cpip
Gone Fishin'
The recent discussion over on the HOI led to @Ashtagon linking this article concerning Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld's research in sexual reassignment surgery in the 1920s.
From the Article:
So, there's at least two scenarios to explore.
In one, the Nazis simply don't rise, and whatever does come to power, while it may be authoritarian, doesn't end up ransacking his lab and burning it, allowing him to continue his work.
In the other, Hirschfeld somehow gets advance notice of the march on his Institute. Perhaps it happens while he's still in Germany. For whatever reason, he manages to get some significant portion of his Institute's documentation to safekeeping, be it in hiding in Germany that can be found after the war, or perhaps he takes it with him to France when he flees there, and it manages to go undestroyed by the Nazis during the invasion.
What might this mean to the LGBT community in the 20th century?
From the Article:
Sex reassignment surgery had an earlier life, in an unexpected time and place: 1920s Germany. Several doctors there performed such surgeries using analog technology and organic hormones. They worked under a new paradigm: What if they could make someone’s body fit their mind instead of forcing their mind to fit their body?
...
By the early 1930s, people came from around the world to undergo reassignment surgery in Berlin. Then Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany in January 1931. Two years later, his brownshirts broke into Hirschfeld’s institute and burned his journals and research. When Hirschfeld was out of Germany on tour, the Nazi student group marched on the Institute. Over 20,000 books were set aflame, as well as medical diagrams and photographs crucial to understanding sex reassignment surgery.
So, there's at least two scenarios to explore.
In one, the Nazis simply don't rise, and whatever does come to power, while it may be authoritarian, doesn't end up ransacking his lab and burning it, allowing him to continue his work.
In the other, Hirschfeld somehow gets advance notice of the march on his Institute. Perhaps it happens while he's still in Germany. For whatever reason, he manages to get some significant portion of his Institute's documentation to safekeeping, be it in hiding in Germany that can be found after the war, or perhaps he takes it with him to France when he flees there, and it manages to go undestroyed by the Nazis during the invasion.
What might this mean to the LGBT community in the 20th century?