Welcome to LUQS – Lesbian Archive and Queer Collection Frankfurt.
We are happy to have you here.
Have a look around – there's much to discover!
about us
LUQS (Lesbian Archive and Queer Collection) is a collectively run and self-organised archive and library in Frankfurt am Main. It is a space is to collectively remember and enable research into lesbian and queer histories. At LUQS, you can look for queer materials and books, read, network, exchange ideas, and organise cultural political initiatives. We organise events such as readings, archive salons and film screenings, with the aim of maintaining LUQS as a 'living archive' of the lesbian and queer movement and subculture in Frankfurt.
LUQS is open to all genders and aims to be a safe space for our community.
Contact
We have opening hours roughly once a month. Please check our Instagram @luqs_frankfurt for updates. Here on our website, you can also find more news about our recent events, initiatives etc. (Mostly in German.)
To contact LUQS, send us an email at info@luqs-frankfurt.de or give us a call: +49 (0)69 293 045.
The archive is located at Klingerstraße 6, 60313 Frankfurt am Main, on the 2nd floor. It is not barrier-free. The nearest (bus) stops are Konstablerwache + Börneplatz/Stoltzestraße.
Our Story
In 1991, the ‘Lesbenarchiv’ (Lesbian Archive) moved to the third floor of the LSKH (Queeres Kulturhaus | Queer Cultural Centre) in the centre of Frankfurt, near ‘Konstablerwache’.
Two years earlier, in 1989, a group of women* had come together to set up an archive, documenting lesbian life at the ‘LIBS - Lesben Informations- und Beratungsstelle’ (Lesbian Information and Advice Centre), which was located on Rotlintstraße in Frankfurt's Nordend district at the time.
The co-founders of the Lesbian Archive aimed to preserve lesbian stories, make them visible, and document lesbian life in the present day for future generations – thus, preventing further ruptures in queer histories and practices. They were part of an international women's and lesbian movement that began preserving their own his*/her*/their*stories in self-organised archives. Pioneering examples include the foundation of the Lesbian Herstory Archives in New York in 1974 and the Spinnboden Lesbian Archive and Library in Berlin in the 1980s. The global AIDS crisis of the 1990s made documenting and preserving the stories of the lesbian and gay movement from oblivion even more urgent.
From the outset, the Lesbian Archive was more than just a collection; it was a movement and ‘living’ archive. As such, it flourishes thanks to its close ties with the lesbian and queer community in Frankfurt and the surrounding area. To this day, it remains one of the few volunteer-run archives dedicated to lesbian and queer lives in Germany.
At the beginning of the 2020s, the Lesbian Archive experienced a generational change. The pioneering work of the founders in the 1990s is now being continued collectively by a queer collective who are carrying out political work through intersectional, queer-feminist archive activism. This is reflected in the archive’s name, adopted in 2024: LUQS Lesbenarchiv und Queere Sammlung Frankfurt.
The Archive
The LUQS collection holds around 5,300 books by, about and featuring lesbians. It also includes VHS tapes, DVDs, home videos in VHSC format, music CDs, vinyls and cassettes, posters, flyers, and other ‘grey literature’ and a large archive of magazines.
The archival materials, especially the magazines and grey literature, are gradually being entered into our database, which makes them searchable. They are also being digitised as part of DDF projects with the aim of making them available online.
The collection relies primarily on items donated by the queer community for archiving purposes. So please feel free to bring material from your own queer groups, associations and events.
The Library
At LUQS, there is a large collection of literature by lesbian and queer authors. Unlike the other collections in the archive of magazines, which focus on more contemporary and location-specific topics, the aim here was to create a historical inventory of lesbian authors and to include their works in their entirety in the archive's holdings wherever possible. To compile this inventory, Sybille Brüggemann and Anke Schäfer – two key figures in the Frankfurt women's bookshop movement – were asked to create a comprehensive bibliography of lesbian literature. This was published in 1991 by the Lesbian Archive Frankfurt. Thanks to the archive's active members' networks, the collection also includes many books in languages other than German, such as English and Dutch, that have been donated to the archive.
Since then, LUQS' literature collection has grown steadily with new publications, through both new acquisitions and book donations from the community. Alongside books focusing on lesbian stories, the collection currently includes an increasing number of books on trans*, inter, and non-binary topics and history.
Currently, LUQS can only offer a non-lending library. However, a digital, user-friendly lending system is already in development.
Search Our Collection
Parts of our collection are already listed in the i.d.a. umbrella organisation's META catalogue, where they can be searched.
Kontakt
info@luqs-frankfurt.de
+49 (0)69 293 045
UNTERSTÜTZT UNS
Lesbenarchiv u. queere Sammlung
DE27 5019 0000 6000 3660 03
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Frankfurter Volksbank Rhein/Main
Öffnungszeiten
auf Anfrage
Das LUQS ist nicht barrierefrei erreichbar
Adresse
Klingerstraße 6 (2. OG)
60313 Frankfurt am Main