In August, Klaus-Dieter Begemann will celebrate his 72nd birthday—marking 72 years filled with a positive zest for life, enthusiasm for the performing arts, and gay and lesbian activism. Among his historic achievements in the movement is the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany’s first rainbow flag. Starting in 1983, Klaus-Dieter and the Osnabrück Homosexuality Action Group (AHO) used this flag to make gay men visible in public. At the time, it was impossible to foresee that the symbol would gain such widespread acceptance within the communities and become so prevalent in society. In this interview, Klaus-Dieter Begemann puts the early days into perspective for us, discusses aesthetic parallels with department stores of the ’70s and ’80s, and shares insights into how he remains active in retirement.
Yasmin: Klaus-Dieter, thank you so much for making the trip out here. Where exactly did you come from?
Klaus-Dieter: I’m originally from Bad Bentheim, near the Dutch border; I studied to become a teacher of art and geography at the University of Osnabrück. After graduation, I ended up unemployed—in the ’80s, they were hardly hiring any teachers. I came out around 1980, which led me to the Osnabrück Homosexuality Action Group. That’s also where I met a long-term partner, though unfortunately it didn’t last. In 1984, I moved to Hamburg, where I took a temporary position at the Magnus Hirschfeld Center. At the time, it was one of the first gay centers in West Germany! After retraining in IT, I stayed in that field until I retired. Since retiring, I’ve also been active again in gay groups that focus on the topic of age and aging.
Y: I’ve also noticed your affinity for tech. You post on the YouTube channel Pink Channel Hamburg, right?
K: Exactly!
Y: The opening of our 2023 exhibition, *Rüdiger Trautsch – Photography as a Way of Life*, is also documented there. Do you remember how you first got to know the Schwules Museum?
K: I’ve known the museum for a very long time. Back when Jens Dobler was head of the archives and collections, I was already bringing exhibits here—the store sign from the Männerschwarm bookstore in Hamburg, for example. In that sense, the Schwules Museum was simply a place you knew you could leave things in safe hands.
Y: We’re glad to hear that! What do you like about the medium of moving images?
K: I work with Wolfgang Krömer at Pink Channel Hamburg. Wolfgang’s medium is radio—very traditional. Back then, my degree program was called Visual Communication, so I was already grappling with the emerging flood of images back in the ’70s. That’s why I enjoy conveying content through images! But since I wanted to stay active in public relations even after retirement, I brought up new media with Wolfgang and bought a camcorder shortly afterward. Since then, I’ve frequently and happily been making video documentaries about current events in Hamburg and publishing them on Pink Channel Hamburg.
Y: Who do you hope to reach with your work?
K: My approach is to produce clips that wouldn’t otherwise be noticed by the general public. There’s still the problem that mainstream media doesn’t broadcast enough content for the gay and lesbian community. With new media, I’m now trying to reach a new audience. I don’t care how many people see it—if it reaches even one person who discovers something new or learns about an event they’d like to participate in, we’ve already achieved a great deal.
Y: I think it’s really cool that you’re still active. What’s your background in activism?
K: As I said, I used to be very involved with the AHO. Back then, we always met at the “Lagerhalle” socio-cultural center, which had a theater, group rooms, and a bar. There, we could organize ourselves and put on events. In the early ’80s, we went public with the “Gay in May” event series—a slogan that’s still used today. If we hadn’t found a home at that center, none of this would have been possible.
Y: What were your causes? What did you advocate for?
K: Primarily education and coming-out support! Our group was organized on a grassroots, democratic basis, so the active members decided what to do. I was also interested in historical reflection—for example, the period before World War II and the pioneers of that time. But the highlight of the year was always the preparations for our festivals, such as “Gay in May” or “Sultry Nights”; which ran under slogans like “How about a little more?” for example. This scene also gave rise to the drag group “Trio Infernale,” which was very successful in the early ’80s. Their formula was pretty simple: classic drag, until something inevitably went wrong in every show and it ended in total chaos. You’d always find yourself thinking, “What are they doing up there on stage?” as you watched the show crumble around them… It was hilariously funny to watch people’s planned failure.
Y: The AHO has left behind an iconic legacy anyway; part of it is hanging right above your head right now… (both laugh) What symbols did you use in the gay rights movement of the ’80s?
K: We wore a lot of buttons, like pins with the Pink Triangle. I also wore a button that said “degenerate” quite often—it was inspired by the album cover of the band “Brühwarm,” which toured Germany in the late ’70s with gay anthems. The Pink Triangle was certainly a distinguishing mark, but it was worn more by gay men who were politically aware and actively involved. Since we demonstrated a lot during those years, it was important to us as the AHO to be recognizable alongside all our other coalition partners. For the May 8, 1982, demonstration, we proposed the activist and author Hans-Georg Stümke as a speaker, and he was accepted. This allowed a gay man to deliver an interesting speech on May 8. And we also brought a flag with us: our pink German flag. As a small group, we wanted to be recognizable at the demonstration. For that flag, we replaced the red with pink and embroidered our initials—AHO—in the top corner. But this idea didn’t come out of nowhere; it was inspired by the gay touring theater troupe “Familie Schmidt.” Their motto was “upright, German, homosexual.” We tried to translate that into a visual.
Y: Well, you haven’t addressed the real elephant in the room yet: you sewed the republic’s first rainbow flag!
K: “Elephant” is a good one! Let me back up a bit… In May 1983, as part of the Stadtgesellschaft, we organized a major series of events called “Week of the Burned Books” to mark the 50th anniversary of the book burnings. Willy Brandt gave a widely acclaimed speech at the commemorative event at the Osnabrück Municipal Theater on May 10; there was a Klaus Mann exhibition and many, many other events… We joined the program with our festival “Sultry Nights.” And since there was so much depressing stuff going on that week, I personally faced the task of creating a positive outlook. We wanted to celebrate; we want to celebrate ourselves and show that we’re here. By chance, I stumbled upon pictures of the Gay Pride parade in San Francisco and saw that the route was decorated with rainbow flags—flags consisting of six stripes, which we then interpret as a rainbow. I really liked this playful approach; after all, a flag can also have a very dogmatic quality. Back then, I didn’t even know that Gilbert Baker was behind the 1978 design made up of primary and secondary colors. I just went ahead and adopted it.
Y: But there’s one more stripe on your rainbow flag than on the one from San Francisco!
K: Yeah, we added another “hot pink” stripe. The pink triangle had made that a accepted symbol in the German scene, though we’re also just fans of pink. (both laugh) In my perception at the time, lesbians were associated with purple, which is why we added a pink stripe at the top, a purple stripe below it, and sewed them together with the remaining colors at the bottom. In the end, we were able to make five flags out of the flag fabric, which we hung in the foyer of the warehouse. They were the hit of the season, if I may say so myself. Everyone thought they were wonderful and embraced the design as a positive message. It’s simple and, in my opinion, the most powerful thing you can express with colors. So I was very happy with how well it was received.
Y: Now that we’ve discussed two flags and can make a comparison: what does the rainbow flag achieve that the pink German flag didn’t?
K: The rainbow flag isn’t nationalistic. It isn’t associated with any specific nation-state. It’s international and universal. You can see the rainbow everywhere in the world! Human beings are beings of light; we depend on light to exist. The beauty of light is that when it refracts through a prism, it forms these rainbow colors for the human eye. Even if we don’t always see the colors, they’re there wherever there’s light. We’re always there, too, and we appear to all the people who want to see us.
Y: Very poetic! How did this symbol come to be widely used in Germany?
K: 1983 was the first year of the Kohl administration and definitely a difficult year for queer people. Starting in 1984, I was in Hamburg and carried the flags at many demonstrations, until in 1985 someone at a protest said, “Look, here comes the gay guy from C&A!” At that moment, it dawned on me that the C&A department store had installed a six-color rainbow as part of the color scheme on its buildings. Beautiful! From the ’70s until about the mid-’90s, around 90 department stores across Germany had this branding. That surprised me, but we didn’t want to let it intimidate us. We just rode it out, but in the early days, it was a bit difficult.
Y: Do you think C&A removed the rainbow because of the visual association with the LGBTQIA+ community?
K: I wouldn’t go so far as to say that. In terms of product aesthetics, such distinguishing features are only valid for a certain period of time—about 15 years—until department stores have to come up with a new concept that’s adapted to the times and current tastes. The aesthetic of the ’70s was very colorful, whereas in the early 2000s, there was a noticeable shift toward simplicity. I’d also like to point out the Apple logo, which featured a six-color rainbow between 1977 and 1999. So I don’t think the change was politically motivated. It’s funny, though—for a very long time, people were walking around with rainbow shopping bags. (PICTURE: Bag)
Y: Unbelievable! These days, it seems impossible to me that a company would brand itself entirely with rainbow flags. As someone who lived through that era, how do you assess the evolution of the rainbow flag?
K: Unfortunately, I don’t know when the first six-striped rainbow flags became available for purchase in West Germany—that would require further research… Otherwise, great! The symbol was a complete success. Even for this flag here, as it hangs in the Schwules Museum, I thought to myself that it deserved to return to the place where it was first created. In 1993, I traveled to San Francisco with the flag and my friend Uli in tow to take part in the Gay Freedom Day Parade and carry this version of the flag. On a VHS tape documenting the parade—which went on sale just two hours after the event—you can see me with the flag—and Klaus-Dieter appears in the last five seconds! I thought that was absolutely awesome!! I also received a huge compliment from a participant right there at the event. He said to me, “You wear it with pride!” Wow, there’s hardly a better compliment for participating in a parade with a rainbow flag! We were in New York in 1994, for the 25th anniversary of Stonewall. That was also a great opportunity to carry the flag again. There, I saw Gilbert Baker’s Mile-Long Rainbow Flag—a flag that was over a kilometer long. For me, that was the sign that the symbol had truly taken hold. Still, I see the flag much more often on the street today than I did back then at events. I feel like people used to carry it with a bit more intention back then.
Y: Among my friends and acquaintances, there’s a growing view that the rainbow flag has lost much of its radical edge due to its commercialization. What’s your take on that?
K: When I was in the U.S. during the ’90s, I already had the feeling that commercialization was taking place: every demonstration had its own T-shirt, video documentaries for sale, and so on. However, the money from those sales also flowed back into the communities and their projects. You also have to recognize that queer people work everywhere, and if the queer employees of a company decide they want to be visible as part of that company, then they should be able to do so.
Y: Finally, I’d like to ask you if we can keep the rainbow flag hanging here in our exhibition “Cruising the Countryside – Queer Life in the Countryside”—even after the exhibition ends?
K: There are five of these flags. We sewed them all ourselves. This one actually belongs to the museum now—please take good care of it! One is at the Magnus Hirschfeld Center; I personally handed that one over back then. One is with my friend Peter in Hamburg, another is in Osnabrück at the AHO. The last one is still at my place, so it’s still available. (both laugh)
Y: That’s really generous, and I have to thank you. The flag is an important historical artifact; so it means a lot to have it here with us. Thank you very much for your work!
Interview & Photo: Yasmin Künze
Photo of C&A bag: Klaus-Dieter Begemann