Our travelling exhibition “endangered living” shows the diverse and ambivalent life stories of queer people during the Nazi era from 1933 to 1945. The exhibition is currently touring Germany. On this page you can find out exactly what the exhibition is about, you can visit the exhibition virtually or click through the picture gallery. You can look at the accompanying booklet for the exhibition and find out everything you need to know so that you can show the exhibition in your local area.
Alle Ausstellungsstationen und Termine auf einen Blick
What to expect
During the commemoration of the victims of National Socialism on 27 January 2023 in the German Bundestag, attention for the first time was on the queer victims. The historical documentary exhibition “endangered living. Queer people 1933-1945” picked up from this important signal of remembrance and made the subject of exclusion and persecution of queer people in the years 1933 – 1945 available to a wide audience.
The diverse and ambivalent life stories of queer people in the period from 1933 to 1945 are traced in the exhibition using documents, graphics, photographs and quotes. This includes previously unpublished material. The exhibition offers both a broad overview and deeper insights into the biographies of the people as well as current research results.
The exhibition makes it clear how the lives of many queer people were broken and destroyed. At the same time, it sheds light on how the remaining scope for action was used in everyday life. The exhibition does not just tell stories of persecution, but also ways of asserting oneself in an adverse reality.
Visitors encounter five subject islands in the exhibition
- Scale and significance of the destruction of queer infrastructures
- Exclusion from the “national community” and persecution practices
- Self-assertion and stubbornness
- Reasons for arrest and arrest locations (prisons, concentration camps and so-called social welfare institutions)
- Post-1945: victims with reservations, continued persecution and emancipatory and lifeworld room for manoeuvre
The exhibition information texts are available in German and digitally also in English via QR codes.
Unterstützen Sie unsere Ausstellung!
Welcome to the virtual tour
The virtual tour provides you with an initial impression of our exhibition. The central texts are easy to read as separate info points. But if you would like to experience the exhibition with all of its documents, texts and information, visit it on the spot at one of its next stops.
You can find the dates of the next stops in the exhibition calendar!
Note: The version of the exhibition that can be viewed online here was filmed in the foyer of the Magnus Hirschfeld Federal Foundation in Berlin on January 29, 2024. Since then, there have been a few minor changes to individual text passages that cannot be subsequently reproduced in the 360° online tour.
Your overview of the main topics inside the exhibition booklet
You can also download the exhibition booklet here!
The copyrights to this publication are held by the Bundesstiftung Magnus Hirschfeld. Use of the exhibition booklet is permitted for private purposes only. Commercial use requires separate consent.
List of sources and bibliography
The curators of our exhibition have compiled a large number of facts, exhibits and findings from various sources. Here you can read all the image and source references for the individual exhibits on the exhibition boards and in the reading folders, a list of the institutions and people who provided the sources and images, and the entire bibliography (list of literature).
Quellenverzeichnis und Bibliografie
Incl. image and source references as well as list of source and image-providing institutions and persons
A glimpse of the exhibition…
Our exhibition in your neighbourhood!
Would you like to display the exhibition “endangered living. Queer people 1933-1945” in your neighbourhood in memorials, museums, schools, other educational locations, town halls or Landtags/state parliaments?
Then simply follow the following two steps.
- Find out more here about all important aspects of the travelling exhibition and take a look at our exhibition calendar. Here you can find all the dates already scheduled when the exhibition will be on display.
- Then send us an e-mail at ausstellung@mh-stiftung.de. Please include your preferred date in it and information on your premises. We will then get in touch with you immediately.
We have likewise compiled an overview of the course of the entire lending process for you.
This 3D simulation shows the exhibition when set up.
Ein Blick zurück…
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An exhibition of the Bundesstiftung Magnus Hirschfeld.
Curators: Dr Insa Eschebach, Andreas Pretzel, Karl-Heinz Steinle
Exhibition construction and production: Lendler Ausstellungsarchitektur, Berlin
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If you have more questions about the project “Travelling exhibition ‘endangered living. Queer people 1933-1945’”, please contact:
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The picture at the top of this page shows Johanna “Otto” Kohlman, private photo from patient file of Hadamar mental institution, (LWV-Archiv, K12 no. 1824, Hadamar Memorial Museum)
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The exhibition is sponsored by:
