15 May 1897
Magnus Hirschfeld Founds the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee
Activism Legal
German physician and sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld co-founded the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee (Wissenschaftlich-humanitäres Komitee) in Berlin, the world's first organisation dedicated to advocating for the rights of homosexual and transgender people. The committee launched a petition campaign to repeal Paragraph 175, gathering thousands of signatures from prominent figures including Albert Einstein, Hermann Hesse, and Thomas Mann.
Impact & Significance
The first organised homosexual rights movement in history, establishing the template for all subsequent LGBTQ+ advocacy organisations worldwide.
Reference Record
- Date
- 15 May 1897
- Era
- 1800s
- Sources
- 1
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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.
