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More on Hirschfeld's films:

"Anders als die Anderen" (Different from the Others) was the first in a series of five films made in collaboration with Hirschfeld and devoted to the promotion of sexual reform, in this case, the abolition of the law against sexual contact between men. The film, directed by Richard Oswald, used prominent actors to tell the dramatic story of a homosexual violinist (Conradt Veidt) who is the victim of a blackmailer (Reinhold Schünzel), consults Magnus Hirschfeld (playing himself), but ultimately commits suicide. This was the first film to make homosexuality its central theme, and it was banned shortly after its premiere. Today, the original full-length version is lost. Only a truncated version (less than 30 minutes) with Russian titles survives.

(In the same year, 1919, Oswald also made another film "Prostitution", using basically the same cast, including Veidt and Schünzel. Again, Hirschfeld served as a scientific advisor.)

 


Richard Oswald (1880-1963)

 

When Hitler came to power, Oswald, Veidt and Schünzel left Germany and had new careers in Hollywood. Oswald continued as a director ( "I was a Criminal" '41,"The Lovable Cheat" '49 a.o. ). Veidt, among other things, played the Nazi officer in "Casablanca" opposite Humphrey Bogart and Claude Rains. Schünzel, who had been a very successful actor ("Tiger Brown" in G.W. Pabst's "Three-Penny Opera") and director ("Viktor und Viktoria") in Germany in the early 1930's, appeared, among other things, in Fritz Lang's "Hangmen Also Die!" and in Alfred Hitchcock's "Notorious". Hirschfeld was also involved with several other sexological films. For their titles click here.