A pioneering figure in the field of sexology, Magnus Hirschfeld was born in what is now Poland to an Ashkenazi family, the son of renowned physician Hermann Hirschfeld. After earning his medical degree, Hirschfeld spent some time in the United States and involved himself in the gay scene in Chicago, which would spur him to study sexuality and gender. Hirschfeld was struck by the universality of homosexuality and the fact that gay subcultures existed in most major cities, as well as the rate of suicide experienced by his gay patients. Hirschfeld worked tirelessly to normalize homosexuality in German society and foster greater acceptance, through both academic and political means. In the liberal atmosphere of Weimar Berlin, Hirschfeld found some measure of success, as the Social Democratic government of Prussia had no interest in enforcing federal laws against homosexuality. He founded the Institute for Sexual Research and built an immense archive of works relating to sexuality and gender research. Hirschfeld made the Institute his literal home, living there with his partner Karl Giese and his sister. Hirschfeld's fortunes would turn as first conservative Chancellor Franz von Papen seized the government of Prussia and began to crack down on homosexuality, and then the Nazi Party came to power in Germany. As a gay, Jewish socialist, Hirschfeld was a threefold target for the Nazis, and he never returned to Germany, having already been abroad on a speaking tour when the Nazis took power. The Institute was shut down and then ransacked, with its library burned. Hirschfeld would spend the rest of his life in Nice, France, dying in 1935.