The Einstein of Sex: Life and Work of Dr. M. Hirschfeld (2000)

This biographical drama traces the life of Dr Magnus Hirschfeld, the German-Jewish physician who pioneered sexology and campaigned against anti-sodomy laws, through to the founding of his Berlin institute and its fate under the Third Reich.

Rosa von Praunheim's 2000 drama charts the career of Magnus Hirschfeld, the doctor who established sexology as a field and boldly challenged Germany's anti-sodomy laws in the late nineteenth century. The film follows Hirschfeld and those closest to him — including Baron von Teschenberg, assistant Karl Giese and the transvestite Dörchen — as they open the first Institute of Sexual Sciences in Berlin in 1920 and fight to keep it alive as the Nazis rise to power. Friedel von Wangenheim leads a cast that also features Ben Becker, Otto Sander and Meret Becker.