Charlotte Wolff

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Berlin memorial plaque on the house, Laubenheimer Strasse 10, in Berlin-Wilmersdorf

Charlotte Wolff (born September 30, 1897 in Riesenburg , West Prussia , † September 12, 1986 in London ) was a doctor, sexologist and writer. She published fundamental works on female homosexuality.

Life

Memorial stone on the old St.-Matthäus-Kirchhof , Großgörschenstraße 12, in Berlin-Schöneberg

Charlotte Wolff was born as the daughter of a Jewish merchant family and spent her childhood and youth in Riesenburg and Danzig . In 1918 she went to Freiburg im Breisgau to study medicine at the Albert Ludwigs University , but also took the subjects psychology and philosophy . In 2019 a path will be named after her there. She continued her studies in Berlin , where she finished her dissertation in 1928 . During her student days she discovered her preference for women. Wolff himself also rejected the classic image of women of the time and preferred comfortable men's clothing.

After completing her practical year as a doctor at the Rudolf Virchow Hospital (now Charité ) in Berlin , she moved to the Clinic for Family Planning, Pregnancy Care and Contraception in Berlin as Deputy Director. However, Wolff soon had to give up this position due to her Jewish descent. Until her final discharge in February 1933, she still worked at the Institute for Electro-Physical Therapy in Neukölln . In the same month Wolff was briefly arrested by the Gestapo and accused of espionage and of wearing men's clothing. After completed in May 1933 search warrant emigrated Charlotte Wolff then on May 26 in 1933 to France .

Her interest in chirology began as early as 1931 , and she completed a course with Julius Spier in Berlin . The apprenticeship made it possible for Charlotte Wolff to earn a living as a chirologist. Among other things, she did it in Paris, where she met Thomas Mann and Aldous Huxley . Her work inspired her to further scientifically research methods of hand and gesture interpretation . In research, Wolff cooperated with the French psychologist Henri Wallon (1879–1962).

In 1936, at the instigation of Aldous and Maria Huxley, Charlotte Wolf fled to London, where she opened her own psychiatric practice in 1951 . She soon gained a lot of attention in specialist circles with her scientific publications.

In 1939 Charlotte Wolff gave up her German citizenship. In 1947 she became a British citizen. Charlotte Wolff often referred to herself as an "international Jew with a British passport" . In 1978 she set foot on German soil for the first time since her expulsion.

Researches

Chirology

Charlotte Wolff worked for twenty years - from 1932 to 1952 - in the field of chirology, which she had learned from Julius Spier. She performed psychological hand diagnoses, about which she authored four books. Through the mediation of Aldous Huxley, Wolff gained access to Paris and London artistic circles. In her first study from 1936, she described handprints of Marcel Duchamp , Max Ernst , Man Ray , Virginia Woolf and George Bernard Shaw, among others .

Wolff published the first draft of a psychological theory of the hand in the surrealist magazine Minotaure .

Sexology

In the early 1960s, Charlotte Wolff wrote an essay on lesbianism . From this, between 1968 and 1978, her research in sex science developed . For her first empirical study on female homosexuality , Wolff conducted interviews with 108 homosexual women and asked them to answer questionnaires. She published the results in 1971 under the title Love between Women.

For her second study on bisexuality , Wolff interviewed a total of 150 men and women. The results were published in 1977. For this book she used the term homoemotionality , which she used to express that affection and attractiveness are not only conveyed through sexuality. Charlotte Wolff achieved international recognition with both works.

Her last work, which she completed shortly before her death, is a portrait of the Berlin sex researcher Magnus Hirschfeld .

membership

Charlotte Wolff was a member of the British Psychological Society, of which she became an honorary member.

Publications

  • Studies in handreading. Chatto & Windus, London 1936.
  • The human hand. Methuen, London 1942.
  • A Psychology of Gesture. Methuen, London 1945.
  • The Hand in Psychological Diagnosis. Methuen, London 1951.
  • On the way to myself. Communications to a Friend. Methuen, London 1969, ISBN 0-416-12450-X .
    • German edition: Inner world and outer world. Autobiography of a consciousness. Translated from the English by Christel Buschmann . Rogner & Bernhard, Munich 1971.
  • Love Between Women. Duckworth, London 1971, ISBN 0-7156-0579-8 .
    • German edition: Psychology of Lesbian Love. An empirical study of female homosexuality. Translated from the English by Christel Buschmann. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1973, ISBN 3-499-68040-8 .
  • Bisexuality. A study. Quartet, London 1977, ISBN 0-7043-2144-0 .
    • German edition: Bisexuality. Translated from the English by Brigitte Stein. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1981, ISBN 3-596-23822-6 .
  • To Older Love. Virago et al. Quartet Books, London 1976
    • German edition: Patchwerk. Novel. Translated from the English by Gerlinde Kowitzke. Women's offensive, Munich 1977, ISBN 3-88104-025-0 .
  • Hindsight. Quartet Books, London 1980.
    • German edition: Moments change us more than time. An autobiography. Translated from the English by Michaela Huber. Beltz, Weinheim / Basel 1982, ISBN 3-407-39003-3 .
  • The hand as a mirror of the psyche. Scientific hand interpretation. Barth, Munich, new edition 1983, ISBN 3-502-66635-0 .
  • Magnus Hirschfeld. A Portrait of a Pioneer in Sexology. Quartet Books, London / New York 1986, ISBN 0-7043-2569-1 .
  • with Christa Wolf : Yes, our circles touch. Letters. Luchterhand, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-630-87182-8 .

literature

  • Gisela Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg : Charlotte Wolff. In: Hans Erler u. a. (Ed.): "Because of me the world was created". The intellectual legacy of German-speaking Jewry. 58 portraits. Campus, Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 3-593-35842-5 , pp. 212-219.
  • Jürgen Minz (Ed.): Materials in memory of Charlotte Wolff. "Love and a strong spirit know no age - imagination has no time" . Agit-Druck, Berlin 1998
  • Claudia Rappold: Charlotte Wolff. Doctor, psychotherapist, scientist and writer. Hentrich & Hentrich, Berlin 2005, ISBN 978-3-938485-13-2 .

Web links

Commons : Charlotte Wolff  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ BZ editorial team: In Haslach a path is named after a sex researcher. Badische Zeitung, April 5, 2019, accessed on April 6, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Charlotte Wolff: Moments change us more than time. An autobiography. Translated from the English by Michaela Huber. Beltz, Weinheim / Basel 1982, p. 127f.
  3. ↑ Charlotte Wolff: Patchwork. Frauenoffensive, Munich 1977, p. 189.
personal data
SURNAME Wolff, Charlotte
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-British doctor, sexologist and author
DATE OF BIRTH September 30, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Riesenburg , West Prussia
DATE OF DEATH September 12, 1986
Place of death London