File:Nazi Germany 1933-05 Hirschfeld Institute Berlin library plundering SS man students inspect books publications for public burning Propaganda Die Ehe Retouched photo Keystone View Company Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe 3 1 0 17 12423 34424 PD.jpg

English: Photo taken during the nation-wide "Action against un-German Spirit" (German: Aktion wider den undeutschen Geist), conducted by the German Student Union, in Berlin in the spring of 1933, which was to climax in a literary purge or "cleansing" (Säuberung) by fire in the Nazi book burnings in several cities in Nazi Germany (Bücherverbrennung 1933 in Deutschland).

• Organized by the Nazi party (NSDAP), students of the Academy for Physical Exercise (Hochschule für Leibesübungen) march in front of the building of the Institute for Sexual Science (Institut für Sexualwissenschaft) in Berlin immediately prior to pillaging it on May 6, 1933. Some of the books, photos, and periodicals they confiscated were burned immediately, while others were torched at Berlin's Opera Square (Opernplatz, Bebelplatz) on May 10, 1933. The Institute had been established by Magnus Hirschfeld, a Jewish homosexual physician, as a center for sexology. It provided counseling and other services, and sought legal rights for homosexuals and transsexuals.

• Young men, one in a SS (Schutzstaffel) uniform, likely students, some from the Academy of Physical Exercise (Hochschule für Leibesübungen), examine materials plundered from the library of Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, director of the Institute for Sexual Science (Institut für Sexualwissenschaft) in Berlin on May 6, 1933. Among the publications are seen editions of Die Ehe. Monatsschrift für Ehe,Wissenschaft, Recht und Kultur.

While some materials were burned immediately on the street outside the Institute, others were loaded onto trucks and carted away for sorting. Some were torched at the ceremonial public book burning on Berlin's Opera Square (Opernplatz, Bebelplatz) on May 10, but selected valuable antiquarian books and periodicals were actually sold abroad, including some that were purchased by Hirschfeld himself, since he aimed to establish a new Institute in exile in Paris. The public library of the Institute comprised approximately 10,000 mostly rare German and foreign books on the topics of sex and gender. (Manfred Baumgardt, Schwules Museum Berlin).

• The Nazi book burnings were a campaign conducted by the German Student Union (Deutsche Studentenschaft, DSt) to ceremonially burn books in Nazi Germany and Austria in the 1930s. The books targeted for burning were those viewed as being subversive or as representing ideologies opposed to Nazism. These included books written by Jewish, half-Jewish, communist, socialist, anarchist, liberal, pacifist, and sexologist authors among others. The initial books burned were those of Karl Marx and Karl Kautsky, but came to include very many authors, including Albert Einstein, Helen Keller, writers in French and English, and effectively any book incompatible with Nazi ideology. In a campaign of cultural genocide, books were also burned en masse by the Nazis in occupied territories, such as in Poland.

On May 6, 1933, the Berlin chapter of the German Student Union launched a coordinated attack on Magnus Hirschfeld's Institute of Sex Research, looting its extensive library and collections encompassing thousands of volumes on sexuality and related topics, as well as various objects, photographs, and documents. A portion of the looted material was burned outside the institute, while the rest was taken to Bebelplatz square on May 10 and burned along with books from elsewhere. This event marked the burning of over 25,000 "un-German" books, marking the beginning of a period of strict state censorship. Nationalist students in many other university towns organized torch-lit parades against the perceived "un-German" spirit. Rituals featuring Nazi officials, professors, and student leaders addressing crowds preceded the book burnings, accompanied by music, singing, and ceremonial acts. Joseph Goebbels delivered a speech in Berlin, denouncing "decadence and moral corruption" and declaring an end to an era of "extreme Jewish intellectualism." He referred to the authors of the burned books as "intellectual filth" and "Jewish asphalt literati" in his radio broadcasted speech. While some book burnings were postponed due to rain or held on June 21, the summer solstice, the "Action against the Un-German Spirit" was successful in thirty-four university towns across Germany, receiving widespread newspaper coverage and radio broadcasts in places like Berlin, reaching countless German listeners.

• The photo was published online by the National Digital Archives in Poland (Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe) under a Public domain license, allowing copying, modification, distribution, and performance of the work, even for commercial purposes, without requiring permission.
• Nazi propaganda photo.
• Press release photo retouched with ink, paint, etc.