The Einstein of Sex: Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, Visionary of Weimar Berlin

by Daniel Brook

A New Yorker Best Book of 2025



An illuminating portrait of a lost thinker, German-Jewish sexologist and activist Magnus Hirschfeld.


More than a century ago, Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, dubbed the “Einstein of Sex,” grew famous (and infamous) for his liberating theory of sexual relativity. Today, he’s been largely forgotten.


Journalist Daniel Brook retraces Hirschfeld’s rollicking life and reinvigorates his legacy, recovering one of the great visionaries of the twentieth century. In an era when gay sex was a crime and gender roles rigid, Hirschfeld taught that each of us is their own unique mixture of masculinity and femininity. Through his public advocacy for gay rights and his private counseling of patients toward self-acceptance, he became the intellectual impresario of Berlin’s cabaret scene and helped turn his hometown into the world’s queer capital. But he also enraged the Nazis, who ransacked his Institute for Sexual Science and burned his books


Driven from his homeland, Hirschfeld traveled to America, Asia, and the Middle East to research sexuality on a global scale. Through his harrowing lived experience of antisemitic persecution and a pivotal late-in-life interracial romance, he came to see that race, like gender, was a human invention. Hirschfeld spent his final years in exile trying to warn the world of the genocidal dangers of racism.


Rich in passion and intellect, The Einstein of Sex at last brings together this unsung icon’s work on sexuality, gender, and race and recovers the visionary who first saw beyond the binaries. A century after his groundbreaking work—as the fights for personal freedom and societal acceptance rage on—Hirschfeld’s gift for thinking beyond the confines of his world has much to teach us

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Biography, Queer, LGBT, Science, Sexuality

313 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 13, 2025

Reviews

[Sunny Lu · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW!!! What a propulsive and necessary biography of one of the nearly-forgotten, incredibly forward-thinking, and waaaaayyyy ahead of his time queer figures of history. Magnus Hirschfeld is one of the fathers of our contemporary understandings of gender, sexuality, and race. The Nazis tried to wipe out his work and existence not only because he was a gay Jew, but mostly because of how much his research and ideas threatened race science backed theories of Aryan supremacy and homophobia. I am incredibly grateful to this book for making Dr. Hirschfeld's extensive scientific and social research accessible to us modern-day readers. I highly, highly, highly recommend this book to anyone interested in queer history, WWII, and anti-fascist/anti-racist queer liberation movements. I learned so much, and his groundbreaking theories of gender and sexuality, anti-racism, and anti-imperialism resonate strongly to this day. Daniel Brook deftly narrates and documents the personal experiences that shaped Hirschfeld's progressive politics while keeping a close eye on the sociopolitical backdrop of his life.

[Lili Kyurkchiyska · Rating 4 out of 5]

Знаех, че някога Берлин е бил модерен и космополитен град, много преди разни други "градчета" да се накичат с това определение*. Но че е бил Меката на LGBTQ общността ми е убягнало. Навярно защото никога не ми е попадал мюзикъла на Боб Фос** и защото десетилетия сред края на Втората световна историците упорито мълчат по въпроса. (Да им имам пуританските възгледи!) А в центъра на всичко е д-р Магнус Хиршфелд, сексолог и активист; забележителна, ако ще и забравена личност, чиито тези за човешката сексуалност изпреварват времето си. С чиято история следва да се запознаем, за да не позволим невежеството да трови света.



* Не твърдя, че днес не е. Просто казвам, че е един от първите по мерките на съвременния свят.
** Филмът е критикуван от първообразите на главните герои поради склонност към хомофобия и неглежиране на дълбоката бедност, която цари в страната.

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Catholic priest told Magnus that over 3[%] of his fellow Catholic clergymen were queer, which the priest believed must make his field the gayest of then all. But a butcher reported that among master butchers and apprentices, the figure was nearly 4[%]. Actors and theater costume designers self-reported at 5[%], as did naval officers...[For] college fraternity brothers and prep school students: just under 6[%].

Magnus noted sadly, the "pent-up emotions" of trans individuals who face barriers to acceptance in their wider society, led to elevated levels of mental illness. As always, he believed, there was nothing inherently depressing about being trans, only about living in a society where one felt out of place. In Germany, the basis was anti-trans prejudice; in Indonesia, it was the experience of losing their traditional social role in the village and feeling lost in the society.

How quickly must one read to outpace the genocide? I find myself in moderate straits surrounding myself with works that "only I" am reading, an intersection between life and record that the bourgeoisie may only be able to afford but the working class ultimately pay dearly for. Solutions? Solutions. I breed tolerance on the backs of 'yes, you will not be cast out for learning', but how long can one argue against the eviction? The lack of health insurance? The death by a thousand 'I'm sorry, but we no longer accept you as human.' You'd think cancer would have rendered me full stoic, but I'm afraid that it's anger that carried me through the chemo and the insurance company claims, and it's anger that warms whatever will ever be left.

The Nazis packaged the economic instability as the inevitable result of modern chaos—political, cultural, sexual, racial—and in March 1930 their MPs offered a bill to turn interracial sex into a capital offense. It was an unhinged response to a macroeconomic crisis, but desperate voters now gravitated to extremes.

Do you know what's required to have the leisure time and the training to think of a humanity far flung from one's own? Immense. To accomplish such while enslaved, to achieve such while hungry, to even dwell upon the slightest inclination when drugs taken in the night time are all that get you out of bed in the day time is an act I doubt many a Catholic martyr would be capable of achieving, and I specify said religion due to personal experience. Hirschfeld certainly had his motivations both secular and otherwise, but in the end, it was slow and careful propagation and a fuckton of luck that some wide ranging traveler had the temerity to risk his skin in slow and careful inculcation in what his senses knew to be familiar and his knowledge chanced to be correct. To find freedom in one's own skin outside of the breeding programs foisted through nationality, race, and religion: you'd have better luck aligning yourself with Milton's Satan and praying him past the fall.

[Kurt] Hiller was imprisoned in a series of slapdash prisons, including an abandoned brewery outside Berlin that had been requisitioned by Röhm's SA and hastily outfitted with holding pens and torture chambers. In the coming months, with increased funding and formalization, this site would be turned over to a rival Nazi paramilitary group, the SS (Schutzstaffel), and become one of the first concentration camps.

If you want to look at the Nazis, look beyond. Look at the model the USA provided. Look at the exigencies the Treaty of Versailles imposed. Look at the authorities of the colonial outposts and the imperial strongholds and the whole science experiment that so-called 'Europa' subjected the entire world to, and tell me how you would have guaranteed this to never happen through the assassination of a single human soul. You can't. You can't, you can't, you can't, and every day, it's 'you're too much of a distraction', 'you're an outlying factor, 'you're too much of a child', 'you're too much of a self-absorbed uncertainty', and then you have the folks who think they're in my community but are too busy sucking off the eugenicists to recognize that trans liberation will never come from those mewling and puking about 'psychopaths' and 'narcissists'. Hirschfeld was a eugenicist, but what exactly is the excuse in 2026? Something to ask the author himself, seeing as how he trots out 'schizophrenic' to describe media response to the late 19th c. European ball scene.

To Hirschfeld's old associates, it was becoming a bitter inside joke to see which individuals who'd come to the institute to discuss their gay desires or gender dysphoria had embraced the far right.

A few months back, the CEO of Barnes and Noble was quoted as saying too many books were being published. I don't see the quantity as an issue, but when the name of the game is nonfiction, peer reviewing is only as strong as the network of folks who have been allowed to spend a great deal of time doing things that have very little, if any, instant monetary pay off. Reading this history was certainly revelatory in many an instance, and I would gladly see a copy of it in every public, academic, and personal library. However, there are entire quotes that are not properly indexed in bibliography, the minimizing of Hirschfeld's eugenics in the face of the ultimate goals of the Nazi party is more than concerning, and the use of unprofessional language in certain stances just puts the burden on the readers marginalized enough to be impacted but not marginalized enough to not have the habitus required to read and understand a text like this in their spare time. So, as a work, this came at a time when I'm more than vulnerable, and overall it did me more harm than good. However, Hirschfeld would look at my cancer survivor status and not see the point of me, regardless of how trans I am. Yes, he is an important historical figure who deserves to be revived, but as Perfect Victims and the Politics of Appeal puts forth, means testing victimhood is the road to hell sunk deep in the broken bodies of good intentions. So, to any disabled trans folks out there: I see you. Whether or not Hirschfeld would have is irrelevant.

Institute staffers immediately affirmed Gerd's masculine gender identity [...] but they balked at the teen's request for chest masculinization surgery. [...] Institute medical staff reversed course when Katter returned to the clinic days later having attempted to perform the surgery on themselves, sans aesthetic, with a razor blade.

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I've read in the last decade! I was astonished at the many "firsts" of Hirschfeld. He even coined the terms racist, racism and social construction (social construct).

I heard about Hirschfeld (MH) when reading about Kinsey. I didn't know that Kinsey's work only exists because of MH (in fact, was lifted directly from MH). This is what happens when brilliant people are silenced due to racism and homophobia (as well as all "othered communites").

Hirscheld's sexual orientation and gender identity research led to research regarding race. Just as his attempt to categorize sexual orientation into just three categories (straight, gay, bi) failed, so did his attempt to categorize race. "...but as he discovered a panorama of gradations, the divisions collapsed. He'd found the same spectrum in looking at masculinity and femininity."

Regarding race, MH said, "As with sexuality, the categories tell us more about the categorizer than the categorized. The racists have not discovered race; they have invented race."

Since the pinnacle of MH's research dovetailed with Hitler's rise to power, MH was in a unique position as he was Jewish and gay. MH said that the Nazis needed race. "How else to replace a politics of universal rights with a policy of us and them?"

The Nazis turned class tensions into racial tensions (sound familiar to my fellow Americans?). "Anger that in the depths of the depression might have been directed against the conservative industrial oligarchs and the independently wealthy descendants of noblemen was deflected by convincing the German masses that their society was not controlled by these wealthy heirs but by a shadowy racial Others who had taken over their professions and cultural institutions." Incredibly, "Race war instead of class war" was actually an official Nazi slogan.

I could go on and on about this book (ask my friends!). There is so much more that was covered (gender fluidity, MH's methods of research, his sexual research institute and the burning of its 40,000 books by the Nazis, Berlin within the Weimar Republic, his research methods...).

As Heinrich Heine said nearly a century before the Holocaust, "Where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people." America, let that be a warning.

[CNV · Rating 4 out of 5]

Both a biography of Dr. Hirschfeld and a well-argued plea that he was right for the very reason he had a target on his back. Due to his historical significance, the book goes more into political history than your average biography, and it is very well done narratively. The comparisons to Einstein seemed a little cheesy to me, but in a go-off-king kinda way :Þ

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. Look for this when it comes out next month.

[Nev · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who is very interested in queer history, I already knew of Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld and the work he started over 100 years ago in studying gender and sexuality and advocating for acceptance and decriminalization. But I only had a very broad overview of him and his work. Reading this book was such an amazing experience to really get to dive deep into everything he was studying and fighting for. There are so many things in this book that are sadly still relevant to today. Like fascists trying to destroy queer knowledge and safe spaces, fighting back against Nazis, trying to warn about genocidal racism, and so much more. Definitely check this book out if you’re interested in queer history or the history of studying sexuality and gender.

I know they would never read this, but it would really show some people that being trans or queer isn’t some recent phenomenon.

[Keelin Rita]

Another successful book in the books. I really liked this biography. I think it did a great job outlining all the work that Hirschfeld accomplished in his time, and a good job commenting on how some of his thoughts are outdated and of the climate that he lived in. This wasn't my first introduction to the man, but this did give me more information which is what I wanted. I did struggle sometimes to know what year we were in, Hirschfeld was doing so much in such a little time, and the book would date drop for other things and I wouldn't know where those were in relation to the time we're talking about. Eventually I figured it out, but it happened a couple times. Which, it is totally possible that I just lost track of the year, not necessarily that the writing made it confusing. I was listening to this on audio so I could have easily just missed something.

Something that wasn't mentioned, or that I missed (but that would mean it was mentioned very briefly), was that Hirschfeld's list of addresses for the queer people he employed or helped was used by the Nazis to round them up and send them to camps. I feel like this is a significant thing to mention? It feels interesting that it wasn't. I'm not sure if it's that it's not 100% confirmed, but I did find that in my searching before writing this review. So I don't know! But I thought it was worth noting.

This book pains me as much as it uplifts me. It is so amazing to see how much work was done about gender and sexuality, and how much was done in such a short time. But it's also devastating how much was lost, people and work. I can only imagine how much further along we'd be if Hirschfeld and his work had been fully embraced and accepted. It's great that he had the acceptance he did, and it could have been greater. I think it will always be tough thinking about what happened to Hirschfeld, his institute, and the people in his care, and I am grateful that there is work being published that can inform people about the great work that he did.

[Ève Leger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld was a man who was 100 years ahead of his time. In a time where the world was so cruel, Hirschfeld managed to cultivate an environment of safety, acceptance and progress for LGBTQ+ individuals in early 20th century Berlin. He is single-handedly responsible for so much innovation in gender-affirming care, sociological research on gender, sexuality and race, and yet our community is barely aware of him. It is a disservice to his intellect and his willingness to sacrifice his own safety to forget such an important figure in our history. This should be a required read for queer people, and for their allies. This might be the most important book to come out this decade.

[Steven · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's both not a bad book but not a good one either. If you want to read about gay life in Germany, read "Gay Berlin". If you want to read Hirschfeld's books, read the actual book. I think that the fact that this book couldn't stick to telling us about Hirschfeld's life means the sadness of a life that was taken away when his papers and life's work were destroyed, making a biography very hard.

[Jenny Goetz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastically written and endlessly interesting. I would encourage any queer person or lover of history to give this a whirl.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

This excellent book is a wonderful read, as well as an important addition to queer biography. Even LGBTQ people may be only vaguely aware of Magnus Hirschfeld and his importance during his life and relevance to our current situation. I encourage anyone and everyone to read this book and learn more about him, I am confident you will be glad you did.

In case you don't already know, Hirschfeld founded the Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin, and when you see those old newsreels of Nazis burning books on a huge bonfire, that's Hirschfeld's library they are burning. You can see the Nazis carrying a bust of Hirschfeld on a pike around the bonfire.

Hirschfeld realized that sexuality and gender were both more about endless individual variations along a spectrum, rather than rigid categories of normal/abnormal, straight/gay, man/woman. He eventually applied this same notion to race in his book Racism, refuting the Nazi's nonsense (as well as the same nonsense that remained the law in America well into my childhood, and even now has led to the current fascist regime in this country). So this book is sadly relevant for more than just a bit of historical perspective, though that is always important.

Here is the book's conclusion: "The Einstein of physics held the secret to a bomb that could level Berlin in an instant, but the Einstein of sex had an even more powerful weapon in his arsenal: the Grand Unified Theory of Everyone. With its democratic politics of universal equality through universal diversity, it could break the fascist politics of us and them. It still can."

[LdyGray · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know how people nowadays (in the hellscape of 2025) keep asking stupid shit like "why are there so many trans people all of a sudden?" (Example)

This is the book to give them. It was a difficult, brilliant read. For the first two-thirds of the biography, while Dr. Hirschfeld is doing his necessary, groundbreaking work, I kept hearing the drums of war coming closer. It's so hard to read about the welcoming, affirming, hopeful world of Weimar Berlin, knowing what's coming.

The first of the infamous Nazi book burnings in 1933 was a bonfire of Dr. Hirschfeld's life work (both his own research and his collected library of books about gender and sexuality as spectra). So when people ask where our trans and non-binary friends have hidden, you can maybe remind them who the Nazis came for first.

[Renee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unbelievably good! I have an actual degree in Women's Studies and am the most over-educated person I know when it comes to the social sciences and subjects like race and gender, yet the name "Magnus Hirschfield" was only vaguely familiar when I picked this book up, and I know I hadn't learned much - if anything - about him before reading it.

So imagine my surprise when I realized that everything he said over a century ago is what (educated) people now accept as "fact" about human categorization: every attribute is on a spectrum (sex, gender, race, etc) and it's all relative. The dividing lines are arbitrary and entirely man-made. Master's & Johnson took all the credit when this guy was 50 years before their time.

You definitely want to read this book.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this as the Goodreads “pride month” challenge — surprisingly good. The Pre-ww2 researcher who both created much of the fundamental data and theories about sexuality (later popularized or stolen by Kinsey…), some work on racism, and who had his institute and library famously burned by the Nazis in the 1930s (it was his library in the famous book burning incident….).

Pretty well written and comprehensive book, although a bit biased toward advocacy vs just historical description.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Give Dr. Hirschfeld his flowers!!

If you care about LGBT history and you’d like to learn the origins of terms like “trans”, “anti-racist,” and where the concept of “sexuality as a spectrum” come from, give it a read!

[Carol Brennan · Rating 3 out of 5]

AI Narrator?
The publisher did a shamefully bad job with the audiobook version & a disservice to author Daniel Brook. It’s first of all rushed, with a curious lack of pause between paragraphs and sections. But the mispronunciations are legion—not just in the German words, which even a non-German speaker can tell are absolute clunkers—but in English words like “idyllic” (Patrick Mealey pronounces as “eye-DEAL-ick”) and “archipelago” and countless more. Daniel Brook, I’m sorry the publisher ruined your otherwise fascinating and terrifically well-paced account of Dr Magnus Hirschfeld’s incomparable life and career.

[Riley Sanford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let me get my biggest complaint about this book (audiobook) out of the way first: the narrator mispronounced SO MANY words! Was there no producer to listen to the recording back to make sure there were no mistakes? Did the narrator not think to look up the pronunciation of words he was unsure about? Whatever happened, it was distracting and made the recording sound unprofessional. Other than that, this was a pleasant and intellectually stimulating book with sprinkles of dread until the end, which was an entire buffet of dread because of the similarities between Nazi Germany and Trump's United States.

[Bill Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good biography of the father of sexology. Hirschfeld’s institute may have been the libido of Weimar Berlin. His concepts of the continua of gender and race should be the beginning of the end of sexual repression and racism, yet here we are.

The author’s style is lively and this is not a scholarly work but it does a fine job of showing how Hirschfeld’s theories were disseminated through the distinctive culture of 20s Germany, affecting law, politics, night life, and tolerance, until the Hitler mob put an end to all those things.

[Francesca Penchant · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating biography for the general reader of a progressive social scientist whose work the Nazis tried to erase.

Audiobook narrator mispronounces dozens of relatively common words—wish the publisher had taken more care on the audiobook! 😢

[Socraticgadfly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’d heaerd of Hirschfeld before, annd new the bare bones of his life and work, but had never red a biographical esssay, let alone a full bio.

This? OK. Call it 3.5 stars, rounded downward.

It’s not bad, but there are a few notable errors, one of which may be Hirschfeld’s as much as the author’s.

Early on, Brook talks about the “big reveal” of Hirschfeld realizing classical Greece and Rome weren’t anti-gay, but instead frowned on being the penetrated instead of penetrator in male-male sex. But, he then goes on to reference Tacitus’ description of Nero as though it were laudatory. Far from it. Apparently, there’s no realization that Tacitus, and even more, Suetonius, generally derided the Julio-Claudian dynasty, and basically mocked Nero as the last detritus of it. Again, it’s hard to tell who is getting this wrong — Brook or Hirschfeld. But, if it is Hirschfeld, Brook compounds it by not straightening him out.

That ties to something else, noted by a couple of other reviewers. Sometimes Brook appears to be claiming to read Hirschfeld’s mind.

Second error? Casualties of WWI. Yes, Germany had more than any other nation, but with a population of about 75 percent more than France, that’s to be expected. (Contra WWII, Russia, in total national casualties, was actually a fair bit below Germany.) That said, on percentage of the population? Serbia’s total death rate, including civilians, was four times worse, and Germany was the same as France. The Ottoman Empire, per Wiki, was worse than Serbia, but, the 1 million Armenians killed in its genocide may be getting counted as WWI civilian death and shouldn’t be.

Third, no, untrue that after the Kapp putsch, “pro-democracy” parties in the Reichstag never again had a majority.

Fourth, did German Jews vs goys have a 2,000 year head start on mass literacy? Not so fast. First, Jewish women no more received instruction than did Gentiles. Wiki and other sites say that Jewish literacy of 2,000 years ago was probably no more than 10 percent. That put them ahead of their neighbors, but it wasn’t world-beating.

Finally, Einstein did not envision nuclear weapons. He merely attached a popularizing name to a letter to FDR about those who had actually envisioned them.

On the non-erroneous parts, the biggest thing I learned is that Hirschfeld performed the first (as far as we know) sexual [sic, not gender] reassignment surgery. No explanation is given to why, as far as the perceived chances of success he and fellow doctors in a few cases felt they had. There’s no information about preparatory experimentation on human or non-human cadavers (or live non-human mammals).

Also, in comparison to Hirschfeld’s Wiki article, Brook actually undersells how much of the inter-European artistic and intellectual elite visited his institute during the Weimar years.

There’s discontinuities in the writing elsewhere. When Hirschfeld tours the U.S. in 1930, he’s introduced as the man who represented Titus Pearls, without giving the story behind that. While in California, Brook mentions he visited San Quentin. He does not mention that he lobbied for the release of a certain prisoner, a Thomas Mooney, which set the Hearst press against him, and had it bringing up his gay-supporting work.

Finally, it should be noted that this has been preceded in the past 15 years by two other English-language biographies, the second originally in German. Brook credits both. Both are even shorter than this, and both may be, in their own ways, no better than this.

Update on overnight reflection: First, I think Brook's book suffers the same issue as Martini's and Dose's: It's a bit hagiographic.

Second, obviously, Hirschfeld's "43 million" varieties of human sexuality is no more firm than the Enneagram's nine personality types, or your local Baskin-Robbins ice cream store in Merikkka actually having 31 flavors in stock.

Beyond that, the "nature" vs "nurture" of homosexuality is not 100 percent settled, certainly not on acts, and possibly not on behavior. On the acts side, prison homosexuality and "Brokeback Mountain" are top examples of situational homosexuality. Pederasty is more complex, but also bespeaks culture, something that gay ducks and penguins don't really have. I know why, in Christian Europe (and was Hirschfeld so totally right about the division between southern and northern Europe?), the "born that way" arose. Except for idiots who will invoke "original sin" in response, "born that way" lets the human off the hook of sin. "Nature" is certainly in the lead, and even more on sexual identity issues behind transsexuality [sic, not gender] in general.

[Lin Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel compelled to write a review about this book, though I make an active effort to avoid doing so under normal circumstances.

For starters, let’s not call it Weimar Germany, that is a term created by Adolph hitler. The more accurate term would be the Deutsches Reich or German Empire. But that doesn’t have any effect on the book or its quality.

This book is equal parts illuminating and absolutely bloody terrifying. Magnus would fit into today’s world better than I do. I only wish he could have lived to see the advancement we have made. But I also think he would be appalled but maybe not surprised to learn that we are still having arguments that he settled 100+ years ago.

I won’t sit here and say that old Magnus had everything 100% correct. Look, 97% is still an A+…. Even Isaac Newton got some things wrong.

If I could get everyone in the world to read this book, as an author, I would have very little to add save a few modern caveats perhaps. Then I could go about writing romcoms and sipping umbrella drinks on the beach.

As a trans woman, I’d have no worries, man. But since I didn’t have to wait to read this at the library and no one waited on me while I read it, I’m thinking he will continue to be a fringe character in the annals of history despite his world changing work.

Instead I literally fear that the same fate will happen to me. Censorship under threats of mortal violence. In the land of the free no less. My Grandfather killed in the Pacific Theater of that war so that I might live a life of peace, but I’m sorry to say, Opa, that it couldn’t last forever.

I call upon my fellow Americans to stand up for Transgender people and all people in the LGBTQ sphere. Please, I am literally begging. I wish that no one would have to feel the way I do. This is not what Magnus wanted for us, cis straight people included.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Einstein of Sex," a new biography of Magnus Hirschfeld by Daniel Brook, celebrates this pioneer of sexual and racial theory that is progressively under attack in the increasingly Fascist times in which we live. Hirschfeld has largely been forgotten, even by many in the queer community, which is a tragedy since his work shows how much of the politics surrounding homosexuality and transgenderism has been under attack by those who believe they have the right to persecute others for diversity and difference for a very long time.

Brook's bio conventionally traces Hirschfeld's life from birth to death, but his research unearths an anything but a conventional life. The non-practicing Jewish Hirschfeld realized he was gay from a young age, and through his travels even before he had become a medical doctor, fortunately realized he wasn't alone. He spent time as a young man in both Chicago and NYC and saw the evils and inanity of the color line, the "one drop rule." He posited that race and gender were similar in that the negativity directed toward some because their race, sexuality and/or gender was different from the majority revealed more about those who discriminated than those who were discriminated against. As he wrote in a brutal takedown of a famous racist of his time, the racist "invented" difference among races; he didn't "discover" difference since human beings resemble each other 99 percent in their DNA. But scientific aptitude has never been a strong suit of those who hate!

Of course, eventually, the Nazis in Germany led by Adolf Hitler destroy Hirschfeld's institute and much of his collection is obliterated. As the memorial in Berlin today illustrates the famous Heinrich Heine quote-"Where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people as well."

[R.J. Gilmour · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brook's biography of Magnus Hirschfeld offers an introduction to the life one of the most important sexologists of the 20th-century. Hirschfeld campaigned for acceptance of homosexuality, transgender identities and against racism understanding that all of these categories were used to divide rather than unite.

"And just as the French Revolution had emancipated Europe's Jews, it had liberated Europe's gays. The new legal code safeguarded the rights of the individual: it specified that no sex act could be criminal as long as it was consensual. Just as the state would no longer dictated which body of religious or political ideas one subscribed it, it wouldn't regulate which human bodies one was attracted to. The French Revolution was also a sexual revolution." 25-26

"At the root of the racial and ethnic conflicts of the modern world-racial segregation in America, haughty Shanghailanders in China, British imperialists lording it over Indians on the subcontinent, Zionists clashing with Arabs in Palestine-Magnus saw sex. After all, sex was the means by which race and ethnicity were transmitted. One's 'race' was a record of all the reproductive sex one's ancestors had had over the generations. In a sense, race was sex and sex was race. The 'racists,' as Magnus would soon dub them, had already figured this out. Racist societies could only perpetuate themselves through the regulation of sex. The 'racial chaos' they railed against was a puritanical way of saying 'sexual chaos'-sex unbound by racial lines." 350-351

[Persephone Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally! An accessible biography of one of my greatest heroes. It's depressing how many Queer, Trans, Kinky, and Racialized people in my life have no idea who I'm talking about when I bring up Auntie Magnesia. I am overjoyed to be able to point them in the direction of this book.

Brook has done a remarkable job here at showcasing Magnus' multi-dimensionality and brilliance. Most references to Magnus I've come across prior tend to focus on one particular area of his work (homosexuality OR gender identity OR more broadly sexology). In contrast, "The Einstein of Sex" ties it all together while filling in so many gaps. I didn't know about his stances on circumcision, for instance, or that he was polyamorous and had a foot fetish!

As a Mixed Race Non-binary Transsexual Lesbian living in 2026 America, it's fascinating, frustrating, and affirming all at once to see how the discourse and community in-fighting hasn't changed at all in 100 years. I've spent so much of my life scared of expressing parts of myself because of respectability politics. Trans people don't like me talking about my kinks, kinky people don't like me talking about my gender, and no one likes hearing about my racial ambiguity. To know that Magnus would have not only seen me, but encouraged me to share my unique and beautiful story fills me with pride.

This book has strengthened my resolve to honor my Queer--and more importantly--my *Human* Truth. Thank you Auntie Magnesia, and thank you Daniel Brook!

[WisteriaDragon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this biography of Magnus Hirschfeld is a timely read. It was well-written, and touched my heart. Sometimes it seems like political swings are cyclical - tolerant and intolerant ideas constantly fighting for sway in the public conscious. I didn't need more reasons or context to fume over the society we live in and the history of how we got here, but I've certainly got them now.

A gay, Jewish man, Hirschfeld was an early feminist, queer rights advocate, and anti-racist. He primarily researched human sexuality and pioneered the modern idea of gender and sexuality existing as spectra. He had to flee Germany when the Nazi party rose to power, taking his exile as a lecture tour of the world where he extended his studies to race.

Some not-so-fun facts I learned from this book:

- The first Nazi book burning newsreel (you know... *the big one* we all see in school) was primarily of "leftist," democratic, and Jewish literature looted from Hirschfeld's library and museum at Berlin's Institute for Sexual Research

- The first Nazi military leader (Ernst Röhm) was a gay man. After seizing political power for his close friend Hitler, Röhm was betrayed and executed as a "pervert."

One thing I want to say about the audiobook is that I'm not convinced the narrator isn't AI. I can't confirm it, but the pronunciations and emphases were all over the place and it felt very uncanny at times.

[J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Forget everything you think you know about the pioneers of sexual liberation! Daniel Brook's groundbreaking book isn't just a biography; it's a vital resurrection of Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, the "Einstein of Sex," whose radical ideas changed the world – and can change it again. In a time of stifling repression, Hirschfeld dared to preach the gospel of sexual relativity, understanding that gender and sexuality exist on a spectrum. This book isn't just history; it's a battle cry. Experience the vibrant, revolutionary Berlin Hirschfeld created, a haven for the queer community, fueled by his groundbreaking research and unwavering advocacy. But this book also serves as a stark warning, a chilling reminder of the dangers of intolerance, as you witness the Nazi's brutal destruction of his life's work. Finally, this is a call to action. Hirschfeld's journey through persecution and his dedication to understanding the complexities of race resonate deeply today. This book will not only educate you but will inspire you to champion inclusivity, challenge prejudice, and embrace the beautiful diversity of the human experience. Read this book, and rediscover a lost hero whose wisdom is more relevant now than ever before!

[ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

come for the pickelhaubes... stay for the magnus hirschfeld/frederick douglass coffeeshop au! and i'm not even joking this book is such a mix of genuine historical research and straight-up gossipy fanfiction it is a delight to read. i have been obsessed with hirschfeld for a while but was enlightened on the subject of sappho and socrates, li (omg the polycule? THE WILL? messyyyyy), and tons of other fascinating little details. i only wish he'd spent more time on different from the others because that film is groundbreaking and such an excellent microcosm of the queer culture of berlin that i feel like it deserves more analysis than the summary it got. also i wish daniel brook didn't feel the need to side with magnus on EVERY issue. the man was not perfect! i'm specifically talking about the 175/male prostitution thing... and the eugenics... and his general approach to activism... um anyway yeah and it briefly gets weepy but that's fine and i can't say i agree with the way he handled footnotes but whatever and basically this book was very edifying and made me rethink a lot. rip noel gruber because he would have loved this one too.

[Erin Hayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book I’ve read in 2026.

Magnus Hirschfeld coined the terms “transvestite” (outdated now, but a revolutionary first step) and “anti-racist.” He championed talk therapy decades before it became mainstream and spent his life pushing back against the ignorance, misogyny, and homophobia embraced by many of his contemporaries. (Looking at you, Freud.)

This should be required reading, especially given the political climate in the United States today. The parallels the book draws between early 1900s Germany, the rise of the Nazi Party, and the backlash against hard-won human rights are difficult to ignore. It is a reminder that progress is never guaranteed, but neither is regression.

What gives me hope is that hatred didn’t last forever then, and it won’t last forever now.

Books like this remind us that history doesn’t repeat because it has to. It repeats when we stop paying attention. The more we understand the past, the better chance we have of making sure we aren’t having this same conversation another hundred years from now.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best English language biography of Hirschfeld that I could find. Veers into hagiography at times and glosses over some of the more interesting aspects of Hirschfeld's life. For example, I would have liked much more time on Hirschfeld's role in early sex reassignment surgery, especially since Hirshfeld's study of "transvestites" (his usage was broader than the modern one) is his most lasting and important legacy.

The author's politics came through too strongly for my taste, making it hard to separate Hirschfeld's actual views from the author's. I also don't think projection of modern concepts like queerness into early 20th century Berlin makes much sense in a historical work. Ditto for assigning they/them pronouns to people who were born before those pronouns were in common use.

Still, this book is worth reading if you're interested in Hirschfeld and the background information on Berlin's gay and lesbian social scene was fascinating.

[Ellis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had very high hopes for this book and unfortunately it just didn't live up to my expectations. I found it incredibly frustrating that the author constantly made assumptions about Hirschfeld and other key individuals in Hirschfeld's life. At least once per chapter, the author makes a comment saying something along the lines of "We can assume that Magnus thought/felt/wanted [x]." After reading this book I can definitely say that I am in general agreement with Magnus Hirschfeld on the majority of his theories and opinions, but the author was clearly trying to push his own thoughts and opinions about Hirschfeld and his inner world a bit too intensely. Let ME as the reader come to my own conclusions about Hirschfeld; I don't want you to brute force your opinions onto me. I would have enjoyed this book more if the author had removed himself emotionally a step or two from his work.