''Siegessäule'' is

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

's most widely distributed queer magazine and has been published monthly, except for two brief hiatuses, since April 1984. Originally only available in

West Berlin West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...

, it ran with the subtitle "Berlin's monthly page for Gays". In 1996, it was broadened to include lesbian content, and in 2005 it was expanded to reach a wider

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are non-heterosexual or non- cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against LGBTQ people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to ...

target base, becoming the only magazine of its scale in Europe to represent the full spectrum of the

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

community. The magazine is available for free at around 700 locations in

, printing 53.688 copies per month (verified third quarter 2016). Since March-issue 2013, it has been overseen by

chief editor An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's Editing, editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is hel ...

Jan Noll.

History

On February 29, 1984, the idea for a gay city magazine came up on the protocol of a meeting of gay groups in

at the Prinz Eisenherz bookstore on Bülowstraße, and the magazine's first official meeting took place at the gay nightclub on Kulmer Straße. The first edition was published by "Freunde der Siegessäule e.V.", released in April in a run of 1,000 copies, containing 16 pages, for the price of one

Deutsche Mark The Deutsche Mark (; "German mark (currency), mark"), abbreviated "DM" or "D-Mark" (), was the official currency of West Germany from 1948 until 1990 and later of unified Germany from 1990 until the adoption of the euro in 2002. In English, it ...

. The name was not easily agreed upon, with Siegessäule finally chosen in reference to the Berliner memorial, the

Victory Column A victory column, or monumental column or triumphal column, is a monument in the form of a column, erected in memory of a heroic commemoration, including victorious battle, war, or revolution. The column typically stands on a base and is crowned ...

. Siegessäule was one of the earliest German publications to report regularly on AIDS and HIV. In December 1985, it printed a groundbreaking special edition under the title "AIDS – The Dimension of a Disease" in which the current state of research and socio-political debates were summarized – by gay men, for gay men. With contributions by

Rosa von Praunheim Holger Bernhard Bruno Mischwitzky (born Holger Radtke; 25 November 1942), known professionally as Rosa von Praunheim, is a German film director, author, producer, professor of directing and one of the most influential and famous LGBT social move ...

, Matthias Frings, Peter Hedenström, Elmar Kraushaar and Karl-Heinz Albers – the booklet was available for free, funded by a grant from the Berliner CDU's senator of health,

Ulf Fink Ulf Fink is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and former member of the German Bundestag. Life In 1994, Fink was elected to the German Bundestag via the state list of Brandenburg, of which he was a member for two legi ...

. After the September 1989 issue (then costing 4 Deutsche Marks), the magazine discontinued until November 1990 when the nationwide gay publication ''magnus'' issued it as a supplement to their magazine. Aside from that, Siegessäule was distributed as a stand-alone publication for free amongst the city's scene. At this point, it contained eight pages and listed 216 gay-related events. Within a few months, editors Micha Schulze and Dirk Evenson expanded the editorial cultural and event content to also include community and political topics, tripling the number of pages to 24. When the publishing house went bankrupt in 1995, ''magnus'' and with it Siegessäule were acquired by publisher and journalist Reiner Jackwerth. In 1996, ''magnus'' was permanently discontinued. Siegessäule was reborn as an independent city magazine, and has remained available for free since then, funded by advertising. The new chief editors, Manuela Kay (starting in 1996) and Peter Polzer (1997), officially turned the previously "gay" publication into a "gay/lesbian" one with 80 pages in a circulation of 40,000 copies. Over the course of the 90s, Siegessäule became a more serious journalistic medium and the mouthpiece of the city's gay and lesbian scene. In 2005, Holger Wicht took over as the chief editor, relaunching the magazine's tagline of "gay/lesbian" with "

", manifesting its intent to represent a wider spectrum of the

community in its content. Sirko Salka took over as chief editor in 2008, continuing this increasingly inclusive direction. Upon its 25th anniversary in March 2009, then-mayor

Klaus Wowereit Klaus Wowereit (born 1 October 1953) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and was the Governing Mayor of Berlin from 21 October 2001 to 11 December 2014. In 2001 state elections his party won a plurality of the votes, 29 ...

declared Siegessäule the "journalistic flagship of Berlin's gay-lesbian community". In 2012, Special Media SDL, the publishing firm newly founded by Gudrun Fertig and Manuela Kay, took over the magazine. That autumn, Siegessäule began running its calendar of events bilingually, in German and English. The duo of Jan Noll and Christian Reinthal stepped up as chief editors for the March 2013 issue, and increased the amount of English content starting with the relaunch of the magazine in October 2014, celebrating its 30th anniversary. Now with the tagline "We are queer Berlin", Siegessäule is Berlin's queer, German-English city magazine averaging around 100 pages per issue, and the most widely distributed periodical of its kind in the world. Jan Noll has been the sole chief editor as of the May 2017 issue.

Print

''Siegessäule'' reports monthly on queer-relevant topics including politics, community, film, music, literature and theater. With around 1,500 events listed each month, Siegessäule has one of the most extensive regional calendars within Germany's

media landscape. Other free printed items bearing the magazine's brand, including ''Kompass'', the gay-lesbian business directory for Berlin. Siegessäule has also published special editions for Berlin Pride, the Teddy Award queer film prize,

World AIDS Day World AIDS Day, designated on 1 December every year since 1988, is an international day dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection and mourning those who have died of the disease. The acquired immu ...

and the BLF leather/fetish convention. In November 2015, Siegessäule took on the responsibility of printing the magazine for the annual "Kunstler gegen Aids" ("Artists Against AIDS") gala benefiting the community's

AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

support organization.

Online

Siegessäule has had an online presence since January 1997. In 2008 Gudrun Fertig turned the website into a comprehensive resource with its own editorial department, a constantly updated event calendar and a detailed directory of city locations. With its 2013 relaunch came a bilingual event calendar (German and English) and a mobile version. Currently, the Siegessäule editorial team is responsible for website's content with daily updates.

Logo

The magazine's logo has changed several times over the years. The current logo has been used since the October 2014 relaunch. Celebrating the magazine's 30-year history, it uses a bolder variant of the font from the original 1984 logo (which was originally in italics).

Campaigns

In its May 2006 issue, Siegessäule urged its readers to join the Parada Równości (

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

Pride Pride is a human Emotion, secondary emotion characterized by a sense of satisfaction with one's Identity (philosophy), identity, performance, or accomplishments. It is often considered the opposite of shame or of humility and, depending on conte ...

) to show solidarity with

people in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

with its difficult political situation. On various occasions, such as Lesbian-Gay City Festival and in 2016 at the monthly Siegessäule lounge night, the magazine collected donations for

NGOs A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

and projects such as Queer

Amnesty Amnesty () is defined as "A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of people, usually for a political offense; the act of a sovereign power officially forgiving certain classes of people who are subject to trial but have not yet be ...

, Schwulenberatung, LesMigraS, MILES and Women in Exile. In April 2016, Siegessäule joined L-MAG (its nationwide sister publication under Special Media SDL) in a Berliner initiative gathering queer media to take a stand against rising right-wing political parties.

Awards

From 1993 through 2015, Siegessäule awarded the Else, a prize that offered up to 1,000 euros to the winning film, chosen by readers of the magazine and a jury. The Else was an official award of the

Berlinale The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...

(Berlin International Film Festival). At Siegessäule's annual drag contest, which took place every Easter 2009–2014 at the

nightclub SchwuZ, the prize for best drag performer was awarded.

Events

Aside from various big parties in the 1990s and early 2000s, Siegessäule hosted several

Panel discussion A panel discussion, or simply a panel, involves a group of people gathered to discuss a topic in front of an audience, typically at scientific, business, or academic conferences, fan conventions, and on television shows. Panels usually include a ...

s and events related to the topic such as lesbian visibility, discrimination within the community and

Hepatitis C Hepatitis C is an infectious disease caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV) that primarily affects the liver; it is a type of viral hepatitis. During the initial infection period, people often have mild or no symptoms. Early symptoms can include ...

. From 2010 to 2013, Siegessäule and SchwuZ organized the Queer Noises Festival, a platform to showcase bands and artists from the local queer scene and beyond. For the magazine's 30th anniversary, Siegessäule and the Gay Museum created the exhibition "30 Years of Siegessäule", in which all issues from publication's back catalog, along with other visual material from its archives, were on display and available to read.

Controversy

In November 2003, Siegessäule had a cover story about the coming-out of young gays and lesbians in

's Turkish-

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

community. The cover depicted a Turkish flag accompanied by the headline "Türken raus!" ("Turks out!") – a play on words with the emancipatory process of coming "out of the closet", but also provocatively reminiscent of a call for them to "get out" of the country. This caused backlash from the queer and Turkish communities. In its May 2006 issue, when Siegessäule urged its readers to join

in solidarity with

Poles Pole or poles may refer to: People *Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland * Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name * Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist ...

, it depicted the Polish cartoon characters Bolek and Lolek as homosexual

activists Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from mandate build ...

. The cover image attracted great attention in Poland and was opposed by Polish organizations, citizens and the copyright holders. In the

schism A schism ( , , or, less commonly, ) is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization, movement, or religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a split in what had previously been a single religious body, suc ...

of Berlin Pride in 2014, which led to three different demonstrations/parades, Siegessäule published a satirical piece titled "Which Pride type are you? Siegessäule helps you choose the right demo". It prompted strong negative reactions in parts of the Berlin community.

References

External links

*
Special Media SDL GmbH
{{DEFAULTSORT:Siegessaule (magazine) 1984 establishments in West Germany City guides LGBTQ-related magazines published in Germany German-language magazines Monthly magazines published in Germany Local interest magazines Magazines established in 1984 Magazines published in Berlin