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A review by booksofjades
The Intermediaries: A Weimar Story by Brandy Schillace
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.75
This book tells a previously lost history to the masses, the story of the institute for sexual science, headed by Dr Magnus Hirshfeld. A gay, Jewish man Hirshfeld made the institute a home, a safe space - not just for the LGBTQIA+ community but also for the Jews and women facing oppression and danger with the rise of the Nazis.
Not only do we learn about this, we see several moving pictures of the institute and its residents publicly for the first time. It casts a new light on Hitler and the Nazis, the reality of the time and their eugenic ideals. How his gas chambers were originally for rassenhygiene (euthanasia) of the disabled and those they saw as genetically lesser than, before their use as the ‘final solution’.
A history of light and dark:
- Developments and first successes of hormones and hormone therapy.
- The first successful transgender surgeries.
- The growth of understanding queerness and gender.
But also…
- The night of the long knives.
- Suicides, self-harm and suspicious deaths.
- April 8th 1933 - the start of the end of the institute. The site vandalised, books burned and raided , troopers taking anything if value.
It links back to current events - a scary reality of how backwards the world is right now. To Dora Richter, Lili Elbe, and the others unnamed or lost, the fight is ongoing but we thank you for laying the foundations.
Not only do we learn about this, we see several moving pictures of the institute and its residents publicly for the first time. It casts a new light on Hitler and the Nazis, the reality of the time and their eugenic ideals. How his gas chambers were originally for rassenhygiene (euthanasia) of the disabled and those they saw as genetically lesser than, before their use as the ‘final solution’.
A history of light and dark:
- Developments and first successes of hormones and hormone therapy.
- The first successful transgender surgeries.
- The growth of understanding queerness and gender.
But also…
- The night of the long knives.
- Suicides, self-harm and suspicious deaths.
- April 8th 1933 - the start of the end of the institute. The site vandalised, books burned and raided , troopers taking anything if value.
It links back to current events - a scary reality of how backwards the world is right now. To Dora Richter, Lili Elbe, and the others unnamed or lost, the fight is ongoing but we thank you for laying the foundations.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Biphobia, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Deadnaming, Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Lesbophobia, Outing, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail