Archive for Sexology

The concept of sexology ("Sexualwissenschaft") was first developed by the Berlin physician Iwan Bloch in 1907 and soon found wide acceptance with his colleagues. Thus, the first Journal of Sexology appeared in 1908, the first Society for Sexology was organized in 1913, the first Institute for Sexology was founded in 1919, and the first international sexological congress was held in 1921. All of this took place in Berlin. However, when Hitler and the Nazis came to power in 1933, they destroyed the new science. Since most of its pioneers were German and Austrian Jews, they had to flee into exile (USA, Soviet Union, Palestine, Egypt, Sweden, Switzerland, Great Britain). None of them returned to Germany; almost all of their papers were scattered or entirely lost. Nevertheless, the Archiv für Sexualwissenschaft as well as the Kinsey Institute possesses a number of historical documents relating to some of these pioneers. Most of the documents are unpublished and are waiting to be studied by historians of science and of general cultural history.

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