World League for Sex Reform
The World League for Sexual Reform on the Basis of Sexology (WLSR) was a scientific and political association that existed from 1928 to 1935, which aimed for a comprehensive social reform on the basis of an enlightened, scientifically founded sexual morality . The sexual reform should result in a “more rational” organization of human coexistence, improve the health of the population and enable individuals to have happier and freer sexual and relationship life.
founding
The driving force behind the founding of the World League for Sexual Reform was the German sex researcher Magnus Hirschfeld . Hirschfeld was able to win leading international sexologists and activists for the world league in advance. At his instigation, the invitations to the congress at which the association was brought into being were already sent with the letterhead of the World League and membership cards were issued. It was officially founded on July 3, 1928 at the second "International Conference for Sexual Reform on the Basis of Sexology" in Copenhagen. The founding members included the German doctor Max Hodann , the journalist Helene Stöcker , one of the organizers of the Association for Maternity Protection and Sexual Reform founded in 1904/1905 , the French writer Victor Margueritte , the US birth control pioneer Margaret Sanger , the Russian activist Alexandra Kollontai , the British Dora Russell and Norman Haire, who also works in Great Britain, as well as representatives from Austria, Switzerland, Italy and Spain, Japan, Norway, Iceland, Egypt, Liberia, Chile and other countries.
organization
The seat of the World League for Sexual Reform was at the Institute for Sexology, founded in 1919 by Magnus Hirschfeld in Berlin .
Magnus Hirschfeld, the British sex researcher Havelock Ellis and the Swiss psychiatrist Auguste Forel were elected as the first presidents of the world league . From 1930, Norman Haire and the Dane Jonathan Leunbach replaced the largely inactive Ellis and Forel, who, however, remained honorary presidents.
When it was founded in 1928, an international committee and a working committee were brought into being. In fact, however, the committees seem to have hardly developed any activity. A central control of the organization or binding resolutions cannot be proven either. The 30 national sections that were counted in 1933 - for example in France, Poland, Spain and the Netherlands - acted largely independently of one another.
There is no precise information about how many members the World League had. It is estimated that there are 182 individual members and 130,000 members through member organizations such as the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee , the British Society for the Study of Sex Psychology (BSSSP) and the Federation for Maternity Protection and Sexual Reform in 1930.
aims
The WLSR was founded as an international association for the development and dissemination of knowledge of sexology and as an umbrella organization for various national groups and individuals. By bundling sex-political concerns, the sex reform movement should be strengthened, given more visibility and become more assertive. The most important goal formulated in Copenhagen was
"[...] to work in such a way that the practical conclusions for the assessment and reorganization of human sexual and love life are drawn from the research results of biological, psychological and sociological sexology."
A catalog of ten individual demands was drawn up at the congress. These read:
- Political, economic and sexual equality for women.
- Liberation of marriage (especially also of divorce) from church and state tutelage.
- Birth control in the sense of responsible child generation.
- Eugenic influence on the offspring.
- Protection of illegitimate mothers and children.
- Correct assessment of the intersexual variants , especially homosexual men and the like. Women.
- Prevention of prostitution and sexually transmitted diseases.
- The conception of sexual instinctual disorders, not as a crime, sin or vice, as before, but as more or less pathological phenomena.
- A sex laws , the only real intervention in the sexual freedom of another person punished, but not themselves engaged in sexual acts, which are based on the adult Matched sexual desire people.
- Scheduled sex education and information.
The publications of the various national sections of the WLSR show, however, that these demands were not represented uniformly worldwide, but that the individual groups sometimes promoted different versions of them.
activities
The main activities of the WLSR include its five congresses. The International Conference on Sexual Reform on the Basis of Sexology, which took place in Berlin from September 15 to 20, 1921, was subsequently declared the first congress of the World League. The founding congress of the World League, which took place in Copenhagen from July 1 to 5, 1928 with 70 participants, could already be considered the Second Congress of the World League for Sexual Reform. A third congress with 350 participants took place in London from September 8 to 14, 1929, a fourth with around 2,000 participants from September 16 to 23, 1930 in Vienna and a fifth from November 20 to 26, 1932 in Brno instead of. Further congresses, as planned for 1931 in Moscow and for 1933 in Paris, did not take place.
One of the international activities of the World League is the attempt to publish a magazine called Sexus. However, the two attempts in 1931 and 1933 were given up after each issue.
resolution
The emergence of National Socialism made sexual reform efforts difficult in Germany. The Institute for Sexology in Berlin was looted as early as 1933 and later dissolved. After Magnus Hirschfeld's death in his exile in Nice in 1935, the World League was dissolved by the remaining presidents Norman Haire and Jonathan Leunbach. As reasons, they named the lack of or discontinued activities of the individual national sections and the political and economic conditions in Europe. But the difficult personal relationship between the two also played a role.
literature
- Ralf Dose : Theses on the World League for Sexual Reform. Notes from the workshop. In: Mitteilungen der Magnus-Hirschfeld-Gesellschaft 19 (1993), pp. 23-39.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jana Wittenzellner: Between Enlightenment and Propaganda. Strategic knowledge popularization in the work of the Spanish sex reformer Hildegart Rodríguez (1914–1933) . Bielefeld: transcript 2017. pp. 295–297.
- ^ Dose (1993): 24
- ↑ Ángeles Llorca Díaz. La Liga Mundial para la Reforma Sexual sobre Bases Científicas (1928–1935) . In: Revista Española de Sexología 69 (1995): 16.
- ^ Herta Riese, Jonathan Leunbach: Proceedings of the Second Congress. II. Congress of the World League for Sexual Reform, Copenhagen, 1. – 5. July 1928. Leipzig: Thieme, 1929. p. 304.
- ^ Dose (1993). P. 33
- ^ Llorca (1995). 21st
- ^ Jonathan Leunbach / Norman Haire: Communication to all members and sections of the World League for Sexual Reform . In: Journal for Political Psychology and Sexual Economy 2/2 (1935): 98.
