This is a film that should be seen. It may shock, certainly, but it will enlighten and educate. It is also a part of German history. Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, a Jewish homosexual, set up an Institute in 1921 to research problems concerned with sexuality. This was an unexplored field. People from all over Europe consulted him about their own sexual problems, including the young Austrian Baron Hermann von Teschenberg who became his lover. In 1933 the Nazis destroyed the Institute of Sexual Science. Research papers and museum pieces were lost for ever. Male nudity in this film is acceptable because it is relevant to the subject. The museum is filled with phallic objects carved from ivory, penis protectors from Papua New Guinea, an intriguing masturbation contraption (which perhaps is the fore-runner of the modern vibrator), tattooed testicles belonging to the Chinese emperor's brother and other so-called "sinful objects". All this is portrayed in a clinical and straight forward manner. The good doctor is called upon to do surgery and one can get a bit squeamish when he goes to work on the transvestite Dorchen or the removal of a penis from a pleading hermaphrodite. It seemed to me it was executed with a very quick snip done under the most unhygienic conditions. Some of the other characters worthy of mention are the young Karl Giese (Hirschfeld's lover) who fights a losing battle to protect the Institute from the Nazi madness, and Adolph Brand an important gay right-wing writer who writes extravagant poetry about the physical beauty of German youth. Direrctor Rosa von Praunheim has done a magnificent job in bringing the life and work of Dr. Hirschfeld to the screen. It is a frank and honest approach and it is not without its little touches of humour. This film is worthy of attention. It's one of the most entertaining I've seen for a long time. How nice it is to see something very different. I rank it high on my list of favourites.
Review of The Einstein of Sex
