Christopher Street Day in the GDR. The event took the form of a meeting on May 21, 1983 at the Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum. Thirteen participants attended, not without being briefly detained by members of the Ministry for State Security. This demonstration was not only the first LGBT protest demonstration in the GDR, it was also the first known commemoration of the persecution of homosexuals under National Socialism by gays and lesbians in the GDR.
The protesters left the following entry in the Sachsenhausen Memorial's guest book:
In 1983 at the Church of the Samaritan's peace workshop, the group around Christian Pulz first appeared publicly under the motto "Lieber ein warmer Bruder, als ein kalter Krieger" (English: Better to be a "warm brother" (German pejorative for "gay man"), than a Cold Warrior). The slogan reverses a derisive remark made publicly by West German politician Franz Josef Strauss in 1970 in which Strauß expressed his conviction it would be better to be a Cold Warrior. It was at this peace workshop that the group met Pastor Walter Hykel from the Philippus Kapelle (Berlin-Alt-Hohenschönhausen) [de] in Berlin-Alt-Hohenschönhausen. The first meeting of the work group took place at the Philippus Kapelle during that same year. In this context the group gave itself the name "Schwule in der Kirche – Arbeitskreis Homosexuelle Selbsthilfe" (English: Gays in the Church - Homosexual Self-Help Work Group), and Ulrich Zieger [de] wrote the group's political position paper „Zur Schwulen Realität in der DDR“ (English: On gay reality in the GDR). With the assistance of Bärbel Bohley and Pastor Christa Sengespeick, the group then turned to the Bekenntniskirche (Berlin) [de] church in Alt-Treptow. The church was spacious, close to the city center, and the church council had confirmed the group as an official work group. The parish pastor Werner Hilse [de] was a committed ally to the group. As reform and protest movements inside East-Germany gained momentum in the mid to late 1980s, so too did the disruptive, repressive and surveillance activities of the East-German Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS) colloquially known as Stasi, East-Germany's secret police. Correspondingly great were the hopes and expectations East-German activists in particular rested on the political changes of the late 1980s / early 1990s. For former East-German Lesbian and Gay activists in particular the discrepancy between the promises made by West-German politicians and Western media and advertising, and the reality of life after the "Wende" is particularly marked. The general tendency in the official historiography to down-play the role of East Germans in the events of the time in favor of praise for the deeds of (primarily Western) politicians and invocation of the ostensible inevitability of this "End of History" as it is sometimes framed, pertains to LGBT East-Germans in manifold fashion. The phenomenon is nicely summed up by on the German language Wikipedia page about Christian Pulz [de] himself under the heading "Rezeption des Arbeitskreises nach 1989":
German
English
Nevertheless, one of Germany's most influential LGBT organizations with strong ties to contemporary Germany's political establishment across the party spectrum, the Lesben- und Schwulenverband Deutschland (LSVD) was founded as the Schwulenverband der DDR (SVD) in East Germany by East German activists.
The neighborhood has gained sad notoriety for the frictions between far-right hooligans (often coming into the neighborhood looking for trouble from the neighborhoods to the south and east), and Friedrichhain's largely left oriented squatters and dissidents, frictions which date back well before 1990, increase in severity during the 1990s, and continue to smolder to this day (see death of Silvio Meier.)
Friedrichshain in East Germany was, however, also in some ways not unlike the West Berlin sister-borough of Kreuzberg. It too was pressed up against the wall between East and West, just across the River Spree from its sister borough with whom present day Friedrichshain now forms one borough as Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg. When the dissidents, artists and squatters East and West met across the Spree after 1989 it sparked a creative outburst and atmosphere of coming together that defined the era. And the 1990 and early 2000s were a hedonistic, intoxicating, unrelenting and very, very queer time. Ostgut that went on to become Berghain and Lab.Oratory, and KitKatClub, are only the tip of the queer iceberg. Revaler Straße and the area to the south and east toward Boxhagener Platz are bursting with new creative projects, as well as culture and party spaces. Toward the end of the 1990s the RAW-Friedrichshain [de], a former Reichsbahn repair depot, becomes a culture space with ever changing projects, and its very own drag bar Zum schmutzigen Hobby. Now well-known tourist destination, Simon-Dach-Straße [de; nl]'s Himmelreich has been serving customers since 2003. And the somewhat more traditional gay bar Große Freiheit 114 which opened in 2005 is as popular as ever.
Since the border between East and West Berlin was opened in November 1989 the police East and West have been trying to make Friedrichshain's squatters pay rent. Emblematic for this process, which has not lost its actuality to this day, was the struggle between the residents of Mainzer Straße and rent-seeking land lords represented by the local authorities and law enforcement. In October 2020, Berlin's last anaracha-queer-feminist house project Liebig 34 was forcibly remove from the building they were renting. Local police had assembled a force of approximately 4000 officers and special forces of the Landeskriminalamt Berlin [de] (Berlin State Office of Criminal Investigations). The twenty members of the collective went quietly and calmly, under applause from their supporters.
If Prenzlauer Berg is the Gen X-er of Berlin's gayborhoods then Neukölln is the Millennial. Over the past decade or two a young, creative, among other things queer scene has grown all around Weserstraße and southward toward Neukölln City Hall (Rathaus Neukölln). Not that the area was without its own LGBT spots in the past, but even the older bars are enjoyed by locals and ex-pats from around the globe, having made old strip clubs like Ficken3000 on Urbanstraße for example very much their own. But most notably perhaps, the old brass, and juggernaut of LGBTIQ+ culture center's and clubs, the club SchwuZ [de; es; it; ru] also moved to Rollbergstraße 26 in Neukölln in November 2013.
The city of Berlin has always presented itself as a place where the clocks ticked a little differently. A popular turn of phrase (sometimes falsely attributed to Franz von Suppé) is Du bist verrückt mein Kind. Du mußt nach Berlin (English: You are nuts, my Dear. You belong in Berlin, literally: You're crazy, my child. You must go to Berlin) dates back to the 1870s. The quip was not unlikely intended as an insult to Berliners by non-Berliners at first. But the residents of Berlin quickly made the adage their own. The unofficial Berlin local anthem Das ist die Berliner Luft (Paul Lincke, 1904) alludes to the permissive reputation of the city in its second verse:
So it is almost a logical sequitur that Berlin should present itself as a queer city. Making a PR strategy out of being queer is not new to Berlin. Konrad Haemmerling [de], aka Curt Moreck's 1931 booklet "Führer durch das lasterhafte Berlin" (English roughly: Guide to licentious Berlin) is an early example.
Like many places in the world, not everyone in Berlin past or present was or is unreservedly enthusiastic about the city's image as a bastion of personal freedom of expression, and open-mindedness. Historically speaking, except for in some very specific branches of business, being associated with overt sexuality was not necessarily good advertising. A business becoming associated with queerness moreover, could be the kind of PR that had the potential to put a company out of business. This began to change in the early 1990s. The business world, above all retail, began to realize LGBTIQ+ consumers (gay and bisexual men first and foremost) could be a very lucrative clientele. Some of the first businesses to put small rainbow colored stickers in their windows were pharmacies. As anti-retroviral drugs became available, pharmacies were eager to make queer customers aware that they were welcome. Prices for anti-retroviral medication, though high to the present day, were even higher in the early days of anti-retroviral therapy. Before too long there were rainbow-stickers in the windows of all kinds of businesses from ice cream parlors to filling stations, often independently of whether the business was queer owned or operated, whether the business had past or present ties to the community, or whether there was any discernible queer-friendliness about the enterprise.
In today's Berlin there are very few businesses that do not welcome, and many that actively cater to an LGBTIQ+ clientele. They are to be found all over the city, and range from very small, very specialized LGBTIQ+ owned / operated businesses to major national and international corporations. A good overview of which businesses actively advertise in the LGBTIQ+ community can be found in Germany's eldest (first issue: April, 1984), most widely read, free of charge, LGBTIQ+ publication, Berlin's queer monthly, the Siegessäule. The Siegessäule contains a very comprehensive map of LGBTIQ+ relevant business, entertainment venues, bars, clubs, etc. There is an on-line edition. There is a calendar of events. Many articles are in English as well as German. The Siegessäule is generally available at news stands, in many shops, in LGBTIQ+ clubs and bars and elsewhere.
One business sector that often gets overlooked / ignored regardless of location is prostitution. Sex-workers are the topic of many a work of art from Berlin's widely celebrated "Weimar Period". It is hard to avoid meeting or at least seeing sex-workers of all genders, specializations and fee-scales when coming to, moving around in, or leaving the LGBTIQ+ village around Nollendorfplatz. Sex-work is as much a part of the queer present of the neighborhood, as it is of its queer history. The history of queerness on the whole is intimately linked to sex-work and sex-workers. The very word "gay" is a historic euphemism for prostitution. Nevertheless, relationship between parts of the LGBTIQ+ movement and community, and sex-work / sex-workers is historically ambivalent at best. It is hard to say whether this has changed for the better or for the worse with the growing embourgeoisment of parts of the LGBTIQ+ spectrum. Be that as it may, sex-work and sex-workers have always contributed significantly to the economy and, quite literally, to the sex-appeal of Berlin, a reality that Berlin has written on its (semiofficial) banner for most of a century and a half, like no other cities but perhaps Paris, Las Vegas, or Bangkok.
What proportion of Berlin's €162.95 Billion (official) GDP (2021) is the outcome of queer business is difficult to determine. But Berlin would not be merely a culturally poorer place without it.
The lesbian magazine L-MAG and the queer magazines Siegessäule and Blu are based in Berlin. These three magazines also contain English articles and cover a wide variety of issues relating to gay life in Berlin and Germany, as well as politics and culture.
The Schwules Museum created on December 6, 1985, is the world's first LGBTIQ+ museum. It is located at Lützowstraße 73 on the district border between Schöneberg and the former borough of Tiergarten now incorporated into Berlin-Mitte. The museum is dedicated to archiving, studying, and presenting LGBTIQ+ history, culture and activism locally and around the world, past, present and future. For decades Schwules Museum was a volunteer collective that depended on the time and energy of its members, and on donations from the community. Since 2009, the museum has received additional funding from the Senate of Berlin. Exhibits, events, podium discussions and more approach a vast range of topics and points of view. For example, in partnership with Temple University and Computerspielemuseum (Video Game Museum, Berlin), in 2018-2019 the museum hosted the RAINBOW ARCADE exhibition, which explored the queer history of video games.
Klaus Wowereit was the Governing Mayor of Berlin from 21 October 2001 until 11 December 2014. Wowereit came out during the 2001 elections and stated publicly on a party congress that he was gay, with the now famous sentence "I am gay - and that's good the way it is!". Later on, he described it as the most important sentence in his life. After his outing, Wowereit received a lot of support from fellow party colleagues and the wider public and eventually won the Berlin State Elections of 2001 and remained Governing Mayor of the city for nearly 13 years.
Berlin Pride is the gay pride parade in Berlin, the first took place in 1979. Other pride parades in Berlin are Dyke March and Kreuzberg Pride, also known as Transgenialer CSD, which ran from 1997 to 2013. In 2019, two alternative pride events are Libertarian CSD and Radical Queer March.
Other festivals include Folsom Europe, Easter Berlin, the Hustlaball and the Yo!Sissy Queer Music Festival.
Key: ★ EFEU e.V. map of queer relevant graves in Alter St.-Matthäus-Kirchhof, Berlin-Schöneberg (click here to visit EFEU e.V. web-site) ★★ EFEU e.V. list of graves of prominent Women in Alter St.-Matthäus-Kirchhof, Berlin-Schöneberg (click here to visit EFEU e.V. web-site)