Sexual Culture in Germany in the 1970s

Janin Afken is Research Assistant at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany. Her publications include 'Geschlechterbilder/Sexualität" in Stefan-Zweig-Handbuch (2018).

Benedikt Wolf is Research Associate at Bielefeld University, Germany. His publications include Penetrierte Männlichkeit. Sexualität und Poetik in deutschsprachigen Erzähltexten der literarischen Moderne (1905-1969) (2018), and "Queer Writing" (co-authored with Andreas Krass) in The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of Berlin (2017).

This book is the first attempt to present a comprehensive picture of LGBT culture in the two German states in the 1970s. Starting from the common view of the decade between the moderation of the German anti-sodomy law in 1968 (East) and 1969 (West) and the first documented case of AIDS (1982) as a 'golden age' for queer politics and culture, this edited collection traces the way this impression has been shaped by cultural production. The chapters ask: What exactly made the 1970s a 'legendary decade'? What was its revolutionary potential and what were its path-breaking political and aesthetic strategies? Which elements, movements and memories had to be marginalized in order to facilitate the historical construction of the 'legendary decade'? Exploring the complex picture of gay, lesbian and - to a lesser extent - trans cultures from this time, the volume provides fascinating insights into both canonized and marginalized texts and films from and about the decade.

1 Chronology 1968-1982.- 2. Janin Afken & Benedikt Wolf: Introduction: Constructing and Revisiting the Golden Age of Queer Sexual Culture in Germany.- 3 The Legendary Time and Space of the Queer 1970s in Germany.- 3.1 Susanne Hochreiter: 'We Were So Turned On'. Reflections on Queer(ing) Past and Memory.- 3.2 Andreas Krass: Queer Fictions of Berlin. Gender Trouble in Cabaret (1971) and Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001).- 4 The Canonized Queer 1970s.- 4.1 Patrick Henze: Perversion of Society. Rosa von Praunheim and Martin Dannecker's Film It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives (1971) as the Initiation of the Golden Age of the Radical Left Gay Movement in West Germany.- 4.2 Janin Afken: From Sisters' Skin to Womb Ego. Temporality, Solidarity and Corporeality in Verena Stefan's Shedding (1975).- 4.3 Benedikt Wolf: Hubert Fichte's Language of Desire. From 'the Impure' to 'Oymeln' in the Hamburg Novels.- 5 The Queer 1970s against the Grain.- 5.1 Vojin Sasa Vukadinovic: From West Berlin without Love. The Magazine Die Schwarze Botin and the Promise of Revolution.- 5.2 Simon Dickel & Anne Potjans: Racial Seeing and Sexual Desire: 1 Berlin Harlem and Auf den Zweiten Blick.- 5.3 Krzysztof Zablocki: Wolfgang Jöhling - a GDR citizen in the 'Promised Land' of Poland.- 6 Retrospections.- 6.1 Maria Bühner: How to Remember Invisibility. Documentary Projects on Lesbians in the German Democratic Republic as Archives of Feelings.- 6.2 Sebastian Zilles: The 1970s in Retrospect and the HIV/AIDS Incision. Re-Reading Napoleon Seyfarth's Schweine müssen nackt sein (1991).