Gay Guide
Listing and event details can change quickly. Please verify with the venue directly before visiting. Lavender Atlas is not responsible for third-party accuracy.
About LGBTQ+ Munich
In West Germany, Paragraph 175 survived the war in the expanded form the Nazis gave it, and Bavaria enforced it harder than anywhere else. It was not reformed until 1969, not relaxed again until 1973, and not struck from the criminal code entirely until 1994. Munich's answer to that history was unusually political. The Rosa Liste, a gay and lesbian electoral list founded in 1989, put Thomas Niederbühl into the city council in 1996, the first representative of a gay and lesbian voter initiative to take a seat on a European city council, and it has held that seat continuously ever since.
The scene lives in the Glockenbachviertel, a leafy district south of the old town. Hans-Sachs-Strasse holds Sax, Auroom and Drei Glöcklein; Müllerstrasse runs Sub, Rendezvous, SpeXter and the fetish bar Ochsengarten; Edelheiss and the cafe Eismeer sit around the corner on Pestalozzistrasse, with Café NiL, Café Glück and Kr@ftwerk filling in between. It is a small district and an easy one, dense enough to walk end to end in ten minutes.
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The Deutsche Eiche on Reichenbachstrasse is the piece of it with real history. The building goes back to 1864 and became the city's main gay meeting point after 1945. From 1974 it was Rainer Werner Fassbinder's second home: he lived across the road, celebrated every finished film in the place, and shot parts of Satansbraten and Lola inside it. Today it is a hotel with a large sauna attached.
Christopher Street Day takes the city in July and is one of Germany's largest Prides. The stranger and more Munich event is Rosa Wiesn, the Gay Sunday at Oktoberfest: what began as a gathering of the Münchner Löwen Club in the 1970s now fills the Bräurosl tent on the festival's first Sunday with something like 8,000 people, with the Prosecco-Wiesn following at Fischer-Vroni on the second Monday.
Munich is orderly, expensive and green, and the queer part of it is compressed into a few very walkable blocks rather than spread across the city. Come for Oktoberfest and the scene is unrecognizably busy; come otherwise and it is calm.
Open cafe and bar of the Sub e.V. (non-profit gay counselling, communication and cultural centre). Quite popular at weekend nights.
Party venue of the Munich fetish association MLC ("Münchner Löwen Club"). Party calendar and dresscodes on the MLC website. The parties at the Underground club are private – ID required. Admission: 10–17 €
A landmark gay cafe and bar with unique Egyptian-themed decor, serving its famous cornflake schnitzel for decades.
LGBT+-friendly café, restaurant and cocktail bar. In good weather with street terrace. Mixed clientele.
Munich's oldest gay leather and fetish bar (since 1967). Clientele mainly in their 40s and up.
Big LGBT-friendly cafe and resto-bar. In good weather with street terrace. Salads, main dishes, desserts and self-made cakes.
Gay bar with cruising area. Fetish-friendly (but without dresscode). Cash only. Minimum consumption: 1 drink
Small gay sauna in the north of Munich. Clean and well-maintained. Rather quiet and placid atmosphere. Admission: ≈ 25 €
A gay erotica and fetish store in central Munich, with a web shop since 1998, stocking toys, leather and rubber gear.
Leather, rubber, sportswear, toys, puppy masks, accessories and DVDs. Friendly service.
The sauna is located in the back of the Restaurant and Hotel Deutsche Eiche (entrance at the reception of the hotel). Admission: ≈ 22-29 € (≈ 18 € up to 29 years), cabin + 10-30 €
A vibrant party bar in the Glockenbachviertel district, beloved for its 'Schlager' pop hits and disco-ball decor.
Munich's gay-owned dance club, founded in 1982 as Club New York and on Elisenstraße near the Hauptbahnhof since 2017, with the Luxuspop pop party on Fridays.
Munich's annual Christopher Street Day (CSD) parade and festival, one of Germany's largest LGBTQ+ Pride events. Typically held in July, with a street parade through the city center and a festival at Theresienwiese.
Munich's annual queer film festival (QFFM), screening LGBTQ+ features, shorts, and documentaries from Germany and abroad.
A groovy Italian wine and oyster bar with 70s funk and a disco-ball interior in Munich's Glockenbachviertel, the city's gay quarter.
Munich's queer youth organization, running a youth centre and youth café with groups, counselling, education, and events for LGBTIQ+ people under 27.
A lesbian and queer counselling, meeting, and events centre in Munich run by LeTra, for LGBTIQ+ women and allies.
A leather and fetish wear shop in Munich making and selling bondage gear and BDSM accessories.
The Munich branch of the gay lifestyle retailer Brunos, stocking underwear, clothing, books, toys, and accessories.
The café and bar of Munich's queer youth organization, open as a café on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays and as a bar on Wednesdays.
A cosy, unpretentious gay pub on Hans-Sachs-Straße in Munich's Glockenbachviertel, with rustic charm and a friendly, older crowd.
A small, personal ice-cream café in Munich's Glockenbachviertel, a fixture of the gay quarter for over 15 years.