Berlin promenade to be named after 'Einstein of sex'
Berlin will rename a promenade along the Spree River on Tuesday after Magnus Hirschfeld, a sex researcher and pioneer of the German gay rights movement.
The Hirschfeld promenade is in the government quarter, diagonally across from the German chancellery.
A monument is also planned with a bust of the researcher – known as “the Einstein of sex” – who was born in 1868 in the German city of Kolberg as son of a Jewish doctor.
As one of the founders of the Scientific Humanitarian Committee, Hirschfeld worked to repeal Paragraph 175 – a clause in German law that criminalized homosexuality.
In 1919 he founded the Institute for Sexual Research in Berlin.
Nazis destroyed and plundered Hirschfeld’s institute in 1933 and burned a bust of the researcher at the May 10 book burning in the city.
Hirschfeld lived in French exile until his death in 1935 in Nice.
German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries and Lala Süsskind, chairwoman of the Jewish community in Berlin, are both expected to attend the Tuesday ceremony.
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The Hirschfeld promenade is in the government quarter, diagonally across from the German chancellery.
A monument is also planned with a bust of the researcher – known as “the Einstein of sex” – who was born in 1868 in the German city of Kolberg as son of a Jewish doctor.
As one of the founders of the Scientific Humanitarian Committee, Hirschfeld worked to repeal Paragraph 175 – a clause in German law that criminalized homosexuality.
In 1919 he founded the Institute for Sexual Research in Berlin.
Nazis destroyed and plundered Hirschfeld’s institute in 1933 and burned a bust of the researcher at the May 10 book burning in the city.
Hirschfeld lived in French exile until his death in 1935 in Nice.
German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries and Lala Süsskind, chairwoman of the Jewish community in Berlin, are both expected to attend the Tuesday ceremony.
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