Duration: December 6, 2025, to March 2026

Opening on December 6 (private event), free admission on December 7

West Berlin, mid-1980s. At the height of the AIDS crisis, when homosexuality was often stigmatized in the media and associated with fear, the gay movement sought new ways to assert itself. Many gay men in Berlin were visible, fierce, and well connected. They wanted to tell their own story, document their culture, and no longer allow their identity to be defined by outside forces.

Between May and June 1984, the Berlin Museum presented the first exhibition (“Eldorado”) on the history and culture of homosexual women and men in Berlin from 1850 to 1950. Over 40,000 visitors attended – a resounding success. The exhibition was put together by four gay men and nine lesbians. The gay curators came up with the idea of creating a place that would permanently preserve and make visible their own history.

On December 6, 1985, Manfred Baumgardt, Wolfgang Theis, Manfred Herzer-Wigglesworth, Andreas Sternweiler, and Egmont Fassbinder founded the Association of Friends of the Schwules Museum in Berlin. Since seven people are required to found an association, Detlef Mücke and Winfried Kuhn added their signatures in a show of solidarity. The result was an institution of self-empowerment: an archive that collected gay life, a library that preserved knowledge, and exhibitions that made history visible.

After the association was founded, the Schwules Museum used rooms belonging to the “Allgemeine homosexuelle Arbeitsgemeinschaft” (AHA) on Friedrichstraße from 1986 to 1988. In 1990, the association moved into its own larger premises on Mehringdamm, and in 2013 to its current location on Lützowstraße.

What began as a fierce initiative by a few gay men has become an internationally recognized institution that makes the diversity of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, inter*, and queer lifestyles visible.

This exhibition tells the story of the association’s origins and, on the occasion of its 40th anniversary, sheds light on the eventful early years of the Schwules Museum.

Curated by Birga Meyer & Luan Pertl

With objects and documents from the Schwules Museum archive. And new video and audio interviews with Manfred Baumgardt, Wolfgang Theis, Manfred Herzer-Wigglesworth, Andreas Sternweiler, Detlef Mücke, and Detlev Pusch. The latter were made possible by private donations as part of our crowdfunding campaign “40 Years of Schwules Museum – Preserving the Founding History,” for which we would like to express our sincere thanks!

Supported by the Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt.

Photo: The “founding mothers” of Schwules Museum, Manfred Baumgart, Wolfgang Theis, Andreas Sternweiler, and Manfred Herzer-Wigglesworth (from left to right) in front of the foundation of the library and archive, in the rooms of the AHA in June 1986 (photographer unknown, SMU archive).