Through Science to Justice: On the Legacy of Magnus Hirschfeld

This May marks the 90th anniversary of the death of groundbreaking German physician, sexologist, and LGBTQ advocate Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935). Join us for a double book launch and conversation on Hirschfeld's legacy and its relevancy today with authors Daniel Brook and Brandy Schillace, moderated by Noah Isenberg.

In 1919, Magnus Hirschfeld opened the Institute for Sexual Science, the world's first sexology research center, in Berlin. The Institute led the way in studying and treating various aspects of gender and sexuality, including topics related to gay, transgender, and intersex individuals. Additionally, the Institute championed sex education, contraception, the treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, and women's rights. By 1933, the institute was closed permanently, having been ransacked by the National Socialists, its library and archives burned. Hirschfeld had fled Germany in 1930—embarking on a global research tour that took him to the United States, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East—before settling in France, where he would die of heart attack on his 67th birthday.

In his new historical biography, The Einstein of Sex: Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, Visionary of Weimar Berlin (W.W. Norton, 2025), journalist Daniel Brook has retraced Hirschfeld’s life and legacy. Hirschfeld publicly advocated for gay rights while privately counseling patients toward self-acceptance, helping turn Weimar Berlin into the world’s queer capital. The Einstein of Sex brings together this unsung icon’s work on sexuality, gender, and race and recovers the visionary who first saw beyond binary thinking.

In The Intermediaries: A Weimar Story (W.W. Norton, 2025), historian Brandy Schillace tells the story of the Institute for Sexual Science through the eyes of Dora Richter, a patient of the Institute whom we follow in her quest to transition and live as a woman. The Intermediaries charts the relationships between nascent sexual science, queer civil rights, and the fight against fascism. It tells riveting stories of LGBTQ pioneers—a surprising, long-suppressed history—and offers a cautionary tale in the face of today’s oppressive anti-trans legislation.

Copies of both books will be available for purchase and signing.

Recording Notice: During this event, photography, audio and video recording may occur. By entering the premises of the Goethe-Institut New York, you consent to such recording and its release, publication, exhibition, or reproduction in print or digital formats.