Sexual anomalies : the origins, nature and treatment of sexual disorders. A summary of the works of Magnus Hirschfeld, comp. as a humble memorial by his pupils. A textbook for the medical and legal professions, ministers, educators, psychologists, biologists, sociologists and social workers, criminologists and students in these fields.

  • Hirschfeld, Magnus, 1868-1935.
Date:
[1948]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Sexual anomalies : the origins, nature and treatment of sexual disorders. A summary of the works of Magnus Hirschfeld, comp. as a humble memorial by his pupils. A textbook for the medical and legal professions, ministers, educators, psychologists, biologists, sociologists and social workers, criminologists and students in these fields. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    suit of these congresses the World League for Sexual Reform was formed which, under the Honorary Presidency of Havelock Ellis, worked for the realization of Hirschfeld’s humanitarian ideas. For Hirschfeld was, above all, a humanitarian. He was also a champion of truth and justice in questions that were outside the sphere of his immediate interests. Thus he fought against alcohol¬ ism, and made the connection between the effects of drink and sexual anomalies the subject of close investigation. During World War I he raised his voice in protest against the orgy of murder and destruction and studied, with despair in his heart, yet impartially and objectively, the psychosis of war. During the years after the debacle he was the first to advocate the establishment of a Min¬ istry of Llealth. But even his versatile scientific and practical activities did not exhaust his energies. His passionate sincerity and his powerful per¬ sonality were most impressive when he had to justify his principles in public. As the forensic medical expert of the Berlin courts he fought fiercely in hundreds of cases for people charged with sexual offenses, and in many cases it was due to him alone that prisoners afflicted with sexual abnormality escaped the degrada¬ tion of a jail sentence and even the gallows. Hirschfeld therefore pioneered in putting into practice the theory, so widely accepted today, that sexual offenders should be regarded primarily as per¬ sons requiring medical treatment rather than prison sentences, which so frequently led to repeated offenses upon release from imprisonment. Who can deny that humanity owed a debt of gratitude to this man, who devoted all he had and all he was to a great ideal whose realization removed the brand of shame from hundreds of thou¬ sands of unfortunate people all over the world? Yet his only reward was the satisfaction of his achievement. The world, includ¬ ing many for whom he had fought throughout his life, repaid him by a symbolic destruction of his life work, by persecution and, finally, exile. With the advent of Hitler, the Institute for Sexual Science was closed down, Hirschfeld’s collection destroyed, his collaborators