Sexual reform
Sexual reform describes political and educational efforts to overcome or change an outmoded sexual morality that is perceived as repressive. Historically, this movement has been closely related to the intellectual movement of the Enlightenment since the 17th century - until today the word "Enlightenment" is used colloquially for elementary sex education.
Sex reform has been organized since the 19th century, represented by civic organizations such as the Bund für Mutterschutz und Sexualreform , but also by the socialist labor movement . As part of a series of life reform movements, the sexual reform in Germany at the end of the 19th century gained new momentum and was closely linked to the first wave of the women's movement and the emerging movement to decriminalize homosexuality, such as that represented by Magnus Hirschfeld .
The sexual reform tried to spread a scientific concept of sexuality and was directed in particular against the repressive morality of the churches and religious communities, which is often directed against female sexuality. A notable social movement emerged in the Weimar Republic in 1931, advocating legal abortions. Communists coined the slogan "Your body is yours!"
Their concepts are therefore still being continued today by advisory institutions promoting family planning and health education. The political controversies that sexual reform concepts have sparked since the 19th century continue to this day , for example in the debate on the right to abortion, but also on feminism and equality for homosexuals.
The Magnus Hirschfeld Medal is awarded annually for special services to sexual reform .
Well-known sex reformers (selection)
- Wilhelm Reich
- Eugene Steinach
- Helene Stocker
- Magnus Hirschfeld
- Manfred Bruns
- Felix Abraham
- Havelock Ellis
- Harry Benjamin
- Max Hodann
- Rolf Gindorf
- Karl Tiedt
- Paul Krische
- Johanna Elberskirchen
- Felix A. Theilhaber
- Max Flesch
- Hans Lehfeldt
- Norman Haire
- Ludwig Levy-Lenz
- Alexandra Mikhailovna Kollontai
See also
literature
- Christa Uhlig: Sex reform, sex education and the labor movement. Discourses in the magazines Die Neue Zeit and Socialist Monthly Issues from the turn of the century to the First World War. In: Yearbook for Research on the History of the Labor Movement , Issue I / 2003.
Individual evidence
- ^ "The Malthusian League [1877-1927] was the forerunner of many subsequent English pressure groups in the field of sexual reform." (Rosanna Ledbetter: A History of the Malthusian League 1877-1927. In: New Scientist , Ohio State University Press 1977). The Malthusian League had asked the League of Nations in 1919 as follows: “Every nation wishing to join the League of Nations should pledge to limit its birth rate so that its people can live comfortably in their own territory without the need for territorial expansion, and every nation should recognize that a growth in population neither justifies the demand for area expansion, nor the exertion of pressure on other nations to accept their emigrants. "(Ursula Ferdinand: Life and Work of the Economist Julius Wolf. In: The construct" Population ") before, during and after the “Third Reich” [Ed. Mackensen, Reulecke]. Wiesbaden 2005, p. 184).
- ^ Eric D. Weitz: Weimar Germany. Promise and Tragedy. Princeton 2007, p. 304.
- ^ Ulrich Linse : Sexual Reform and Sexual Advice. In: Diethart Kerbs , Jürgen Reulecke (Ed.): Handbook of German Reform Movements 1880-1933. Wuppertal 1998, pp. 211-226.