A guide to Gay Berlin
Berlin will impress you, regardless of whether you’re visiting the German capital for the first time or if you’re catching up with a city that has re-invented itself after the fall of the wall in 1989. It is both modern and old, warm and cold, green and industrial, local and international. Because the city was divided in two for almost 30 years, which you will still notice today, Berlin has developed very distinctively.
With over 3.5 million inhabitants, Berlin has a rich history that dates back from the late 12th century. It has been the capital of the Kingdom of Prussia, the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich and is now again the capital of the re-unified Germany. Its diverse history is reflected in its architectural legacy, with representatives of almost every architectural style. Post war reconstruction and development following unification and its reinstallation as the German capital, has led to a boom in modern construction. The reconstruction of areas such as the Potsdamer Platz and the new government buildings are in strong contrast to old buildings such those seen on the boulevard Unter den Linden.
Berlin has three opera houses, a very lively cultural scene with worldwide famous musicals and is of course the seat of the world famous Berliner Philarmoniker. It hosts famous festivals, such as the Berlin Film Festival in February which includes the Queer Film Award Teddy and ITB, the world’s largest tourism trade show in March.
Gay Lifestyle In Berlin
You will find three different gay areas: two in what was formerly West Berlin (Schoeneberg and Kreuzberg) and Prenzlauer Berg in what was once the capital of East Germany. All these three areas are close to the city centre. Most recently the area called Friedrichshain, by Kreuzberg, has also started developing an interesting gay scene. The gay areas are marked clearly on our gay accommodation map – so you should be able to find a gay-friendly or gay hotel in Berlin very easily.
Schoeneberg was already famous in the 1920’s for its gay life and is still today the main gay area in the city. It hosts Europe’s largest Gay & Lesbian street festival called Strassenfest (around Nollendorfplatz) in mid June.
Kreuzberg, formerly a fairly run down area has become a hub of avant guard galleries and a mix of gay bars and low price restaurant.
PrenzlauerBerg, is where east Berlin’s gays gathered, both socially and politically. It is now a thriving gay area, although less concentrated than those of the west.
Berlin has a great café culture. The city’s first gay magazine, Der Eigene was published by Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld in 1896 and in the 1920’s you would find a larger selection of gay press sold in newsstands alongside the mainstream press. The Eldorado night club, in Schoeneberg, was one of the most famous gay venues of the golden 20‘s. The city has a gay museum (Schwules Museum) with very interesting exhibitions and is well worth a visit.
Berlin is very liberal and is known for its very diverse gay scene: from gay cafés to leather festivals, it has a lot to offer to the gay traveller. The city hosts famous gay festivals such as Folsom Europe, the Hustlaball and central Europe’s largest Gay Pride.
Gay Travel In Berlin
Culture:
Berlin’s queer arts and culture is inclusive, exhilarating and above all, liberating. Nowhere else will you find a world-renowned art institution working with a local queer museum to co-curate a top-notch queer-themed exhibition. The not-to-be-missed Homosexuality_ies exhibition is showing simultaneously at the mighty Deutsches Historisches Museum and at the Schwules Museum (until December 2015). The Schwules Museum, the world’s first queer museum, is always worth a visit. It regularly organises talks, events, festivals and movie screenings.
Visit the Ballery in Schöneberg, and look out for events by The Coven, a self proclaimed “sex-positive transdisciplinary genderbender collective focused on feminism, love, gender, sexuality and art”.
For literature, visit one of Berlin’s queer booksellers. Prinz Eisenherz Buchladen, the oldest gay bookstore in Berlin, is a must-stop in Schöneberg even if most titles are in German. Another Country, the darling English-language secondhand bookshop, has a respectable number of queer titles, and also hosts the monthly Queerstories reading events. Almost always the last Tuesday of the month, many queer, female, and trans writers meet to share their work publicly.
Movie fans should head for Kino International (a GDR-era cinema open since 1963). Every Monday it shows international and award-winning LGBT films as part of its “Mongay” series. The decadent space and the high-ceilinged bar is also used for gay parties and art exhibitions.
Berlin also throws one of the biggest gay pride festivals in the world each June (known as Christopher Street Day). A week of celebrations kicks off with the popular Gay and Lesbian Street Party in Schöneberg. Partake in the two annual gigantic fetish festivals: BLF (Berlin leather fetish week) during Easter weekend and Folsom Europe in mid-September. In February, Berlin rolls out the red carpet during the Berlin film festival. The Panorama “art house section” of the festival dedicates a significant portion of screen time to gay and lesbian films. In addition, queer movies from all over the world compete for the respected Teddy Award. A smaller film festival, the Xposed queer film festival (in May), is dedicated solely to queer film talent. It is now on its 11th year.
Clubbing:
You can’t talk about Berlin’s gay nightlife without mentioning techno mecca, Berghain. Even Hollywood celebrities talk about the world-famous nightclub on daytime talk shows! Homeland star Claire Danes called Berghain the “best place on Earth” on The Ellen Show in September – which made lots of news in Berlin. It’s been in a former power plant since 2004, but the nightclub’s roots go back 20 years to a gay sex party called Snax, which still happens twice a year (at Easter and in November). But the sexually permissive atmosphere happens every weekend.
Once inside, there are no mirrors in the bathrooms to possibly judge your decisions, and the club enforces a no-camera policy to preserve its mystique. On Fridays, only the house-centric Panorama Bar is open. It closes sometime after sunrise and the sweat and broken glass are mopped up before Saturday night when the massive main techno floor opens. Because the queue gets very long at peak hours, locals tend to get a full night’s sleep and eat brunch before going on Sunday afternoon. The club is open until Monday morning.
Many Berliners feel the “underground vibe” of Berghain has been overshadowed by tourists seeking spectacle, creating space for other parties and venues to open up. When the Gegen crew stepped into KitKat a few years ago, the swinger club found itself home to one of the city’s most successful parties. DJ Warbear and VJ Boxikus maintain their brand with a music policy of hard techno and experimental sounds, along with an adventurous visual aesthetic created by Stefan Fähler. They also abolished the dress code, allowing a greater influx of guests. Gymrats with tight shirts rub against hipster goth lesbians through industrial caverns as a black-lit dragon sculpture on the ceiling shoots fire and screams “GOA!” Gegen happens on the first Friday of every other month.
Every second Friday of the month is D.U.M.P., where the usually men-only sex club Mutschmann’s, in the gay district of Schöneberg, opens its doors to all genders. From the bar to the tiny dancefloor to the darkrooms, it’s a mixture of chic and sleazy. GMF at 2BE Club in Mitte is the posh weekly party where you’ll hear a mix of chart hits, EDM and house every Sunday night.
In Berlin, the weekend only ends if you let it. Every Monday night at Monster Ronson’s is Multisexual Boxhopping. The glitter-bombed karaoke bar hosts a free-for-all in which all 10 of its private booths are fair game, allowing you to bounce around and share the mic with strangers or, if you prefer, step into the lounge where you can strain your vocal cords in front of a larger audience.
The SchwuZ club, short for Schwules Zentrum (gay centre), has been a community institution since 1977. In 2013, SchwuZ tripled in size by relocating to a former brewery in the city’s rapidly gentrifying Neukölln district. The club caters to all colours of the LGBTIQ rainbow, with teens to silver foxes passing under the disco ball. Its DJ bookings are equally diverse, from Aérea Negrot playing tech-house to Lotic playing abstract beats. On Fridays and Saturdays, up to three floors open with occasional shows onstage. The most popular party is Madonnamania, on every three months, where all 16 Junior Vasquez remixes of Don’t Cry for Me Argentina get played.
Bars:
Südblock, in the heart of Kreuzberg, is a bar and restaurant serving vegetarian and vegan food. It also hosts many diverse queer events such as Queerblock Female hip-hop gigs and a meet-up of Berlin’s queer disabled community every first Tuesday of the month. Facciola is a lesbian-owned and operated wine bar – where everything is possible. Warm and welcoming, you might find yourself singing karaoke with broomsticks with the table next to you while throwing back grappa shots. The bar also runs regular queer events and cultural activities, such as Cabaret Opera.
Barbie Deinhoff’s, also in Kreuzberg, is a gay bar featuring art on the walls, often with political or dissident themes. The mismatched chairs and couches, colourful walls and smoke-filled rooms make it a warm place to spend a leisurely evening.Himmelreich, on Simon-Dach-Straße, is a lesbian hangout, with happy hours, suffused lights, music that’s not too loud, and plenty of tables, making it a great bar for casual conversations and meeting new friends.
One of Kreuzberg’s legendary nightlife spots, Roses, is undoubtedly the kitschest bar in town thanks to its red velvet-lined walls and fake leather chairs. You go there when you want to feel furry and glittery. Drinks are cheap and the social atmosphere inside (plus long hours: often open until 8am or later), make it the perfect bar for a debaucherous night out.
Search best gay hotel frendly in here:
Booking.com
Berlin will impress you, regardless of whether you’re visiting the German capital for the first time or if you’re catching up with a city that has re-invented itself after the fall of the wall in 1989. It is both modern and old, warm and cold, green and industrial, local and international. Because the city was divided in two for almost 30 years, which you will still notice today, Berlin has developed very distinctively.
With over 3.5 million inhabitants, Berlin has a rich history that dates back from the late 12th century. It has been the capital of the Kingdom of Prussia, the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich and is now again the capital of the re-unified Germany. Its diverse history is reflected in its architectural legacy, with representatives of almost every architectural style. Post war reconstruction and development following unification and its reinstallation as the German capital, has led to a boom in modern construction. The reconstruction of areas such as the Potsdamer Platz and the new government buildings are in strong contrast to old buildings such those seen on the boulevard Unter den Linden.
Berlin has three opera houses, a very lively cultural scene with worldwide famous musicals and is of course the seat of the world famous Berliner Philarmoniker. It hosts famous festivals, such as the Berlin Film Festival in February which includes the Queer Film Award Teddy and ITB, the world’s largest tourism trade show in March.
Gay Lifestyle In Berlin
You will find three different gay areas: two in what was formerly West Berlin (Schoeneberg and Kreuzberg) and Prenzlauer Berg in what was once the capital of East Germany. All these three areas are close to the city centre. Most recently the area called Friedrichshain, by Kreuzberg, has also started developing an interesting gay scene. The gay areas are marked clearly on our gay accommodation map – so you should be able to find a gay-friendly or gay hotel in Berlin very easily.
Schoeneberg was already famous in the 1920’s for its gay life and is still today the main gay area in the city. It hosts Europe’s largest Gay & Lesbian street festival called Strassenfest (around Nollendorfplatz) in mid June.
Kreuzberg, formerly a fairly run down area has become a hub of avant guard galleries and a mix of gay bars and low price restaurant.
PrenzlauerBerg, is where east Berlin’s gays gathered, both socially and politically. It is now a thriving gay area, although less concentrated than those of the west.
Berlin has a great café culture. The city’s first gay magazine, Der Eigene was published by Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld in 1896 and in the 1920’s you would find a larger selection of gay press sold in newsstands alongside the mainstream press. The Eldorado night club, in Schoeneberg, was one of the most famous gay venues of the golden 20‘s. The city has a gay museum (Schwules Museum) with very interesting exhibitions and is well worth a visit.
Berlin is very liberal and is known for its very diverse gay scene: from gay cafés to leather festivals, it has a lot to offer to the gay traveller. The city hosts famous gay festivals such as Folsom Europe, the Hustlaball and central Europe’s largest Gay Pride.
Gay Travel In Berlin
Culture:
Berlin’s queer arts and culture is inclusive, exhilarating and above all, liberating. Nowhere else will you find a world-renowned art institution working with a local queer museum to co-curate a top-notch queer-themed exhibition. The not-to-be-missed Homosexuality_ies exhibition is showing simultaneously at the mighty Deutsches Historisches Museum and at the Schwules Museum (until December 2015). The Schwules Museum, the world’s first queer museum, is always worth a visit. It regularly organises talks, events, festivals and movie screenings.
Visit the Ballery in Schöneberg, and look out for events by The Coven, a self proclaimed “sex-positive transdisciplinary genderbender collective focused on feminism, love, gender, sexuality and art”.
For literature, visit one of Berlin’s queer booksellers. Prinz Eisenherz Buchladen, the oldest gay bookstore in Berlin, is a must-stop in Schöneberg even if most titles are in German. Another Country, the darling English-language secondhand bookshop, has a respectable number of queer titles, and also hosts the monthly Queerstories reading events. Almost always the last Tuesday of the month, many queer, female, and trans writers meet to share their work publicly.
Movie fans should head for Kino International (a GDR-era cinema open since 1963). Every Monday it shows international and award-winning LGBT films as part of its “Mongay” series. The decadent space and the high-ceilinged bar is also used for gay parties and art exhibitions.
Berlin also throws one of the biggest gay pride festivals in the world each June (known as Christopher Street Day). A week of celebrations kicks off with the popular Gay and Lesbian Street Party in Schöneberg. Partake in the two annual gigantic fetish festivals: BLF (Berlin leather fetish week) during Easter weekend and Folsom Europe in mid-September. In February, Berlin rolls out the red carpet during the Berlin film festival. The Panorama “art house section” of the festival dedicates a significant portion of screen time to gay and lesbian films. In addition, queer movies from all over the world compete for the respected Teddy Award. A smaller film festival, the Xposed queer film festival (in May), is dedicated solely to queer film talent. It is now on its 11th year.
Clubbing:
You can’t talk about Berlin’s gay nightlife without mentioning techno mecca, Berghain. Even Hollywood celebrities talk about the world-famous nightclub on daytime talk shows! Homeland star Claire Danes called Berghain the “best place on Earth” on The Ellen Show in September – which made lots of news in Berlin. It’s been in a former power plant since 2004, but the nightclub’s roots go back 20 years to a gay sex party called Snax, which still happens twice a year (at Easter and in November). But the sexually permissive atmosphere happens every weekend.
Once inside, there are no mirrors in the bathrooms to possibly judge your decisions, and the club enforces a no-camera policy to preserve its mystique. On Fridays, only the house-centric Panorama Bar is open. It closes sometime after sunrise and the sweat and broken glass are mopped up before Saturday night when the massive main techno floor opens. Because the queue gets very long at peak hours, locals tend to get a full night’s sleep and eat brunch before going on Sunday afternoon. The club is open until Monday morning.
Many Berliners feel the “underground vibe” of Berghain has been overshadowed by tourists seeking spectacle, creating space for other parties and venues to open up. When the Gegen crew stepped into KitKat a few years ago, the swinger club found itself home to one of the city’s most successful parties. DJ Warbear and VJ Boxikus maintain their brand with a music policy of hard techno and experimental sounds, along with an adventurous visual aesthetic created by Stefan Fähler. They also abolished the dress code, allowing a greater influx of guests. Gymrats with tight shirts rub against hipster goth lesbians through industrial caverns as a black-lit dragon sculpture on the ceiling shoots fire and screams “GOA!” Gegen happens on the first Friday of every other month.
Every second Friday of the month is D.U.M.P., where the usually men-only sex club Mutschmann’s, in the gay district of Schöneberg, opens its doors to all genders. From the bar to the tiny dancefloor to the darkrooms, it’s a mixture of chic and sleazy. GMF at 2BE Club in Mitte is the posh weekly party where you’ll hear a mix of chart hits, EDM and house every Sunday night.
In Berlin, the weekend only ends if you let it. Every Monday night at Monster Ronson’s is Multisexual Boxhopping. The glitter-bombed karaoke bar hosts a free-for-all in which all 10 of its private booths are fair game, allowing you to bounce around and share the mic with strangers or, if you prefer, step into the lounge where you can strain your vocal cords in front of a larger audience.
The SchwuZ club, short for Schwules Zentrum (gay centre), has been a community institution since 1977. In 2013, SchwuZ tripled in size by relocating to a former brewery in the city’s rapidly gentrifying Neukölln district. The club caters to all colours of the LGBTIQ rainbow, with teens to silver foxes passing under the disco ball. Its DJ bookings are equally diverse, from Aérea Negrot playing tech-house to Lotic playing abstract beats. On Fridays and Saturdays, up to three floors open with occasional shows onstage. The most popular party is Madonnamania, on every three months, where all 16 Junior Vasquez remixes of Don’t Cry for Me Argentina get played.
Drag:
Hamburger Mary’s in Schöneberg puts on polished shows with hostesses Ryan Stecken and Kristelle Airlines, but in general drag in Berlin is a bit rough around the edges – like the city itself – and lower key. It relies much more on quick wit and politics than big wigs and fake tits. But if there is a drag queen working the door, you can expect it to be an open-minded, comfortable place.
Gloria Viagra, a Berlin drag icon known as The Empire State Building of Drag, has a huge heart. Her most popular event, the pop Partysane at SchwuZ, is always dedicated to good causes, raising money for refugees or the recently homeless. Near SchwuZ, The Club is a cosy, candlelit neighbourhood queer bar with sketches and other simple art hanging on whitewashed walls. The bar puts on regular film screenings and other drag events, but the real attraction is Olympia Bukkakis’s drag nights every Friday. Her shows are terrifying, hilarious and tragic.
Siegessäule, a free monthly LGBT magazine, has an extensive list of Berlin’s LGBT nightlife events in both German and English. Mostly, though, the best way to find out about events is by word of mouth, or posters on the street.
Hamburger Mary’s in Schöneberg puts on polished shows with hostesses Ryan Stecken and Kristelle Airlines, but in general drag in Berlin is a bit rough around the edges – like the city itself – and lower key. It relies much more on quick wit and politics than big wigs and fake tits. But if there is a drag queen working the door, you can expect it to be an open-minded, comfortable place.
Gloria Viagra, a Berlin drag icon known as The Empire State Building of Drag, has a huge heart. Her most popular event, the pop Partysane at SchwuZ, is always dedicated to good causes, raising money for refugees or the recently homeless. Near SchwuZ, The Club is a cosy, candlelit neighbourhood queer bar with sketches and other simple art hanging on whitewashed walls. The bar puts on regular film screenings and other drag events, but the real attraction is Olympia Bukkakis’s drag nights every Friday. Her shows are terrifying, hilarious and tragic.
Siegessäule, a free monthly LGBT magazine, has an extensive list of Berlin’s LGBT nightlife events in both German and English. Mostly, though, the best way to find out about events is by word of mouth, or posters on the street.
Bars:
Südblock, in the heart of Kreuzberg, is a bar and restaurant serving vegetarian and vegan food. It also hosts many diverse queer events such as Queerblock Female hip-hop gigs and a meet-up of Berlin’s queer disabled community every first Tuesday of the month. Facciola is a lesbian-owned and operated wine bar – where everything is possible. Warm and welcoming, you might find yourself singing karaoke with broomsticks with the table next to you while throwing back grappa shots. The bar also runs regular queer events and cultural activities, such as Cabaret Opera.
Barbie Deinhoff’s, also in Kreuzberg, is a gay bar featuring art on the walls, often with political or dissident themes. The mismatched chairs and couches, colourful walls and smoke-filled rooms make it a warm place to spend a leisurely evening.Himmelreich, on Simon-Dach-Straße, is a lesbian hangout, with happy hours, suffused lights, music that’s not too loud, and plenty of tables, making it a great bar for casual conversations and meeting new friends.
One of Kreuzberg’s legendary nightlife spots, Roses, is undoubtedly the kitschest bar in town thanks to its red velvet-lined walls and fake leather chairs. You go there when you want to feel furry and glittery. Drinks are cheap and the social atmosphere inside (plus long hours: often open until 8am or later), make it the perfect bar for a debaucherous night out.
Search best gay hotel frendly in here:
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