Magnus Hirschfeld: The Origins of the Gay Liberation Movement

by Ralf Dose

Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935) was one of the first great pioneers of the gay liberation movement. Revered by such gay icons as Christopher Isherwood and Harry Hay, founder of the Mattachine Society, Hirschfeld’s legacy resonates throughout the twentieth-century and around the world. Guided by his motto “Through Science Toward Justice,” Hirschfeld helped found the Scientific Humanitarian Committee in Germany to defend the rights of homosexuals and develop a scientific framework for sexual equality. He was also an early champion of women’s rights, campaigning in the early 1900s for the decriminalization of abortion and the right of female teachers and civil servants to marry and have children. By 1933 Hirschfeld’s commitment to sexual liberation made him a target for the Nazis, and they ransacked his Institute for Sexual Research and publicly burned his books.

This biography, first published to acclaim in Germany, follows Hirschfeld from his birth in the Prussian province of Pomerania to the heights of his career during the Weimar Republic and the rise of German fascism. Ralf Dose illuminates Hirschfeld’s ground-breaking role in the gay liberation movement and explains some of his major theoretical concepts, which continue to influence our understanding of human sexuality and social justice today.

Genres: LGBT, Nonfiction, History, Queer, Biography, Gay, Germany

144 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2014

Reviews

[Sky Harrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good introduction and little more. Well written and detailed on some aspects of his life, however missed what I think are crucial parts of Hirschfelds politics and scientific thought.

[Orion · Rating 5 out of 5]

"THROUGH SCIENCE TO JUSTICE" - Magnus Hirschfeld's life and work motto

Ralf Dose does an impressive job writing eloquently about Magnus Hirschfeld's life chronologically in easy-to-follow categories over the years of his dedicated work as a doctor and researcher of sexuality, sexology, and gender. His work saved countless LGBTQ+, and his Institute for Sexual Science was one of the very first places that HRT was distributed from to trans patients of all gender(s) or lack thereof. Bottom surgeries were also developed in Germany at this institute, and they were performed in the institute. Many people lived there, especially during their time for care and need for community. Some even worked there to pay off treatment or simply to be in community giving back. Magnus Hirschfeld was a selfless individual who championed freedom and choice in our bodily autonomy. Eventually living in exile, he could no longer return to Germany. I started reading this book to gain an understanding of how one of the the first queer rights movement began and how queer people survived WW2 and Fascism's rise to power in Germany. Many of the things happening to Magnus Hirschfeld in Germany during the Nazi uprising are happening today in modern United States / America, especially in seeing a right wing authoritarian party targeting the LGBTQ+ community and discrediting us as "groomers" etc. I look to the elders for their wisdom so I may help my community survive through yet another fascist uprising. I am fearful but go forward with this knowledge and know us queers have been here all along and we will survive to see tomorrow. I will live to tell the tale. Thank you to Magnus Hirschfeld, a cisgender gay man who championed transgender rights long before we even had the term "transgender." Thank you to all our trans and/or queer ancestors from the past.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was, I would say, a very good treatment of Hirschfeld's life and work, especially for the general reader, which does a good job of balancing its interests between his life and work respectively. I found it more worthwhile for my purposes than Mancini's substantially longer biography (if one can call it that), which for its part focuses much more on intellectual and theoretical context and much less on Hirschfeld's life and activities for their own sake.

[willowdog · Rating 2 out of 5]

A set of dates and names masquerading as biography.

[Evilhag · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an innocent little biography until it got to the "his work" section p68 😭

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can only give this a 3. While there were some wonderful bits, the book is way too short and could have three times as long based on the material. Always read the book length before you buy.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dose's work here fairly examines the advancements and challenges of the research and time that Magnus Hirschfeld both furthered and complicated. From a modern study of gender, one might dismiss some of Hirschfeld's work as dated, incomplete, or even wrong, but there is still a need to consider this figure as someone who sought to create opportunities for equity in light of Paragraph 175 of the German Penal Code that criminalized aspects of sexuality and later was further weaponized by the rise of the Nazi party. While the "science" Hirschfeld used has changed, it is important to look at histories such as this one to show the attempts to create protections based on science, research, and legal reasoning. For these reasons alone, Dose's work on Hirschfeld grants the reader an early context on the work to provide such legal statuses and protections across gender experiences and identities. For all looking for a brief yet meaningful history of this figure, Dose provides a meaningful and engaging introduction to the work.

[Jim KABLE · Rating 5 out of 5]

History of Sexologist Hirschfeld

If you want to know the history of the study of sex in the modern era (later 19th century onwards) out of Germany and to the Anglo-US world - this book is interesting. I first noted the name Hirschfeld after my wife booked accommodation in Berlin’s Neukölln - the old Rixdorf or Bohemian exile Quarter.

[Sara G · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess it's a good...expanded wikipedia article? I mean, wikipedia *is* free though so...