Magnus Hirschfeld

Magnus Hirschfeld (Koburg , May 14, 1868 - May 14, 1935) was a prominent German physician, sexologist, and gay rights advocate, who developed the theory of a third, "intermediate sex" between men and women. He was interested in the study of a wide variety of sexual and erotic urges, at a time when the early taxonomy of sexual identity labels was still being formed. His scientific work extended that of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs and influenced Havelock Ellis and Edward Carpenter.

As a young man he had lived in Paris and worked as a journalist. His subsequent career successfully found a balance between medicine and writing. After several years as a general practitioner in Magdeberg , in 1896 he issued the anonomous pamphlet Sappho and Socrates, on homosexual love. In 1897, Hirschfeld founded the Scientific Humanitarian Committee to defend the rights of homosexuals and to repeal Paragraph 175. P.175 was the section of the German penal code that, since 1871, had criminalized homosexuality. The motto of the Committee, "Justice through science", reflected Hirschfeld's belief that a better scientific understanding of homosexuality would eliminate hostility toward homosexuals. He was a brave and tireless campaigner and a well-known public figure of his time, most identified in the public mind with the campaign against Paragraph 175. In 1903 Adolf Brand and others split from the Scientific Humanitarian Committee to form the Gemeinschaft der Eigenen. The two groups collaborated closely in the campaign against Paragraph 175 from 1919 until 1929.

In 1921 Hirshfeld organised the First Congress for Sexual Reform , which led to the formation of the World League for Sexual Reform . Congresses were held in Copenhagen (1928), London (1929), Vienna (1930), and Brno (1932).

Hirschfeld was both quoted and caricatured in the press as a vociferous expert on sexual manners, receiving the epithet "the Einstein of Sex". He saw himself as a campaigner and a scientist, investigating and cataloging many varieties of sexuality, not just homosexuality. He coined the word "transvestism," for example. Although he preferred to project himself as an objective researcher and scientist, Hirschfeld himself was gay and a transvestite, and participated in the gay subculture of Germany. For these activities he gained the epithet "Tante Magnesia" - "Auntie Magnesia."

In 1919, under the more liberal atmosphere of the newly founded Weimar Republic, Hirschfeld opened the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute for Sexual Research) in Berlin. His Institut housed his immense library on sex and provided educational services and medical consultations. People from around Europe visited the Institut to gain a clearer understanding of their sexuality. Christopher Isherwood writes about his and Auden's visit to the Institut in his book Christopher and His Kind. The Institut also housed the Museum of Sex, an educational resource for the public which is reported to have been visited by school classes. The Institut and Hirschfeld's work there is depicted in Rosa von Praunheim 's documentary film The Einstein of Sex (Germany, 2001 - English subtitled version available).

Needless to say, Hirschfeld's work was controversial at the time, and it still is. Critics have claimed that some of his financial support came from closeted but prominent German homosexuals whom he blackmailed. Though he was immensely popular in some circles, in others he was reviled. Gatherings at which he spoke came under attack from anti-gay groups: in one such instance in 1921, his skull was fractured and he was left lying in the street.

Others complain that his belief that homosexuality was, at root, hormonal opened the door for others who were seeking a 'cure' for homosexuality. Yet the latest research in biology is now adding new credibility to his theories about the 'third sex' or 'intermediate sex '.

When the Nazis took power, one of their first actions, on May 6, 1933, was to destroy the Institut and burn the library. The press-library pictures & archival newsreel film of Nazi book-burnings seen today are usually pictures of Hirschfeld's library ablaze. Fortuitously, at that time Hirschfeld was away from Germany on a world speaking tour. He never returned to Germany, dying in exile in Nice in 1935.

Bibliography

Works by Hirschfeld in English translation:

• The Homosexuality of Men and Women; translated by Michael A. Lombardi-Nash. (Nash)
• The Transvestites: The Erotic Drive to Cross-Dress. (Prometheus Books)
• Men and Women: The World Journey of a Sexologist. (AMS Press, 1974)
• The Sexual History of the World War. (Cadillac Publishing Co., 1946)

Other references:

• Wolff, Charotte. Magnus Hirschfeld: A Portrait of a Pioneer in Sexology (Salem House) ISBN 0-7043-2569-1. (1987).
• Steakley, James D. The Writings of Magnus Hirschfeld: A Bibliography. (1985).
• Gordon, Mel. Voluptuous Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin. (2003).
• James D. Steakley. The Early Homosexual Emancipation Movement in Germany. (1975).
• John Lauritsen and David Thorstad. The Early Homosexual Rights Movement, 1864-1935. (Second Edition revised).
• Günter Grau (ed.). Hidden Holocaust? Gay and lesbian persecution in Germany 1933-45. (1995).
• Mark Blasins & Shane Phelan. (Eds.) We Are Everywhere: A Historical Source Book of Gay and Lesbian Politics (See chapter: The Emergence of a Gay and Lesbian Political Culture in Germany).

See also

• Harden-Eulenburg Affair
• History of Gays during the Holocaust

External links

• Magnus Hirschfeld Archive of Sexology