Queer places and people, from Berlin to Paris
A map in words: where the places that matter are, in Berlin and Paris, and who the people are who made this history. The list is deliberately short; it grows with your suggestions. For dates, see the France / Germany timeline.
Geography: Berlin
- Schöneberg, around Nollendorfplatz: the "Regenbogenkiez" (Nollendorfkiez), often described as Germany's oldest queer neighbourhood, between Fuggerstraße, Motzstraße and Maaßenstraße. This is where the Stadtfest takes place every summer. In the 1920s, the neighbouring Bülowstraße housed lesbian venues such as the Dorian Gray (no. 57).
- Kreuzberg: SO36 (Oranienstraße 190), cradle of the Gayhane party, the BKA theatre (Mehringdamm 34), and the Schwules Museum, opened in 1985 in Kreuzberg.
- Tiergarten: the memorial to homosexuals persecuted under Nazism (Ebertstraße), a concrete block with a small window showing a love scene between two men; the "pink triangle" plaque at Nollendorfplatz station belongs with it.
- Prenzlauer Berg: the Tuntenhaus at Kastanienallee 86, Berlin's oldest queer housing project, occupied since 1990.
- Mitte: the "Berlin Global" exhibition at the Humboldt Forum presents the life and work of Magnus Hirschfeld.
Geography: Paris
- Le Marais: Paris's main gay neighbourhood, around the 3rd and 4th arrondissements.
- Pigalle and Montmartre: queer meeting places since the early 20th century; the lesbian cabaret Chez Moune opened there in 1936.
- Saint-Germain-des-Prés: became a meeting place in the 1950s.
- The route of the 4 April 1981 march: from Maubert to Beaubourg, more than 10,000 people.
Places in Berlin worth a detour
- Eisenherz Buchladen (Motzstraße 23): queer bookshop founded in 1978; the idea of the Berlinale's Teddy Award (since 1992) came from it.
- Heile Welt (Motzstraße 5), Restaurant Elefant (Fuggerstraße 18): addresses in the neighbourhood.
- Schwules Museum: exhibitions, guided tours and events.
- Siegessäule magazine (since 1984): the city's big queer magazine, distributed at more than 500 points.
People in Berlin
- Magnus Hirschfeld (1868–1935): physician, founder of the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee (1897) and of the Institute for Sexual Science (1919), died in exile in Nice.
- Adolf Brand: publisher of Der Eigene (1896), considered the world's first gay magazine.
- Lotte Hahm: figure of Berlin's lesbian scene, who organised lesbian balls until 1940 and resumed her activities after 1945.
- Ruth Margarete Roellig: author of Berlins lesbische Frauen (1928), a guide to the city's lesbian life.
- Ossi Gades: trans artist who performed at the Eldorado, Motzstraße, from 1930.
- Leontine Sagan: director of Mädchen in Uniform (1931), one of the first films to show lesbians in a positive light.
- Rosa von Praunheim: filmmaker, whose film launched the Homosexuelle Aktion Westberlin in 1971.
People in France
- André Baudry: founder of Arcadie (1954), the first homosexual group in France.
- Guy Hocquenghem and Françoise d’Eaubonne: figures of the FHAR (1971); Daniel Guérin and Christine Delphy were also part of it.
- Jean Le Bitoux: founder of the magazine Gai Pied (1979).
- Act Up-Paris: the collective that organised the first "die-in" of the march, on 24 June 1989.
- André Labarrère: in 1998, the first French member of parliament to reveal his homosexuality.
- Noël Mamère: mayor of Bègles, he celebrated the first marriage between two men in 2004.
Who is missing? Places, women, trans people, Franco-German figures: tell us.
Sources
The same as for the timeline, plus eleven queer places in Berlin (Visit Berlin) and the English Wikipedia page "LGBT culture in Paris" through an archived copy.