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Dienstag, 19. März 2024
Dienstag, 19. März 2024
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Self-confidence and perseverance - 200 years of gay history

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The permanent exhibition of the Gay Museum.

Under the auspices of the Governing Mayor Klaus Wowereit the Gay Museum opened on 6 December in the new premises its permanent collection in 2004. The renting of the rooms was made possible by the legacy of Prof. Dr. Christian Adolf Isermeyer , setting up the exhibition by a grant from the German Lottery Foundation Berlin. So may be presented with an emphasis Berlin parallel to the temporary exhibitions , an overview of the gay history in Germany . Presented is the period of 1790 until 1990. It forms the historical foundation on which to base today's gay identity.

The story is told from the perspective of homosexuals, of the possibilities in the face of ongoing oppression, persecution and punishment. The prominent moments of hot self-confidence and perseverance. These were essential to find a partner or like-minded friends and to form networks . How did and what support such self-confidence ? On this key issue , the exhibition comes back again and again. The love stories of the ancient gods were omnipresent since the Renaissance in Europe , always found new representations in literature and art. Bible stories like that of David and Jonathan or Jesus and his beloved disciple John could be read as examples of intimate friendships. From oral tradition and scientific research , a number of famous homosexuals , which served as a model for his own love life was.

The longing for male nudity found a fulfillment in different places . Works of art in collections and museums could be marketed as reproductions into their own home . In public, it was in the early 19th Century, even by resorting to ancient times , the display of male nudity in sports and acrobats and force people on the stage . After the discovery of the Blue Grotto Capri was 1840 attraction for homosexuals. Ferdinand Flohr paintings of bathers and Wilhelm von Gloeden photographs are an expression of this. In the course of the life reform movement arose in 1900 in Germany a particularly free nude body culture , which contributed to the fact that Berlin was in the Weimar Republic to the new island of the blessed . In the 50s and 60s, the beaches of California with the steeled by bodybuilding men bodies to the new destination almost mythical aspirations were .

The self-discovery has been supported in the literature , often selective reading was a prerequisite . Even the not always unprejudiced case studies Psychopathia Sexualis in the von Krafft -Ebing (1886 ) could be read accordingly. Self-confidence and perseverance were needed to build groups of friends , networks and subcultures , as demonstrated in the European cities since 1700 . In Paris , London, Amsterdam , Rome, Vienna and Berlin existed such circles with their own meeting places , fashions and language rules.

To create his politically motivated organizations of these networks , it took a period of 50 years, from the first attempts of a Hössli Heinrich and Karl Heinrich Ulrichs until the establishment of the Scientific Humanitarian Committee by the Berlin physician Magnus Hirschfeld 1897. Now began a campaign of public education , which acted just on the organs of centuries of repression : the police and politics , churches , doctors , lawyers and journalists . The search for alliance partners in all areas of society has already been successful around 1900. The central peak of this development in Berlin during the Weimar Republic is acknowledged in detail in the exhibition. In the friendship frets over 40,000 members were organized.

Hirschfeld sat in his Berlin Institute for Sexual Science in 1919 not only for the equality of homosexuals , but also for a general sex education . Peter Martin Lampels use against the catastrophic conditions in the welfare institutions by publishing interviews with the boys in books, plays and films zeitigte effect. The gallery of modern art, Alfred Flechtheim and Fritz Gurlitt published erotic portfolios , which also dealt with gay and lesbian themes. Max Terpis , Harald Kreutzberg or Anita Berber engaged in modern dance . Wilhelm and Hans Deppe Bendow made ​​the Thölen socially acceptable in the cabaret after female impersonators dominated with their humor since 1890 the Variétés . There was a gay and lesbian participation in all areas of society.

Starting in 1933, led the destruction of gay and lesbian self-help organizations and the subculture to re- isolation. The stirred up by the Nazis hunt against other survivors made ​​use of civil, ecclesiastical and medical prejudices with life-threatening consequences. In sentences , increased sentences , preventive detention in concentration camps and prisons to targeted assassination were the steps of the state terror . Deterrence and destruction of self-esteem seemed even decades after 1945 on. Nevertheless, gay self-assertion and persistence can also be in the Nazi period determined.
Examples of individual courage and cohesion are presented alongside the fleeing abroad , political activity against the regime , adaptation and conformism or waiver of personal happiness . The various attempts to tie in the postwar years old freedoms, was shot down . It was only in the 60s brought the global spirit of optimism in Germany a similar opening of the company. The Flower Power movement generated a new combative self-understanding , which since 1970 has caused a diverse expression of gay and lesbian freedoms.

For the duration of the exhibition was developed with the architect Rainer Lendler an open structure that allows for changes and additions. The objects are placed in the overall structure , without creating the impression that this is the ultimately valid history, rather they want to remain visible as fragments . Originals on paper will be as regularly replaced as the various homoerotic imagery from the collection of the museum. In addition to updating the representation further highlights so can be thrown on the development of gay history. The biographical aspect , a focus of the work of the Gay Museum , give ever new life stories from the period 1900 until 1990.

For permanent exhibition appeared a catalog brochure that combines hundred selected objects and the main texts.

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