Paving the Way for a Public Presence: Gay and Lesbian Activism, Methods, and Successes in East Germany

HIST 3996
Professor Elizabeth Heineman
Allison Steger

Abstract

The 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 2019 inspired a few gay and lesbian history museums in Germany to hold exhibitions highlighting the experiences of homosexuals living in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), also known as East Germany, drawing renewed attention from scholars to the history of homosexual activism in East Germany. The purpose of this thesis is to explore and analyze how gay men and lesbians navigated their activism, what their goal was, and how successful they were in achieving that goal. The desire for Öffentlichkeit (“public sphere” in German), fueled many homosexual activist movements in the GDR. Sources for writing about this topic drew primarily from digital exhibitions and archives, print sources, and film. Using memoirs from East German gay men and lesbian activists, a digital exhibition titled “Wir* Hier!” and related publications presented by the Lola für Demokratie in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, church newspaper articles written by gay men, secondary literature, and Coming Out, a film directed by Heiner Carow and distributed by the East German film company DEFA, three methods emerged for creating a public presence in the GDR. Through involvement with Protestant churches, organized demonstrations to attract government attention, and spreading information received from contacts in West Germany, gay men and lesbian activists succeeded in creating a public presence in the late 1980s East Germany. The activists did not achieve much change on a legal level, but they succeeded in seeing themselves (both literally and figuratively) on the big screen through film and by creating strong communities for homosexuals in a conservative society that valued heteronormativity.