Publications

For more than a decade, I have written extensively about human sexuality, Berlin, politics, LGBTIQ, human-animal relations, and society. Here, you can find a list of my English publications. For more publications, please check the German page.

Closeness at a distance – 5 January 2021

Sexuality in times of the pandemic. A look at how the SARS-CoV-2 virus paralyzed the world with the COVID-19 pandemic and turned human proximity into a privilege. From physical health to social coexistence, from the economy to the psyche: hardly any aspect of our lives has not been touched by the virus. But there was one topic that was little talked about: the impact of the virus on our sexuality.

Colonial Fetish – 10 February 2021

Racism doesn’t stop at sexuality: a Black History Month exploration of how fantasies from colonial times influence our sexuality.

Keep breaking the silence – 04 May 2021

In March 2021, a teacher was suspended from the Diekirch Lyceum in Luxembourg, due in part to sexual harassment. Allegations are said to have been going on for eight years. This once again raises the question of how things stand in Luxembourg with regard to the problem of sexual harassment, sexualised violence and #MeToo. I talked to two women and one man.

40 years of AIDS – 4 June 2021

In May 1987, Luxembourgish conservative Marcel Glesener addressed the public in a speech: “We must also be concerned about social diseases, like the drug problem, and like other contagious diseases, like AIDS”. “And the slogan (…) of the campaign to counter this new societal disease in Luxembourg is scandalous. (…) It’s not with condoms, as [Health Minister] Berg says, but we can only fight this disease if we manage to return to moral principles in Luxembourg and in the world!” On June 5, 1981, the first medical descriptions of AIDS-related illnesses appeared in the USA. 40 years have passed since then. I took a look back at the beginnings of the AIDS crisis in Luxembourg.

Luxembourg and sex work – 19 July 2021

Neither the Swedish nor the German model: Luxembourg went its own way when it came to legislation on prostitution and sex work. Not all of this has been successful from the sex workers’ point of view. This also has to do with the social image of prostitution.

Berlin’s sex history is so queer! – July 2021

Berlin is often said to be the most sexually charged city in the world. The Germans are “Europe’s kinkiest nation” and Berlin is the undisputed queer capital of Europe. Berlin thus boasts a long tradition of sexual liberation. As early as the 1920s, Berlin was queer-friendly and sex-positive and was therefore far ahead of many other cities. Signs of these times can be rediscovered everywhere in the city, including in Schöneberg, one of the queer centres. On the city tour, “Berlin’s History of Sex”, this incredible, exciting, and sometimes tragic part of Berlin’s history comes to life once more. Author and guide, Jeff Mannes, reveals a few highlights here, in the form of a literary city tour.

The Origins of Pet & Puppy Play – 27 June 2022

A couple of years after moving to Berlin, I visited the gay-lesbian street festival, a weekend-long queer event happening each year before Pride. I was standing by some info booth when suddenly something to my left caught my eye. A very tall, muscled, dominant-looking man was standing there all dressed up in leather. He was talking to a woman in very regular clothes, chit-chatting I assume, as they seemed friendly with each other and smiling. Next to the woman was a small child, I would guess about five years old, and I assume the woman was his mother. While the mother was chit-chatting to the man in leather, the child was laughing uncontrollably at a dog barking at him in front of him. Only the dog wasn’t a dog. It was another man dressed up like a dog. And the man in leather was his handler, holding him on the leash. Puppy Play is a form of Pet Play, or Animal Roleplay, where humans take on the persona of non-human animals, in this case dogs or other canines, or their handlers. Where does this fetish come from? You can also find the full length version of this essay here.