Homosexual Memorial Tour: The Gay Museum
Hansi and Eberhardt
The Gay Museum in Kreuzberg sheds a light on Homosexual History from 1790 to 1990. Right now, beside the permanent exhibition, is the L-projekt...an exhibition presenting for the first time ever, the politics and culture of lesbian women in Berlin for the last 40 years.
The Gay Museum was founded in 1985 by a group of gay students who had been working as guards at the Berlin Museum. It was there that they had worked during the first ever gay and lesbian exhibition. In 1984 dreams became reality; the two month exhibition opened: " Eldorado. History, Every-day life and Culture of Homosexual Men and Women in Berlin, 1850-1950". The success and the positive reviews made it difficult for the exhibition to be taken down and the return of the items which were on loan. But the guys didn't let there heads hang and so founded the Gay Museum of Berlin.
Today the Museum presents over two floors, the diversity and history of homosexual life. The visiting exhibitions take place in the lower floor, the permanent exhibition, there since 2004, takes place on the top floor. Then the question is asked, how it is that the homosexual self-recognition as it is today, developed itself. One important reason is the role of the history of the old Gods. Examples of more intimate relationships with literature and art are presented at the beginnign of the exhibition. One stage during the road to self-recognition, was the founding of the Academic Humanities Committee (Wissenschaftlich-humanitäte Komitee) which applied for the abolition of paragraph 175 of the Penal Code which during the Nazi regime called for the persecution of homosexuals. The demand followed the satisfying male nudity of acrobats and strongmen, which took place on stages in the early 1800s. The exhibition documents the situation of homosexuals during the times of National Socialism, the post-war period and the 1990s.
You leave the museum with an insight into the difficulty of the daily lives of homosexuals. Nevertheless, one will also get to know the things which are for the homosexual soul beneficial and amusing. The amusement, for example, came from the nights at the Eldorado meeting point where "women imitators", drag queens, took to the stage.
And if you think that there is no room for women, you're wrong! The permanent exhibition presents a series of carefully selected biographies of lesbian women. Bit by bit, one special project was being prepared and it has now come together as the "L-Project", which has only just recently opened.
The library of the Gay Museum gives access to an extensive inventory (books, videos, magazines) of homosexual-related themes. The Archive enables and facilitates academic research about gay and lesbian life in all its facets.
For more info: www.schwulesmuseum.de
Opening hours: daily except tuesdays from 2pm to 6pm and saturdays from 2pm to 7pm.
Entrance fee: 5 Euros
Discounts for students, pensioners, welfare recipients, unemployed.
Adress: Mehringdamm 61 U-bahn: U6 Mehringdamm
10961 Berlin
Translation by Beatriz Gamboa
