That is the question we ask ourselves about the metropolitan city that is known for confronting its past with Nazism and homophobia, and is now considered the diverse and queer safe haven of Germany and “Gay-ropa”. However despite this, in our current cultural climate, there are two current historical narratives that seem to be at odds with one another. The first is that of the free Weimar republic. In recent years, especially in media, the experimental, daring and very queer nightlife has been front and center in shows like Babylon Berlin, the 2023 Netflix documentary Eldorado: Everything the Nazis Hate among others. They’ve portrayed Berlin as at the forefront of self-expression, gay rights and community after the first world war; a utopia of sorts before national socialism. On the other hand, decolonial activists and scholars have portrayed Germany in this period, and earlier, as a hostile place to BIPOC people and its colonial subjects. The previous erasure of German colonial history is important to this narrative shift, accounting for the years of violence that have led to this moment. These current narratives exist mostly separately, but they are deeply intertwined through eugenics, womanhood, whiteness, masculinity and racial stereotypes. We take a deep dive into these nuances.

Through a city tour, we bring our audience into the narratives of queer-colonial Berlin. Although Schöneberg, the Rote Insel and the Afrikanisches Viertel are considered the centers for queer and colonial history respectively, we seek to venture out of these neighborhoods. By doing so, this intersectional history encompasses not just Berlin, but the rest of the colonized, and slowly globalizing, world.