Gay Guide to Aachen
Germany repealed the last of Paragraph 175 in 1994 and opened marriage to same-sex couples in 2017. Aachen sits in the far west of the country where the Dutch and Belgian borders meet, a university city about an hour from Cologne, and its queer life is built around community groups rather than a gay quarter.
Rainbow e.V. runs the queer community centre on Jakobstraße, with counselling and events, and next door Knutschfleck is the LGBTQIA* youth centre. The Queerreferat represents queer students at the city's universities.
Nightlife is the Ahoi Club, the queer party at the Apollo Kino & Bar on the student-heavy Pontstraße, held on the second Saturday of every other month. Cologne and Düsseldorf, with two of Germany's biggest scenes, are a short train ride away.
CSD Aachen at the end of August brings a demonstration and festival that draws more than 10,000 people.