LGBTQ culture in Berlin

Berlin was the capital city of the German Empire from 1871 to 1945, its eastern part the de facto capital of East Germany from 1949 to 1990, and has been the capital of the unified Federal Republic of Germany since June 1991. Berlin has many LGBTQ-friendly districts, though the borough of Schöneberg is widely viewed by locals and visitors as Berlin's gayborhood. Particularly, the boroughs North-West near Nollendorfplatz identify as Berlin's "Regenbogenkiez" (Rainbow District), with a certain concentration of gay bars near and along Motzstraße and Fuggerstraße.

Many of the decisive events of what has become known as Germany's second LGBT movement (the first beginning roughly in the 1860s and ending abruptly in 1933) take place in the West Berlin boroughs of Charlottenburg, Schöneberg, and Kreuzberg beginning in 1971 with the formation of the Homosexuelle Aktion Westberlin (HAW). Whereas in East Berlin, the district of Prenzlauer Berg became synonymous with the East German LGBT movement, beginning in 1973 with the founding of the HIB (Homosexuelle Interessengemeinschaft Berlin). Schöneberg's gayborhood caters to, and is particularly popular with, gay men.

Berlin's large LGBTQ events, such as the Lesbian and Gay City Festival, Easter Berlin Leather and Fetish Week, Folsom Europe, and CSD, center around Schöneberg, with related events taking place city-wide during these events. Berlin's present-day neighborhoods with a certain concentration of LGBTQ-oriented culture vary somewhat in terms of history, demography, and where the emphasis in each neighborhoods' queer culture falls along the LGBTQ spectrum.