AHA-Berlin

AHA-Berlin e.V. traces its origins to 19 March 1974, when nine members of the Berlin regional group of the dissolving IHWO met to found a new association. It was registered in the Vereinsregister in 1976 as "Allgemeine Homosexuelle Arbeitsgemeinschaft (AHA-Berlin) e. V." The association grew and by 1982, with over 200 members, had become the largest gay association in Germany. It has occupied various premises over the decades and is currently based at Monumentenstraße 13 in Berlin. Its programme includes regular groups and events such as Qyouth, Queeronaut_*, Spieleabend, Sonntagscafé and poetry slams.

On 19 March 1974, nine members of the Berlin regional group of the dissolving IHWO (Internationale Homosexuelle Weltorganisation) met to found a new association. According to the founding fathers writing three years later in the association newspaper AHA-Info, it was not to be as "extremely left" as the HAW and was to be "general" rather than an "exclusive clique for academics and students." Thus the Allgemeine Homosexuelle Arbeitsgemeinschaft was created. In 1976 the group took the step of registering as "Allgemeine Homosexuelle Arbeitsgemeinschaft (AHA-Berlin) e. V." in the Vereinsregister. Interest and hobby groups and working groups multiplied within the association, and it became increasingly publicly active through flyer campaigns and similar actions, producing among other things a detailed draft of an anti-discrimination law (1979) and the attention-grabbing event "Parteien auf dem Prüfstand" for the 1980 Bundestag election in Bonn's Beethoven-Halle. The AHA was involved in organising the Berlin CSD well into the 1980s, and later helped launch the alternative CSD, the predecessor of the Transgenialer CSD. In the early 1980s the association saw growing numbers, and in 1982, with over 200 members, it had become the largest gay association in Germany. Over the decades it occupied various premises, including Lauterstraße 1 (1974), Behaimstraße 18 (1974–1976), Suarezstraße 50/51 (1976–1980), and later Mehringdamm 61, before finding its current home at Monumentenstraße 13.

1. 1AHA-Berlin e.V.aha-berlin.de
2. 2Ein Blick zurück – Die Geschichte der AHA - AHA-Berlin e.V.aha-berlin.de
3. 3Die (ehemaligen) Adressen der AHA - AHA-Berlin e.V.aha-berlin.de
4. 41977: 3 Jahre AHA - AHA-Berlin e.V.aha-berlin.de
5. 5Wikidata Q875274wikidata.org