page_title: Magnus Hirschfeld
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Magnus Hirschfeld / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: Magnus Hirschfeld, Schwules Museum, Berlin.
context_page_description: Magnus Hirschfeld was a German physician and sexologist educated primarily in Germany; he based his practice in Berlin-Charlottenburg during the Weimar period. An outspoken advocate for sexual minorities, Hirschfeld founded the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee. Historian Dustin Goltz characterized this group as having carried out "the first advocacy for homosexual and transgender rights". "Hirschfeld's radical ideas changed the way Germans thought about sexuality." Hirschfeld was targeted by Nazis for being Jewish and gay, he was beaten up by völkisch activists in 1920, and in 1933 his Institut für Sexualwissenschaft was sacked and had its books burned by Nazis, forcing him into exile.
context_section_description: American Henry Gerber, attached to the Allied Army of Occupation following World War I, became impressed by Hirschfeld and absorbed many of the doctor's ideas. Upon his return to the United States, Gerber was inspired to form the short-lived Chicago-based Society for Human Rights in 1924, the first known gay rights organization in the nation. In turn, a partner of one of the former members of the Society communicated the existence of the society to Los Angeles resident Harry Hay in 1929; Hay would go on to help establish the Mattachine Society in 1950, the first national homosexual rights organization to operate for many years in the United States.
  In 1979, the National LGBT Federation established the Hirschfeld Centre, Ireland's second gay and lesbian community centre. Although badly damaged by a 1987 fire, the centre continued to house the Gay Community News magazine until 1997.
  In 1982, a group of German researchers and activists founded the Magnus Hirschfeld Society (Magnus-Hirschfeld-Gesellschaft e.V.) in West Berlin, in anticipation of the approaching 50th anniversary of the destruction of Hirschfeld's Institute for Sexual Science. Ten years later, the society established a Berlin-based center for research on the history of sexology. The society's stated goals are the following:
  To study the history of research on sexuality and gender, of the sexual reform movement and of related scholarly disciplines and life reform movements.
  To help establish research on sexuality and gender within academic institutions.
  Since the late 20th century, researchers associated with the Magnus Hirschfeld Society have succeeded in tracking down previously dispersed and lost records and artifacts of Hirschfeld's life and work. They have brought together many of these materials at the society's archives in Berlin. At an exhibition at the Schwules Museum in Berlin from 7 December 2011 to 31 March 2012, the society publicly displayed a selection of these collections for the first time.
  The German Society for Social-Scientific Sexuality Research established the Magnus Hirschfeld Medal in 1990. The Society awards the Medal in two categories, contributions to sexual research and contributions to sexual reform.
  The Hirschfeld Eddy Foundation, established in Germany in 2007, is named for Hirschfeld and lesbian activist FannyAnn Eddy.
  In August 2011, after 30 years of advocacy by the Magnus Hirschfeld Society and other associations and individuals, the Federal Cabinet of Germany granted 10 million euros to establish the Magnus Hirschfeld National Foundation (Bundesstiftung Magnus Hirschfeld), a foundation to support research and education about the life and work of Magnus Hirschfeld, the Nazi persecution of homosexuals, German LGBT culture and community, and ways to counteract prejudice against LGBT people; the Federal Ministry of Justice (Germany) was expected to contribute an additional 5 million euros, bringing the initial endowment of the foundation to a total of 15 million euros.
  Season 4 episode 2 of the podcast "Making Gay History" is about Hirschfeld.
caption: Bust of Magnus Hirschfeld in the Schwules Museum, Berlin
exif: {"Image Make": "Nokia", "Image Model": "6120c", "Image Software": "PhotoScape", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "2169", "Image Padding": "[]", "EXIF FNumber": "16/5", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2010:11:13 16:43:27", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2010:11:13 16:43:27", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ApertureValue": "16/5", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "49/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "864", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1152", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Padding": "[]"}