Magnus Hirschfeld and the Quest for Sexual Freedom

This volume is the first full-length study on pioneering sexologist and sexual rights activist, Magnus Hirschfeld, that examines his impact on the politics and culture of late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century Germany and the value of his rationalist humanist approach for contemporary debates on sexual rights.

"Physician, sexologist, homosexual activist, German, Jew, and what he called, a world citizen, Magnus Hirschfeld was a fascinating and complex character, one who has earned an exalted place among crusaders for tolerance and human freedom. A champion of the decriminalization of homosexuality, promoter of sexual freedom, and supporter of the women s movement, Hirschfeld rejected the dual sex system as well as prevailing popular and scientific notions of homosexuality as a pathological expression of deviance. Examining Hirschfeld the scientist, political activist, and cultural critic, Mancini is to be congratulated for her thorough, engaged, and engaging study of one of twentieth-century Europe s great humanists." - John M. Efron, Koret Professor of Jewish History, University of California-Berkeley

"Readable and useful, this new intellectual biography of the German sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld adds greatly to our understanding of the cultural politics of sex in Germany from the turn of the century to the collapse of the Weimar Republic." - Sander L. Gilman, Director, Program in Psychoanalysis, Health Sciences Humanities; Distinguished Professor of the Liberal Arts and Sciences; and Professor of Psychiatry, Emory University

Auteur

Elena Mancini received her Ph.D. in German Studies from Rutgers University. She has taught at Hunter College, Montclair University, and Rutgers, and is the Culture Editor for Logos: A Journal of Modern Society and Culture.

Contenu
PART I: EARLY YEARS AND CULTURAL CONTEXT Hirschfeld's University Years, Early Travels and Encounters with the Literary World Urban Culture and Homosexuality Jewish Identity and Medicine PART II: EVOLUTION OF HIRSCHFELD'S SCIENTIFIC OUTLOOK Research Methods and Philosophy Hirschfeld and the Importance of Sexology The Third Sex Theory and its Cultural and Scientific Reception Sexual Intermediacy and Transvestitism Hirschfeld and Psychoanalysis Hirschfeld and Degeneracy Hirschfeld as a Clinician PART III: POLITICS, ACTIVISM, AND WAR Hirschfeld, the Social Democrats and Wilhelmine Sexual Politics Homosexuality and the Politics of Effeminacy in Wilhelmine Germany: The "Liebenberg" Affair Misogyny and the Anti-feminist Substrate of Homophobia Hirschfeld and the Women's Movement Hirschfeld and WWI The Weimar Years The Ernst Röhm Affair PART IV: PANHUMANISTIC COSMOPOLITANISM, EXILE AND FINAL YEARS World Voyage and Sexual Ethnography Jewish Identity and Race Discourse Exile and Final Years Epilogue