The Einstein of Sex - The Life and Work of Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld
Filmmaking on the Queer Frontier

Germany / 1999 / 100'
In German with Chinese and English subtitles

Director: Rosa von Praunheim
Cast: Friedel von Wangenheim, Kai Schumann, Ben Becker

Long before Kinsey, there was Magnus Hirschfeld: physician, sexologist, socialist, Jew, homosexual, and the man the tabloids dubbed "the Einstein of Sex." Rosa von Praunheim's affectionate biopic charts his crusade as he founded the world's first gay rights organisation in 1897, battled Paragraph 175, and opened Berlin's Institute for Sexual Science in 1920, a haven for queer and trans lives that flourished until Nazi students torched its library in 1933. Friedel von Wangenheim plays the doctor with owlish warmth. Mixing period drama, newsreel and impish humour, it is a monument to a man the Nazis nearly erased, and a reminder of how quickly progress can burn.