Institut fr Sexualwissenschaft

[Coventina]

The first serious, scientific center on human sexuality.

Established by Magnus Hirschfield in 1919

Closed and destroyed by the Nazis in 1933

Gee, what regime is currently using these tactics to keep us from learning about human sexuality in an unbiased, science-based manner?

[marble falls]

1. Isn't that the way it is? The louder someone pushes "freedom", the more likely they are ...

... to promote abridging freedom.

As Firesign theater once joked, "All power to the correct people."

[BurnDoubt]

3. Shoes for industry!!!!

[marble falls]

7. Shoes for the dead! Get a hair cut!

[Solly Mack]

2. Nazi youth burned the books/research of the Institute as part of Hitler's censorship campaign.

Book banners/burners are all the same.

They'd burn/ban a human as quick as they would a book.

[BurnDoubt]

4. Fuck That!!!!!!

[DFW]

5. That sounded like an odd name for a German, so I looked him up

His name was Hirschfeld (no “i” ), born in what is now Poland, and died in France in 1935, so probably Jewish. Considering the times, he was fortunate to get out of Germany when he did.

I find it significant that less than a million Jews lived in Germany in 1933, probably around 600,000 so way less than 1% of the population of Germany. Even in that relatively small population, they were a diverse group, from Orthodox to fully assimilated non-practicing. So the Nazis created their main propaganda scapegoats out of a segment of the population that quickly grew to be far smaller in number than the Nazis themselves.

Some threat, huh? Just like “libbruls” and “kommanists.”

[Behind the Aegis]

6. Yes, he was Jewish.

Too many forget that when they bring up this incident, but he was targeted as a Jew and an academic.

[Behind the Aegis]

8. And shame on me...he was also targeted because he was gay.

[DFW]

10. In those days, it was a dangerous admission to make

These days, plenty of right wing nut cases are openly gay—enough so that their extremists shut up when confronted with how much money and power lies in the ranks of the gay radical right (Peter Thiel, Richard Grennell, e.g.).

[WhiskeyGrinder]

9. The books in the well-known book-burning photos came from this institute and its destruction is one of the main

reasons humanity is so behind on understanding the experiences of trans people. We lost valuable research at that time.