Discover Berlin’s ambivalent queer history, including periods of remarkable sexual experimentation, and horrific repression and persecution.
Highlights
• Explore Berlin’s gay neighbourhood Schoneberg
• Visit Berlin’s oldest gay and transvestite bar Eldorado
• Visit a memorial to homosexuals persecuted by the Nazis
• Visit the vibrant neighbourhood of Kreuzberg
Berlin is the queer capital of Europe and has been a pioneer of gay and lesbian rights since the late 19th century, despite the notorious Section 175 of the German penal code, which continued to criminalize male homosexuality for decades after the end of WWII.
On this tour we’ll explore Berlin’s gay neighborhood, Schoneberg, home of Marlene Dietrich and chronicled by Christopher Isherwood and Otto Dix. We’ll visit the Eldorado, one of Berlin’s oldest gay and transvestite bars, frequented by openly gay Nazi SA leader Ernst Rohm. We’ll also visit a memorial to the homosexuals persecuted by the Nazis and find out how openly queer and trans-gendered individuals found assistance from advocates such as Magnus Hirschfeld, whose Institute for Sexual Science was shut down in 1933, its library destroyed in the infamous Nazi book burning.
We’ll also visit the vibrant neighborhood of Kreuzberg to get a feel for what life is like today for queer individuals in Berlin. Find out how queer figures from the Prussian King Frederick the Great to the openly gay mayor Klaus Wowereit have shaped the history of Berlin, a city that still believes a kiss-in to be the best form of protest, and finish the tour near to the Gay Museum.
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