{"id":161065,"date":"2025-11-03T20:32:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T20:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/161065\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T20:32:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T20:32:12","slug":"berlins-schwuz-queer-club-closes-after-48-years-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/161065\/","title":{"rendered":"Berlin\u2019s SchwuZ queer club closes after 48 years \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

While other Berliners dressed up for Halloween last week, Dirk and his friends dressed down \u2013 right down \u2013 for their last dance at the SchwuZ.<\/p>\n

For 48 years, in five separate locations, the SchwulenZentrum (Gay Centre) or SchwuZ \u2013 was a popular, non-commercial night spot for generations of gay men in Berlin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Until Sunday morning, when the SchwuZ closed its doors for the last time, a victim of changing habits, rising costs and poor management decisions.<\/p>\n

For Berlin-born Dirk, one year older than the club, he cannot imagine celebrating his 50th birthday next year without a venue that gave him friends and the confidence to strip off and dance all night naked to the uniquely German<\/a> brand of pop called Schlager.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou put your clothes in a bag, get an armband and pay for your drinks at the end,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Schlager naked party was always more joyful and relaxed than elsewhere, like the SchwuZ in general. All ages \u2013 and bodies \u2013 were welcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

The SchwuZ started life in West Berlin in 1977 as a community \u2013 and campaigning \u2013 centre for gay men and lesbians. Its formula included (clothed) club nights, mainstream music, political discussion events, self-help groups and other community gatherings.<\/p>\n

\"AA guest snaps a photo of the famous neon sign at SchwuZ. Photograph: Omer Messinger\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

While other clubs in the unified Berlin went upmarket with their optics and prices, the SchwuZ remained stubbornly basic.<\/p>\n

Its exposed brick walls were a budgetary rather than an aesthetic choice, its bar staff pioneered the Gen-Z stare years ago. SchwuZ drag DJs, striking outfits and abrupt song transitions, provided a soundtrack of Gloria Gaynor and Kylie for generations of Berlin gay men to meet, fall in love, mourn and survive.<\/p>\n

It was in the SchwuZ that the HIV\/Aids epidemic hit hardest, where the absence of a familiar face on the dance floor \u2013 or behind the bar \u2013 told its own story.<\/p>\n

It survived and thrived into a final act in 2013 when the SchwuZ moved from a cosy \u2013 but often dangerously full \u2013 cellar location to a cavernous former brewery that was difficult to fill and expensive to run.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe needed 800 to 1,000 people a night but sometimes it was just 600 on a Friday night,\u201d said Katja J\u00e4ger, the final SchwuZ director. \u201cWe were losing \u20ac30,000-60,000 a month.\u201d<\/p>\n

In July the SchwuZ entered administration, and a belated wave of solidarity and sold-out parties were not enough to save the venue.<\/p>\n

Manuela Kay, publisher of queer city magazine Siegess\u00e4ule, warned in September: \u201cThe current location had more of a Berghain feeling than the SchwuZ and its audience could manage in the long term.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PeoplePeople arrive at the club on its last night of operations. Photograph: Emmanuele Contini\/NurPhoto via Getty Images <\/p>\n

It was a slow and painful decline, expedited by additional, external shocks. In the post-pandemic years the SchwuZ \u2013 like many other Berlin other clubs \u2013 struggled with rising costs and fewer revellers. Notably absent: younger generations who swapped clubs and bars for sex apps and private parties.<\/p>\n

In recent years the SchwuZ became a lightning rodfor growing culture wars in the queer community over diversity, inclusivity and visibility.<\/p>\n

Long-running accusations of door-policy discrimination \u2013 against people of colour in particular \u2013 were turned on their heads in recent years. Previous regulars, in particular white German gay men, reported being turned away.<\/p>\n

The SchwuZ has closed its doors amid a wave of violent attacks on queer establishments in Berlin. Meanwhile a new survey by the Robert Bosch Foundation shows a marked slide in acceptance of diversity in Germany.<\/p>\n

Acceptance of diverse sexual orientation in the capital has slipped from 84 points six years ago to 69 points now.<\/p>\n

Explaining the slide, Bosch study head Prof Klaus Boehnke points to growing insecurities over of the cost-of-living crisis, fears over war and pressure from the last decade\u2019s migration.<\/p>\n

He suggests that growing mutual suspicion between natives and more recent arrivals has created a vicious circle where people in Germany are \u201cno longer as open to the world as they were in 2019 \u201c.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s possible that, in big cities with large waves of migration,\u201d he warned, \u201cwe\u2019ve reached diversity saturation point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many in Berlin\u2019s queer community didn\u2019t need the Bosch study to tell them that the German capital, with worrying historical echoes, is no longer the tolerant oasis that once attracted them.<\/p>\n

For some tottering out from their last dance at the SchwuZ, the end of the club also ends the dream of unity in diversity. \u201cEveryone talks about the queer community,\u201d said Dirk, \u201cbut I don\u2019t think we all even want to party together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While other Berliners dressed up for Halloween last week, Dirk and his friends dressed down \u2013 right down…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[25123,9,10,64,13,14,6621,6,11,12,1678,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-161065","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-berlin","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-covid-19","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-germany","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-latest-news","17":"tag-latestnews","18":"tag-lgbtq","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-topstories","24":"tag-world","25":"tag-world-news","26":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115487673515462073","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}