Knowledge of AIDS in West Germany in 1985

[red2blue]

Hello

Comments

[zoomama]

I was in a German gymnasium for the 1986-1987 school year (Bavaria, but not Munich), and AIDS education was mandatory for my grade (9). The bureaucracy was still not really in place--all that was required was that "one of the teachers had to do it"--so I ended up getting "the talk" from three different teachers. It was basically one class session devoted to AIDS and how to prevent it.

In any case, I'm pretty sure that such education was mandatory in Bavaria for a certain age and above--most of what we learned was standardized by the state, not the local school district.

[red2blue]

Thanks a ton for the details!

Base on my research, it seems to me that AIDS surfaced as an problem of catastrophic proportions and became 'internation' only after Rock Hudson's press release about his sickness in July 1985. Before that, research had been carried out and some reports floated around, but not so much in the press. But after July 1985, it became an international issue overnight and the AIDS education was introduced as the result. Is this correct? I didn't live in America nor W.Europe back in those days, so have to rely on what's written and your guys' recollections.

Thanks a lot for helping out!! Really appreciate it!

[inamac]

Beware of attaching too much importance to Rock Hudson's death in a European context - certainly in Britain I recall that it was reported, but by then UK awareness of AIDS, and the fact that it was not only a 'gay disease' was relatively high profile and Hudson was largely - not 'dismissed' exactly, but regarded as just another example of how prevalent the disease was (and of the celebrity-centric perception of US culture). My German and French correspondents at the time had much the same attitude (we were in our 30s).

[red2blue]

Thanks a lot, that's a very interesting bit of info. I'm taking it that you are/were a correspondent or in a related field. May I ask then , if you remember, how English or German newspapers (Times and Suddeutsche Zeitung for example) reported or would have reported Rock Hudson's press release about his illness from the hospital in Paris? what would they have mentioned/said and what they wouldnt?

My character is an American closeted gay who happens to be in Munich on that day and reads the news in Times - I think. So, I guess his perception of AIDS and celebrities would be ... American :) He could be surprised if Times would have reported the news from a different perspective than, the New York Times , for example.

Thanks a lot for leaving a comment for me! Really appreciate it.

m

Many thanks

[inamac]

Well, when I say 'correspondents' I mean people who were writing me personal letters (and mostly on the UK/European slash fiction circuits) - so not representative of the general public - or even of the gay community. Though, as someone said earlier, local celebrities (like Klaus Nomi in Germany) had already raised awareness in Europe.

My archives from the period are no more, so sorry I can't help more.