Eve of Destruction
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DURING the liberal atmosphere of Germany’s Weimar Republic (1918–1933), Magnus Hirschfeld—physician, sexologist, and activist—established the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute for Sexual Research), which opened in Berlin on July 6, 1919. Hirschfeld and others at the Institute researched all aspects of human sexuality without moral judgment. A short-term goal was the repeal of Paragraph 175 from the German penal code, which was the statute that criminalized male homosexuality. The Institute also housed Hirschfeld’s museum of sex and a vast library of photographs and written material on sexual matters. It also offered rooms for people who stayed at the Institute as researchers or research subjects. (Among the guests were Christopher Isherwood, W. H. Auden, and André Gide.) The Institute was a valuable haven for transgender men and women who found support, medical care, surgery, and employment.

Hank Trout, a frequent contributor to these pages, is the former editor of A&U: America’s AIDS Magazine.