Six hundred and eighty-two men say "We are gay"
They showed their faces when it was still dangerous: in 1978, the "Stern" cover "We are gay" made history.
On 5 October 1978, an issue of "Stern" that nobody could miss went on sale at German newsstands. The cover showed two young men, Olaf Hellmich and Martin Schütz, beneath three words: "Wir sind schwul" ("We are gay"). Inside the magazine came six hundred and eighty-two small passport photos, each with a name and a personal statement.
What sounds harmless today was a risk at the time. Paragraph 175 had been relaxed only nine years earlier, and homosexuality remained taboo in everyday life. Coming out meant risking your job, your flat and your family. Some men therefore withdrew at the last minute because they wanted to become teachers and did not know whether the state would tolerate it.
The rest stood firm. Many came from West Berlin and the circle around the Homosexual Action West Berlin. Among them was Egmont Fassbinder, who later shaped the publishing house rosa Winkel, the first gay publisher of the post-war era. The master tailor Klaus Schumann also appeared by name. His parents cut off contact with him afterwards.
At the time, "Stern" was a power in the land. The magazine reached millions of households and shaped what the country talked about. Seven years earlier, it had already relied on the impact of many real names with its cover "We have had abortions".
One of those involved was Jan Feddersen, who later became a journalist. Looking back, he wrote that the two men on the cover had looked as ordinary as the neighbours in a block of flats. That was exactly what made the campaign so effective. Suddenly gay men were no longer a caricature, but colleagues, sons and team-mates.
The campaign became a model. When more than one hundred and eighty actors came out together in February 2021 under the banner #ActOut, many recalled that issue. The message had stayed the same: there are many of us, and we are no longer hiding.