Cologne

Cologne has the most settled LGBTQI+ scene in western Germany, organised around two cores inside the Innenstadt. Schaafenstraße is the main axis, a pedestrian street with more than twenty-five venues, among them classics such as Iron and Mox. The Bermudadreieck, around Heumarkt, is the historic core, with bars of Rhineland tradition such as the Vampire.

Alongside them sit two secondary poles: the Belgisches Viertel, bohemian and design-led, and Ehrenfeld, young, multicultural and alternative. Cologne's carnival, between February and March, has heavy queer participation, with groups such as the Rosa Funken. The nightlife is dense all year round, not only during Christopher Street Day.

ColognePride, the Christopher Street Day, is held every July and is one of the largest gay and lesbian events in Germany. The documented figures run from the 35,000 participants and 750,000 visitors it already drew in 2001 to the 700,000 visitors of 2014 and the 60,000 participants and 1.4 million visitors of 2023, with the audience figures always according to the organisers. Growth has been steady.

The parade goes through the historic centre on the first Sunday of July. Around it, the calendar holds the carnival in February and March, with heavy queer participation, the Kölner Lichter in July, with fireworks over the Rhine that overlap with CSD, and the regular programme of the Schaafenstraße and Bermudadreieck clubs.

Cologne has a double gay core inside the Innenstadt, five to ten minutes apart on foot. Schaafenstraße is the main axis, a pedestrian street where bars, clubs and cafés cluster, with Iron and Mox among the long-standing ones. The Bermudadreieck is the historic core, the triangle formed by Pipinstraße, Mühlenbach and the Heumarkt area, with bars of Rhineland tradition and an older crowd.

Both sit right in the centre: the cathedral, Gothic and a Unesco site, is a five-minute walk, the main station eight and the Rhine five. The metro connects well, with Heumarkt and Neumarkt stops. The area fills up during CSD in July, but the nightlife works all year round.

Cologne is the LGBT reference of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, and the regional gay network, Schwules Netzwerk NRW, is based here. Anyway, on Kamekestraße, is the city's historic LGBT youth centre, and Rubicon is the queer centre that provides counselling, runs activities and offers social services.

On health, Checkpoint Cologne does rapid HIV and syphilis testing and runs the PrEP clinic, both free. Post-exposure prophylaxis is available at any hour in the emergency departments of the Uniklinik Köln and the Holweide hospital, within a 72-hour window. And there is always a duty pharmacy per district, on a rotating shift.