Magnus Hirschfeld

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. He was forced into exile in France, where he died in 1935.