In 2025, Heidelberg unveiled a memorial plaque for Magnus Hirschfeld at Sandgasse 10, where he lived as a student in 1890–91. The physician and pioneer of sexual science and queer rights is now honored as part of the city’s remembrance culture. The inauguration by Heidelberg’s Deputy Mayor for Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities and the Federal Magnus Hirschfeld Foundation highlighted his legacy of equality and visibility. At the same time, the exhibition “gefährdet leben. Queere Menschen 1933–1945” shed light on queer lives under Nazi rule. Both initiatives illustrate effort to acknowledge queer history and diverse cultures of remembrance in the year of its five-year Rainbow Cities Network membership.

City Profile: Heidelberg