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

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

: Der Einstein des Sex)
is a 1999

1999 in film

The year 1999 in film involved several noteworthy events and has been called "The Year That Changed Movies". Several significant feature films, including Stanley Kubrick's final film Eyes Wide Shut, Pedro Almodóvar's first Oscar-winning film All About My Mother, science fiction The Matrix, Deep...

 German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 directed by Rosa von Praunheim

Rosa von Praunheim

Rosa von Praunheim , in Riga, Latvia. His given name is Holger Mischwitzky. He is a German film director, author, painter and gay rights activist. Openly gay, he is one of the initiators of the gay rights movement in Germany....

. The plot follows the life of the Jewish doctor Magnus Hirschfeld

Magnus Hirschfeld

Magnus Hirschfeld was a German physician and sexologist. An outspoken advocate for sexual minorities, Hirschfeld founded the Scientific Humanitarian Committee, which Dustin Goltz called "the first advocacy for homosexual and transgender rights."-Early life:Hirschfeld was born in Kolberg in a...

 who was a sexologist and gay socialist. In 1897, Hirschfeld founded the first political gay group in history.
In the film three of Hirschfeld's closest friends are portrayed: Baron Hermann von Teschenberg, Karl Giese and Dorchen (a transsexual). They establish the first Institut für Sexualwissenschaft

Institut für Sexualwissenschaft

The Institut für Sexualwissenschaft was an early private sexology research institute in Germany from 1919 to 1933. The name is variously translated as Institute of Sex Research, Institute for Sexology or Institute for the Science of Sexuality...

in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 in 1919. They try to keep the institute open during the rise of the Third Reich in the 1930s.

Cast

• Friedel von Wangenheim ... Dr. M. Hirschfeld
• Ben Becker ... Adolf Brand
• Wolfgang Völz ... Polizeipräsident
• Otto Sander ... Professor Steinach
• Meret Becker ... Arbeiterin
• Monika Hansen ... Gräfin
• Gerd Lukas Storzer ... Baron von Teschenberg
• Olaf Drauschke ... Karl Giese
• Tima die Göttliche ... Dorchen
• Harald Glitz ... Hochzeitsgast
• Ulrich Jackwitz ... Geheimrat
• Kai Schuhmann ... Magnus Hirschfeld (young)