Magnus Hirschfeld

Born in 1868 in Kolberg, Prussia, Magnus Hirschfeld became a German physician, sexologist, and one of the first major campaigners for homosexual and transgender rights. He trained in medicine and built his reputation by arguing that human sexuality and gender were naturally diverse, not moral failings to be punished.

In 1897, he helped found the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee, one of the earliest organizations to work for the decriminalization of homosexuality. Later, in Berlin, he established the Institute for Sexual Science, a groundbreaking center for research, counseling, education, and medical care that welcomed people who were often excluded elsewhere.

Hirschfeld was also a public speaker and writer whose work reached far beyond medicine into law and social reform. Because he was both Jewish and a prominent defender of sexual minorities, he became a target of the Nazis; his institute was destroyed in 1933, and he died in exile in Nice in 1935.