World Aids Day 2025
What can we learn today from the self-determined educational work of the 1980s and 90s? The Gay Museum Berlin offers scientific perspectives and a dialogue between the generations.
„Put the pressure on!“ - Under this title, the German AIDS Service Organisation's gay prevention campaign ICH WEISS WAS ICH TU, the Schwules Museum Berlin and the Berlin University of the Arts are inviting people to a joint event to mark World AIDS Day on 1 December 2025: Awareness-raising work on HIV/Aids in the 1980s and 90s was powerful and we can learn a lot from it for dealing with future pandemics.
„Put the pressure on!“
Podium and performances
01.12.2025, 7 pm (admission 6:30 pm)
Gay Museum Berlin
World Aids Day: More than remembrance!
World Aids Day is a day of remembrance for the victims of Aids and solidarity with HIV-positive people worldwide. In view of drastic cuts in global measures against HIV, the day has a particular urgency this year: millions of people could die from AIDS and millions more could become newly infected.
Against this background, it is necessary to combine remembrance and prevention.
Jonathan Gregory, Director of ICH WEISS WAS ICH TU:
„Remembering means taking responsibility - for those who have gone and for those who are alive today. Prevention can only succeed through dialogue between the generations:
When knowledge is passed on, experiences are shared and perspectives are taken seriously.“
While many younger people only know the early days of HIV from historical accounts, the political struggles for information, prevention and self-determined protection are still present for older generations. The question of a constructive exchange between these perspectives forms the starting point for successful prevention work in the future.
Learning from the 80s
As part of „Druck machen!“, students from Berlin University of the Arts are working with Professor Franziska Morlok and curator Michael Annoff to find out how prevention work was possible in the 1980s and 90s, when information was still spread through personal networks without the internet and did not go „viral“ digitally. They will present their findings and elaborations on World AIDS Day at the Gay Museum under the motto: „Spread the Word, not the Virus!“
One exciting question is: What can we learn from this today?
The event on 1 December will focus on an intergenerational dialogue. Under the moderation of Michael Annoff, Eugen Januschke from the Schwules Museum, Jonathan Gregory and Ahmet Sitki Demir from ICH WEISS WAS ICH TU will enter into dialogue with members of the queer and positive communities. The central question: How can different biographical experiences flow into a shared memory and future prevention?
The „Druck machen!“ project team, Luka Löhner, Lea Verholen, Jonas Gerber and Prof Franziska Morlok, will be presenting what they have found in the Gay Museum's archive. Birol Işık and Prof. Dr Zülfukar Çetin recall the work of AIDS Danışma Merkezi, among others. Hava Erica Zeytin reports on her intergenerational exchange with Tsepo Bollwinkel. Lexie Fosså from the YouthWork team of the Berlin AIDS service organisation talks about the motivation for young people to get involved in the AIDS service organisation.
The evening will be rounded off with performances by Vivienne P. Lovecraft.
More information on the „Druck machen!“ event at: iwwit.de/print-make
gays-museum.com/event/printing-hiv-aids-past-and-present-memorial/
Project organiser and cooperation
„Druck machen!“ is a project of the gay prevention campaign ICH WEISS WAS ICH TU (IWWIT) by Deutsche Aidshilfe in cooperation with Michael Annoff, the Schwules Museum Berlin and the Berlin University of the Arts.
IWWIT is funded by the Federal Institute of Public Health.
