Queer Lives across the Wall

Queer Lives across the Wall draws on personal letters, photo albums, and state records in order to tell the history of East and West Berlin in the early Cold War through an LGBTIQ* perspective.

Andrea Rottmann is a postdoctoral research fellow in history at the Freie Universität Berlin.

Mx. Phoebe:

"I gobbled this book up. It is a quick read with lots of information. If you love history, then add this Queer Lives across the Wall to your list."

Benno Gammerl, Professor of History of Gender and Sexuality, European University Institute:

"A queer history of East and West Germany that seriously engages with gender non-conformity and includes working-class perspectives – all these things have long been called for. Based on interviews, letters, photographs, prison files, and other sources, the study traces bygone queer spaces and subjectivities that very much resonate with our present-day concerns."

Laurie Marhoefer, Jon Bridgman Endowed Professor of History, University of Washington, and author of Racism and the Making of Gay Rights:

"By telling the stories of lesbians as well as gay men, and transgender people as well as cisgender people, Rottmann paints an incredibly rich portrait of queer and trans repression and survival in the shadow of the Berlin Wall, from bars to prisons to apartments to garden cottages, and challenges how we think about queer history."

Craig Griffiths, Senior Lecturer in Modern History, Manchester Metropolitan University, and author of The Ambivalence of Gay Liberation:

"By turns poignant, sexy, and fun, but always sensitive and erudite, Queer Lives across the Wall is a beautifully written book. From train stations to living rooms, from public toilets to queer bars, from prisons to the Berlin wall itself, Andrea Rottmann’s rich study reveals the centrality of diverse spaces – and of gendered expression – in queer history."