Before the election in Saxony-Anhalt: Under the rainbow flag

It's the evening before the Saxony-Anhalt election. Twelve broad-shouldered men between thirty and sixty are lined up side by side, wearing leather jackets and beards and looking grimly straight ahead. There, in front of them, another man slowly raises two fingers. One two three. "And if a man loves a man, if he loves him, let him love him..."

The roof in Schöneberg is illuminated by a chain of lights that looks like it comes from a time when something still glowed in the lamps. A rainbow flag hangs over the men. The guests are standing around them. It's a fiftieth birthday.

Most of those invited probably came to Berlin in the 90s. Long before anyone would have thought about closing the “SchwuZ” or the “Andere Ufer”. When they sing, their eyebrows move close together. "And if a bear loves a sow, let him love her if he loves her. Because I want all that there is. I want all that there is."

Should the AfD form the government in Saxony-Anhalt, it has announced that it will radically cut and change sex education classes. She wants to stand up for traditional family values ​​and against “sexual deviations” and “non-reproductive lifestyles”. Can a bear still love a sow?

André Heller's song comes to an end. Finally, the small choir sings “Bella Ciao”. For a moment it seems as if there are only tenors among the leather jackets. They call to the partisans with angelic voices and sing about how flowers grow from their graves. “There is a close relationship between flowers and convicts,” says Genet. “The fragility, the tenderness of some is of the same nature as the brutal callousness of others.”