Café Klatsch opened in 1990 behind the Nationaltheater and is the oldest gay bar in Mannheim. When it started, the people running it took the blackout off the windows and put tables out on the pavement, which was a statement at the time rather than a design choice.
It works as a café and bistro as much as a bar, with coffee and cake alongside the drinks, drag nights and community events through the year. The crowd widened over the decades and is mixed now, gay and straight together, with a good spread of ages rather than one.
The bar changed hands in autumn 2025, when the man who had run it for thirty-five years handed over to a member of staff who had been there for years. It kept its role in the city, a queer pub that people use as a safer space.
