And then his work was destroyed by the Nazis because he was Jewish.
Queer rights and our understanding of human sexuality was set back by eighty years because of antisemitism.
I thought I was very informed on queer history but it was only a few years ago I started to understand that every time people mention book burning they are failing to mention this started with nazi oppression of proto trans people and destruction of our our medical care. Sure, totalitarian regimes destroy documents and libraries, and on the 10th nazis held other events (sic) and burned other books - but this, this specific event in Berlin and these iconic images, THIS is what people mean when they are talking about book burning being the ultimate danger sign of impending fascist rule. And it was. This raid was before nazi power was cemented, it was a way to rally their paramilitaries and youth wing to show they could and because they knew few would dare defend perverts like us even in a liberal city where we were out and liberated more than any other European place at that time. 6-10 May 1933.
We are often used as a way to cement totalitarian patriarchal hysteria (sic) and mob behaviour. In this case to get up the passions you need to induce in regular banally ordinary men. Men who you need to get back in the mood for murdering Jews in your cosmopolitan centre.
Remember the photographs are propaganda pictures - there was no photo journalism in these circumstances
The institute was initially occupied by The German Student Union, who were a collective of Nazi-supporting youth. Several days later, on 10
PS Hirschfeld did not work alone. The early work for queer and proto trans / transexual healthcare at the Insitute was also pioneered by Karl Giese from 1918 and Li Shiu Tong from 1930 - both Hirschfeld's lovers and collaborators then and afterwards in their exiles from Germany.
I think this is Li Shiu Tong and Hirschfeld
Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld was a pioneering German sexologist and political advocate who founded the Scientific Humanitarian Committee, the first
queer, proto trans and transexual people, were also collaborators and inventors of their own care notably Charlotte Charlaque and Toni Ebel who were partners, two of the first transexual women, and workers on the archive and advisors of other trans women. They both also made it into exile and trans activism.
Ebel, Charlaque, and Dora Richter in 1933
Here are some more of our ancestors
