Mahide Lein

Mahide Lein
At the 2009 Side by Side Festival
Born1949 (age 75–76)
Höchst, Germany
EducationGoethe University Frankfurt
OccupationActivist

Mahide Lein (born 1949) is a German LGBTQ+ activist, organiser and head of a concert agency. She has also campaigned for sex workers' rights and with the anti-psychiatric movement.

Biography

Lein was born in 1949 in Höchst and was raised as a Protestant.[1] She attended Goethe University Frankfurt.

Lein became involved with the New Women's Movement and ran the women's café Café Niedenau in a squatted house on Kettenhofweg in Frankfurt am Main from the 1970s.[2] The café hosted exhibitions, political discussions and concerts.[3] She was also one of the founders of the first lesbian centre in Frankfurt.[2]

After moving to Berlin, Lein is credited with shaping Berlin's lesbian scene in the 1980s and 1990s.[4][5] She was an organiser of the Berlin Christopher Street Day (CSD, Germany and Switzerland's counterpart to pride parades),[6] the anti-psychiatric Irren-Offensive Tribunals,[3] and the KultHur-Festival to promote sex workers' rights.[3]

During the 1990s, Lein worked with gay men on a Russian-German cultural exchange.[3] In May 1992, Lein, the German filmmaker and LGBTQ+ activist Andreas Strohfeldt and the Tschaikowsky Foundation in Saint Petersburg organised the first Russian CSD.[2]

Lein launched the lesbian magazine TV programme Läsbisch TV,[4][1] with 27 one-hour episodes broadcast on Berliner Kabel from 1991 to 1993.[2][7][8] She has also been interviewed for lesbian documentaries, commenting on "the problems of speaking openly about taboo desires in sexually less tolerant societies"[9] and on queer aging for Vice magazine.[10] She sat on the jury for the queer film prize TEDDY for two decades[2] and spoke at the 2nd Side by Side LGBT Film Festival in 2009.

Lein is the founder and head the international concert agency AHOI.[2][11][12]

Awards

She was also honoured with an award for her 75th birthday by the Berlin Music Commission.[14]

References

  1. ^ a b "Läsbisch-TV". Kiez und Kneipe (in German). 15 February 2024. Retrieved 20 May 2025.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "SEX IM ALTER: Homage for Mahide Lein's 69th Birthday". Schwules Museum. Archived from the original on 4 June 2025. Retrieved 20 May 2025.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Nestler, Fabian (9 November 2022). "Mahide Lein: 'Courage and humor have made my work bearable'". Creative City Berlin. Archived from the original on 4 June 2025. Retrieved 20 May 2025.
  4. ^ a b Anhamm, Ulrike (11 October 2015). "LESgende: Mahide Lein". LESPRESS (in German). Retrieved 20 May 2025.
  5. ^ "Lesbenaktivistin Mahide Lein: 'Kultur ist kein Luxus!'". Siegessäule (in German). Retrieved 20 May 2025.
  6. ^ a b c Balser, Saskia (8 November 2024). "Pionierin für lesbische Sichtbarkeit: Mahide Lein wird 75 Jahre alt". Mannschaft.com (in German). Retrieved 20 May 2025.
  7. ^ Clarke, Kevin. "'Das erste lesbische Fernsehmagazin auf diesem Planeten'". queer.de (in German). Archived from the original on 5 July 2024. Retrieved 20 May 2025.
  8. ^ Die Andere Welt (in German). Vol. 4. Die Andere Welt. 1993. p. 29.
  9. ^ Kuzniar, Alice A. (2000). The Queer German Cinema. Stanford University Press. p. 158. ISBN 978-0-8047-3995-5.
  10. ^ Theis, Alexandra (4 April 2023). "Joyful Portraits of Queer Elders". VICE. Retrieved 28 July 2025.
  11. ^ von Lochte, Paula. "Lesbenfrühlingstreffen 2021 in der Kritik: 'Wie weit sind wir gekommen, dass wir nicht mehr miteinander reden!'". L-mag.de (in German). Retrieved 20 May 2025.
  12. ^ "Die Welt bin ich". Taz.de (in German). 18 June 2005. Retrieved 28 July 2025.
  13. ^ Tepest, Eva (19 July 2018). "Mahide Lein im Queerspiegel-Newsletter: „Wir sollten über Sex im Alter reden"". Der Tagesspiegel Online (in German). ISSN 1865-2263. Retrieved 28 July 2025.
  14. ^ "Mahide Lein". LISTEN TO BERLIN (in German). Retrieved 28 July 2025.
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