General homosexual study group
The Allgemeine Homosexuelle Arbeitsgemeinschaft e. V. ( AHA-Berlin e.V. for short , colloquially also AHA ) was founded on March 19, 1974 in West Berlin and is thus both the second oldest gay group of the Second German Gay Movement and the longest existing gay association of the modern German Gay movement. It was founded by former members of the IHWO ( International Homosexual World Organization ), an organization from the classic homophile movement , as a counterpoint to the more left-wing, political and socialist-oriented homosexual action West Berlin (HAW) and has since been one of the strongholds of the lesbian and gay scene , active.
meaning
The AHA takes on the character of a model for the early self-organized gay centers in German-speaking countries and is still the only organization of this kind that was able to establish its existence without government funding. In addition, it made a significant contribution to putting the lesbian and gay movement on a broad basis in its early days and has played an important catalyst role in the development of new organizations since its foundation.
history
1974–1984: The motivation for founding it was - for many - too close to communist or SEW- related positions, which was subordinated to the HAW. In the first decade of its existence in particular, the AHA addressed a broader base than the HAW. Through leaflet campaigns, co-organization of the Berlin CSD and other public campaigns, she contributed significantly to the social acceptance of the gay minority in Berlin. The AHA also represented the moderate positions infamous Tuntenstreit which at one of the AHA initiated discussion event parties to the test gay on election touchstones 1980 in Bonn Beethovenhalle escalated.
In the early years the AHA formed the first groups that wanted to influence large social organizations. For example, the Ecumenical Working Group on Homosexuals and Churches (HuK) and the gay teachers' group in the Education and Science Union , both of which used the AHA as a meeting place in their early days, were created. As one of the central organizations of the second German gay movement, the AHA was also the largest gay association in Germany in 1982 with over 200 members. The journal AHA-Info , which has been published since 1977 (initially only internal to the association) , was published monthly from 1979 onwards and was obtained and archived both nationally and internationally.
In the 1980s, the AHA was also a lobby group for pedophiles . Her “Pedophilia Working Group” campaigned for pedophiles on trial and published corresponding ideas in magazines.
1984–1994: In 1985 the AHA offered the first gay youth group in Berlin, and since 1989 the national youth meeting Warmer Winter has been held there every year . From the various group offers of the AHA, independent associations were founded again and again in these years, for example the gay sports club Vorspiel SSL e. V. During this time it had also changed from a bourgeois-liberal association to a left-wing alternative group, which now increasingly took on the role of HAW, from which the SchwuZ had now emerged with a strong focus as an event location.
At times, when the AHA still resided in the West Berlin part of Friedrichstrasse in Kreuzberg , it also hosted the Meeting of Berlin Gay Groups (TBS). As part of this, the Christopher Street Days (CSD) were prepared (on the premises of the AHA) until the 1990s , and - at the suggestion of the AHA - the Victory Column magazine was founded in 1984 . With the appearance of the Victory Column, the AHA Info was discontinued. From 1985 to 1989, the AHA also made the first exhibition and archive rooms available to the newly founded Gay Museum in Friedrichstrasse . Together with the HuK Berlin, the AHA is also the initiator of the memorial stone set up in 1989 on Nollendorfplatz in the form of a pink triangle for the victims of homosexual persecution during National Socialism.
Also in 1989 the AHA moved to Mehringdamm 61 and thus laid the foundation stone for the gay neighborhood on Mehringdamm. This was created there in the following years after the Schwules Museum (also 1989) and SchwuZ (1995) followed it to the same address. Over the years, an increasing number of cafes, bars and other commercial establishments from the gay scene have settled in the immediate vicinity, which now round off the image of the neighborhood.
1994–2008: In the mid-1990s, the AHA organized the first Alternative CSD, the forerunner of today's Kreuzberg or Transgeniale CSD, and in the period that followed it was one of the critics of the increasing commercialization of the “big” CSD. In the mid-1990s, the AHA emancipated itself from a purely gay to a lesbian-gay project.
Since the 1990s, the AHA has also gained increasing importance as a cultural venue both within the Berlin queer - and transgender - subculture and beyond.
2008–2010: As a result of the work of a new association board elected in March 2008, the AHA suddenly found itself on the verge of insolvency in November 2008, after the association's coffers had always been well filled in previous years. Critical opinions that spoke of a hostile takeover of certain political circles and the deliberate drive of the association to ruin or personal benefit of the interim board could never be proven. As a result, the board of directors was voted out on December 16, 2008 with a 2/3 majority. Independently of this, the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Economic and Regulatory Office ordered the closure of the club's rooms in November due to an anonymous report, as there was no approval for use as a bar and restaurant. The landlord terminated the AHA lease without notice, after which the association left the premises on Mehringdamm on December 31, 2008. Club meetings as well as individual groups and events took place at different locations for almost two years. In many cases, the future of the AHA was assessed extremely pessimistically during this time without its own rooms.
The AHA today
Since September 2010 the association has new premises at Monumentenstrasse 13 in Berlin-Schöneberg . There is again a wide range of events taking place at the AHA, including youth groups, cultural and cabaret events, party events and workshops. In addition, coming-out and counseling groups as well as organizing and preparation committees for festive events (in the past also for the Berlin CSD ) were offered. In addition to its own events and groups, the association also leaves its rooms to other groups in the queer scene, both on individual dates and for regular events. These include, for example, collaborations with the transgender project Wigstöckel , the drag-king group Kingz of Berlin , the TrIQ (TransInterQueer eV) association, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (SPI / OSPI Berlin), the Lambda Berlin-Brandenburg youth association and theater projects. The AHA also actively supports direct work in the HIV - prevention projects such as the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, ManCheck or project I know what I'm doing (IWWIT) of the German AIDS Help .
In the first decades, the AHA was a central institution of the Berlin lesbian and gay scene and is able to pick up on this role again by moving into the rooms in Monumentenstrasse. In the meantime, the association has established itself more broadly and, despite the fact that it is “ homosexual ” in its name, it is the starting point for people from the entire queer spectrum and also offers events and activities, for example on trans * and inter * topics.
The AHA claims to be non-commercial, grassroots and politically active. Association decisions are made monthly in a public plenum. It is the only queer association in Berlin that works entirely on a voluntary basis and without financial support from grants. The AHA is therefore politically, content-wise and financially independent and has so far been able to play a central role (in addition to its own groups and events) above all as a platform for new projects and interest groups.
literature
- Micha Schulze: "Fucking for the rent". General Homosexual Association (AHA) celebrates its 20th anniversary. In: taz . March 11, 1994, Retrieved May 4, 2019 .
- Matthias Oloew: The long march into the middle. Today the 25th Berlin Christopher Street Day is celebrated. Two gays who were there from the start are married today - and have become part of society. In: Der Tagesspiegel . June 28, 2003, accessed May 4, 2019 .
- Victory Column : 7.5 Warm Berliners, 9/1987, p. 28
- Archive of the Gay Museum : Association magazine AHA-Info (1977–1984)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Florian Gathmann, Ann-Katrin Müller, Christian Teevs: “ Breaking the taboo!” In: Der Spiegel . No. 36 , 2013, p. 36 f . ( online - September 2, 2013 ).
- ^ A b AHA-Berlin eV: The AHA-Info and the Victory Column . November 7, 2014
- ↑ The AHA continues! (PDF; 40 kB) - AHA-Berlin eV press release from December 17, 2008
- ↑ Information on the current emergency situation of the AHA - presentation of the association on the events in 2008.
Coordinates: 52 ° 29 ′ 17.7 " N , 13 ° 22 ′ 3.8" E