| Fetchwikidata: | ALL |
The Forum Queeres Archiv München (English: Forum Queer Archive Munich - LGBTIQ* in History and Culture) in Munich, Germany, is an association and archive with collections focusing on LGBTQ+ history and culture in Munich, Bavaria and Germany.[1] It opened in 1999 and was named forum homosexualität münchen – Lesben und Schwule in Geschichte und Kultur e.V. till 2019.[2]
The archive collects documents of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people: private documents, diaries, photo albums and self-created collections of newspaper articles etc., who "have extraordinary significance to cultural history and are not only worthy but important to preserve."[3] The archive in Munich thus followed similar organizations in Berlin and Cologne.[4] The aim of the archive is "to conserve the past of the LGBTIQ* community in and around Munich and to make it accessible to the public".[5] Currently their library consists of about 3600 volumes, which includes research literature on sociology, history, AIDS and queer studies as well as biographies, coming-out literature, novels, poetry etc. They also possess rare, out-of-print literature of the early women’s/lesbian and gay movement and numerous publications from the time of Magnus Hirschfeld. Approximately 220 magazines with more than 10,000 copies from the 1920s until today,[6] 1,100 video cassettes, DVDs and CDs[7] and 850 posters[8] complete their collection.
Research produced with the help of the Forum's holdings focuses, for example, on the experiences of homosexuals after the Holocaust.[9] In October 2019 members of the Forum formed a research group to investigate the life and work of German painter Paul Hoecker[10] and digitalized a part of the family owned estate of him, which is now located at the Forum.[11]
The Forum Queeres Archiv München cooperated with the Munich Stadtmuseum and the Stadtarchiv Munich.[12] Since 2019 they jointly launched an appeal to collect objects and documents relating to Munich City’s LGBTI+ history, past and present.[13]
The results of researching the queer past of Munich and beyond are published by the Forum in two different series of publications: In the series Splitter they examine historical and socio-historical topics and present biographies of historical personalities. In the biographical series Lebensgeschichte (English: Personal histories) they publish autobiographical texts and contemporary witness interviews with LGBTIQ* people. In addition, they also publish artist's books featuring materials from their archive.[14]
The Forum Queeres Archiv München organises city tours, readings, lectures, Erzählcafés (public talks with older queer people), historical exhibitions provide information on LGBTIQ* topics and personalities and art exhibitions.[15] Recently they organized lectures about the attack on Magnus Hirschfeld in 1920 in Munich in collaboration with the Munich Documentation Centre for the History of National Socialism,[16] and about the work and life of Munich-based artist Lorenza Böttner in collaboration with the artist-run space Lothringer13_Florida.[17]