The Mahnmal Rosa Winkel consists of a large, inverted triangle made of pink granite, set directly into the pavement of Nollendorfplatz. It marks the site where the Nazi regime persecuted gay men under paragraph one hundred seventy-five. In…
Schöneberg Queer History Walk
This walk takes you through Schöneberg's historic queer neighborhood, tracing a century of LGBTQ+ resilience, legendary Weimar-era cabaret, and the local haunts of Christopher Isherwood and David Bowie.
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1. Mahnmal Rosa Winkel
2. Residential building of Christopher Isherwood
The six-story apartment building at Nollendorfstraße seventeen features a plain, grey-stucco facade punctuated by rows of narrow windows. Christopher Isherwood moved into a room here in nineteen twenty-nine. He lived with a landlady named…
3. Eldorado at Motzstr. 15
The Eldorado at Motzstrasse fifteen is marked by the original, faded script still visible above the entrance. During the Weimar Republic, this was Berlin’s most famous drag venue, a place where people of all genders mixed openly in an era…
4. Hafen
The Hafen bar on Motzstrasse wears a faded, mustard yellow facade and a heavy wooden door that stays shut against the Berlin wind. It opened in nineteen eighty-four, back when West Berlin was an island in the middle of East Germany. During…
5. Gedenkort Hilde Radusch
The Gedenkort Hilde Radusch consists of a bright yellow, triangular stele rising from the sidewalk on Eisenacher Straße. Hilde Radusch was a communist resistance fighter and a lesbian activist who survived years in a concentration camp…
6. Cafe M
Cafe M stands out for the cluster of mismatched chairs and marble-topped tables spilling onto the sidewalk along Pallasstrasse. This corner spot became a cornerstone of West Berlin’s intellectual life in the late seventies. While the city…
7. Apostel-Paulus-Kirchengemeinde
The Apostel-Paulus-Kirche rises above Akazienstraße with a massive, copper-topped tower that dominates the neighborhood silhouette. Built in the eighteen nineties, the red brick structure features a high, vaulted nave designed to hold two…
8. David Bowie's former apartment
Hauptstraße one hundred fifty-five is a cream-colored residential building with a ground-floor grocery store. David Bowie lived in the first-floor apartment here from nineteen seventy-six to nineteen seventy-eight, sharing the space with…
9. Neues Ufer Café Bar
The Neues Ufer Café Bar features a deep-set, glass-fronted corner entrance painted in a distinct, dark turquoise shade. It opened in nineteen seventy-seven as Cafe Anderen Ufer. David Bowie spent his afternoons here during his time living…