Jean-Nickolaus Tretter

Jean-Nickolaus Tretter (1946 – December 9, 2022) was an American activist and LGBT archivist who created the Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies, housed by the University of Minnesota.

He died in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on December 9, 2022, at the age of 76.

Tretter's LGBT collection grew over the decades and he donated it to the Andersen Library in Minnesota in 2000. He worked as an archivist at the collection until retirement in 2011. Post-retirement he served on an advisory board and supported academics focussing on LGBT history.

In 1983 Tretter created a gay history exhibit at St. Paul's Landmark Center.

In 1982, Tretter became the co-chair of the Minnesota Gay and Lesbian Olympic Committee. The committee sent the third biggest delegation to the games and Tretter arranged for the torch run to pass though the Twin Cities.

After graduating, Tretter served with the U.S. Navy in the Vietnam War. From 1973, he studied cultural anthropology at the University of Minnesota, although faculty prevented him from focussing his studies lesbian and gay anthropology. Tretter dropped out of university in 1976.

Tretter was also the host of KFAI radio show Night Rivers, and the co-chair of the Minnesota Gay and Lesbian Olympic Committee. He co-organised the first Twin Cities commemoration of the Stonewall Riots in 1972.

In 1972, Tretter and his friends organised the first Twin Cities commemoration of the Stonewall Riots. Around the same time, he started collecting LGBT themed items.

Tretter came out about his sexuality in the early 1970s, after leaving the Navy.

Tretter grew up in Little Falls, Minnesota and studied initially linguistics. His family had arrived in Morrison County in 1848.