Queer lifestyles in East Germany were already diverse in the past – and at the same time often invisible. How did queer people live and love in the GDR? How did they experience the upheaval of 1989/90 and the 1990s? What strategies did they develop to form relationships, friendships and communities – in private, in subcultural spaces or in political movements? The lecture provides an insight into this little-known side of East German contemporary history. Using a wide range of archive material, it shows how queer people in East Germany were confronted with discrimination and control, but also created spaces for exchange, self-realisation and political change. The lecture invites us to reflect together on visibility, the culture of remembrance and the significance of queer perspectives for East German contemporary history.

Maria Bühner is a historian who graduated in cultural studies; she is a member of the research network queer contemporary history in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. She wrote her PhD thesis on the subjectivization of women who desired women and lesbian women in East Germany (1945–1995), and thus offered a new reading of East German history from a queer perspective. She has, among other things, worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Cultural Studies at Leipzig University and at Deutsches Hygiene-Museum Dresden. She has published findings from her doctoral project in the journal Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte (2025, no. 21) and in an expert report for the Berlin Senate (2024). In her freelance and volunteer work, she actively champions greater visibility for queer East German history.