At the 22nd benefit gala “Artists Against AIDS,” Berlin’s Aids Help received a donation check for €192,986 (about $210,000) on Monday evening. The ensemble and crew of the musical “Wir sind am Leben” delivered it at the Stage Theater des Westens. Volunteers had collected the funds since January after performances by attendees. The musical by Peter Plate and Ulf Leo Sommer is set in Berlin in 1990 and also tells of the era when AIDS cast a shadow over the city (Queer.de reported).
“An important aspect for me is to remind people of the stigma connected with AIDS,” Sommer said. “How lonely those who were sick often were, and how within the community people whispered about them and shunned them.” Managing Director Jens Ahrens described the donations from the Stage Theater des Westens as “a solid pillar of our work.”
The evening was hosted by Annabelle Mandeng, with on-stage performances by The Baseballs, T-Seven, the German Gents, and Sven Ratzke. All artists performed without pay. Berlin’s acting mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) recalled Rosa von Praunheim, who died in December 2025 and organized Berlin’s first major AIDS-benefit event in 1985. The memorial also honored film producer Regina Ziegler, who died on Saturday at age 82. She was a founding member of Berlin Aids Help’s board of trustees.
The patrons Judy Winter and Klaus Wowereit urged that HIV infections are still diagnosed too late and that Berliners continue to die of AIDS. In Germany, the Robert Koch Institute estimates that about 2,300 people were newly infected with HIV in 2024, roughly 200 more than the year before.
Donations to Berlin Aids Help are still welcome; for more information, visit kuenstlergegenaids.de.
