The demonstrators participate in an event entitled “Show the flag: for queer visibility in the Bundestag!” In front of the Reichstag building which houses the German lower room in Parliament, the Bundestag, in Berlin, on July 8. The conservative president of the Bundestag said that the rainbow flag would not be higher in June 27 to July 27.
ODD ANDERSEN / AFP via getty images
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ODD ANDERSEN / AFP via getty images
Berlin – The district lined with trees near Nollendorfplatz Square in the center of Berlin is as gay today as a century ago.
This is where Christopher Isherwood wrote novels telling the rise of the Nazis in the middle of the rich Queer night life in the city that inspired the musical comedy Cabaret.
Each summer, the district throws its own LGBTQ + Pride event on a smaller scale separated from the main annual parade of the city which takes place this weekend.
It is only one of the more than 200 pride events that take place in Germany this year. But with extremist groups from the far right organizing anti-emission demonstrations, many participants in pride fear their security.
Siroting a cocktail while the street festival begins, Georg Schmidt, 62, says that it is relieved that this event is a relaxed affair. He said he attended another local pride parade last month through the city in the district of Marzahn and the atmosphere that was tense.
“There was a massive police presence to protect us from anti-emission demonstrations. We only felt safe because the police kept us separated,” said Schmidt.
The counter-democture was organized by far-right groups designated by the national intelligence agency of Germany as violent and extremist. It is one of the 17 anti -emission demonstrations on the right to the extreme that have been held so far this year, according to the surveillance, analysis and strategy center – an organization that monitors extremism. Some cities have even canceled pride because of threats.
The revelers descend rue Leipziger Strasse during a pride parade in Berlin, July 23, 2022.
Markus Schreiber / AP
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Markus Schreiber / AP
Sabine Volk, researcher at the Research Institute on extreme right extremeness of the University of Tübingen, These groups attract young men who promote what they call traditional family values-a kind of pride that has little to do with rainbow flags.
“The key slogan is that the German flag and Germany itself are already quite colorful,” said Volk. “And the global message is that queer life has no place in Germany.”
But it is not only the extremists of the far right who require the flags.
The new president of the German Parliament, Julia Klöckner – who is a member of the Conservative Party of Chancellor Friedrich Merz – said that the rainbow flag will not be higher at the top of the legislative building during the month of the organ flags and stickers of the office doors.
The president of the Bundestag German Parliament Julia Klöckner speaks to the media on July 8 in Berlin.
Thomas Truttschel / Photothek via Getty Images
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Thomas Truttschel / Photothek via Getty Images
Speaking on the public broadcaster Ard, Merz reported his support for the rule in the German Parliament, the Bundestag, with the words, “the Bundestag is not a circus tent” – a remark to which many took umbrage.
Merz supports the argument of his colleague according to which the lower room must maintain neutrality and cannot support events with a political program.
Nyke Slawik speaks during a parliamentary debate on queer hatred crime in the Bundestag. Photo: Carsten Koall / DPA (Photo by Carsten Koall / Picture Alliance via Getty Images)
Carsten Koall / Picture Alliance via Getty Images
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Carsten Koall / Picture Alliance via Getty Images
The legislator of the Green Opposition Party, Nyke Slawik, criticized this decision. “Declaring the rainbow a political symbol is very problematic” stressing that “queer people are not an ideology; they are people!” Slawik told ZDF public broadcaster.
Slawik maintains that they are more and more people who need protection. Federal police of Germany report an increase of almost ten times in queerphobic hatred crimes reported since 2010 and they think that the majority of cases are not reported.
The question is not divided by party political lines; The criticism of the choice of Merz’s words came from his own party. Sönke Siegmann, president of the LGBTQ + association of the Christians of the Democrats, says that some within his party always catch up on the terminology.
“If you say queer in my party, most people remain deeply insufficient and say:” Oh, it is a term on the left “”, observes Siegmann. He said he spoke with Merz since he comments on “circus tent”.
“We explained to him what the queer means and two days later when he asked Parliament on LBGTQ + hatred crimes and what his government will do about them, Merz has actually used the term queer,” said Siegmann.
Go back up The Nollendorfplatz region, the rainbow flags fly each month of the year. But local resident Chris Kelly says that mood here is not as “live and live” as in the past. He recently opened a shop that sells high -end clothes made from industrial force rubber. He says that business is good and has a large clientele, but it was almost impossible to try to find premises for the shop.
“We have found a lot of space appropriate to rent and our finances are solid, but many owners have rejected us, saying that they did not want people like us,” recalls Kelly. “The real estate agents had warned us, but I was amazed to meet such prejudices in the most gay and gay district in Berlin.”
The Kelly store is located just at the bottom of rue de Roméo and Romeo, a gay bar whose owner was attacked last month. Kelly says that he also gets more verbal violence than before and that he still hears attacks against members of the LGBTQ +community.
“I am almost 40 years old and I saw so much progress as an equal marriage,” explains Kelly. “But something changes. Hatred towards people like me becomes the dominant current again.”
Kelly underlines that a few doors in the other direction is the place where the legendary Eldorado nightclub stood until the Nazis closed it in 1933, finally sending its queer customers to concentration camps.
A nave that descends the steps of the Bundestag Metro station in Berlin, decorated with rainbow colors, the symbol of the LGBTQ +community, on July 24.
John MacDougall / AFP via Getty Images
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John MacDougall / AFP via Getty Images
While the preparations for the main parade of Berlin pride begin, the city police said they had received a permit application for a protesting counter-site “against terror and identity disorders”.
In response to the decision of the president of Bundestag not to pilot the rainbow flag above the parliament this year, Berlin’s Transport Authority decorated his stop of the Bundestag metro station in rainbow colors, writing on Instagram: “So OUR Bundestag is ready for pride. “”
Kelly urges people to attend pride and resist a new generation of the far right. He has no desire to say Goodbye to Berlin And the district around Nollendorfplatz, as Isherwood was forced to do so.
