In 1919, as the Social Democratic government came to power in Germany and lifted long-standing censorship laws. Acting quickly, filmmaker Richard Oswald joined with psychiatrist and gay-rights pioneer Magnus Hirschfeld to write and produce Different From the Others, (Anders als die Andern)  a 90-minute drama about the love affair between a famous male violinist and his male student.

Today only fragments of footage and film stills survive, due to the efforts of the subsequent Nazi regime, but “Anders als die Andern” was the first film ever to seriously delve into homosexuality and its position in contemporary society.

Hirschfeld in 1926 edited the surviving 40+ minutes of the film into the documentary below about tolerance.