On 6 May , the Institute of Sexology, an academic foundation devoted to sexological research and the advocacy of homosexual rights, was broken into and occupied by Nazi-supporting youth. Several days later the entire contents of the library were removed and burned.
The institute was initially occupied by The German Student Union, who were a collective of Nazi-supporting youth. That night, along with 20, other books across Germany, they were publicly burned in a symbolic attack by Nazi officials on their enemies.
Book burning after looting of the Institute of Sexology. Founded in , the institute had been set up by Magnus Hirschfeld, a world-renowned expert in the emerging discipline of sexology.
During its existence, thousands of patients were seen and treated, often for free. The Institute also achieved a global reputation for its pioneering work on transsexual understanding and calls for equality for homosexuals, transgender people and women. Hirschfield himself was a passionate advocate for homosexual rights and had long appealed for the repeal of Paragraph , the law that criminalised homosexuality in Germany. Jewish, gay and outspokenly liberal, Hirschfeld was an obvious target for the Nazis, and the seizure and destruction of the institute on 6 May took place only three months after Hitler was made Chancellor of Germany.
During the attack and subsequent book burning, Hirschfeld was working in Paris. He saw the burning of his own library in a news report at the cinema. After the attack on the institute the Nazis continued their persecution of gay men by expanding and enforcing legislation that criminalised homosexuality.
