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This article examines the work of Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld and his Institute for Sexual Science as the most radical embodiment of Weimar Germany’s experiment with social modernity. It argues that Hirschfeld’s campaign for the rights of sexual minorities represented a fundamental challenge to traditional conceptions of citizenship, seeking to expand its definition beyond the political to encompass what this article terms “sexual citizenship.” Through analysis of Hirschfeld’s scientific theories, his political activism, and the institutional history of his Institute, this article demonstrates how the Weimar period created an unprecedented, though ultimately fragile, space for reimagining gender and sexuality. The Institute…
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This article posits that Berlin during the Weimar Republic was not merely the political capital of a new German state, but a paradigm of metropolitan modernity whose explosive growth, technological transformation, and social ferment created a unique urban laboratory. It argues that the city functioned as both catalyst and canvas for the era’s defining cultural innovations, acting as a powerful agent of liberation while simultaneously generating profound new forms of alienation. Through an analysis of the city’s physical transformation, its distinct cultural geography, and its representation in contemporary literature, film, and social commentary, this article examines Berlin as a site…