How Florian Klein became Hans Berlin

Florian Klein is a child of the ’70s and grew up in the South of Germany - where the hills are alive with the sound of music. From an early age, he sensed he wasn’t “normal,” but his mother did everything she could to shield him from the harsher parts of the world.

Florian’s childhood was loving and safe, but he always felt out of step with the other children. Friendship didn’t come easily. Puberty only intensified this distance, revealing desires he didn’t yet have the words for. Much of his early trauma stems from growing up in a world where being gay was something to hide, not celebrate. “I would have given anything to be 'normal.' You know, just like everyone around me. I didn't choose to be different,” Florian recalls.

He excelled in school, and at his parents’ urging started an apprenticeship at the local bank at 17. But Florian felt pushed into adulthood far too soon, and it was a role he didn’t want yet.

Florian finished his apprenticeship in 1992 with excellent grades, but chose to return to school for another three years to pursue a higher level of education. He remembers his twenties as the time he finally became himself. After a few same-sex experiences in his late teens, he came out - first to himself, then to his parents, who, after a few early hiccups, continued to love their son exactly as they always had.

Still, Florian felt it was time to leave home at the age of 20. He then found his first circle of gay friends in Munich, and took his first steps into the world of entertainment. Without any formal training, he began singing, acting, and dancing, even releasing a single with a German boyband (to modest success). He worked on cruise ships, hosted trade shows as a public speaker, performed in musicals, acted for Disney, and experienced his first two relationships - the first time he truly understood what love could feel like.

Eventually, Florian moved from Munich to Berlin, where, at 29, he learned he had contracted HIV - something he had feared deeply for years, and yet another part of himself he believed he needed to hide - it took Florian 13 years to tell his parents.

As Florian quickly realized that being HIV-positive no longer meant a death sentence, he chose to live his new positive life positively and made one of his long-held dreams come true: he moved to New York to study acting. Originally, Florian planned to stay for three months, but those three months turned into four years of a full-time acting program. He lived his own version of FAME, making new friends and growing immensely as a human being in a new country.

Life with HIV was manageable, but only a few people knew about his status - which made dating and finding love incredibly challenging throughout his 30s. Still, life was good. In 2006, Florian moved to Hollywood to become the German Brad Pitt. He auditioned regularly, booked a handful of roles, and worked countless catering shifts for celebrities including the Obamas, Jennifer Lopez, Barbra Streisand, Jerry Seinfeld, and Joan Rivers, to name a few.

Frustrated by the lack of performance opportunities in Hollywood, Florian began go-go dancing in West Hollywood in his late 30s - and HANS was born. Americans struggled to understand his real name in loud clubs, and “Hans” simply stuck. 

Hans quickly became a successful go-go dancer across the United States, which eventually opened the door to the gay adult entertainment industry. While dancing half-naked in clubs, he was repeatedly approached about doing adult films - but at that time, he still believed he was pursuing a traditional acting career.

By 2012, ten years after moving to the U.S., Florian realized he didn’t have an acting career to “protect” from adult work. And so HANS BERLIN - named after the infamous German capital - was born. For the first time, Florian/Hans was finally acting in roles that actually paid him.

In the beginning, he struggled with guilt, feeling as though he had given up on his dream. But then came a revelation: he had achieved his dreams of fans, fame, and fortune - just not in the form he originally imagined. Sometimes dreams don’t die; they pivot. And Hans embraced the pivot.

His success in adult films also mirrored the breakthroughs happening in HIV science. When he began his career, condom use was the norm and no bodily fluids - beyond kissing - were exchanged. But that changed when research confirmed that oral ejaculation carried only a negligible risk. With the arrival of PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, the pill that prevents HIV), the landscape shifted entirely, and condomless “bareback” scenes became standard in the industry.

Florian’s work in adult film eventually inspired him to write a musical about his own experiences. Why a musical? Maybe because the idea struck him while filming with fellow porn star Jessy Ares - who was also a pop singer - and for who Florian/Hans had a massive crush. Encouraged by the American mindset of “Even if you fail, at least you tried,” and in collaboration with German composer Thomas Zaufke and New York–based lyricist Erik Ransom, Florian began writing his first musical, SHOOTING STAR, all while continuing his adult film career.

When no producer wanted to touch a semi-autobiographical musical set in the gay adult film industry, Florian took matters into his own hands. After moving back to New York, he enrolled in Broadway classes on producing live theater. Soon after, he produced a professional Broadway reading - and later, the first full production of SHOOTING STAR - A Revealing New Musical in Los Angeles in the summer of 2019.

Just before the pandemic shut down the world in March 2020, Florian received a nomination for Best Book of a New Musical, and SHOOTING STAR was nominated for Best Music.

After spending the pandemic in New York - a period that left him, like so many others, with lingering PTSD - Florian once again raised the funds needed to bring SHOOTING STAR – A Revealing New Musical back to the stage. He produced the New York run just as the final COVID restrictions were lifted. The show was a success, extended, and ultimately ran from October 2022 to February 2023.

But behind the scenes, Florian was unraveling. He experienced his first burnout and finally received a diagnosis of clinical depression. Thoughts of suicide - long-time companions he attributes to the trauma of growing up gay in a world that told him something was “wrong” with him - returned with force.

Shifting his focus (and for the first time in his life, on antidepressants, that potentially saved his life), Florian poured more energy into the HIV activism he had begun in 2017, when he publicly disclosed his status at the Grabby Awards in Chicago to support his mentor and friend Bruce Richman, founding executive director of Prevention Access Campaign. Bruce’s message - U = U, Undetectable equals Untransmittable - had changed Florian’s life, and now he wanted to change others.

As Hans, he became the Treatment As Prevention/U=U role model for Deutsche Aidshilfe’s Safer Sex 3.0 campaign and launched his own initiative, HANS HELPS, touring Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and the UK to share his story and empower others living with HIV. “My dream was always to change the world. Now I’m able to do that - one life at a time,” he says. And Hans continues to do so - he has just completed his third consecutive HANS HELPS tour - this time supported by two major pharmaceutical partners committed to fighting HIV stigma.

Today, Hans focuses primarily on his work as an HIV activist.

Although Hans Berlin could easily continue in the adult film industry for years as a beloved “porn daddy,” he considers that chapter largely closed. Over the years, he found an amazing group of loyal friends, but love has been complicated - yet in his late 40s and early 50s, he found it twice, and lost it again. Hans is currently single, dedicating his time to activism and to bringing his artistic visions to life.

Florian wrote and sold his first TV Show concept, produced SHOOTING STAR in London in 2024 and recently presented the musical to an eager Berlin audience. His greatest ambition now is to put all the stories living in his head onto paper. He has just completed his first full-length play, CONVERSATIONS WITH THE PAST, inspired by his time during the pandemic caring for a 96-year-old woman on Park Avenue, and is working on bringing it to a stage near you.

Florian’s story continues. He shares a birthday with Madonna - and the same talent for reinvention. A boring life, it seems, is definitely not in the stars for Florian AND Hans :)