The Lilac People

by Milo Todd

While Dr. Hirschfeld did have a secretary and assistant, documentation suggests these tasks most likely fell under the guidance of his lover, Karl Giese, who was also the museum’s librarian and archivist. For plot reasons, I gave the fictional character of Bertie this role. Giese was described by Christopher Isherwood as “a sturdy peasant youth with a girl’s heart.” He stayed behind when Hirschfeld went on his world tour. He survived the Institute’s attacks unscathed, eventually coming to France to stay with Hirschfeld and Li Shiu Tong, Hirschfeld’s second lover who he met during his world tour. After a certain “bathhouse affair,” Giese had to quickly relocate to Vienna, then Brno. He died by suicide in 1938 before the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia. He had played the part of the younger version of the protagonist in Hirschfeld’s film Anders als die Andern (Different from the Others, 1919).