‘We have to do it ourselves. No one else will do that'

This chapter looks at the Schwules Museum in Berlin, Germany (schwules is a German word used to refer to gay males). This museum is unique because it is one of the very few LGBTQ+-focused museums in the world. This chapter explores how the museum’s founding, history and mission affect how it functions today. This includes describing the queer, feminist turn of a ‘Gay’ Museum; the museum’s activist ethos; and how queer failure and amateurism influence their curatorial strategies, their collection and their archive. The chapter posits how queer theoretical ideas concerning amateurism and failure play out in the non-professional environment of an activist created museum, and how this changes (or does not) as they become increasingly more professional, recognised and funded.