Berlin Gay Travel Guide

News, Parties & Events in Berlin

| 2 – 7 July 2009
Classic Open Air: ›Since 1992 the Gendarmenmarkt in Berlin turns into a great concert stage every summer. The Gendarmenmarkt is counted to the most beautiful places in Europe and is therefore perfect to set the scene for such a special event. Classic Open Air has become a major attraction for visitors and artists from Germany and elsewhere.‹
-› Classic Open Air 2009

| 11 July 2009
Yes, you Ken! Opening party of Berlin’s new gay club in Kreuzberg.
2 floors: House/Techno/Electro and Pop/R’n’B.
From 23:00 @ Ken Berlin (Obentrautstraße 19)
-› Ken Website

| 5 September 2009
Folsom Europe in Berlin: Leather & Fetish weekend with Street Fair on Saturday and lots of parties from Friday till Sunday.
-› Official Website

| 11 September 2009
Jay Brannan: singer/songwriter from New York (and actor in ›Shortbus‹) live in Berlin, 20:00 @ frannz Club (Schönhauser Allee 36)
-› www.jaybrannan.com
-› Ticket presale
Our favorite song: Body’s a Temple

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News Archive

About Berlin and its gay life

Berlin's origins go back more than 750 years. In 1701 Berlin became the capital of the kingdom of Prussia and in 1871 of the German Empire. Although Prussia was ruled by a gay king from 1740 till 1786 (Fredrick II), Berlin's gay career started only hundred years later. In the 1920s (the ›Golden Twenties‹) Berlin was seen as the city with the most lively and advanced gay subculture in Europe. That, of course, ended after 1933 when Hitler and the Nazis were given power in Germany. (A memorial for gays persecuted by the Nazi regime was opened in Berlin in 2008, long overdue after more than 60 years. Map

After the end of World War II in 1945 and with the start of the cold war Berlin had been divided into West Berlin (controlled by the Western Allies) and East Berlin (controlled by the Soviet Union).

West Berlin, although an island in communist ruled East Germany (G.D.R.), became the gay capital of Germany again. Not only due to its population of about 3 million people, but partially also because the compulsory military service of West Germany (F.R.G.) didn't apply to men in West Berlin, which attracted many men to move to West Berlin. After homosexual contacts had been legalised in 1969, the gay scene and gay movement in West Berlin grew fast in the 1970s and 1980s.

The legal situation of gay men in East Germany was the best within the Eastern Bloc and even better than in some Western democracies, but as an authoritarian state there had been no rights to organize as a gay civil rights movement and there were only a few possibilities to develop a gay scene and subculture. End of the 1980s the situation improved, and the peak of that process was the premiere of the legendary movie ›Coming Out‹ – ironically in the night of the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989.

In 2001 Berlin got an openly gay Mayor: Klaus Wowereit from the Social Democrats. To prevent his outing by opponents during the election campaign he outed himself on a party congress with the legendary words ›Ich bin schwul, und das ist auch gut so‹ (I'm gay and that's just fine).

Traditionally there are gay areas in the districts of Schöneberg (which had dance halls for men already back in the 1920s) and Kreuzberg (both in the western part of Berlin) as well as in Prenzlauer Berg (eastern part). Recently, the district of Friedrichshain developed as another area with a couple of clubs and bars.

You will notice that many bars and clubs don't indicate closing times. That's mainly due to the fact that Berlin has no closing hour anymore. Moreover, Berlin's public transport system, urban rail (S-Bahn), underground (U-Bahn), trams and busses, operate the whole night and at least half-hourly at weekends.