By Mark Reid, MLA+U ‘25
Recipient of the William and Neoma Timme Graduate Travel Fellowship
For two and a half weeks in the summer of 2023, I had the amazing opportunity to travel to Berlin, Germany and explore the queer urban landscapes that pervade the city. Berlin has long been an anchor for queer culture – the world’s first gay magazine was published here in 1896, and the city gained an unprecedented reputation for queer acceptance in the 1920s during the Weimar Republic. Sodomy was almost decriminalized in 1929 across Germany, but the Nazi Regime took control and pushed harder in the opposite direction. Berlin rebuilt its queer community during the Cold War through activism in the 1970s, and opened the world’s first gay museum in 1985. Today, Berlin hosts some of the most prominent gayborhoods in the world.
After just a short amount of time exploring Berlin, it became clear to me that this city is living proof of the resilience queer communities embody. Through the lens of landscape architecture and urban design, Berlin is the host of a unique, radical, and innovative queer urban fabric, demonstrated in its parks, plazas, and streetscapes.
I visualized these textures of the urban queer experience in Berlin through film photography. I traveled to spaces such as the nude ‘beach’ in Volkspark Hasenheide, Christophe Girot’s Invalidenpark where politicians used to meet male prostitutes, and the emotional Memorial to Homosexuals Persecuted Under Nazism. I also explored places of historical and current cruising in Berlin’s public parks, plazas, and restrooms, with some of them having been active in Berlin since the late 19th century. The liberating act of cruising highlights why public space is so crucial to the queer community, revealing the sense of desperation that we have to experience as we seek safety and love.
This trip broadened my understanding of queer culture immensely. Queer landscapes are everywhere in the city, but most go unnoticed due to their discreet nature, so it is my hope that this project exposes more people to this critical element of queer life. Connecting the web of Berlin’s queer landscapes cannot be done in just one project, but this work is a considerable first step toward revealing the discomfort and the beauty of what it is like to be queer in the city.
There is no greater place to access these landscapes than Berlin, but this project is neither the start nor the end of this research. Regrettably, Berlin’s queer history is very male-centric, and more needs to be done to get a better picture of urban queerness across all gender expressions.
We must carry the visuals of this project with us as we live our daily lives in our urban environments. Imagine what it would be like to illegally meet someone in the woods for sex, to read some of the world’s first gay stories in print, or to attend a ball dressed in drag, all over a
century ago! Berlin’s queer history proves that queer landscapes are everywhere, but instead of forcing them to the shadows of our urban realm, it is now time to bring them to the forefront.
Here is the link to my full project:
http://tinyurl.com/berlinschwulelandschaften
“Ich bin ein Schwul” translates to ‘I am gay’ Carved near a cruising location in Tiergarten Park
Cruising location in Tiergarten Park
Newsstands at Potsdamer Platz sold published gay, lesbian, and transvestite magazines during the Weimar Republic
Invalidenpark, redesigned by Christophe Girot, used to be a well known spot to find male prostitutes in the late 19th century
Cruising path in Volkspark Hasenheide
Cruising location in Volkspark Friedrichshain
Public urinal from the early 20th century that commonly hosted queer cruising
Me in front of the Brandenburg Gate
Me in front of the Neue Wache, which hosted a cruising site in the trees behind the structure
Me walking through Tiergarten Park