The Scattered Library: The Various Fates of the Remnants of Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute of Sexual Science Collection in France and Czechoslovakia, 1932–1942

The Berlin book burning and the raiding of Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute for sexual science ("Institut für Sexualwissenschaft") in May 1933 is part and parcel of German memorial culture. Due to a rehabilitation and revival of Magnus Hirschfeld (1868–1935), noticeable in Germany in recent years, many Germans now know that the pivotal LGBT-rights precursor activist died in 1935 in exile in Nice (France), heavily traumatized by the destruction of his life work by the Nazis in Germany.

This is the very first book reporting in detail on what happened in the years 1932–1935 before Hirschfeld’s death and, especially, during the seven years that followed his death.



Besides reporting on Hirschfeld’s last years in France, this volume is the very first biography on Karl Giese and Karl Fein, the main players in the afterlife of Magnus Hirschfeld in France and Czechoslovakia.

This seminal book takes up the thread where Rainer Herrn’s 2023 book, on the history of Hirschfeld’s Institute and the life work of Magnus Hirschfeld ended, in 1932–1933. It can also be read as an extensive contextualizing guide to the facsimile edition of the surviving Hirschfeld guestbook that was published in 2019 (Bergemann, Dose, Keilson-Lauritz & Dubout).

Hans P. Soetaert, MA, born 1968, studied philosophy at Ghent university and also holds a professional librarian degree. He is co-founder as well as former board member and former volunteer of the Fonds Suzan Daniel, the Belgian LGBT archive and documentation center, founded in 1996.