German filmmaker and activist Holger Mischwitzky, better known as Rosa von Praunheim, was BOTD in 1942. Born in a prison in Riga during the Nazi occupation of Latvia, he was adopted as a baby and spent his early years in Communist East Berlin. When he was 11, he and his family escaped to West Berlin. He studied painting at the Werkkunstschule in Offenbach and the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Berlin, leaving before graduation to become a filmmaker. He began making experimental films in the late 1960s, adopting the name Rosa von Praunheim, collaborating with Rainer Werner Fassbinder and becoming a key figure in the New German Cinema movement. He is best known for his 1971 film Nicht der Homosexuelle ist pervers, sondern die Situation, in der er lebt (It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives), which became a foundational text of the West German gay rights movement. An extraordinarily prolific filmmaker, his work included Armee der Liebenden oder Aufstand der Perversen (Army of Lovers or Revolt of the Perverts), a portrait of New York City in the aftermath of the Stonewall Riots; Stadt Der Verlorenen Seelen (City of Lost Souls), a musical performed by drag queens and trans artists; Ein Virus kennt keine Moral (A Virus Knows No Morals), a feature film about the HIV/AIDS pandemic set in a gay bathhouse; and Silence = Death, a rousing portrait of New York AIDS activist group ACT-UP. A co-founder of the German ACT-UP movement, von Praunheim was a vocal advocate for HIV/AIDS and safe sex education. In 1991, he created a national scandal by outing TV anchorman Alfred Biolek and comedian Hape Kerkeling, putting him at odds with gay conservatives. His later work included Transsexual Menace, a documentary about the American trans rights group; Der Einstein des Sex (The Einstein of Sex), a biopic of pioneering sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld; Für mich gab’s nur noch Fassbinder (Fassbinder’s Women), a documentary exposé of Fassbinder’s abusive relationships with his female lovers and actresses; and Meine Mütter – Spurensuche in Riga (Two Mothers), a portrait of his biological and adoptive mothers. He taught filmmaking in Germany and the United States, with students including Abel Ferrara and Tom Tykwer. Von Praunheim was married to writer and director Oliver Sechting until his death in 2025, aged 83.