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The 5 Best LGBTQ+ Tours to Take in Berlin

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Berlin is known and loved for its openness, tolerance and freedom of expression, both artistically and sexually. The city is home to large number of queer bars and parties, queer-friendly hotels, street festivals and massive gay pride events year round, making it a colourful mecca for LGBT travellers. For anyone visiting gay Berlin, here are a few things you should do, see and know.

Tours

There are many tours that offer insight into some of Berlin’s culturally rich gay neighbourhoods including parts of Kreuzberg, Schöneberg and the Tiergarten. As always with Berlin, there is something for every kind of person, every kind of sexual orientation, every fetish, every hobby and every interest, from history to art to cabaret. Both Rainbow Gay Tours and Queer Berlin Walking Tour offer a variety of gay-focused tours, with expert guides showing off the either the centre or some of Berlin’s friendly neighbourhoods.

The local gay guides can answer any question about gay Berlin that the LGBT traveler could ever think of. There are hundreds of gay clubs, bars and lounges to find what tickles your fancy; what’s more, Berlin has a long history of gay activism, and taking a tour can give you an important and eye-opening history lesson in the struggle for gay rights.

Schwules Museum Berlin

Building, Museum

Formerly in the courtyard of a building in Mehringdamm, the Schwules Museum‘s presence was marked by a large white and pink banner. The recent relocation means an expansion to a space of 1600m2, allowing for larger exhibitions and a more in-depth gaze into the complexity of gender, identity, sexuality, etc. The museum has already touched upon topics such as HIV/AIDS, transexuality, pornography, art and homoeroticism, as well as exhibited the works of artists that were or are gay, exploring how their sexuality found expression (or not). Aside from the exhibitions and film showings, the archive is well worth a look into, and is accessible to the public during open hours, which vary daily.

Queer Berlin Tour: Birthplace of LGBTQ+ Movements

Architectural Landmark

Berlin is often referred to as the birthplace of many of today’s LGBTQ+ movements. All we need to do is shine a light on a few icons who played a hand in this to appreciate the impact they’ve had. Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, pioneer of the modern Gay Rights Movement, who distributed his essays on male-male love as early as 1862. He cleared the path for the world’s first gay magazine, Der Eigene (The Self-Owning), which came out of Berlin in 1897. No wonder that, by the 1920s, a liberal attitude made interwar Weimar Berlin an international magnet for creative individuals, including W.H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood, who authored the novel ‘Goodbye to Berlin’ (on which the musical Cabaret is based). In such a dynamic atmosphere, the Institute for Sexual Science was founded by Magnus Hirschfeld, who initiated the first campaign to abolish the legal persecution of homosexuals. This 3-house tour takes you to sites that illuminate Berlin’s many queer trailblazers, while you stroll through Schöneberg, discovering the world’s first gay ghetto.

Memorial to Homosexuals Persecuted Under Nazism

Architectural Landmark, Historical Landmark

Berlin, Germany, February 20th 2020, Memorial To Homosexuals Persecuted
Andrew Baum / Shutterstock

This Memorial is another significant stop on your LGBT tour. In Nazi Germany, homosexuality was persecuted to a degree unprecedented in history. The Nazis issued an order making male homosexuality a crime, and many people were persecuted and killed because of their sexual orientation. These victims were not officially recognised when the war ended in 1945, and the infamous ‘Paragraph 175’, which made homosexuality a crime, was still written in German Criminal law into the 1960s. In 2003, after years of gay activism, the city finally approved the erecting of a memorial to the homosexual victims of the Nazis.

Gay Pride Parade

Architectural Landmark

If you happen to be in Berlin on July 22, you’re in for a real treat. The Berlin CSD gay pride parade, also called Christopher Street Day, starts at 12:30 p.m. All manner of rainbow-coloured, shiny, happy people walk from Kurfürstendamm via Nollendorfplatz and Siegessäule to the Brandenburger Tor, where the closing ceremony takes place from 4:30 p.m. till midnight. It’s one hell of a Berlin party.

Berlin's Gay, Lesbian and Queer Scene Small-Group Walking Tour

Architectural Landmark, Historical Landmark

Kreuzberg, Berlin, Deutschland
Mark Konig / Unsplash

Known for it’s vibrant, progressive and multicultural heartbeat, Berlin has been a true pioneer and iconic city in the gay rights movements since the late-19th century. On this tour you will delve into the city’s LGBT history as you walk and adventure through the historical and culturally rich neighborhoods of Schöneberg and Kreuzberg, known for their largely gay and queer community. During this tour you’ll also visit and enjoy one of the city’s oldest trans bars, stroll through Tiergarten and learn about the LGBTQ+ figures who have shaped the city’s history. Of course there is also a visit to the Gay Museum (Schwules Museum) included in the tour, which is one of the world’s first gay museum.

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