Queer Lives across the Wall
Desire and Danger in Divided Berlin, 1945-1970
Description
Queer Lives across the Wall examines the everyday lives of queer Berliners between 1945 and 1970, tracing private and public queer life from the end of the Nazi regime through the gay and lesbian liberation movements of the 1970s.
Andrea Rottmann explores how certain spaces – including homes, bars, streets, parks, and prisons – facilitated and restricted queer lives in the overwhelmingly conservative climate that characterized both German postwar states. With a theoretical toolkit informed by feminist, queer, and spatial theories, the book goes beyond previous histories that focus on state surveillance and the persecution of male homosexuality.
Reviews
“This book stands as a shining example—to non-queer as well as to queer historians—of how to find creative solutions to archival issues and how to persevere in the face of adversity. In daring to articulate these most hidden aspects of the “love that dare not speak its name,” Rottmann provides us with courageous models and antecedents. The book itself feels like a labor of love.”
- Mark Fenemore, Manchester Metropolitan University
"I gobbled this book up. It is a quick read with lots of information. If you love history, then add this Queer Lives across the Wall to your list."
- Mx. Phoebe