Magnus Hirschfeld

Magnus Hirschfeld (14 May 1868 – 14 May 1935) was a German physician, sexologist, and LGBTQ advocate. A gay man, Hirschfeld was denaturalized and exiled by the Nazi government in 1933 for his work at the Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin. The institute pioneered the field of sexology, and studied subjects on gender and sexuality. The German Student Union, which held sympathies with the Nazi Party, accused the institute of promoting works deemed to be "un-German".

Hirschfeld was educated in philosophy, philology, and medicine. An outspoken advocate for sexual minorities, he founded the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee and the World League for Sexual Reform. During the 1920s he based his practice in Berlin-Charlottenburg. His Committee carried out "the first advocacy for homosexual and transgender rights".

Hirschfeld is regarded as one of the most influential 20th-century sexologists. He was targeted by early European fascists, and later by the Nazi Party, for being both Jewish and gay. He was beaten by völkisch activists in 1920, and in 1933, his Berlin institute was ransacked and its books burned by members of the German Student Union and the Schutzstaffel (SS). He was forced into exile in France, where he died of a heart attack in 1935.