Schwules Museum * (translated from German as “gay museum”) is a Berlin museum dedicated to scientific research issues related to homosexuality and dedicated to the history of homosexuality and the LGBT movement in Germany. Among the museum's exhibits are photographs, documents and paintings. According to the director of the museum, Karl-Heinz Steinle, it is a historical museum and does not belong to the museum of eroticism, as many may think.
History of the museum
In 1984, the first thematic exhibition entitled “Eldorado - history, culture and life of homosexual men and women in Berlin 1850-1950” was held in Berlin. The exhibition was a great success, it was visited by more than 45 thousand people, so it was decided to continue collecting and demonstrating thematic materials in our own museum. The purpose of creating the museum was to display general public the lives of homosexual men. Thus, the creators of the museum wanted to break down various one-sided negative psychological clichés and show the versatility of the lives of homosexuals, thereby helping people be more tolerant towards them. The Gay Museum was opened in 1985 through the efforts of activists who formed the society “Union of Friends of the Gay Museum in Berlin” (German: Verein der Freunde eines Schwulen Museums in Berlin e.V.). The first exhibitions of the museum in 1985-1989 were held in the building of the Berlin LGBT organization AHA-Berlin. In 1989, the museum moved to a building at Meringdamm Avenue 61. In 2009, the museum received its 13,000th visitor. Up to 60% of the museum's guests are tourists. On the occasion of the anniversary, the Berlin Senate decided to allocate 250 thousand euros to the museum in 2010 and 2011. In early 2011, German President Christian Wulff awarded the museum's two founders, Andreas Sternweiler and Wolfgang Theis, the Knight's Cross of Merit. In May 2013, the museum moved to a new spacious building in the Tiergarten district. The renovated museum has become Research Center, where besides exhibition halls There is also a large archive and library available to everyone.
Exhibitions
Today, the Homosexuality Museum is the only organization of its kind that studies in detail all aspects of the life of homosexuals: history, culture and art, as well as daily life. Currently, the museum has 127 exhibitions. Since December 2004, the museum has had a permanent exhibition “200 Years of Homosexual History”, covering the history of Germany from 1790 to 1990 and related to the development of the attitude of the German state and society towards homosexuals. A special place in the exhibition is occupied by the topic of persecution and destruction of gays and lesbians during the Third Reich. In addition, there are various rotating exhibitions every year. IN last years The museum goes beyond the original concept and also contains materials dedicated to lesbianism and transgenderism. Twice a year, the Museum of Homosexuality, along with other museums in Berlin, takes part in the famous Berlin Long Night of Museums. From July to October 2010...
Titled "Eldorado - history, culture and life of homosexual men and women in Berlin 1850-1950." The exhibition was a great success, it was visited by more than 45 thousand people, so it was decided to continue collecting and demonstrating thematic materials in our own museum. The purpose of creating the museum was to show the general public the life of homosexual men. Thus, the creators of the museum wanted to break down various one-sided negative psychological clichés and show the versatility of the lives of homosexuals, thereby helping people be more tolerant towards them.
The Gay Museum was opened in 1985 through the efforts of activists who formed the society “Union of Friends of the Gay Museum in Berlin” (German. Verein der Freunde eines Schwulen Museums in Berlin e.V. ). The first exhibitions of the museum in 1985-1989 were held in the building of the Berlin LGBT organization AHA-Berlin. In 1989 the museum moved to a building at Meringdamm Avenue 61.
In 2009, the museum received its 13,000th visitor. Up to 60% of the museum's guests are tourists. On the occasion of the anniversary, the Berlin Senate decided to allocate 250 thousand euros to the museum in 2010 and 2011. At the beginning of 2011, German President Christian Wulff awarded the two founders of the museum Andreas Sternweiler and Wolfgang Theis (German) Wolfgang Theis) "Knight's Cross of Merit".
In May 2013, the museum moved to a new spacious building in the Tiergarten district. The renovated museum has turned into a research center, where in addition to exhibition halls there is also a large archive and library available to everyone.
Exhibitions
Today, the Museum of Homosexuality is the only organization of its kind that studies in detail all aspects of the life of homosexuals: history and art, as well as everyday life. Currently, the museum has 127 exhibitions.
Since December 2004, the museum has had a permanent exhibition “200 Years of Homosexual History”, covering the history of Germany from 1790 to 1990 and related to the development of the attitude of the German state and society towards homosexuals. A special place in the exhibition is occupied by the topic of persecution and destruction of gays and lesbians during the Third Reich.
In addition, there are various rotating exhibitions every year. In recent years, the museum has expanded beyond its original concept and also contains materials dedicated to lesbianism and transgenderism.
Twice a year, the Museum of Homosexuality, along with other museums in Berlin, takes part in the famous Berlin Long Night of Museums.
From July to October 2010, the museum hosted works by Ralph Koenig. From December 2010 to March 2011 - an exhibition of works by Jean Genet. Until March 2012, the museum is hosting an exhibition dedicated to Magnus Hirschfeld.
Since 2015, the museum has been hosting the largest exhibition in its history, “Homosexualität_en,” prepared in collaboration with.
see also
History of the LGBT movement in Germany- Persecution of homosexuality in the German states
- Paragraph 175
- Homosexuality in the Third Reich
The world's only Homosexuality Museum has reopened in Berlin. He talks about the culture and history of the LGBT movement, as well as what life is like for gays and lesbians, bi- and transsexuals, queers and intersex people today.
The Berlin Museum of Homosexuality (Schwules Museum) is showing something completely different from what many may initially expect. Those interested in raunchy details and piquant accessories may find it boring here. “We are not an erotic museum! We are engaged in scientific research into all issues related to non-traditional sexual orientations,” emphasizes museum director Karl-Heinz Steinle. The exhibits include photographs, documents and paintings.
Background
It all started in 1984, when they decided to hold an exhibition in Berlin about the life of sexual minorities in the years 1850-1950. After all, before the National Socialists came to power, gays and lesbians from all over Europe considered the German capital their El Dorado. The exposition then produced the effect of a bomb exploding. There were so many people wishing to attend the exhibition that it was decided to find a permanent place. So a year later the museum came into being.
In May 2013, the museum reopened after moving to new premises in the Tiergarten district. Now it is a research center, where, in addition to exhibition halls, there is a large archive and library, which anyone can use.
Museum director Karl-Heinz Steinle.
Before the Nazis came
On black and white photography— beauty Lili Elbe. The picture was taken in Dresden in 1931. Lily came there from Denmark, where she was born a man. German doctors in those years already practiced the first sex reassignment operations. Lili Elbe was one of the world's first transsexuals. She was operated on in Berlin and Dresden. But in female body Lily did not live even a year: she died from complications.
Around the same time, a portrait of a fetishist writer was painted in Cologne, posing for the artist in lingerie and boots. In the 1920s, specialized clubs and cabarets opened everywhere and existed quite openly. And the daring Marlene Dietrich, who was called “the most stylish man in Hollywood,” starred in a man’s tailcoat. At the same time, the first congress of sexual minorities in Germany was held: the exhibition includes a black and white card of its participants.
‘Miss Julia Pastrana at the Pirna Carnival’, Johanna Scholz-Plageman. Presumably 1893.
Change of power
‘Woman with a Beard’, unknown photographer. Presumably 1890.
The National Socialists came to power and sexual minorities went underground. To avoid persecution, gays and lesbians entered into fictitious marriages with each other. Smiling transvestites dressed in feathers and furs have disappeared from posters and magazine covers. But photographs from family albums remain as evidence that homosexuals have not disappeared anywhere. “They show that the authorities could not exterminate homosexuals, no matter how hard they tried,” says Steinle.
However, unconventional love, according to the museum director, was no less diverse in Germany during the Nazi era than before or after it. Berlin is currently hosting a theme year, “Disrupted Diversity,” to mark the 80th anniversary of Hitler’s rise to power. The Museum of Homosexuality also contributed in the form of a traveling exhibition.
Its exhibits are posters telling about 24 broken destinies. The heroes of the exhibition are representatives of sexual minorities of Jewish origin who lived in those years and defended their rights through art and literature. Some of them were killed, others were forced to hide, and others managed to emigrate. The most famous heroine of the exhibition is Erika Mann, the daughter of the writer Thomas Mann, who loved women and wrote caustic texts for the political cabaret Pfeffermühle.
One of the heroes of the exhibition is alive to this day. 87-year-old pantomime actor Harry Raymonds recently came to Berlin and visited the museum. His family fled to New York in 1936. Many years later he returned to Germany. Raymonds made several films about his life, emigration and homosexuality.
There was gay sex in the GDR!
“Transformation” is the name of the permanent exhibition of the Museum of Homosexuality. “This word means a lot of things at once: one space turns into another (this is how our interiors are arranged), the biological sex turns into the opposite, the oppressed become idols, and self-hatred develops into a desire to fight for oneself,” explains the museum director.
"Footballers", Jochen Hass. 1951
In one of the four halls of the museum there is, so to speak, an exhibition within an exhibition. These are paintings by the artist from the GDR Jochen Hass. In the 1950s, he, contrary to the laws of life of that time, made his own homosexuality the main motive of his works. “Here, for example, is his self-portrait. Such an open, spiritual, bright young man, but from him a shadow seems to fall towards the secret world of homoeroticism,” Steinle comments on one of the works.