Berlin

Berlin has the most diverse and dense LGBTQI+ scene in continental Europe, spread across four districts with very different identities: Schöneberg, the classic one, with bears and leather around the Nollendorfkiez, Kreuzberg, alternative and queer-punk with SO36 leading, Friedrichshain, techno-driven and home to Berghain, and Neukölln, young and with SilverFuture.

The city runs from Thursday to Monday without stopping, with clubs that open on Friday night and close on Monday morning, such as Berghain. There is something for every niche: classic and bear bars in Schöneberg, from Hafen to Heile Welt, trans and lesbian venues such as SilverFuture and Begine, and queer techno at About Blank and on Berghain's queer nights. The big clubs run a selective door policy, so dress to each place's code.

CSD Berlin, the Christopher Street Day, which here is not called Pride, is held on the last Saturday of July. The record stands at the million attendees of 2019, and in 2023 there were around 500,000. The parade sets off from Spittelmarkt or Leipziger Straße and finishes at the Brandenburg Gate. It is more political and more protest-driven than Madrid's MADO or Barcelona's Pride.

The surrounding calendar is strong: the Lesbisch-Schwules Stadtfest takes over Schöneberg the weekend before CSD, with around 350,000 people, and Folsom Europe, in September, is the leather scene's street fair, with around 25,000. Few European cities have such a full LGBT calendar.

Schöneberg, around Nollendorfplatz, is considered the first gay village in the world, with a scene documented since the 1920s, during the Weimar Republic. Christopher Isherwood lived here, on Nollendorfstraße, and out of his stories came Goodbye to Berlin and later the musical and film Cabaret. The Eldorado, on Motzstraße, was the legendary queer cabaret until the Nazis closed it in December 1932.

Today the Regenbogenkiez, the rainbow neighbourhood, covers Motzstraße, Fuggerstraße and Bülowstraße. Nollendorfplatz metro station has a permanent plaque in memory of the LGBT victims of Nazism. And Hafen, since 1990, Heile Welt and dozens more venues are still going.

Berlin has the densest LGBT infrastructure in Germany. Mann-O-Meter, in Schöneberg, has been the classic gay information centre since 1985, with counselling, sexual health and guides. LesMigraS, working with migrant lesbians, and TransInterQueer cover specific niches. And the Schwules Museum, on Lützowstraße, is one of the largest LGBT museums in the world, running since 1985.

On health, Checkpoint BLN, in Neukölln beside Hermannplatz, does free rapid HIV and STI testing, runs PrEP and offers medical consultations, and public insurance has covered PrEP since 2019. The Charité has a nationally leading STI and HIV unit.