Sonneberg Pride 2027

Sonneberg is a small town in the far south of Thuringia, right on the border with Bavaria. It has grown together with the Bavarian town of Neustadt bei Coburg, and the two are twin towns. Sonneberg made its name as a toy-making centre, and its German Toy Museum is considered the oldest of its kind in the country. There are no gay bars or queer community spaces in town, which makes its own Pride all the more important.

Pride in Sonneberg, known locally as Christopher Street Day, is a demonstration with a march through the town and takes place in summer. It is run by a volunteer initiative with a small core team, organised under the umbrella of the association TransitionHaus Bayreuth. The event was founded as a response to the strength of the far-right AfD in the region, and that is its purpose: making queer people visible in a place where this cannot be taken for granted. From the start it was backed by a broad alliance of civil society groups, trade unions and initiatives against right-wing extremism.

Funding is a real challenge for an event of this size. Part of the costs is covered by public grants, and the team raises the rest through donation campaigns. Anyone who wants to support Pride in Sonneberg can find the fundraiser through the initiative's own channels, which also announce the date and meeting point of each edition.

For queer people from Sonneberg and the surrounding area, the day is one of the few chances to be visible locally. For counselling or community beyond Pride, the statewide organisations in Thuringia are the place to go. The association QueerWeg coordinates the Queer Network Thuringia, offers counselling for LGBTIQ people and their families, and runs Q*rage, a specialist service against anti-queer violence with its own reporting office. There are queer centres in Erfurt and Jena.