Magnus Hirschfeld helped found the Scientific Humanitarian Committee in Germany to defend the rights of homosexuals and develop a scientific framework for sexual equality.

He established the world’s first gender identity clinic, whose clients included Einar Wegener (the protagonist of 2015’s movie The Danish Girl, who transitioned to become Lili Elbe - one of the first people to undergo gender reassignment surgery).

Hirschfeld began researching sexuality after moving to Berlin in 1896, where he lived as an openly gay man, and campaigned for gay rights.

He was also an early champion of women’s rights, campaigning in the early 1900s for the decriminalization of abortion and the right of female teachers and civil servants to marry and have children. By 1933 Hirschfeld’s commitment to sexual liberation made him a target for the Nazis. He was once described by Hitler as “the most dangerous Jew in Germany”, and the entire library of his Institute for Sexual Science was burned by the Nazis.