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Bio:
Magnus Hirschfeld
(1868-1935)
| Magnus Hirschfeld, a German physician,
homosexual, and sex researcher, founded the mostly
homosexual Scientific Humanitarian
Committee in 1897 whose many books and publications
made him a leading sexologist. In 1919, his
reputation as one of sexology's founding fathers was
secured when he opened the world's first sexological institute,
the Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin. |
Magnus Hirschfeld |
| Backed by
the Scientific Humanitarian Committee, Hirschfeld was a
tireless opponent of Paragraph 175,
but his political efforts to repeal it failed.
Institute for Sexual Science
Hirschfeld was as much a promoter as a
researcher and he was hailed as a great sex expert in the
American press during a 1930-1932 world tour that marked the
apex of his career. Unfortunately, his legacy
was tarnished by a foray into selling useless patent
medicines and by allegations that he extorted money from
some famous German homosexuals to support himself and his
cause. |
| Hirschfeld enthusiastically
endorsed Karl Ulrichs' Urning
theory but he added little to it. Never a
systematic thinker, Hirschfeld supported some hormonal
theories of homosexuality that ultimately led others to
unsuccessfully attempt to cure homosexuality with hormone
injections.
Hirschfeld died in exile in France two years after The
Institute for Sexual Science was destroyed by nazis in
1933. |
| Hirschfeld
(left) in a lighter moment |
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Photo Credits: The Hirschfeld
portrait is from an original in the Jahrbuch für Sexualzwischenstufen,
1918, p. 48. The other photos are from ephemera. All used
courtesy of the Archiv für Sexualwissenschaft, Berlin.
© 1999
Andrew Wikholm
All Rights Reserved
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