Ruth Westheimer

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Dr. Ruth (1988)
Ruth Westheimer (2007)
Ruth Westheimer in an interview at Bayern 1 (April 2019). Interviewer: Thorsten Otto.

Ruth Karola Westheimer , b. Siegel known as Dr. Ruth (* 4. June 1928 in Wiesenfeld / Karlstadt ) is a German - US -American sociologist , sex therapist and non-fiction writer.

Life

At the age of ten, Karola Siegel was sent as a child of Jewish Orthodox parents with a Kindertransport from Frankfurt-Nordend to Switzerland . The Swiss activist Goldschmidt made it possible for her to leave the country together with around 100 other Jewish children. She was orphaned when her parents were murdered in Auschwitz . Siegel spent the Second World War in the Wartheim children's home in Heiden run by the Israelite Women's Association in Zurich . In Herisau she attended a housekeeping school.

After the war she emigrated to Palestine and joined the Zionist underground organization Hagana , where she was trained as a sniper . In 1948 she was wounded by a bomb in the Palestinian War. In the newly founded State of Israel, she trained as a kindergarten teacher. She later studied psychology at the Sorbonne in Paris , where she also received teaching assignments. In 1956 she emigrated to the USA , where she married Manfred Westheimer (1927–1997) in 1957. At the Columbia University Ruth Westheimer studied the subject sociology with a master's degree - a master's thesis about the children in care in Heiden - and earned his PhD .

Ruth Westheimer published her autobiography All in a lifetime in 1989 . In a second autobiographical book, Musically Speaking (dt. The Language of Music ), she describes her life from her birth to her relocation to New York using German folk songs.

Ruth Westheimer became a US citizen after emigrating ; since 2014 she has had German citizenship again . Her pronounced Hessian dialect has been preserved in her German to this day.

job

After graduating from college, she worked at the New York Hospital - Cornell University Medical Center in New York City .

In 1980 she presented the 15-minute radio column Sexually Speaking for the first time , in which she gave impartial advice on good sex . Hundreds of thousands sought advice from the expert. Soon Westheimer was a frequent guest at talk shows in Europe and other parts of the world. She has designed more than 450 television programs.

Some of the US universities such as Harvard and Princeton still employ Westheimer as a visiting professor . She got a new four-year contract from Yale University . In 1994 the German Society for Social Science Sex Research honored her with the Magnus Hirschfeld Medal for Sexual Reform.

Westheimer has written over 30 non-fiction books on the subject of sexuality. Her last work, published in the USA in 2005, is aimed at the generation over fifty.

In her broadcasts she likes to refer to herself as “1 meter 40 concentrated sex” (based on body size). The Wall Street Journal once described it as a cross between Henry Kissinger , whose German accent is also unmistakable, and Minnie Mouse .

Fonts (selection)

  • Doctor Ruth's guide to good sex (German: "Let's talk about it ..." Sexualität und Erotik Goldmann, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-442-30505-5 )
  • First Love (German: First love. An educational book for young people. Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main 1988, ISBN 3-548-34432-1 )
  • Doctor Ruth's guide for married lovers (German: Love in marriage. Advice for a happy coexistence. Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main 1988, ISBN 3-548-34449-6 )
  • All in a lifetime (German: … and all in one life. Autobiography . Benteli, Bern 1989, ISBN 3-7165-0652-4 )
  • with Louis Lieberman: Sex and Morality (German: Sex und Moral. Beltz, Weinheim 1990, ISBN 3-407-30535-4 )
  • The Art of Arousal. 1993, ISBN 1-55859-330-6
  • Dr. Ruth's Guide to Erotic and Sensuous Pleasures. 1994, ISBN 1-56171-099-7
  • Dr. Ruth talks to kids. (German: From now on everything will be different. From growing up, from love and from sex . Aare, Aarau et al. 1994, ISBN 3-7260-0415-7 )
  • Sex for dummies. (German: Sex for Dummies. 1996 and numerous new editions)
  • Heavenly sex (German: Himmlische Lust. Love and Sex in Jewish Culture , Campus, Frankfurt am Main 1996, ISBN 3-593-35466-7 )
  • with Amos Grunebaum: Dr. Ruth's Pregnancy Guide for Couples 1999, ISBN 0-415-91972-X .
  • with Steven Kaplan: Grandparenthood (German : Happy that there are grandparents. Ullstein, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-550-07118-3 )
  • Who I am !? Where did I come from? (German: Where do the little babies come from? Coppenrath, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-8157-2950-5 )
  • Musically speaking. (German: The language of music. A life with songs. Gryphon, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-937800-45-X )
  • with Pierre A. Lehu: Sex after 50. (German: Silver Sex. How you enjoy your love with relish. Campus, Frankfurt / New York 2008, ISBN 978-3-593-38271-5 )
  • Myths of love. Collection Rolf Heyne, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-89910-470-7 .
  • with Pierre A. Lehu: The doctor is in (German: Lebe mit Lust und Liebe. Herder, Freiburg 2015 ISBN 978-3-451-34818-1 )

literature

Movie

  • Ryan White: Ask Dr. Ruth (2019), documentary

Web links

Commons : Ruth Westheimer  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Ruth Westheimer  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Felix Hain: The best-known US sex educator comes from Franconia. In: Main-Post from January 11, 2010.
  2. ^ Alfred A. Häsler : The story of the Karola Siegel. A report. In collaboration with Ruth K. Westheimer. Benteli, Bern 1976, ISBN 3-7165-0082-8 .
  3. ↑ I see who is sexually satisfied. In: Die Weltwoche , edition 51/2010.
  4. ↑ a b Katharina Brenner: I, sex therapist Dr. Ruth about her childhood in Heiden: “I know the expression 'Cheibe Usländer'” In: St. Galler Tagblatt , July 17, 2018.
  5. ↑ Sigmund Freud should have attended my courses. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin , June 8, 2018, p. 27 f.
  6. ↑ Autumn beckons , issue 34 in 2014, loaded on February 23, 2017
  7. ↑ Mathias Plüss: For us women, Freud was a disaster. At the age of 86, Ruth Westheimer speaks bluntly about pornography, masturbation, and sex in old age. Good advice from the most famous sex therapist in the world in our series "Old Masters", episode VI. In: Das Magazin , N ° 11, March 14, 2015, Tamedia Zurich, pages 36–41.
  8. ↑ When the shock stiffens. In. The press.
  9. ↑ Ask Dr. Ruth. In: IMDB. Retrieved July 29, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Westheimer, Ruth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Siegel, Ruth (maiden name); Dr. Ruth (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American sex therapist
DATE OF BIRTH June 4, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Wiesenfeld / Karlstadt