Few people have ever heard of Magnus Hirschfeld. This amazingly detailed biography explains why he warrants more public recognition. Not only does it reveal his lifelong pioneering work but also its relevance for our contemporary world. Linking his name to someone as famous as Einstein might seem a tad grandiose. However, one doesn’t have to read too far to realise this is a fitting comparison. As a medical doctor, sexologist and researcher, Hirschfeld paved the way for those who followed decades later.
In 1919 – the same year the Weimar Republic emerged – he founded the Institute for Sexual Science. Its premises became a centre for research, a museum and place where people sought advice, information and therapy. Due to its novelty, it even became a tourist attraction in Weimar Berlin.
The basis of his research, and scientific approach was twofold. Firstly that sexual orientation and even gender identity were inborn traits and not the determined by biological gender. Secondly that these two elements existed within a continuum. He developed a scale from his early research plotting markers along this continuum. According to his research, it was not a case of either/or since the majority of the human population contained varying elements of each.
Subsequent psychological research and the gains of the LGBTIQ community have confirmed the veracity of this approach. Way ahead of his time, Hirschfeld published his first gay rights pamphlet “Sappho and Socrates” in 1896 and began conducting surveys into sexual orientation at the beginning of the twentieth century. He even contributed the script to the first feature film about male homosexuality: ‘Different From Others’ (1919). Long before the advent of anything like gay liberation, Hirschfeld rejected the disease model to advocate for equality and acceptance which became the standard practice of the institute he founded.
‘The Einstein of Sex: Dr Magnus Hirschfeld Visionary of Weimar Berlin’ by Daniel Brook, W. W. Norton & Company Inc, New York, 2025.
Beginning with gay and lesbian individuals, his work expanded as other marginalised groups approached him due his reputation and enlightened attitude. Magnus’ work extended to include cross-dressers (he coined the term transvestite), transgender individuals and even people now termed intersex. In an era of rigid sexual stereotypes and anti-gay laws, this was revolutionary.
In his research and advocacy, he paved the way for a scientific approach devoid of the moralising of others such as Sigmund Freud and was a precursor of the much larger research surveys of later decades. His scientific approach would be vindicated in the mass surveys and psychological research of other experts such as Alfred Kinsey in the late 1940’s. Even his ideas of a continuum of gender and sexuality would find echoes in the work of Carl Jung and his concept of the contra-sexual selves of animus and anima.
Since Magnus had a happy and secure childhood, he did not accept Freud’s original thesis that homosexuality stemmed from some childhood trauma. Freud based his theories purely on his therapy patients – a rather select few – whereas Hirschfeld conducted research surveys, saw clients from a range of society including the socially marginalised and travelled extensively gathering information about sexual practices across cultures. Among his travels he visited Japan, China, India and North Africa. The extent of his research achievements excels anything Freud ever attempted. However, his reputation is in inverse proportion to Freud’s.
Complementary to his studies in sexology was his research into racism, specifically the plight of African-Americans during his extended stay in the USA and antisemitism which he observed throughout his travels, particularly in Europe. He concluded that characteristics such as race (like gender and sexuality) were not clear cut but part of a very broad continuum. In this context, race was more a social construct than a fact of simple biology. The subsequent discoveries of DNA and the mapping of the human genome have confirmed the accuracy of his conclusions. Given the interaction of diverse tribes and ethnic groups over millennia, few people can claim to be a ‘pure’ anything. Naturally, such views did not endear him to the rising Nazi party.
Dr Magnus Hirschfeld
This book is not merely the narrative of an exceptional life but also of the social and political context within which that life was lived. For example, it details the emergence of his nemesis: the Nazi party in Germany. We learn how it manipulated the contemporary political climate to gain control. Rather than focus on the structural and international factors for the then economic decline, they fed the prejudices of the time (racism, xenophobia, antisemitism, homophobia) to gain political power. As a result, they targeted the racial and social ‘undesirables’ Hirschfeld was championing.
We are familiar with the newsreels of the Nazi’s burning piles of books and Joseph Goebbels proudly announcing them as ‘Intellectual filth” and “Jewish asphalt literati”. The newsreels neglect to mention that Hirschfeld’s institute was the prime target of this barbarism. In fact the actual footage covers this very institution. Records including case notes, exhibits, photographs, books – a vast collection of items were destroyed that night – a criminal act of vandalism that would soon degenerate into violence against individuals.
Decades after this infamous book-burning, a monument was erected on the very spot it occurred. It consists of a small library below street level viewed through glass panel. However, there are no books in this library; all the the shelves are empty symbolising the destruction of knowledge and culture that occurred in 1933. However, the name Magnus Hirschfeld is conspicuously absent from this memorial.
Albert Einstein proved that in the physical world matter, energy and even time were all relative; Magnus Hirschfeld proved that in the human world sexuality, gender and even race were also relative concepts. Like Einstein, Hirschfeld was an unprecedented pioneer in his field and a man of genius, bravery and compassion. While today many of his ideas are accepted as common sense and others have experienced a resurgence, Hirschfeld himself has disappeared from history. Although the author provides some insights, this mystery of omission is still largely unresolved. Even after the defeat of the Nazi tyranny and more than half a century of queer rights activism, he is still inexplicably forgotten.
This detailed biography goes some way to rectifying this neglect.