Magnus Hirschfeld found a balance between practicing medicine and writing about his findings. Sexual rights activism Scientific-Humanitarian Committee Hirschfeld (center) with Bernhard Schapiro and Li Shiu Tong (also known as Tao Li), c. Hirschfeld was struck by the number of his gay patients who had Suizidalnarben ('scars left by suicide attempts'), and often found himself trying to give his patients a reason to live. Īt the same time, Hirschfeld was greatly affected by the trial of Oscar Wilde, which he often referred to in his writings. However, the officer's use of Sie, the formal German word for you, instead of the informal Du, suggests Hirschfeld's relationship with his patient was strictly professional. However, the officer mentioned at the end of his suicide note: "The thought that you could contribute a future when the German fatherland will think of us in more just terms sweetens the hour of my death." Hirschfeld had been treating the officer for depression in 1895–1896, and the use of the term "us" led to speculation that a relationship existed between the two. The officer could not even bring himself to use the word "homosexuality", which he instead conspicuously referred to as "that" in his note. In his suicide note, the officer wrote that he lacked the "strength" to tell his parents the "truth", and spoke of his shame of "that which nearly strangled my heart". In particular, Hirschfeld cited the story of one of his patients as a reason for his gay rights activism: a young army officer suffering from depression who killed himself in 1896, leaving behind a suicide note saying that despite his best efforts, he could not end his desires for other men, and so had ended his life out of his guilt and shame. In the German language, the word for suicide is Selbstmord ('self-murder'), which carried more judgmental and condemnatory connotations than its English language equivalent, making the subject of suicide a taboo in 19th century Germany. Hirschfeld became interested in gay rights because many of his gay patients took their own lives. Then he started a naturopathic practice in Magdeburg in 1896, he moved his practice to Berlin-Charlottenburg. Struck by the essential similarities between the homosexual subcultures of Chicago and Berlin, Hirschfeld first developed his theory about the universality of homosexuality around the world, as he researched in books and newspaper articles about the existence of gay subcultures in Rio de Janeiro, Tangier, and Tokyo. During his time in Chicago, Hirschfeld became involved with the homosexual subculture in that city. In 1892, he earned his medical degree.Īfter his studies, he traveled through the United States for eight months, visiting the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and living from the proceeds of his writing for German journals. In 1887–1888, he studied philosophy and philology in Breslau, and then from 1888 to 1892 medicine in Straßburg, Munich, Heidelberg, and Berlin. As a youth he attended Kolberg Cathedral School, which at the time was a Protestant school. Hirschfeld was born in Kolberg in Pomerania (since 1945 Kołobrzeg in Poland), in an Ashkenazi Jewish family, the son of highly regarded physician and Senior Medical Officer Hermann Hirschfeld. He was forced into exile in France, where he died in 1935. Hirschfeld was targeted by early fascists and, later, Nazis for being Jewish and gay he was beaten by völkisch activists in 1920, and in 1933 his Institut für Sexualwissenschaft was sacked and had its books burned by Nazis. He is regarded as one of the most influential sexologists of the twentieth century. Historian Dustin Goltz characterized the committee as having carried out "the first advocacy for homosexual and transgender rights". He based his practice in Berlin-Charlottenburg during the Weimar period. An outspoken advocate for sexual minorities, Hirschfeld founded the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee and World League for Sexual Reform. Hirschfeld was educated in philosophy, philology and medicine. Magnus Hirschfeld ( – ) was a German physician and sexologist.
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