Institute of Sexology Riots

The **Institute of Sexology Riots** were a series of uprisings across Berlin that occurred a few weeks after the Institute of Sexology (*German: Institut für Sexualwissenschaft)* was built. Political tensions drastically increased during this time, becoming a political issue as the controversy spread across the country. Eventually, the TUC issued a statement declaring that the government would protect the institution, and after quelling various riots and protests in Berlin centered around it, the riots ceased to become mainstream.

## Magnus Hirschfeld and the Civil War

Magnus Hirschfeld, an outspoken advocate for sexual minorities for many years of his life, mostly kept out of the bloody politics that were present during the German Revolution, especially as the fight for Berlin was ruthless and destroyed most of the city in the latter half of the war. Hirschfeld, however, even before the war was sympathetic to the syndicalist cause. He shared many syndicalist beliefs, most notably and importantly anti-war sentiments during the Great War. In the few years after the establishment of the German Republic, he became alienated from their support entirely due to their use, funding and alignment of far-right militias in many cities after the civil war began. After the Hamburg Massacre, in which a church full of suspected communists was burned, purges and massacres of women, Jews and Muslims ensued.

As government control over these cities became increasingly hollow in the summer of 1919, it only gave these militias more influence to do as they please on any civilians, leading to far-left militias being organized to counter the influence of those in far-right militias. Hirschfeld tried, in vain, to flee Berlin for the country side once rumors began of these massacres, but it was clear no one was able to get in or out of any city in the Republic so long as the civil war continued. Pogroms of Jews only continued throughout the months, and while Berlin had the least amount of far-right militias present, even government forces were becoming radicalized into antisemetic beliefs.

**Involvement in civil war is WIP**

## Building of the institution

In spite of his relative apathy towards the revolution, Hirschfeld was able to avoid being labeled as a “fifth columnist” due to actively resisting government (Republican) forces before the Battle of Berlin. Present during the Munich Conference, he was hugely influential in the government’s decision to decriminalize homosexuality, and a few months after the Congress ended, he met with officials from the newly created German Ministry of Health to discuss creating a sexology institution in Berlin. Officials were still quite suspicious of his intentions, but he was eventually able to persuade those within the Health Ministry to fund the project. Starting in February of 1921, the Institution started construction, and would be opened a few months later in Spring. The institution included a library and archive, and even marriage and counseling offices.

## Controversy

The construction of the institute resulted in a wave of fierce debates in the German media. Almost immediately, wounds present in the civil war and its aftermath came to a boil, especially for those in the government. Some were opposed to the project because they viewed Hirschfeld as an “apathetic man with bourgeoisie sympathies”. Others opposed the construction of the institution because they also opposed the decriminalization of homosexuality. The TUC, for the first few months of the riots stayed relatively apathetic towards the cause to protect the Institution.

### The Winter Protests

As the institution’s construction went underway, it garnered attention across the entire German Union. Before the creation of the Social Protection Act less than a year later came the creation of the Sipo, or German Secret Police in December of 1919. At first throughout the month of February, there were no protests against the construction of the building, but on the night of February 20th, an incident between a small group of university students, who desecrated the building and were subsequently arrested, saw an outpouring of support for the students, as it was rumored and reportedly viewed by eye-witnesses that the Sipo were brutal in their arresting of the students. Various newspapers and journals capitalized on this behavior as misinformation spread throughout the remainder of February. To many, the Sipo’s involvement in protecting the building led to the building becoming a political issue, which grew from a question on homosexual rights in Germany to anti-police (and vaguely anti-syndicalist) protests.

### The Spring Offensive

Initially the Spring Offensive was small and similar to that of the Winter Protests until April 10th, when an incident, known as the University Skirmishes broke out. On that day, a small group of right-leaning university students in the *Technische Hochschule zu Berlin* staged a peaceful protest against the Institution and the Sipo protecting it. For a few hours the protest slightly grew in number, until a brawl between the group and left-leaning students snowballed into the protestors and counter-protestors turning violent on the campus, resulting in a number of student arrests by the end of the day. Rumors and eye-witness accounts by fellow students and teachers that those present in arresting the protestors used unnecessary force, and the fact that the majority of the students arrested were the initial protests rallied the ongoing protestors against the Institution.

The University Skirmishes were hugely controversial in the nation, and led to thousands of demonstrators across the country breaking out in peaceful protests, mainly in universities, while in Berlin the Institution was temporarily closed due to constant anger and outrage, as, for the growing opposition to the syndicalist status quo, the building sat as a constant reminder of the government’s new corruption in the use of the Sipo.

## Summer Brawls and the “ceasefire”

The TUC was spooked by these university protests as they grew in number, and back in Berlin the Congress began to debate how to approach the situation. Momentarily, the Sipo was restricted in their right to interrogate and arrest citizens suspected of “treason against the state” in early June. The Trade Unions Congress initially predicted that this decision would lead to a backfire for the protestors and a decline in their participation, but it only had the opposite effect.

The Sipo’s partial disbanding rekindled anti-syndicalist resistance, seeing the TUC’s response as proof that the new government would be too weak to repel a counterrevolution. And so, many of these universities began hosting and espousing explicit anti-syndicalist rhetoric, with statements such as “Down with the Reds!”, and the banned tri-color of the German Republic was often used in these protests.

As a result, syndicalist forces became even more fearful of an eventual counterrevolution, and on the 23rd of June vowed to stop these protests once and for all. That same day, the TUC passed several laws in quick succession, stating that the institution would be “protected at all costs”, and that anyone caught participating in the riots and protests, especially in universities would be “punished to the full extent under the Social Protection Act”. While it was vague whether the Sipo would be involved in these actions, it became apparent that the secret police became all but inactive after these resolutions.

Regardless, thousands were arrested, with the sentences of those imprisoned varying from hard-labor to being sentenced for several months in jail, mainly depending on if they were explicitly aligned with any resistance movements.

## Aftermath

After late June and with the intervention of the Trade Unions Congress, most of the protests were quickly snuffed out, and after mid-July, the last anti-institutional protest was broken up, with most participants arrested. The Sexology Institute for its part, remained active throughout the 20s and 30s, being the largest and containing the most comprehensive research on Transsexualism and homosexuality in all of Europe, while being a point of scientific research on the concept of sexuality. The TUC has so far remained peaceful with Hirschfeld, even as his studies raised some eyebrows in political debates.