anders als die andern

Artist Shelby Criswell, syndicated in The Nib, introduces us to the one of the early pioneers of studying human sexuality and gender identity in a comic about the life and career of Doctor Magnus Hirschfeld (*1868 - †1935), a physician and outspoken advocate for homosexual and transgender rights.
Hirschfeld set up a pioneering research facility in Berlin-Charlottenburg under the more liberal and enlightened auspices of the Weimar Republic and even co-produced a film, Different from the Others, which was a vehicle for legal reform and featured one of the first portrayals of a gay man in cinema. The rise of Nazism saw the end of his work and outreach—with his institute’s records being ransacked and used to track down undesirables. Dying of a heart-attack while in exile in Nice just as the Nazi government was becoming entrenched, the slab of his tomb bears his personal motto, “Per Scientiam ad Justitiam”—through Science to Justice.  Learn more at the link above.