A Tale of Two Movements focuses on the Schwulenbewegung (gay liberation movement) in the
Federal Republic of Germany between 1969 and 1989. The movement has been characterized by both
activists and critics as representing a clear rupture with earlier forms of homosexual activism
while also being bitterly divided between so called anti-capitalist radicals and
reformist-oriented integrationists. Similar critiques have been applied to the New Left in
general which is often presented as a collection of social movements divided by identities
ideologies and national boundaries. This book does not dispute that activists within the
Schwulenbewegung were internally divided over certain issues however it does complicate this
existing interpretation by discussing the social scientific political and gender-based
theories that both influenced and challenged the movement alongside the history of its
development.
