Queer Berlin Tour: Birthplace of LGTBQ Movements

5.0 (13 reviews) 3 hours Free cancellation

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13 reviews

5.0

Queer Berlin Tour: Birthplace of LGTBQ Movements — Photos: the activity supplier, via Viator

Queer Berlin Tour: Birthplace of LGTBQ Movements, photo 2 — Photos: the activity supplier, via Viator

About this activity

Berlin may rightly be called the birthplace of today’s LGBTQ+ movements. Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, pioneer of the modern Gay Rights Movement, 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 an 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.

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At a glance

Duration: 3 hours
Confirmation: Instant confirmation
Ticket: Mobile or paper ticket accepted
Group: Up to 10 people
People per booking: 1–10
Guide: English
Operated by: Insight Cities

Ages: Adults (18–100 years)

What is included

Included

Included: Expert Licensed Guide

Not included

Not included: Metro tickets - 24 hour ticket - 10 EUR

Itinerary

Schoneberg

1 h 30 min

Explore the world's first gay ghetto, Schoneberg, a neighborhood that featured legendary lesbian bars, you'll see Christopher Isherwood's former flat and learn how his Weimar-era adventures inspired the musical Cabaret. Passing by nightclubs he frequented, we'll see a rent-boy dive that remains gay-run to this day. Outside the infamous El Dorado Cabaret, we'll learn of notable regulars like Ernst Rohm, the openly gay head of the Sturmabteilung (aka, the Nazi Brown Shirts). While discovering sites connected to the post-WWII rebirth of Schoneberg as the gay-heart of the city, we pay particular homage to the city's most iconic nightclub of the 70s, Chez Romy Haag.
Unter Den Linden

45 min

On the historic boulevard Unter den Linden, you will meet early gay Berliners such as the Prussian King Frederick the great and explorer Alexander von Humboldt and find out how they disguised their sexuality.
Alexanderplatz

45 min

Travel to Alexanderplatz, the heart of Cold War East Berlin and hear about the suffering endured by gays and lesbians behind the Iron Curtain