Threatened Desire – Queer Life in Divided Berlin, 1945–1970

Book Presentation, Discussion, Reading

When it comes to what the Berlin Wall divided, one aspect has been neglected in the culture of remembrance: The Wall also tore Berlin’s queer community apart, separating queer couples and friendships. After all, even in the 1950s and 1960s, Berlin was a city where many queer people lived—in both East and West. There were queer bars and pubs and a queer everyday life, but also repression and criminal prosecution. The Berlin Wall severed cross-border contacts and spaces.



In her study “Threatened Desire: Queer Life in Divided Berlin, 1945–1970,” Dr. Andrea Rottmann traces this history of Berlin during the Cold War in detail using various types of sources.



A reading and discussion will open up spaces for conversation about life in Berlin, the memory of Günter Litfin—the first person shot at the Wall—and the question of how queer life stories are remembered, forgotten, or made visible in public commemoration.



Program

Welcome: Cornelia Thiele, Curator of Collections and Archives, Berlin Wall Foundation

Reading and discussion with Dr. Andrea Rottmann

Moderator: Dr. Sarah Bornhorst, Curator of Eyewitness Accounts and Oral History, Berlin Wall Foundation



Dr. Andrea Rottmann leads the project “LGBTIQ* Movements as Agents of Democratization: Historical, Contemporary, and Future Resources for Imagining Inclusive and Diverse Democracies” at the Friedrich Meinecke Institute at the Free University of Berlin (in cooperation with the Volkswagen Foundation). She studied history and North American studies in Berlin. She earned her Ph.D. at the University of Michigan (USA) with her research on the queer history of Berlin.Translated with DeepL

Meeting point: Berlin Wall Memorial, Visitor Center, Bernauer Straße 119, 13355 Berlin

Booking: Please register at

Next date:

• Date Thursday, 27/August/2026 18:30 bis 20:30
• Venue Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer
• Address Bernauer Straße 119, 13355 Berlin-Kreisfreie Stadt Berlin