Ludwigshafen - Guide for Gays, Lesbians and Queers

Ludwigshafen lies on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite Mannheim, and is the second-largest city in Rhineland-Palatinate after Mainz. It has no gay bars and no queer neighbourhood. The main points of contact are the city administration, the local AIDS service organisation and a few initiatives, plus what neighbouring Mannheim offers.

The city's contact office for queer people (Kontaktstelle Queere Lebensweisen) is based at the town hall on Berliner Platz. It links the community with the administration, forwards concerns to the right departments and, for questions outside the administration, refers people to suitable counselling services. The queer network Ludwigshafen, "Vom andern Hafen", meets regularly and is open to individuals and initiatives from the city and surrounding area. Young queer people up to the age of twenty-seven can get advice at the city's youth centres, and projects are listed on the youth portal lu4u.

Aidshilfe Ludwigshafen, the local AIDS service organisation, is located on Oberstraße in the Mundenheim district. It offers advice on HIV and sexually transmitted infections, runs prevention sessions in schools and hosts an open rainbow café for people with and without HIV, whatever their sexual orientation.

The gay Atlantis sauna in the Rheingönheim district is the city's only queer leisure venue, with a pool, saunas, a garden and themed nights, some of them open to a mixed crowd.

Across the river, PLUS Rhein-Neckar, a psychological counselling service for lesbian, gay and queer people, has its office in Mannheim's Oststadt and offers coming-out counselling and support groups. The Queer Centre Mannheim is a community meeting place and the home of Monnem Pride.

For history, the Ludwigshafen city museum explored lesbian and gay life in the city and region in its exhibition "Vom anderen Ufer?", with biographies of the trans artist Liddy Bacroff and the activist Napoleon Seyfarth among others. The material remains available online.