May 10, 1933

Dr.Magnus Hirschfeld in 1919 founded the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute for Sexual Research) in Berlin.   It became renowned not only for its immense library collection, it also provided medical consultations, treatment and educational services for the 20,000 people a year who visited it.  

In addition to it's research, the institute treated STD's, advocated for sex education and contraception and the human rights and social acceptance of gay and trans people

The Institute was also doing pioneering research on trans people.   Some of the first trans surgeries were performed in the early 1930s under its auspices.  Trans people were on its staff and part of its clientèle.  Dr. Harry Benjamin, who would later expand on trans concepts he would learn there in the United States was a colleague of Dr. Hirschfeld.   .  .

But unfortunately the rise to power of the Nazi party would bring that progress to a screeching halt.    As Ernst Rohm's moderating influence weakened, the Nazis launched a campaign in February 1933 that shut down GLB clubs, banned gay rights organizations and outlawed sex publications.  The pressure got stepped up another notch a month later when Kurt Hiller, the main administrator of the institute was sent to a concentration camp.

On May 6 while Dr. Hirschfeld was on a lecture tour in the United States, the Deutsche Studentenschaft raided the Institute, seized its extensive list of names and addresses and looted its archives and library.   Four days later in the Opernplatz (now the Bebelplatz) the 20,000 books and 5000 images from it were burned along with the works of other 'un-German' books as Joseph Goebbels spoke to a crowd of 40,000 people. .

Hirschfeld never returned to Germany and tried to rebuild his beloved institute in Paris, but died of a heart attack on his birthday in 1935.


In 1934 Hitler launched Operation Hummingbird, the murderous purge against the Ernst Rohm led SA by the Gestapo and the SS.   Aided by what some historians believe the address list that was confiscated from the Institute, followed up recently passed harsh anti gay laws with round ups of gay people that hadn't already fled Germany.   Many people caught in this dragnet ended up incarcerated in slave labor or death camps.


One of the books that was burned that day in the Opernplatz was Heinrich Heine's Almansor.   It had a chillingly prophetic line in it in which he states, "Where they burn books, they will ultimately also burn people."

The tragedy of the May 10, 1933 book burning is that not only did Heine's quote tragically come true a few years later, a lot of research and a major chunk of TBLG history went up in flames.that day which will never be recovered.  

You are also as a transperson left to wonder how far along SRS research and gender studies would be if it had been able to build on Magnus Hirschfeld's work.

The 1378 (km) Video Game-History Teaching Tool Or Tasteless?

I've talked about the 'Anti fascist Protection Barrier' as the dearly departed Deutsche Demokratische Republik euphemistically used to call the fortified border separating themselves from their West German cousins during the Cold War.  I immediately thought about it as a Kennedy baby in the context of Republican calls for the US to build a fortified border wall sarcastically called the 'Tortilla Curtain' to slow down the flow of undocumented crossings from Mexico.

The Cold War era border is back in the news in the wake of the 20th anniversary of German reunification.  A video game that was set to be released on that October 3 date has caused controversy in Germany..

As part of his university degree studies at the University of Design, Media and Arts, 23 year old Jens Stober created 1378 (km).   The title of the game refers to the length in kilometers of the old fortified Inner German Border and is set in 1976, when the IGB received one of its deadly upgrades..


1378 (km) is a first person shooter game in which up to 16 people can play taking the roles of either the East German Grenztruppen or East Germans trying to escape. 

"Becoming an East German escapee or border guard enables players to identify with these figures," Stober  said. "It's a novel way of encouraging young people to take an interest in coming to terms with recent German history."


Rainier Wagner, the chairman of the Association for Victims of Communist Tyranny, has a different view of the game.   He was arrested trying to cross the wall and spent two years in an East German prison for attempting to do so.   He's one of a long list of critics that include German politicians who are offended by the game.

Wagner is quoted in a BBC article on the game that 1378 (km) is worse than other first person shooting games because you are shooting at unarmed civilians instead of armed enemies.

Stober counters that the game later skips to the year 2000 and the border guards have to face trials for what they've done in the name of the East German regime. 

Stober's Karlsruhe based university, while releasing a statement apologizing to the people who lost family members attempting to flee East Germany, is standing behind and offering support to Stober. 

Whether 1378 (km)  is a new way of exposing kids to recent German history or a tasteless shoot-em-up, one thing that is guaranteed is the internal debate in Germany about the game will be a fierce, emotional one.