“Homosexual Man Stands in the Centre of Socialist Society“

Legal Narratology and Queer Activism in the Former German Democratic Republic

This research into the legal history of homosexuality in the GDR and the Queer activism that arose from systematic suppression culminated in an installation titled “Homosexuelle Menschen Stehen Im Mittelpunkt Der Sozialistischen Gesellschaft” (Homosexual Man Stands in the Centre of Socialist Society). Central to this installation is an archive box, reminiscent of the vast State archives created by the East German surveillance apparatus, the Stasi (Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, MfS). The Stasi kept extensive personal records on anyone they deemed of interest, including central figures in Queer activist communities. They sometimes used this personal information to cause personal failures and the eventual dissolution of these groups, which the GDR regime deemed a threat.

The box features an array of personal records, tape recordings, photographs, documents, and even some legal texts, which are intended to encompass Queer people’s experiences living in the GDR. The stories in the box are fictitious, and all names and faces have been anonymized in an attempt to capture the general experience of Queer life in East Germany, rather than the stories of specific individuals.

The dry description of some of the characters’ actions in the archive captures the bureaucratic and machine-like way in which Queer resistance was suppressed in the GDR and shows the reductive manner in which these people were perceived by their government.