Pride in Berlin

The first German Christopher Street Day was held in Berlin on 30 June 1979, with 450 demonstrators. Today the parade falls in July and draws around a million people, with floats, organisation blocs and sound systems crossing the city. For all its scale, CSD keeps its origin as a demonstration: demands are made from the stage and from the blocs, and alongside the main parade there are smaller, more explicitly political marches within the same period.

The geography of Berlin's queer life is older than the celebration. Schöneberg, around Nollendorfplatz, is the Regenbogenkiez - the oldest continuously operating gay district in Europe, with bars that have been there for decades. At Nollendorfplatz station stands the memorial to those persecuted and murdered under the Nazis for their sexuality. Beyond Schöneberg the scene spreads through Kreuzberg and Neukölln, with clubs and parties running year-round rather than only in CSD week. The list here shows the city's LGBTQ+ friendly events as a whole; outside the CSD period it thins rather than empties. Most of what remains is not CSD programming but the clubs' own standing nights, which carry on right through the winter.