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 The
first true pioneer in the field of sex and gender was
Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld. Hirschfeld was the first to coin
two of the most popular terms to describe transgenderism:
transvestism and transsexualism.
Through his Institute of Sexology, Hirschfeld oversaw
the first male-to-female sex reassignment surgery in
1920.
On May 6th, 1933, during the infamous “Night of the Long
Knives,” Magnus Hirschfeld's Institute for Sexual
Science was raided and destroyed by Nazis. Writings on
sexology were burnt, clients and sexologists were
persecuted. Hirschfeld, in exile, died two years later.
On November 11, 1933, the Hamburg City Administration
asked the Head of Police to "pay special attention to
transvestites” and to “deliver them to the concentration
camps.”
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Nazis burning Hirschfield Institute documents
along with other books and materials that were
deemed to be “un-German” |
Nazi Germany did not make distinctions between
transvestites and transsexuals. Most of the time, Nazis
referred to gender-atypical behavior as homosexual
behavior. When they did consciously choose to
distinguish between gays and transgenders, Nazi’s
referred to all transgenders as “transvestites.” Indeed,
in 1938 the Institute of Forensic Medicine recommended
that the “phenomena of transvestism” be "exterminated
from public life." The Institute went on to state,
“draconian measures by the government against stubborn
and hard-headed transvestites are ... adequate.”
In Nazi Death Camps, interned homosexuals and
transgenders were forced to wear upside-down pink
triangles. On the 24th anniversary of the burning of the
Hirschfeld's Institute’s library, the post-Hitler German
government upheld Nazi laws used to oppress the
homosexual and transgender community stating that
"homosexual acts unquestionably offended the moral
feelings of the German people."
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