Gay Germany History and Art Tour

On our first afternoon, we meet our fabulous gay Berlin guide and take a walking tour through the center of the city (which is right out our hotel door) to get our bearings, both spatially and historically.

The Nazi period and the years of the divided city loom large, inescapable reminders of Germany’s troubled past: the famous Reichstag that saw the rise of Hitler; the Alexanderplatz, with its Soviet-era TV tower that is still Germany’s tallest structure and remains a symbol of the city; and such key sites as the Bebelplatz, where the Nazis held their most famous book burning, on May 6, 1933—including, in the pyre, 20,000 books and journals from Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute for Sexual Science), the world’s first center for LGBTQ+ studies.

Fortunately, though, there’s another side to Berlin, one that is in fact uplifting. Despite its horrifying cataclysms, the city has retained its own charm and vitality, and it’s important to remember that Berlin in the Weimar Republic was the city that Hitler hated, because of its tolerance and diversity. And, fortunately, in the end it was that Berlin which ultimately won!

After the tour, we gather for a welcome meal together, to start to get to know German cooking, and our new friends!

This morning, we move out into the city and take a walking tour of Berlin’s main gayborhood (in the Weimar years and today!) Schöneberg, with author Brendan Nash, who has given several lectures about Berlin’s LGBTQ+ history in our Zooming Through Queer History online series.

A particular theme of our walk will be Christopher Isherwood’s stay in the area, where he wrote his Berlin Stories—the basis for the musical and film Cabaret—and the bars he and his friends frequented. We will also learn about the childhood of another great LGBTQ+ (and anti-Nazi) Berliner, Marlene Dietrich, who was born in the neighborhood.

We have lunch at one of Schöneberg’s main gay cafés, known for its bric-à-brac and erotic art collection.

After lunch, we cross the street to Berlin’s original gay bookstore, where we will enjoy a lecture (arranged for us but open to the public) on Berlin’s central role in trans history by Dr Finn Ballard, also known to fans of our online lecture series.  Evening free.

 Time for a trip into the country!  We spend today on an excursion to the charming nearby city of Potsdam, famous for the Potsdam Conference, the bridge of spies, and baroque palaces and gardens.

We will see the palace where the Conference took place and cross the famous bridge, but our main purpose will be to visit the park and palace of Sanssouci, generally known as Germany’s Versailles and the favorite palace of Frederick the Great.

Frederick was Prussia’s great Enlightenment monarch, the early architect of Germany’s rise to world power, and almost certainly gay (as was his clearly gay aide, Baron von Steuben, who trained the American Revolutionary Army). Lunch will be in the beer garden at Sanssouci’s original farm—a tad touristy, but a great place to experience traditional German food.  We then return to Berlin for a free evening and whatever R&R suits you.

We spend this morning in Berlin’s amazing “museum island” (also very close to our hotel).  These museums contain some of the most astonishing sites of any museum anywhere—such as ancient Babylon’s Gates of Ishtar.  There is also (as is always true with Oscar Wilde Tours) material for a whole “gay secrets” tour, including everything from stunning Greek vases (one of them depicting a gay orgy!) to homoerotic German art of the 19thcentury.  We end the morning with a visit to the roof deck of the recently reconstructed Hohenzollern city palace, with really great views out over the city.  This afternoon and evening are free, for visiting more museums, shopping, or exploring Berlin’s many hip neighborhoods, chic restaurants, and the LGBTQ+ nightlife of the city were LGBTQ+ nightlife was born.

Today we explore the darkest side of German history–but with a ray of hope.  In the morning, we go to the frightening museum (right by the old Berlin Wall) called The Topography of Terror, which charts the Nazi period, including the persecution of homosexuals. We return to the center and have some free time for lunch in the old Hackescher Markt market area. After lunch, Professor Lear will guide us on a walking tour through pre-war Berlin’s main Jewish neighborhood, which became the Nazi ghetto, where over 50,000 Berlin Jews were gathered before being shipped out to concentration camps. There will be an uplifting side to this afternoon as well, however, as Professor Lear will weave into it the story of 2 gay Jewish teenagers who led the city’s largest resistance group in WWII—about whom he is currently making a movie! One last free evening to explore Berlin’s lively culinary and cultural offerings.

Professor Andrew Lear accompanies all of our tours. He is our founder; a famous scholar of same-sex love in the ancient world; and a master guide. Early in his career, Professor Lear won the Harvard Certificate of Excellence in Teaching five times, and on our tours you will see why! He really has the knack of making complex issues comprehensible—and entertaining. In most places, we are also required to have a local guide, and Professor Lear has developed a cadre of specially trained guides to work alongside him.

Professor Lear doesn’t have the time to do 10 tours a year, so our tours are not offered on an annual basis. Our general advice is: if you are interested, come on the tour!  You never know when our tours will be offered again.

Absolutely. Our tour groups consist of a mix of singles and couples, usually about 50/50. One thing we can guarantee is that no-one will be left out of any conversation or plan because they are single. On the very first tour we did, we came downstairs in the hotel and found the entire group hanging out in the hotel bar. And that is the way our groups are. They make lots of plans in the evening, and everyone is always welcome.

Absolutely. The average age of our guests is in the 60s, and we often have guests in their 80s.

If you are worried about this, please contact us to discuss. This tour involves a fair amount of walking, in museums, city centers (which in Italy are pedestrian zones), and archaeological sites (which may of course have uneven ground). However, we have had many guests with difficulty walking or climbing stairs, and we generally manage to accommodate them, with a little flexibility on all sides.

Absolutely. Just let us know in advance, and we will handle it.

Our tours cover all kinds of LGBTQ+ history and art.  The cultural material on some of our tours (especially in Italy and Greece) is more about gay male issues—but this is not true on other tours, for example, in England or Germany, where we cover a wide spectrum of LGBTQ+ material.  Our groups are also very welcoming. We have had a great variety of guests in our groups (incuding even a few allies!) and they have been very much part “one of the family.”

We don’t believe so. Of course we don’t know everything that goes on, but our impression is that our tours are GREAT for making friends instead. Note:  we include tours of gay nightlife in a few cities (Berlin and Tokyo so far), but in any case, we provide information about gay bars, saunas, etc.  And we know what many of our guests go, often with others from the tour group.

Our hotels are gay friendly, absolutely.  In Europe and Japan, our hotels are generally carefully chosen 4 star hotels. As a rule, we choose hotels for modern comfort, historic charm, and central location. In India and Nepal, we use almost exclusively 5 star hotels (except for one restored palace).

We are big foodies, and the meals on our tours are generally very good. In fact, we have often been told we could sell our tours as gourmet experiences. We are particularly concerned to include local specialties and regional cuisines.

We include breakfast every day and on European tours generally one other substantial meal (though occasionally none or two).  Since our tours often include activities both morning and afternoon, we tend to include lunch.  And we tend to leave you free in the evening, except for the first and last evenings on the tour, when we have welcome and farewell dinners—though of course sometimes we include an extra dinner.  This tour includes breakfast every day, 3 lunches, and 3 dinners–all gourmet.

Our tours are not 100% all-inclusive, although pretty close.  We include all hotel accommodation during the tour, transportation as per the itinerary, all admissions, and guiding. We include breakfast every day and on European tours generally one other substantial meal (though occasionally none or two).  Note:  we are NOT in the business of “upselling” our guests. There are very few optionals on our tours—and they are only things we really believe that some guests may not want to do (e.g. helicopter trips).

 We generally leave the group free in the evenings, and when we are in a major city, we include a free afternoon, for shopping, more museums etc.  On this tour, we have a free afternoon in each Berlin and Munich.

Our tours are based on a very high level of knowledge about LGBTQ+ history and art, and indeed about history and art in general.  As a result, we include many places that are interesting and/or important but not well-known.  Some of these, like the bar where Oliver plays cards with the locals while Elio watches him in Call Me By Your Name, may be closed to the public or difficult to access; others, like the penis temple of Nagoya, are simply not on the beaten tourist path.

Germany is one of the most gay-friendly countries on earth.  In a recent Pew Research study, 94% of Germans said that homosexuality is morally acceptable (as opposed to 60% of people in the US).  The only country ahead of Germany was Sweden!

YES.  A tour is a big investment, so you need insurance in case you are forced to cancel too late for a refund.  This doesn’t happen often, but it has happened a few times in the 13 year life of this company, and the travel insurance companies have been very helpful.  But note:  you also need travel insurance in case of medical emergency.  Your US insurance probably does not cover you abroad, and as we all know, you never know when something will come up.  A friend of mine fell on a trip a few years ago and ended up being medivaced from Tunisia to Germany and ultimately back to the US.  This would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, but luckily, he had good travel insurance, and it was covered 100%.  Note:  You can buy travel insurance from our ticketing platform, WeTravel, but that that is not obligatory.  You should get an insurance policy, but it does not need to be from WeTravel.

Our cancellation policy is flexible.  Before the full-payment deadline, we will return any of your deposit that hasn’t been put down in deposits—which generally means we can return 100%.  After the full-payment deadline, it is critical (again) that you have travel insurance, as travel insurance will refund your trip in an emergency more completely than we can.  We can assure you that it works, because we have seen it work several times:  a few guests have had to cancel at the last minute, have been completely reimbursed by their insurance, and in most cases have taken the same tour with us the next time it was offered.

Yes, we can make a payment plan according to your needs.