Stadt am Wasser: City at the Waterfront (Leydier 2018)

The Eisfabrik is integrally embedded within the historic queer and music sub-cultures operating alongside the Spree River. Queer spaces were a vibrant component of urban life and public culture during the interwar period in Berlin, but were forced to adapt during the 1930s, camouflaging sites of resistance in opposition to the oppressive Nazi regime, which labeled suspected homosexuals with the pink triangle and carried out violent persecution of this group as a part of wider eugenic policies targeted at Jewish citizens. After the 1960s, Queer space evolved into a way to infiltrate a city and subvert heteronormative spaces for same gender sex. Since the 1990s, the “pink dollar” became an integral part of the music subculture and of municipal and corporate advertising strategies. Queer space was itself subverted, and turned into a highly visible marketing strategy, a way to promote nightlife to enrich the city.