Well, what did cruising mean? Yeah, cruising was an intense opportunity.

It created a niche for the sexual freedom of gay men in West Berlin.

Because when I first went to gay bars, to discos, it was still like that.

You had to ring the bell to get in.

There was no public access to these bars and discos, and everything outside was blacked out so you couldn’t look inside.

That’s how it was back then.

Paragraph 175 was still in effect.

So it was criminalized.

But gay men became that way, more self -assured, and basically lived out the sexual freedom they wanted.

As I said, either it led to a sexual act right there in a toilet in front of the place, or as I said, in the tear garden, and then also in public toilets.

It went so far that people even wrote their landline numbers on the tiles, along with pornographic drawings and dirty messages.

This was graffiti for gay men.

It was just wonderful.

In 1974, when I went cruising for the first time, it started.

There were only bars and gay discos, not like today with dark rooms or the internet.

So if I didn’t meet anyone in a gay bar by five in the morning, or if things needed to go quickly, there was also a quick toilet hookup.

Then you’d go cruising in the tear garden in West Berlin or in East Berlin to Friedrichshain, or just go to the public toilets where the glory hall thing started, where walls were cut open so that you could stick through and get satisfaction.

Sure, I was often at these stores because I got a sense of affirmation out of it.

I started to find it interesting, meeting new people, for example, not in a bar or a gay disco.

The variety was also fascinating.

You really had everyone, from students to hardcore leather guys, retirees, even straight guys, bisexuals, just so many different types.

It was interesting because you wouldn’t have the chance to meet these people at a bar in the evening.

There were even married men who suppressed their homosexuality, which was exciting.

I met some amazing people there.

Well, there were too few options to express yourself sexually.

There was no internet.

You had the Ziegler magazine, which had personal ads, maybe with landline numbers.

But on the stalls, as I mentioned before, gay men were brave enough to post contact ads on the tiles.

Stuff like, I’m into this or that fetish, or I’m here at such and such a time, love SM, or whatever.

That’s how people could get in touch.

We wanted to live out our sexuality, even though, deep down, we knew there was so much more to it than just sex.

Then in 1985, the first cases of HIV appeared here in West Berlin and in Germany, coming over from America.

And cruising had already existed long before that.

HIV started to limit it because they wanted to prevent it.

That’s why the Berlin Senate decided that all public toilets, today there are almost no public toilets left, should be closed.

Even the three gay saunas that existed in West Berlin were supposed to be shut down.

But we fought against that, handing out condoms and taking to the streets.

They didn’t close them, but little by little, the stores were shut down, dismantled.

Or in the Tia Garten, near the Lion Bridge, the undergrowth was cut back so you couldn’t have sex in the bushes anymore, because it wasn’t hidden.

Other people, like mothers with children, could see.

That’s how it was.

And so, because the stalls no longer existed, sexual behaviour on the scene changed radically.

When I was 15 and a half, for the first time I was in the gay scene in West Berlin, there were still gay discos and bars.

But as things shifted more towards fetish, anonymous dark rooms emerged where people could quickly satisfy their urges.

It’s not about getting to know someone anymore, where a friendship might develop, but HIV and AIDS created a huge sense of insecurity in the gay scene.

And the whole generation was lost.

Now it’s just about the urge.