The Lilac People

by Milo Todd

The attic housed rooms for people sent to the Institut for expert assessment in criminal court matters, usually sexual crimes from a range of definitions. When they were around, plainclothes detectives positioned themselves opposite the building to make sure none of them left the premises. Forensic fees provided a major source of income for the Institut. To a lesser extent, the Institut also got by with other paperwork services: written court assessments were 150 marks, transvestite cards 50 marks. In ’21, the Prussian Ministry of the Interior began to permit name changes for transvestites who underwent a medical assessment, though such changes had to be reported in the official gazettes, including dates of birth and home addresses. Bertie hated how his personal business required broadcast. It felt both unfair and unnecessary. The rest of the Institut’s matters scattered themselves throughout the two buildings. Consultation rooms, treatment rooms, surgery rooms, reading rooms, exhibition rooms, offices, a moving picture projection room, a ballroom, and the large library and archive. Even the departments were known to shift and restructure based on which doctors and staff members were currently practicing. Archives management and financial administration offices were a constant, alongside departments for research, sexual counseling, physical sexual ailments, psychological sexual ailments, forensics, eugenics, sexual reform, and public sex education. Homosexuals, transvestit...