Gaytway - Your gateway to gay travel

Contents:

• GAY BERL, BEFORE HLER CAME TO POWER
• GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME - PHOTOGRAPHS
• QUEER & GAY BERL: YOUR GUI FOR LGBTQ+ BERL
• GAY BERL
• BETWEEN WORLD WARS, GAY CULTURE FLOURISHED IN BERL
• GAY HISTORY. BERL THE 1920S-1930S: FROM GOLD TO DT

GAY BERL, BEFORE HLER CAME TO POWER

Whisnant:As early as the turn of the century, Berl's gay scene was attractg such notoriety that equently was mentned tourist lerature, liftg up the cy's gay scene as proof of the evils of urban life and the dangers of morny; them, Berl beme the untry's Sodom and Gomorrah put together, a sure sign of the land's the stag of Berl, the Tiller Girls showed off their legs, dancg a Rockett-style performance that amazed and tillated spectators.

"Diverse, but DividMagn Hirschfeld, a Jewish German physician, sexologist and pneerg gay rights advote, was well acquated wh Berl's scene and mented on the diversy among the bars.

By far the most famo was the Eldorado a nightclub whose ftive atmosphere attracted not only homosexuals but also artists, thors, celebri, and tourists wantg to admire a piece of "nt" Berl or tch a glimpse of someone Lbian Club SceneLbians uld also be found some of the bars that were voted mostly to gay men [and were] often seen the larger clubs of the 1920s, such as the Topp and the Eldorado.

GAY MEN UNR THE NAZI REGIME - PHOTOGRAPHS

The Dorian Gray, one of the olst and bt-known gay clubs by the Weimar era, had a special night set asi for the turn of the century, there were also a handful of exclively lbian bars the cy.

The atmosphere was generally refed; the lightg was soft and sentimental mic played the of the most famo was Chez Ma Belle Sor on Marburger Strasse, rated Greek-style and furnished wh private booths, where upl uld take refuge behd the gay bars, many of the lbian bars were segregated somewhat by class. One French observer of the cy around the turn of the century noted that gay balls were held often several tim a week different clubs durg the ftive season between October and Easter.

They would s down to eat at tabl led wh flowers; the director, drsed a "gay velvet jacket, " would greet the guts and give a short dner, the tabl would be put away, and the orchtra would beg playg waltz and other lively dancg mic while the upl would dance through the night. " *Excerpt om the chapter "The Growth of Urban Gay Scen, Berl's Gay and Lbian Bars, " om Queer Inti and Polics Germany: A History, 1880-1945, by Clayton J. Bent director Moisés Kfman was surprised to disver that the 1920s and early 1930s, Berl was home to over 100 gay bars—far more than you’d fd any global cy today.

QUEER & GAY BERL: YOUR GUI FOR LGBTQ+ BERL

We talked wh Robert Beachy, thor of Gay Berl: Birthplace of a Morn Inty and a historian at Yonsei Universy, to fd out about the liv the characters Bent—Max and his boyiend, Rudy, bar owner and drag queen Greta—might have led before Hler me to power. Homosexual acts were illegal on the books, but a batn of factors allowed a vibrant gay culture to beg to tablish self Berl as early as the late 19th century. In fact, Germans’ “rpect and regard” and fah science, said Beachy, is part of the explanatn for why they rejected tradnal relig views of homosexualy more quickly than the rt of the Wt.

GAY BERL

Lots of proment cultural figur were “pretty wily regnized as gay or lbian, and some s they had life or long-term partners” who were treated as spo—not people to be hidn or embarrassed about, said Beachy. Most of Berl’s gay bars remaed open after the Nazis took power, except for about 15 of the bt-known tablishments, which they closed the first months of their le.

“It was only after that, a full 17 months to the Third Reich, that ’s gog to start to dawn on some people that they’re gog to be trouble if they ntue to be openly homosexual, ” said Beachy.

They rried out a mpaign agast male homosexualy that clud shuttg down gay and lbian meetg plac and arrtg men unr Paragraph 175, the statute of the German crimal that banned sexual relatns between men. Ruby Rich sums up this way:"The years of the Weimar Republic wnsed a flowerg of women's rights and of stggl for homosexual emancipatn, as well as a burstg forth of a large lbian and gay subculture quartered largely Berl. Acrdg to Angel Espa-Virseda, "One of the most popular ladi’ clubs was the Damenklub Vletta, led by Lotte Hahm, a well-known figure the homosexual rights movement.

BETWEEN WORLD WARS, GAY CULTURE FLOURISHED IN BERL

Berl liv and breath diversy every rpect: we have gathered practil rmatn, tips and pots of ntact for gay, lbian, bisexual, transgenr and tersexual people. In Schöneberg fli the flag: In 1996, Schöneberg was the first borough to officially fly the rabow flag at the town hall for the CSD gay pri para, and has done so ever sce. Sce 1982, there has been a memorative plaque at the Nollendorfplatz unrground statn where the Rosa Wkel memorat the persecutn and murr of homosexuals the Third Reich.

Learn about how Berl beme a hotspot for gays and lbians over the urse of the 20th century, and how s scene attracted people om all over the world – and ntu to do so today.

Its founr, the publisher and anarchist Adolf Brand, acknowledg the existence of a distct homoerotic cultural history extendg om Ancient Greece through to the prent. A number of lbian women, cludg Johanna Elberskirchen and Toni Schwabe, take a pro-active stance and fight to bee actively volved the gay movement, argug favour of havg their say Magn Hirschfeld's Scientific-Humanarian Commtee. Magaz for gays and lbians are available at public ksks and the venu: they clu Die Frndschaft (Friendship), the Blätter für Menschenrecht (Magaze for Human Rights), Die Frnd (The Girliends), Frenliebe (Women's Love), and Das drte Gchlecht (The Third Sex) for transvt and transsexuals.

GAY HISTORY. BERL THE 1920S-1930S: FROM GOLD TO DT

There are now around 80 venu for gays and lbians Berl: beer-soaked div and distilleri, bourgeois rtrants, we bars and clubho, dance halls and dance palac, ballrooms and smopolan night-time bars. Numero hotels and gut ho, bety and hairdrsg salons, tailors and photo studs, doctors and lawyers private practice, librari, cigarette and shoe shops, and even a r rental pany, a travel agency and a distributor for potency pills advertise gay and lbian magaz. The owners of the all-night bar for lbians, Mai & Igel, are also affected by the forced closur, while the rnival stume balls for gays and lbians held at the In n Zelten amement strip Berl's Tiergarten, which were also hugely popular among heterosexuals, are banned wh immediate effect.

Risg om the ash and fyg the post-war stery, gays and lbians re-emerge, holdg their first balls aga the midst of the bble of the stroyed cy om 1946 onwards. Homosexuelle Aktn Wtberl is found Berl 1971, om which the femist awakeng emerg 1975 wh the foundg of the Lbian Aktnszentm – along wh the lbian archive Spnbon as an iative for the disvery, and prervatn, of female love. One year later, the transvte Charlotte von Mahlsdorf opens a venue for gays and lbians that will later bee legendary her mm dited to artefacts om the late 19th century.

Choirs, sports associatns and hikg groups add diversy and vibrancy to the scene Aids-Hilfe is formed 1985, and benefs om wispread support and be a new actor the gay movement.