Activity
Background
This activity introduces students to the history of HIV/AIDS in Germany with a particular focus on its origins and effects on the gay male community of the 1980s and 1990s, the epicenter of the epidemic in Germany. The main material of this lesson is the 1986 film Ein Virus kennt keine Moral by Rosa von Praunheim, Germany’s preeminent gay filmmaker. It satirizes with camp and vaudevillian humor the conservative politics of the German government, its slow and often violent response to the epidemic rooted in homophobia, and the angry debates around safe sex and sexual freedom within the gay community itself. (Here you can find a snippet from the film: five drag queens singing about using condoms. The film is available for licensing through some libraries.)
Some of the images of sickness and death and the offensive messages may be disturbing to students, so preparation is key, which can be done using the PowerPoint about the history of the epidemic below.
Activity 1: Discussion
The activity is straightforward: have students watch the film for homework, filling out the response sheet found below. During class, students should first work in pairs to exchange their impressions of and opinions about the film to prepare them for a larger discussion.
As a large group, collect their responses and guide the discussion toward larger and more abstract questions: how do identity and disease intersect, specifically regarding prejudice? What responsibility does the government have in protecting its citizens? How do we balance personal freedoms and communal responsibility regarding disease prevention and treatment?
Activity 2: Character Presentation
Ein Virus kennt keine Moral is a satirical black comedy about the various political and social responses to the AIDS epidemic. It exaggerates to the point of absurdity the various positions taken toward the disease within the gay community and in wider society, such as the church, government, medicine, and the media. As such, each character in the film is a clearly defined caricature of these various positions, and they make for easy analysis for students.
In this activity, students are divided into groups of two or three. Each group is assigned a major character from the film, and they are asked to explain what the character represents and to analyze their (sexual politics). For example, what does the doctor character represent and propagate? And the gay sex club owner? And the reporter for the tabloid press?
This activity can be done in person or easily adapted as a jigsaw-style activity on a Google Doc, to which all students have access and simultaneously edit while discussing in their groups.
Here are the characters students can choose from:
- Dieter, Angestellter in der Sauna
- Prof. Dr. Blut
- Christian, Student der Kirchenmusik
- Reporterin Carola Schrecksch
- Saunabesitzer Rüdiger Kackinski
- Therapeutin Tomalik-Samenkorn
- Revolutionär Karl Kolle
- Krankenpflegerin Rita
Materials
Below is a PowerPoint to introduce students to the background and history of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the biology behind how the virus works. Use this as a format for an interactive lecture (in German), having students fill in bits of knowledge when possible by posing questions for both comprehension and to progress the lecture forward. As mentioned below, very few people under the age of 30 (who aren’t queer) know much about the disease, its politics, and the social and cultural issues that sprung around it, so context and preparation are critical for students to truly understand the materials covered in this lesson:
Below is a generic film response worksheet for students to complete for homework while watching the film. It is currently designed to allow students to express what interests them in each film, to check for their comprehension, and to have them think about questions to discuss in class. Please feel free to customize and further develop as needed.
Learning Goals
The learning goals are twofold. First, this lesson will introduce students to a medical vocabulary: words about the body, symptoms, treatment, medication, etc. For grammar, students should be prompted to practice modal verbs/constructions (patients should…, the government must…, etc.) as well as descriptive language in describing aesthetic aspects of the film to each other.
Second, through the discussion questions and the AIDS PowerPoint, students should be encouraged to practice comparative and critical thinking through the history of the virus and the appropriate thematic questions. At the end of the lesson, students should have both the linguistic and critical abilities to talk about the intersection of sickness, identity, and politics, topics still very much pertinent in the second decade of the 21st century
Future Development
First, one can bring this history into the current day, addressing the transmission, prevention, treatment, and culture of HIV/AIDS in 21st century Germany and discussing the ways in which these are different from the materials covered in class from the 1980s and 1990s.
Second, depending on how familiar students are with the history of HIV/AIDS in the United States (unless they are queer, very little, as this part of American history has been forgotten and is not part of high school education) or how much time you have to prep student with an additional history lesson, students can compare the two responses to AIDS in Germany and the United States, working to distill the particular cruelty (homophobia, racism, classism) towards those affected by the disease in the American context.
In another direction, this activity can be taught in conversation with the coronavirus and the response to it, focusing on how the politics and culture lay different values on different lives (young vs. old, black vs, white, gay vs. straight) and which thereby effect treatment and rhetoric.
Additionally, alongside the film students can read the first article about AIDS in Der Spiegel, which has been transcribed and glossed in the Word document below. It provides an excellent snapshot of the contemporary politics, fears, and prejudices around AIDS during the early years of the epidemic in the 1980s.