IN 1987, THE ASSOCIATION for the German Language selects ‘AIDS’ as word of the year, together with ‘condom’. The two words win out over Perestroika, Glasnost, Waterkantgate, and Ozonloch (Ozone hole).

If AIDS for the past years has been a faint rumbling on the horizon, a mysterious disease going round in far-away gay communities, it is now at the centre of media attention and general concern.

The first major waves of mass hysteria about AIDS are sweeping through Germany, kindled by the boulevard press.

In a letter dated 13.2.1987 a friend from Germany writes: ‘Almost every day there is something about AIDS in the media. … More and more people are affected.’

In the US, the death toll rises to 4 135. The AIDS quilt is started in San Francisco. Each three-by-six-foot panel commemorates someone who has died of AIDS.

During February 1987 not a single issue of the leading German tabloid BILD misses the opportunity to invoke an apocalyptic scenario caused by what is called the ‘lust plague’ (Lustseuche). Disease and death are decried as punishment for exorbitant sexual appetite; medieval images of ‘black death’ are resuscitated. An A to Z of AIDS risks starts with ‘anal intercourse’ and ends with ‘French kiss’ (Zungenkuss). Photos show an American mortician in full scrubs, including eye, mouth and hair protection and double latex gloves.

The magazine STERN touts for readers with cover headlines like: ‘AIDS. Sternreport. The plague that changes our lives’.

Concurrently, the Bavarian secretary of Home Affairs, Peter Gauweiler, stipulates that HIV-infected persons be reported, isolated and, if necessary, imprisoned. He implements mandatory blood tests for prostitutes, drug addicts, prison inmates, applicants for civil service jobs and non-Europeans seeking residence.

Equally, in February 1987, the British media run an AIDS advertising campaign. The motto is: ‘Anyone can get it, gay or straight, male or female. Already 30,000 people are infected’. The ‘tombstone’ advert, with its creepy and scary imagery and sound, is aired on national TV. Under a darkened sky a volcano erupts. Cascading lava rocks are followed by shots of a tombstone being chiselled. Offside, the gloomy voice of actor John Hurt intones a dire warning: ‘There is now a danger that has become a threat to us all. It is a deadly disease and there is no known cure.’ Church bells and a low humming are heard, while the inscription etched into the tombstone becomes visible: ‘AIDS’.