The impact of the AIDS crisis – not least on the queer community – was devastating, and its effects are still felt today. In his book “AIDS: A Chronicle of a Pandemic”, Berlin-based journalist and SIEGESSÄULE author Axel Schock traces the medical research, social changes and determined activism of those who fought bravely against the crisis. Above all, however, the book tells the stories of the people behind the figures and facts. Drawing on diary entries, documents and first-hand accounts, it creates a multi-perspective, global panorama – from the emergence of the virus to the present day.

Four and a half decades after the virus was discovered, HIV can be treated – and the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 1990s has entered a phase of historical reflection. Yet a comprehensive global account has been lacking. Axel Schock’s “AIDS: A Chronicle of a Pandemic”, published by Suhrkamp Verlag, fills this gap.

The book focuses on developments and events in Germany and the German-speaking world. Alongside Western Europe and the United States, it also considers significant developments and pivotal events in regions of the world that are often overlooked. These include the African continent, Asia, Eastern Europe and the post-Soviet sphere.

The book’s multi-perspective approach also gives a voice to people whose lives are shaped by HIV and AIDS in very different ways: people living with HIV and those affected by AIDS, family members and loved ones, activists, people working in care, healthcare and research. It also includes the stories of groups particularly affected by HIV whose experiences have often been overlooked or ignored altogether in mainstream reporting and historical accounts: people who use drugs, sex workers, people with haemophilia and people with migration backgrounds.

Moderated by Thomas Sparr