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FREUD PRAISES A PIONEERING HERO OF GAY AND TRANS RIGHTS SIGMUND FREUD (1856-1939)
Brief Autograph Letter Signed, "freud," to an unnamed recipient ("Dear esteemed Sir"), in German: "I have always been of the opinion that Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld's struggle against the cruel and unjustified interference of legislation in human sexual life deserves general recognition and support." ½ page, 8vo, "Prof. Dr. Freud" stationery; horizontal fold, few creases at lower left corner.
Vienna, 26 April 1928.
Published in Hiller and Linsert eds., Für Magnus Hirschfeld zu seinem 60. Geburtstag (Berlin, 1928), 7. Exhibited at the Wien Museum in 2016 as part of Sex in Vienna: Desire. Control. Transgression (see "Befürwortung eines Lebenskampfes: Ein unbekannter Brief von Sigmund Freud über MagnusHirschfeld," in Sex in Wien. Lust. Kontrolle. Ungehorsam [Vienna: Wien-Museum/Metroverlag, 2016], 102-05). Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935) was a German sexologist and physician who, while leading Berlin's Institut für Sexualwissenschaft -- one of the world's first sex research centers -- was harassed and persecuted by nationalists beginning in the 1920s until the Institut was destroyed by the Nazis in 1933. He died soon after as an exile in France. Hirschfeld was also important in building organizations devoted to promoting the rights of sexual minorities, including his founding of the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee in 1897 and organizing the first meeting of the World League for Sexual Reform in 1921.Vienna, 26 April 1928
