Magnus Hirschfeld was the first and one of the most influential gay rights activists in history. He is also know as the father if transgenderism. At the beginning of the 20th Century there was no real distinction between transpeople and gay people. However this was also a time when sexuality had becoe a subject of considerable academic interest.

Freud was probably the most famous to begin developing explanations for human behaviour - but soon there were many. Richard Kraft Ebbing, Henry Havelock Ellis and Magnus Hirschfeld all developed theories around transgenderism and homosexuality,

Today I am going to look at the work of Magnus Hirschfeld in developing the first gender identity clinic and the impact of the Nazis in bringing his work to an end.