Magnus Hirschfeld's Institute for the Science of Desire in Berlin, founded in 1919, was a center for studying human relationships and gender identity. The photo, likely captured around the 1921 International Conference for Reform on Human Relationships, illustrates the relative tolerance and visibility afforded to gender-nonconforming people in the Weimar Republic. Hirschfeld, the physician who established the center, was a forerunner in recognizing and documenting the distinction between cross-dressing and a permanent trans identity, and he was a vocal advocate for the community. The Institute provided early forms of gender-affirming care, including counseling and hormonal treatments, and successfully helped secure Transvestitenscheine (special licenses) from the police to protect transgender people from persecution for their clothing. However, the Institute was violently suppressed and looted in May 1933 by students allied with the rising extremist party, who publicly burned its vast library and archives, effectively destroying decades of research and advocacy.