Blackwell Reference Online

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Magnus Hirschfeld was a German physician, sexologist, and author best known today for his exhaustive study of all aspects of human sexuality. A prominent champion of the acceptance and decriminalization of homosexuality, he was also a social reformer in areas of women's reproductive rights, socialized medicine, and prostitution. In 1896 Hirschfeld published the pamphlet Sappho und Sokrates , under the pseudonym Th. Ramien, prompted by the suicide of a patient distressed by society's rejection of his homosexuality. It presented Hirschfeld's first ideas on the biological basis of homosexuality. He argued that homosexuality was a variant of human love that should be both scientifically studied and decriminalized, “a natural, inborn variation that simply occurs statistically less often than heterosexuality but can equally form the basis of the noblest love” ( Brennan & Hegarty 2007 : 8). Although criticized in his time for theories not always supported by science, Hirschfeld's doctrine of Zwischenstufenlehre or “sexual intermediaries,” with its primacy of sexual variance and rejection of a hetero/homosexual binary, foresaw by decades twentieth-century queer theory discussions of a dichotomous sexuality. Other groundbreaking publications by Hirschfeld would follow, including Die Transvestiten (Transvestites) in 1910, a term he originated; Die Homosexualität des Mannes und des ... log in or subscribe to read full text