200 Years of LGBTQIA+ History

From Shadows to Pride — UK & Global Timeline

6 July 1919

Hirschfeld Opens the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft

Cultural Trans Health

Magnus Hirschfeld opened the Institute for Sexual Science (Institut für Sexualwissenschaft) in Berlin, the world's first centre dedicated to the study of human sexuality. The Institute provided medical consultations, performed some of the first gender-affirming surgeries, issued 'transvestite passes' allowing people to cross-dress legally, and housed an enormous library of research material. It was destroyed by the Nazis in May 1933 — its books publicly burned.

Impact & Significance

The Institute represented the most advanced understanding of sexuality and gender identity of its time. Its destruction by the Nazis set back LGBTQ+ research by decades.

Reference Record

Date
6 July 1919
Era
1900-1949
Sources
2

This timeline entry is being migrated into the reference platform. Source metadata and editorial review status will be strengthened as each topic is upgraded.

Topic Guides

Early Sexology and Nazi Persecution Early sexology and organised homosexual-rights advocacy in Germany were violently interrupted by Nazi persecution under Paragraph 175.

Questions This Event Helps Answer

Q How did UK law criminalise homosexuality before 1967? Before 1967, English and Welsh law criminalised male same-sex intimacy through buggery and gross indecency offences, with punishments ranging from execution to imprisonment. Q What happened to LGBTQ+ people under Nazi rule? Under Nazi rule, gay men and gender-nonconforming people were surveilled, prosecuted, imprisoned and in many cases sent to concentration camps under intensified Paragraph 175 enforcement.

Related Events

1917 First Soviet Decriminalisation 1897 Magnus Hirschfeld Founds the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee 1930 Lili Elbe — Pioneer of Gender-Affirming Surgery

Sources

The Institute for Sexual Science archive United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Sexuality, Gender, and Nazi Persecution archive United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
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