There is a rich queer linguistic history in Germany. Many of the words still used to talk about queerness originated there with people like Magnus Hirschfeld, a man whose contributions to the modern queer community cannot be overstated. A lesser discussed name is Emma Trosse, and with her, the beginnings of asexuality as an identity can be found. Standing on the legacy of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs and possibly writing some of her work defending queer identities before Hirschfeld, her name deserves more discussion.

As the first man to undergo modern gender affirmation surgery, Karl M. Baer’s name is a familiar one in the story of queer history. Tangled together with the legacy of Magnus Hirschfeld, a fellow queer Jewish man living through the rise of the Nazi party in Germany, Baer’s is an interesting and worthwhile story to tell. Growing up as an intersex child who was assigned female at birth, he would go on to become a fierce feminist who identified as a man years before he got the medical support he would stumble upon. Like many transgender people, he was able to carve out a way to authentically exist as himself before he received any level of validation and would go on to live through one of the darkest moments of human history and find life after it.

Magnus Hirschfeld is a name that’s been scattered through a number of our articles, and with good reason. He left behind a rich legacy; he became a cornerstone of his community and made history with every day he lived. Because of this, many people have worked to remember not only the man himself but also the values he lived by. Most notably, his motto “through science to justice”, has led many to preserve his legacy through education on queerness. It is here that we find the topic of this week’s article: The Magnus Hirschfeld Foundation.