Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld
 

Causes and Essence of Uranism
 
 

[Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, "Ursachen und Wesen des Uranismus", in: Jahrbuch fuer sexuelle Zwischenstufen, Vol. 5 (1903), No. 1, pp. 1-193; translated here: the introduction on pp. 1-47.]
 
 

Causes and Essence of Uranism. By Dr Magnus                                       [page]
    Hirschfeld, Charlottenburg (also published separately under the
    title: "Der urnische Mensch" ["The Uranian Human Being"])                 1
        I. The Uranian Child                                                                             47
        II. What is Harmonious in the Uranian Personality                              67
        III. The Ineradicability of Homosexuality                                            104
        IV. The Natural Necessity of Homosexuality                                       125
        V. Heredity and Homosexuality                                                           138
    Appendix. Life history of the Uranian Worker S.                                    150
 
 
 

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Causes and Essence of Uranism.
By Dr Magnus Hirschfeld
 
 

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[illegible quote in German handwritten script]

Nietzsche: Gay Science. Aph. 7:
All types of passions must be thought through individually, followed individually through times and nations, great and small individuals: their entire reason must come to light!

Thomas Carlyle:
Every good that is at all possible will one day exist in reality; as deeply and tragically as we perceive that we are still in the darkest night, so firm and unshakeable is our confidence that morning will come. Already we see, looking ahead, streaks of dawn on the rise. When the time is fulfilled, day will break.
 
 

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"Observe, gentlemen, observe!" With these words my esteemed teacher Freiherr von Recklinghausen of the University of Strasbourg opened and closed almost every hour of his instruction. He showed himself in these words, whose content had been transformed into the very flesh and blood of this brilliant man, as a true student of Virchow and of that direction that applied its major attention in the first decades of the last century toward doing away with the natural-philosophical speculation of earlier times and putting precise investigation in place of theoretical ponderings. Not gilded parchments, not the dead letter, but rather living nature itself should be the sole source of knowledge about nature. The requirement of the scientific character was to gather individual observations independently, with or without the aid of instruments, and to draw conclusions from them that were all the more compelling, the greater the material was on which they were based. Uranism, too, is a phenomenon that cannot be gotten to the bottom of by the light of a study lamp, but rather only by [observation of] the subject matter. In the last few years, many men have written about it who held knowledge of the literature to be equivalent to knowledge of the issue, historical research to be equivalent to natural research. What would we likely think of an ...
 
 

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... author who wrote about the causes of tuberculosis without ever having examined a tuberculotic patient, or of one who would speak of the essence of woman without knowing a single one? Recently, a scholar who had published several things about homosexuality came to me with the request to be introduced to some homosexuals, since he had never had the opportunity yet to get to know any of them personally. Another author, Dr. Iwan Bloch, a researcher of some accomplishment in the history of medicine,[1] in speaking of the great rarity of homosexuality in his opinion, reports about Effertz,[2] that he - and here we are quoting word for word - "whose book speaks from a great deal of experience, claims to have never seen a genuine homosexual." If in any field, then definitely in the field of Uranism, only familiarity leads to realization, only objective observation, investigation, and comparison to correct understanding.

The exact method has been criticized, not entirely without justification, for working too exclusively with the sense organs, disregarding things that are not directly accessible to them, [and] in research into the human being neglecting the soul life in favor of the cell life. In response, it should be emphasized that even insight into the mind and soul of the human being can only be gained by numerous exact individual observations! Only he who has personally studied a large number - let's say, at least a hundred - of homosexuals thoroughly and carefully, and not only that, subjects of all age levels and social strata, subjects whose impression is not distorted by incidental illnesses and conflicts, will be able to comprehend with full clarity ...
 

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[1] Iwan Bloch, MD. Beitraege zur Aetiologie der Psychopathia sexualis. Part I, Dresden, Dohrn Verlag, 1902, p. 218.
[2] O. Effertz. Ueber Neurasthenie sexualis. New York, 1894. p. 192.

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... that the essence of the Uranian is not exhausted by identifying the direction of his sexual drive. As one perceives the masculine character in the man, and the feminine character in the woman, as the main thing, so also in the Uranian the Uranian manner, his overall character, stands at the center, this peculiar mixture of masculine and feminine properties, which are admittedly not apt for procreation, but are not for that reason unfruitful. Anyone who thinks that being homosexual merely means feeling drawn toward one's own sex, or even that a person who performs sexual acts with persons of the same sex is homosexual, would have to adhere to the following definition to be consistent: A man is someone who loves a woman, and vice versa, as if there were not a plethora of other mental and physical criteria that were part of the masculine and feminine nature.[1]

It would interest us very little in this journal whether and how a Uranian performs his activities, if the opponents did not always lay the main emphasis on the act and - if human laws did not exist that think that they can dictate away natural laws. Wachenfeld[2] and Bloch, ...
 

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[1] Therefore, it would be advisable to replace the already very widespread word homosexuality as often as possible with the more comprehensive term Uranism. Homosexuality, compounded from the Greek "homos" (same) and the Latin "sexus" (sex), is a monstrosity not only in its form, but also in its content, because in reality the Uranian does not like the same, but rather a different sex. A not unknown author remarked in filling out our questionnaire: "I am turned off by the same-sex quality of the woman." The word frequently used in recent times in southern Germany, Freundling [friendling], is unsuitable for the sole reason that it does not admit the derivation of other words, which Uranian [noun - German Urning or Uranier] does in abundance (urnisch [adj. - Uranian], Uranismus [Uranism], Urningtum [Uraniankind], Urninde [female Uranian], etc.).
[2] Prof. Wachenfeld. Homosexualitaet und Strafgesetz. Leipzig, 1901.

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... when they speak of homosexuals, always think exclusively of merely sensual acts, of the "mechanics of love", and they overlook [the fact] that there is a pure love, they miss [the fact] that there are homosexuals - we know many of the kind who identify themselves as homosexual - who live chastely. That does not have to do with the direction, but rather with the strength of the drive and of the will. Just as there are frigid women and asexual men, there are also passionless Uranians, who by nature are the most able to control themselves. The type of sexual activity of adults should really be a matter of no concern to third persons. But it is another matter with the knowledge of Uranism in general. This knowledge appears to us to be indispensable for any person who sees in the human being the "highest object of study", as Goethe put it. The evidence has not yet been put forth regarding the role that the Uranian has played in the history of the development of humanity, but it will be put forth. This purpose of this journal is much more important to us than the repeal of Paragraph 175, which Wachenfeld[1] supposes to be its sole slant; for this repeal has a purpose only - and this has been demonstrated in countries where it is not a crime - if public opinion has comprehended the essence of homosexual individuality, which - and we emphasize this expressly and repeatedly - is certainly not better than the male and female complex, but also not less valuable.

Like the essence, one can also only derive the causes of contrary sexual feeling on the basis of a large amount of factual material acquired from direct observation. How, for example, can one make a judgment as to whether this drive is a manifestation of degeneration, ...
 

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[1] Wachenfeld. Zur Frage der Strafwuerdigkeit des homosexuellen Verkehrs, in Goltdammers Archiv fuer Strafrecht, 1902, p. 38.

... unless one has thoroughly examined at least a few dozen persons affected by it for physical and mental symptoms of degeneration? It is quite regrettable that such a diligent scientific worker as Iwan Bloch did not embark on this sole rational path of objective research. If he had, he could have avoided many factual errors. To name only one at this point, Bloch repeatedly emphasizes in a laudatory manner the great rarity of homosexuality among the Jews. He literally says (p. 60), when speaking of the preventive influence of marriage on the generation of sexual anomalies: "A pertinent example of this is provided by the Jews, whose exemplary family life and deeply internalized view of marriage since their dispersion in all countries can be viewed as the main reason that sexual perversions, in particular homosexuality, scarcely occur among them." If Bloch had studied homosexuality from the sources, then he would not have missed the Jewish national types, like the "Rebecca" type and the "Rachel" type, in Berlin Uranian bars, any more than the numerous Israelite Uranians among academics or ladies' clothing designers, and perhaps not either the elderly Jewish antiques dealer who takes the liberty of addressing Uranians of the high aristocracy by abbreviated first names. I myself have seen, among about 1500 homosexuals whom I have carefully observed over the course of the last 7 years, 43 [male] Jews and 11 [female] Jews, thus 54 out of 1500, or 3.6%; on December 1, 1900, Germany had 590,000 Jews out of a total population of 56,345,014, thus 1.0%. These figures definitely show that the proportion of Jews is in any case not lower than that of the rest of the population. Jewish Uranians are rare in Christian countries only in the same sense as [Uranian] Protestants are in Catholic areas, of whom the same thing has been asserted.
 
 

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In contrast to the Jews, according to Bloch[1] and Wachenfeld[2] homosexuality is supposed to be especially widespread among the Romance peoples. The latter writes: "Even without statistical documentation, it is certain that in Romance countries that do not have Uranian statutes, particularly Italy, homosexuality is widespread in a way that people in Germany can barely imagine." In order to ascertain the spread of Uranism among the various nations, races, and classes in a comparative manner, we conducted a totally unbiased inquiry with a considerable number of "globetrotters" whom we know to be Uranian. There are many among the Uranians who spend their entire lives moving from country to country. Out of 40 incontestable answers, 18 state that they encountered homosexuality everywhere in the same proportions, while all of the others emphasize that they encountered relatively more homosexuals among the Germanic and Anglo-Saxon peoples than among the Romance peoples. A physician who lives alternately in Italy and Germany writes: "The pure Germanic race has more real homosexuals than the Latin." A well-traveled businessman reports: "It has been my experience that same-sex love occurs less often in France, Spain, Italy, and Turkey than in Germany, Sweden, and Denmark." A writer notes: "In Italy, a country that I got to know during a five-year stay, I saw homosexuality emerge much less than in Germany." Another author responds: "Homosexuality occurs more often in the north than in the south; it is especially common in England. It is true that young people in Italy ...
 

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1 Bloch's Beitraege etc., p. 19 ff.
2 Wachenfeld in Goltdammers Archiv, p. 57 ff.

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... offer themselves for everything for pay, but there are fewer actual Uranians there." A member of the high aristocracy, finally, who knows all of Europe, answers in a somewhat ironic manner: "If homosexuality means the downfall of the political power position of a state, then England and Germany, and in Germany Prussia, will certainly be the first to fall." Seven experts emphasize that in Paris, in spite of the lack of punishment, homosexual intercourse is much less common than in Berlin. Three point to the great frequency of homosexuality in the Russian Baltic provinces, which we have also been able to confirm based on the foreign correspondence that we have received. One response states: "There appears to be an unusually large number of Uranians among the Courlanders of German extraction" [Courland is the present-day Jelgava, Latvia]. One gentleman personally knows several hundred Uranians in Riga. Finally, an interpreter who has traveled many parts of the world relates: "I found a remarkably large number among the low-born folk of Upper Bavaria, who are truly a strong and healthy people." Thus we see here too with certainty what false conclusions one can be led to by theoretical ponderings on the influence of a warm climate, race degeneration, etc. or by isolated observations that one author appropriates from another without verifying them.[1]

Nonetheless, we must be grateful to the aforementioned authors for making the effort to get to the bottom of the matter, even with inadequate means. Ultimately and finally, every science is nothing other than research into the laws of causality. But for Uranism, ...
 

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[1] Bloch, for example, repeatedly relies on A. Ferguson, whose work was published in Leipzig in 1768, and on Doppet, who published his studies in 1847, not to mention many even older authors.

[page 10:]

... knowledge of the causes has not only a theoretical value, but also an imminently practical value in a critical, forensic, and therapeutic respect. Critical insofar as the schooled and unschooled classes will judge the homosexual completely differently if they view his condition as one given to him from birth, than if they believe that it arose due to masturbation (Bloch, p. 135 ff.) or excessive womanizing (Bloch, p. 179). If we succeed in proving to the people beyond a doubt that no one can become a homosexual who is not one already, that external circumstances can neither make a homosexual normal nor make a normal-sexual contrary, [and] that according to their own innate nature Uranians do not act unnaturally, then, as has been seen repeatedly, hatred and scorn will be transformed into kindness, compassion, and respect.

Even for the criminal court judge, it will make a significant difference - and here we totally concur with Wachenfeld[1] - whether the tendency of the homosexual must be deemed "a misfortune laid in his cradle or a result of his conduct." It is true that Hans Gross[2] asserts: "For us criminalists, the issue of whether it is innate or acquired is irrelevant, because the issue of punishability cannot depend on that", and even Moll[3] expresses the same viewpoint in one of his more recent publications, in that he states that with the same justification one could assert that people suffering from innate imbecility ought to be exempt from punishment [when they commit crimes], while people suffering from acquired imbecility should be punishable for the same ...
 

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[1] Goltdammers Archiv, Volume 49, Nos. 1 and 2, p. 10 [or 16?].
[2] In the Archiv fuer Kriminalanthropologie, Volume 10, Nos. 1 and 2, p. 195. In a discussion of Bloch's Beitrage zur Aetiologie.
[3] Albert Moll. Sexuelle Zwischenstufen, in der Zukunft, Volume 10, 1902. No. 50, p. 127.

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... criminal acts. But against this it should be noted that it would be hard for a legislator to arrive at the notion of subjecting "unnatural unchastity" to punishment if he did not think, in misapprehension of the motives, that the persons to be punished had abandoned the natural use of the woman ([Paul's] Letter to the Romans 1:24). The same circumstance that led to the promulgation of the paragraph, is also the cause of its continued survival: inadequate knowledge of causality. But ignorance has always wrought more havoc than ill will.

For the purpose of criminal justice, a correct assessment of the Uranian is also important. If it is an innate, incurable affliction, then there can only be a question of harm reduction. Then it would be logical either to condemn the incorrigible pest to death or to shut him up in an institution for his life long. But the state will hardly resolve to do these things in view of the quality and quantity of the Uranians. But if it is only a matter of "libertinism" (Bloch, p. 171), "habitual alcohol consumption" (Bloch, p. 55), or the influence of the "modern women's movement" (Bloch, p. 248), then one cannot disregard the good purpose of deterrence and rehabilitation.

Similar aspects also come under consideration in the case of the treatment of homosexuality. Schrenck-Notzing[1] already recognized this very correctly. He says: "For the assessment of contrary sexual feeling, particularly in regard to prognosis and therapy, its etiology is of decisive importance" and in ...
 

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[1] Dr A. Freiherr von Schrenck-Notzing. Die Suggestionstherapie bei krankhaften Erscheinungen des Geschlechtssinnes, etc., Stuttgart, 1892, p. 127 and p. 149.

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... another place: "The more the number of cases rises, in which lasting therapeutic results are achieved, the less, in our opinion, appears the share that hereditary pre-disposition can claim in the occurrence of this anomaly." Certainly the prospects of losing a drive through external influences are much greater if it is brought on by external causes, such as a faulty upbringing (Schrenck-Notzing, pp. 167 ff.). Later, of course, we will have to clarify - when we speak of the firmness of the Uranian individuality - that curability through hypnosis still by no means proves the acquiredness of a condition.

As long as the problem of homosexuality is discussed scientifically, people argue over whether its basic causes lie prior to or after birth. On the one side are the researchers who have at their disposal a very large store of observation material, especially Krafft-Ebing, Moll, and myself. The latter lay the main emphasis on innate constitution and attribute only a subordinate value to incidental factors. Just as occasional causes of all kinds trigger the normal drive, external influences also often awaken the dormant yet clearly present homosexual drive. However, these occasions are of a secondary nature, and the primary thing remains the particular nature of the individual, of his brain, of his mind, and of his body. An excellent psychiatrist, himself a Uranian, and a model of conscientious work, concurs with us in the following terms: "I can and must declare that I have never gotten to know of a case of homosexuality that I would not have to characterize as 'innate.' In all of the cases that I have studied - as soon as the subject began to act naturally and set aside the 'normal human being' that they were ...
 
 

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... putting on display - homosexuality was something that corresponded so well to the entire essence of the person, that was so fitting for the individual, that it appeared downright impossible to hold any other opinion than that of an innate so-to-speak psychological constitutional pre-disposition."

On the other side are a not insignificant number of scholars (Tarnowsky, Schrenck-Notzing, A. Hoche, A. Cramer, K. Kautzner, Saenger, Meinert, Wollenberg, Rosenbach, Siemeriing, and others) who represent the opposite standpoint. They believe, along with Bloch[1]: "A totally heterosexual human being can be transformed into a typical homosexual individual." The author of this thesis thoroughly discusses over 60 different causes that produce homosexuality. It is probably no coincidence that, perhaps with the exception of Schrenck-Notzing, all of the authors who adhere to the acquisition theory, taken together, cannot present as many observed cases as any one of the three aforementioned physicians. In a field that is so far removed from the subjective feeling of the majority, however, it is certainly important whether an objective judgment is based on 1500, 150, 50, or 5 cases. Bloch has met with much assent; thus Prof. Eulenberg says in the foreword that he dedicates to Bloch's works: "The doctrine of the 'innateness' of the sexual perversions, especially homosexuality, must therefore be dropped or at least significantly curtailed. We physicians are of course the last ones to shed a tear for it; for if we are dealing with evils that are acquired, namely for the most part acquired based on external incidental causes or artificially nourished by circumstances, then we will be permitted to feel ourselves far more than before in a position ...
 

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[1] Dr. I. Bloch. Zweiter Teil der Beitraege zur Aetiologie der Psychopathia sexualis. Dresden 1903. Preface p. XVIII.

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... to combat them effectively with cures and especially with prevention and prophylaxis." But a lawyer, L. Kuhlenbeck, JD, discusses Bloch's book extremely approvingly in the "Juristische Wochenschrift"[1] that he publishes, and he adds: "The main thing is not to permit an untimely leniency toward efforts that poison life at its origin and that already dare to raise their head in literature under names like homosexualism or sexual intermediates with a shamelessness that appears to have been foreign even to degenerate antiquity, even though the apostle Paul already characterized their unnaturalness as one of the worst fruits of the declining heathen civilization." Thus Kuhlenbeck wrote in 1902.

Thus two views stand opposed to one another with great resoluteness. Bloch says (Vol. 1, p. 11): "The 'innate' cases of homosexuality probably do not exist at all." We say: "Only from the born Uranian, from the Uranian child, can a homosexual man or homosexual woman develop." Bloch claims (Vol. 1, p. 215): "In the great majority of cases, same-sex love arises from external incidental factors, and an original pre-disposition to it is very unlikely, and in any case very rare." We claim: "Neither can a male or female being change into one that feels in a same-sex manner, nor is the converse possible." Bloch thinks that the reasons for homosexuality are almost always outside, we think that they are without exception within the human organism, that they grow out from the inside of the human being.
 

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[1] Nos. 55 and 56. Berlin, August 15, 1902. W. Moeser Verlag.

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It ought to be obvious, but in the face of Wachenfeld's attempts at classification[1] it has to be specifically emphasized, that only someone who feels in a homosexual manner is a homosexual, and whether or not he acts in a homosexual manner is irrelevant from a scientific standpoint, even if not from a legal standpoint. A normal-sexual, who acts in a homosexual manner, is normal-sexual, just as a homosexual, who manages to have intercourse with the other sex, is nonetheless homosexual.[2] In both cases, one is dealing not with love and a sexual drive, but with manipulations more or less akin to masturbation. The number and significance of normal-sexuals who have intercourse in a homosexual manner is often greatly overestimated. They would not concern us at all in this journal, which is dedicated to sexual intermediates, if the supporters of § 175 did not love to trot them out. For what reason do these people do something that contradicts their nature? We can distinguish three groups here:
a) those who have homosexual intercourse for personal gain: prostitutes, blackmailers;
b) those who do it out of kindness, good nature, gratitude, compassion, friendship, etc.;
c) those who resort to it for lack of opposite-sex persons, such as in boarding schools, [regular] schools, monasteries, prisons, barracks, ships, etc.
 

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[1] See Jahrbuch, Vol. IV, Numa Praetorius, Widerlegung Wachenfelds [Refutation of Wachenfeld].
[2] The usual classification in many Uranian circles hits the core of the matter better than Wachenfeld's distinction between "homosexuals" and "contrasexuals." They often divide the people they know into "a.s." (auch so = that way too), "m.m." (macht mit = plays along), and "t.u." (total unvernuenftig = totally nonsensical).

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All of these have in common that the homosexual intercourse represents for them only a temporary episode, that they continue to feel in an entirely normal manner, and that, as soon as the opportunity is presented to them, they have intercourse with women, either in marriage or outside of marriage. Let us observe the members of these three categories in somewhat greater detail.

The reasons that lead young men to offer themselves to homosexuals professionally for money are the same ones that can be considered in the case of female prostitution, as in general both forms of professional unchastity have much in common in their manifestations. For the man, too, the causes that lead to his prostituting himself lie partly in his inner orientation, an inherited or acquired great weakness of will, a tendency toward laziness and the good life, and partly in external circumstances. For the latter reason, the large number of male prostitutes are recruited from poorer circles. As unbelievable as it sounds, there are parents who do not shrink from forcing their sons - especially when they appear suited for this by a rather attractive appearance - as well as their daughters to throw themselves into the arms of this tragic profession. It is reliably reported about one of the best-known male prostitutes in Berlin, and confirmed by him, that his own parents launched him on this career already at the age of 14. In the most cases by far, however, the driving motives are poverty, and then a bad example and seduction. Only by exception does it occur - and such cases cannot be condemned strongly enough - that a homosexual seduces a young man to prostitution by taking him away from the profession in which he is working. It occurs more often that a young man, who, having lost his job, is vainly running himself ragged seeking a living, makes the acquaintance of a Uranian with whom he has intimate intercourse ...
 
 

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... for pay. The latter gives him food and clothing, treats him well, [and] introduces him in better circles, which flatters his vanity. The easy work, which, if he himself has a homosexual nature, even gives him pleasure, and the lazy life become in this way so much a habit for him that he cannot give it up anymore, even if an opportunity were offered to him to return to an honest, hard-working life. Very often the process unfolds in something like the following manner: A poor, ragged, starving, and freezing boy stands homeless on a corner on Friedrichstrasse. Soon he becomes aware of the fine, made-up "dandies" who stroll up and down the street for hours night after night, until a distinguished gentleman speaks to them, and then they leave with him with their head held high. He first makes bashful, then bolder attempts to imitate the pattern, and one day he succeeds at it too. For many of the distinguished gentlemen love precisely these poor boys with their dirty collars and shoes, their thread-bare coats, and their torn trousers. Once they have succeeded, then they hold onto their position - their lives were much too bad for them to want to change back. The social causes of male prostitution also play a role when many especially poorly paid classes of workers take up this trade as a side line. Thus it can be taken for a fact that in Paris, among the young employees of the telegraph service, there are many who try to supplement their meager earnings (50-60 francs per month) by means of such a side job. It is a similar case in London with the messenger boys. I owe this and other information about male prostitution to an extremely reliable Uranian source who calls himself Pherander. This man also ...
 
 

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... subjected the relevant conditions to a thorough study in very many metropolises in Europe as well as India. He distinguishes between heterosexual and homosexual prostitutes. Among the former, who show an especially high degree of debasement due to the sale of their bodies in a way opposite to their natural constitution, you will naturally find most of the blackmailers. It is beyond doubt that § 175 of the National Criminal Code has greatly fostered, if not created, an exceptionally awful side of male prostitution: blackmailing, extortion. Although one cannot claim that without this law there would be no more blackmailers, for the countries where no such prohibition of homosexual activity exists prove the opposite, nonetheless it can be assumed with certainty that extortion would be reduced to a very small level after repeal of the paragraph, indeed it will entirely disappear after the masses are educated about the causes and essence of Uranism. Pherander divides the second category of prostitutes, who are themselves homosexual by nature, into two sub-groups, those who do business even with those who are not to their taste, that is, those who, although they themselves love young people, will deal with older men, and those who only follow their inclination, for example, young feminine boys who feel drawn to older ones. It cannot be determined what category those who offer themselves for sale on the street and in the bars belong to, since many who are absolutely normal play as though they were "genuine" because this makes the "suitors" less worried. Particularly talented actors are the "petits Jesus" in Paris, almost all of whom are not Uranian. The number of prostitutes circulating on the streets of Paris, especially on the grand boulevards, is comparatively not so great as in Berlin. Pherander counted 20-30 men for sale ...
 
 

[page 19:]

... on the Boulevard des Italiens and the Boulevard Montmartre during the peak time for business, while at the same time of day he observed 50-60 on the most active part of Berlin's Friedrichstrasse. Meanwhile, prostitutes by no means form the main contingent of blackmailers. Even the heterosexuals among them usually do not exactly resort to blackmailing, since they could easily ruin their "business" in that way. Also there is a certain team spirit among the male prostitutes that prevents individual members from taking too many liberties. More frequent and dangerous are those blackmailers who have had intercourse with a homosexual on one occasion - often without having sought out the occasion themselves - and then present themselves as the innocent "victim of seduction" and their partner as a "vile debauchee" and they threaten him with being reported or compromised unless he pays a certain amount. They return again and again, frequently sticking to their victims like leeches and not letting them go until they have ruined the Uranian financially and socially. Another class is represented by the wholly professional blackmailers, who are very much feared by the prostitutes themselves. They carefully lie in wait until a gentlemen gets together with a "hustler" whom they know well by sight, then they follow them unnoticed, wait until the homosexual leaves the apartment of the prostitute again, and then approach the completely astonished victim with their threats and demands.

The larger a city is, the more extensive is its male prostitution. Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Dresden, Leipzig, Breslau, and Cologne are the main centers in Germany that for this reason are also often sought out by Uranians from smaller cities and ...
 
 

[page 20:]

... from rural areas. The male and female demi-monde also love to make excursions to places where there are many foreigners. Thus Pherander reports: "In Kiel, during the so-called Kieler Woche, when all sorts of regattas are sailed, a number of male prostitutes arrived from Hamburg in the summer of 1902 in order to catch and to blackmail. The public at large certainly did not notice it at all, but I myself had determined their number, which was twelve, after a few days, all of them in the Duesternbrocker Allee across from the docks for the navy boats." About Berlin, our source writes: Among all the major cities of Germany, Berlin holds a unique position in terms of male prostitution. One can assert with good reason that it occurs here to a degree like nowhere else, not only in Germany, but in Europe as a whole, with the possible exception of London, the situation of which in this regard I know only from descriptions and not from my own observation. It requires real study to even approximately figure out the jumble of the various types of male prostitution in Berlin. It shows up here so freely and openly that it must be noticed even by the uninitiated. Pherander estimates the number of pure prostitutes, who live entirely from their "profession", at 400, and the number of semi-prostitutes, on the other hand, at 10-12,000. He defines as semi-prostitutes those who do let themselves be paid for their "love", but mostly follow an inner inclination. They usually have some kind of job, often live in the house of their parents or with relatives, and are not in any way dependent on selling their body, but they see the financial gifts of their benefactors as a pleasant side income to satisfy ...
 
 

[page 21:]

... all kind of desires. Many of them - insofar as they are heterosexual - might just as well be counted among our second group.

The relationship of male prostitutes toward their female competitors is very telling. One can scarcely speak of actual competition between female and male prostitutes, because the respective clienteles are fundamentally different. Someone who prefers women will in general pay no attention to the young men, and vice versa: "For this reason, the two types of prostitution are in no way hostile to one another, and on the contrary, I have often had the opportunity to observe," Pherander writes, "that they help and support one another as well as they can."

The age of the male prostitutes is rarely under 16, and almost never over 25.

The job earns some of them so much money that they are able to afford quite luxurious apartments. They more expensively and elegantly they live, the greater claims they make on the purse of their customers. Many acquire a small fortune through high prices and extortion, from which they can live in their old age. One very notorious and well-known Berlin "hustler" from a good family, whose main business activity is behind him and who gives the impression of a complete gentleman, is now living very comfortably and finely in an apartment that shows by its furnishings how well its owner understood how to use his "savings" wisely. He is supposed to have exerted an enormous influence on his colleagues in the profession and his name is still mentioned among Berlin hustlers with a kind of reverence.

"I have seen many other apartments of prostitutes", writes our source, "and have convinced ...
 
 

[page 22:]

... myself from their appearance that the business must bring in more money than one would think. It frequently occurs that two or more young people get together. Perhaps they are enflamed by love for one another, or, as often happens, they have intercourse with a female competitor who lives in the house."

Gradually the time approaches when the prostitute must pay his tribute to age, often much earlier than for his female rival. No amount of shaving and "putting in order" helps anymore. It is true that there are some who prefer a fully-developed man to a young boy, but one cannot live on that and for good or ill one must take up another occupation.

If one has saved up money, one may open a small store or restaurant and become a so-called proper human being.

But many can no longer accustom themselves to a regular life and finally throw themselves into the arms of criminality and pandering, where they most likely would have arrived even without their years as prostitutes, due to their nature and their environment.

One thing can be discerned clearly. No heterosexual prostitute acquires same-sex drives by acclimatization, nor does one whose nature is homosexual become heterosexual from oversaturation with men.

A second, not unconsiderable, group of normal-sexuals who arrive at homosexual activity on a temporary basis are the mostly young persons who form the object of homosexual love. There is no doubt that, while many homosexuals prefer by far those who feel in a homosexual manner like them, and for many it makes no difference in their inclination whether the respective object feels in a contrary manner or not, a large ...
 
 

[page 23:]

... number of Uranians are inclined exclusively toward normal-sexual, strong natures. Often those who have the same way of feeling as they do are downright repulsive to them, they are "too feminine" or too similar. "Our natures are too similar, they are not suited for love, although they are suited for friendship" responded a famous Uranian actress to a female colleague who declared love for her.

Now, however, many homosexuals interact with the young boys or men, with whom they have fallen in love, not in a sexual manner at all; it is true, they are consumed by an inner longing, but they do not have the courage even to kiss the beloved. The fear of revealing themselves and losing the friend holds them back. The normal one, deeply moved by the devoted friendship that is willing to make every sacrifice, has no more of an idea than those around them that, in the other partner, there is another feeling at work, that of love. I have observed in many of my patients the agonizing depressive states, the monstrous psychological pain that are produced when the heterosexual "under strict discretion reveals a secret engagement for the first time to his best friend."

With many lovestruck Uranians, sexual orgasms occur without the normal one noticing it. I know one student, who is admittedly quite neurasthenic, who has had a steady relationship with another student for four years. It is true that the latter is aware of his friend's condition, but the homosexual, despite the fact that they live together, cannot get up the nerve to make a sexual move. He thinks the poetic charm of their friendship might suffer from it. On the other hand, he often has ejaculations when the friend sits in his lap, which he often does when they are working together.

Definitely not so rare are the peculiar cases in which very feminine Uranians - mostly those ...
 
 

[page 24:]

... with excessive breast development - have intercourse with normal-sexuals without the respective partners knowing that their partner is "a man." An unusually feminine-looking opera singer reports the following: He goes for a walk on a Sunday evening dressed as an elegant lady. In a park he pursues a non-commissioned officer with amorous looks. - That they like non-commissioned officers is typical of certain feminine types. Common soldiers are usually "too young" for this type, while officers are "too finely spruced-up." - The NCO responds, he offers his arm to the lady, and she suggests that they go have dinner at a restaurant, but on the condition that she be allowed to pay. The soldier accepts. They experience a few enjoyable hours and then he rides back with her to her elegant apartment. In the dark bedroom, the opera singer puts on his feminine night gown and the NCO returns early in the morning to his barracks, without the thought having even remotely crossed his mind - we may be permitted to dispense with describing the details - that he had done anything illegal, even if unconsciously.

We now arrive at the relationships of homosexuals with normals in which sexual acts occur, usually mutual masturbation, thus a nonpunishable act. Usually, unless it is a very fleeting relationship, the Uranian looks after the one he loves with great fidelity, promotes and supports him, keeps him from practicing self-masturbation for both of their interest, stands at his side in every way, often provides him with an education, and frequently even takes care of his family members. Such cases are tremendously frequent. Usually the benefit is greater than any damage that the Uranian does. The normals look back on these episodes definitely not as an unpleasant memory, which however does not prevent them from cursing pederasts, of whom they have a completely ...
 
 

[page 25:]

... different picture. A Uranian lieutenant wrote to us some time ago: "Why do people worry about the pigsty of the third sex, one should only come visit our parlour, one would be astounded at the treasures that are laying around there." Often the relationships just described end with the engagement of the normal one. The Uranian often serves as a witness or honored guest at the wedding, remains a friend of the family, becomes godfather to the children, one of whom often receives his name, and is ready at hand in emergencies. The friendship of the normal one very often lasts longer than the love of the Uranian. A Uranian woman loved a normal young lady of the same age in the most tender way for many years, she was happy, but she suffered a lot as well, and now she has cooled off, but her friend still writes to her every day and cannot "do without the connection that is so valuable and dear to her." Similar things occur frequently.

As a paradigm of this group, I would like to provide a description of a head teacher which is worth noting in another respect as well.
 

"Coming from a good family," he reports, "raised in a conscientious manner, I considered love for a woman to be something quite self-evident after everything that I had heard and read. The idea that my very strong preference for especially good-looking schoolmates might have an erotic flavor never occurred to me. I also never thought about the fact that it was impossible for me to use the bathroom in their presence. As a high-school junior [Sekundaner] I performed my first coitus with the only prostitute in my small hometown, with whom over the past 20 years almost all of my countrymen had performed their first coitus for [the price of] one mark. A short time thereafter an older gentleman, of whom I now know that he is 'that way too', tried to touch me in an unchaste manner: I gave him a resounding box on the ears, the only one that I have ever given in my life. Very dismayed, he begged me on his knees for forgiveness and discretion. At the university I had intercourse with a woman every two or three months, and was always very happy when I was done with the act, and yet my indifference ...

[page 26:]
 

... did not disturb me any more than my great interest in the pretty he-foxes in my fraternity [Korporation]. I got a chancre with buboes and impregnated a maid. Thus everything went normally until at the age of 20 - I was already working in my profession - I got to know a seventeen year old boy whose beauty and wonderful essence - a splendid mixture of strength and charm - completely took hold of me. Since I first saw him until this day, almost eight years, he has been first and last thought every day. I was completely absorbed by him, I dedicated myself to his interests, and I saw in him the highest perfection. He was an extraordinarily skilled, completely normal-sexual, quite frivolous-minded creature. I managed to work it out that for 7 years I was with him almost every day. Sexual acts also occurred. It was hard for him to decide to make the sacrifice, but he did it anyway, as he said, out of friendship and compassion. In his own way of feeling, he always remained the same during the years of our sexual intercourse. It often happened that he fell in love with a girl. I suffered unspeakably from jealousy. Then he would console me saying: 'If I had to choose between her and you, I would rather lose her. I can always find another girl, but never a friend like you. She takes, you give, and you bring out the good person in me.' One day, however, he got to know one whom he loved as furiously as I loved him. Our relationship became untenable. The terrible pain that I felt in giving him up cannot be expressed in words. I still have not overcome it, but I will overcome it and look for a surrogate in my profession and in work for the common good. I cannot and will not count myself among those disinherited of the joy of love, because I have enjoyed, lived, and loved happiness on earth."

We see two things in this case, first, how with the Uranian, despite a forceful rejection of a homosexual assault and despite normal-sexual activity before and after, the homosexual drive emerged, and second, how the normal-sexual remained completely heterosexual in spite of homosexual seduction. The direction of the sexual complement is simply far too firmly standardized, far too independent of the entire personality, for it to switch into its opposite. I have ...
 
 

[page 27:]

... inquired of several very credible Uranian old men, as to whether any darlings of theirs who were inclined toward women had become homosexual, and not a single case has come to my knowledge. We would like to conclude this section, however, with the recommendation that, when parents give their children the sexual education that is so necessary in many respects, whether they do so themselves or through their physicians, they should make reference to the manifestation of Uranism, so that their sons and daughters can confront encounters of that kind with clear awareness.

As another cause of same-sex intercourse, many authors[1] mention a shortage of females. Obviously, this is not a case of homosexuality, but rather a variety of masturbation, even if ejaculation into the body takes place, as sometimes happens by way of exception. How little these persons assign to such an expedient a value equal to that of natural intercourse was proven to me once by a response that a wealthy farmer's son, ...
 

________________________
[1] Examples are found:
a) from schools in Hoche, Neurologisches Zentralblatt, Vol. 15 (1896), p. 66. Moll, Die kontraere Sexualempfindung, p. 374. Note 2 with report from Dr. Bahrdt. Rohleder, Die Masturbation (1899), pp. 111 and ff., who cites in this regard Rousseau, Salzmann, Chevalier, Fournier, Blasemann, and Fuerbringer, among others
b) from monasteries in Doppet, Das Geisseln und seine Einwirkung auf den Geschlechtstrieb [Whipping and its Effect on the Sexual Drive].
c) from ships in Ellis and Symonds, Das kontraere Geschlechtsgefuehl (1896), p. 11, Note 1.
d) from prisons in Wey, cited in Ellis and Symonds, p. 13.
e) from barracks. Tarnowsky, Die krankhaften Erscheinungen des Geschlechtssinnes (1886), p. 66. Ellis and Symonds, p. 10, Note 1. Raffalovich, Entwicklung der Homosexualitaet (1895), p. 12.
f) from the French Foreign Legion. Cramer, Berliner klinische Wochenschrift, Vol. 34, p. 962 (1897) and Gerichtliche Psychiatrie, p. 281 (1900).

[page 28:]

... who was serving with the dragoons, gave me in a Uranian bar that I was inspecting. When I questioned why he had intercourse with men, he responded: "In order to remain faithful to my bride." I have in particular a number of reports from cadet houses that show that, even though mutual masturbation is unfortunately practiced in an abundant manner, only a small fraction becomes contrary-sexual, namely those who are demonstrably not full male, but rather Uranian. To the examples published by others, I would like to add a very instructive report from a Catholic orphanage. I owe the report to a very reliable observer whom I know, K.A., who was raised there for 10 years along with 120 fellow students.
 

"I was 8 years old when I arrived at this institution. Since I had already enjoyed being with boys before, I was only homesick for the first few days and very soon I felt fine among the 120 boys aged up to 14 years, with only a few who were 15 or 16 years old. The friendly interaction among these boys was so affectionate that one would have had to believe that one was looking at nothing but dyed-in-the-wool Uranians. Almost all of the older ones picked themselves out a friend from among the younger boys, whom they then took care of and protected. This was not exactly unpleasant for the younger partner, because among so many boys, the smaller ones usually had to put up with some shoving, but if he had an older boy for a friend, then no one would dare to treat him roughly, and both of them tried to outdo one another in showing affection. When I myself was 9 years old, it so happened that two older boys were vying for me at the same time, and neither of them wanted to back down in favor of the other. The matter was then decided by a fight between the two of them, and the others surrounded them in a circle so that the guards would not see, and they looked on until one of them was unable to fight any more, and then the victor had a public claim to me. He was my friend for almost an entire year, until he was discharged from the institution at the age of 14. I am reminded of his friendship to this day by a rather large letter, the initial of his name, which we mutually tatooed on ourselves at the time in the upper arm using Chinese ink and a needle. Since this happened very often, some boys had pretty good skills in it. I still remember today ...
 

[page 29:]
 

... how happy I was at the time to be able to suffer these needle pricks for my friend. This boy was inspired by such a love for me, that he did everything I wanted, which he could discern by looking at my eyes. Since he was wealthy and his family lived in the vicinity, he received a visit once a week and was given all kinds of presents: after he had such a visit, then he came over - usually only after we had gone to bed, then the first thing he did was to come to my bed and lay out his treasures before me, and I often had trouble getting him to take any of them for himself. When we were led to the dormitory in the evening, he never failed to wait for a favorable moment to say good night to me and kiss me. As soon as one had found a boy whom one especially liked, one courted him, one followed his every step, and one tried in every way to make oneself pleasant to him, one gave him presents, or one had a comrade to play the intermediary. Once a boy applied a very peculiar means to approach me, a boy whom I had also secretly liked for a long time, but who was so good-looking that I figured he would never respond to me and so did not want to expose myself to any humiliation, because it was considered very ignominious to be turned down. One evening he came up to me during a lecture and the two of us, at his instigation, began playing a game in which one tries to hit the hand of the other while the other must be very watchful, because the hits can be very painful, and therefore he must pull his hand away quickly. Now when it was his turn, he hit me only very softly and lightly, and when I asked him the reason, he told me that he could not hurt me because he liked me too much. I was happy; we kissed and told each other how we had liked each other for so long already. Friends like this used to exchange plates and silverware at lunch, because it gave them a particularly good feeling to dine using objects that had previously been used by the friend. The one whose job it was to serve at table therefore always had to keep up with the latest news and was always precisely informed about every new friendship and made sure exactly and conscientiously that each person received the utensils of his friend, just as he also knew when a relationship ended, and then he gave each one his proper utensils again, which were, however, rarely used by him again; rather the plates were usually broken and the silverware was thrown ...

[page 30:]
 

... in the garbage can and new ones were bought. Likewise, each boy had a certain shawl in the winter, but one always wore that of one's friend, because it had touched his bare neck. Tatooing of the arms with the friend's initial was common, but one had to be very careful in all of this so that the teachers did not notice anything. If they saw a particularly tender friendship between two boys, then they were strictly forbidden to have anything to do with one another anymore, but then they did it all the more eagerly, and if one was punished then he was happy to be able to suffer for the friend. If one of them had played a prank, then it often happened that the friend took the blame for it, while the other would not stand for this and then the teacher had 2 perpetrators before him and did not know which one had actually done the thing. If the friend was given a beating, the other one felt it so dearly that he cried as well. These small details show that the friend was everything to one, and what tenderness existed in this friendship. That sexual intercourse also occurred is self-evident. I was 9 years old when I learned about masturbation, and many were even younger. Winter especially offered many opportunities for sexual intercourse; in the evening you would go outside on the pretext of getting some air, and a few minutes later your friend would follow you, and then outside you were undisturbed, and even if this was usually done in order to kiss and hug, in the excitement the other activity happened as well. Then intercourse also happened a lot at night in the beds. Naturally, this had to be kept secret from the other boys, because there might well have been a tattle-tale among them. I definitely believe that only masturbation was practiced. If a new boy came into the institution, attention was paid immediately to whether he was good-looking, and it did not take long before this one or that one had befriended him, although this often did not proceed without passionate scenes of jealousy. It would go too far to provide even more details. You find in all institutions that the boys have sexual intercourse with one another, but probably rarely is it so common. This passionate love, so sacrificing and devoted, where one believes that everything is dead if the friend gets the idea to sulk, and one could be madly jealous if one thought that another was preferred, had to have a fateful effect on the boyish mind; if one could speak of an acquisition of homosexuality, then it would have to prove true here, especially since most remained in the institution for 3 or 4 years, ...

[page 31:]
 

... some for up to 8 years, and were subject to this influence for this long. I know for a fact that all of my fellow students today have very active relations with women. I myself was interested in men, even sexually, before the age of 8, thus before I came into this institution, and I was no different after I left. I would like to mention 2 boys in particular, one of whom was in the institution for 16 years, having come there as a one-year-old, and the other was there for 9 years and both felt so strongly for their friends at the time and both had sexual intercourse with them very much, and today they only feel for women. I attribute the fact that this institution in particular featured such strong friendships to the fact that, besides the school hours and the hours filled with prayer, and there was a lot of prayer, the boys were left too much to themselves. The institution was strictly Catholic and believed that it could raise the boys with lots of prayer, but we were bored by the eternal monotony of the rosary and we used the time to think about sexual things. There was no interest in sports and gymnastics, and there was not even any gymnastics in the school curriculum. Bathing [in a pool] was considered immoral; they feared to lead the children to impure thoughts in that way. We were entirely cut off from the outside world. The building was outside the city and was surrounded by high walls, and we were only led out for a few hours in Sunday. The books were subject to strict censorship, and a minor innocent love plot was enough for them to be prohibited to us."

The author of this report fought hard against his condition, and even underwent hypnotic treatment. He has managed only once in his life to have intercourse with a woman, and it was during Carneval with a young girl wearing boy's clothes; he writes about it: "she looked like the most charming boy, the act was done fully clothed, and whether it would have been possible for me otherwise, I cannot say."

We see here therefore, that out of 120 orphan boys, who were raised under exactly the same conditions and who almost all were strongly devoted to solitary and mutual masturbation, only one ...
 
 

[page 32:]

... became homosexual. Therefore, is Schrenck-Notzing right in seeing the cause of homosexuality in one's upbringing, and Schimmelbusch, in seeing it in masturbation, or are those persons right who look for the reason for this manifestation in the innate nature of the brain?

Other than these three categories, it is primarily the debauchees and libertines of whom it is assumed that they finally turn to their own sex out of a "desire for variation", out of "hunger for stimulation", out of oversaturation and sophistication. This belief is not only very widespread among the public, it is also found among physicians and lawyers. Thus Bloch[1] cites Wollenberg[2] who views homosexuality in most cases as the end product of a lascivious sexual life. And Wachenfeld[3] says: "The libertine, who is oversaturated from trying out all kinds of natural and unnatural pleasures with woman, seeks intercourse with the same sex as a specifically stronger stimulant." I have taken a lot of trouble to locate these "debauchees", but I have not managed to do so. Among the great number of homosexuals whom I have observed, not one of them was oversaturated with women, and most of them would have been happy to have been able to "try out" a woman at all, much less that they were satiated by them. No doubt homosexual young boys who have a preference for older men would have to have gotten to know such libertines. They emphatically deny their existence. I did not even shrink from questioning male prostitutes and blackmailers, both homosexual and heterosexual, ...
 

________________________
[1] ibid., p. 235.
[2] Wollenberg. Ueber die Grenzen der strafrechtlichen Zurechnungsfaehigkeit bei psychischen Krankheitszustaenden, im Neurologischen Zentralblatt 1899, No. 9.
[3] ibid., in Goltdammers Archiv, p. 48.

[page 33:]

... about what kind of people they lived off of. They gave one answer in unison, which, translated into scientific language, would be: "Exclusively from those of a homosexual nature." By analogy with these playboys, a homosexual playboy - and there are enough of them - would also once in a while have to turn to women out of a hunger for stimulation. That might become a method of therapy. But it does not happen. Based on my research, I consider these debauchee-pederasts to be phantastical beings just like the witches, of whose appearance, morals, and customs people gave such thorough descriptions at the time of the witch trials. Only think of the delightful witch scenes in Goethe's Faust. In a similar way, people still today tell each other all kinds of things about the solid stare of the warm brothers, and their very small or very long and thin sex organs; like a kind of vermin they prefer to hide in bushes, ready at any moment to pounce on a boy, etc. Even a recent author[1] describes the eye of the "fans of same-sex love" in the following terms: "Its moist glance is extinguished; it looks in a veiled, glassy manner. In addition, the gap of the eyelid is almost entirely narrowed, so that only a small portion of the apple remains visible. Especialy the Uranian of middle and mature age suffers from this; the old man never gets free of this mark of Cain." Compare this description with the attached photograph of a Uranian worker. If one can speak of a type here at all, then this large, dreamy eye - the exact opposite of what is described - can be viewed as typical of the Uranian to a much greater degree.
 

________________________
[1] M. Braunschweig, Das dritte Geschlecht. Beitraege zum homosexuellen Problem. Halle an der Saale, Carl Marhold, 1902.

[page 34:]

If this much-cited class of homosexuals oversatiated by women is not demonstrable empirically, it is also theoretically very unlikely. One whose natural drive tends with elemental force toward woman, no matter how debauched ...
 
 

... his life has been, cannot suddenly desire a man. Gross[1] is perfectly right that such a turnaround in the taste orientation toward the opposite lies outside of all logic and ...
 

________________________
[1] Gross: Archiv fuer Kriminalanthropologie, Vol. 10, Nos. 1 and 2, p. 195.

[page 35:]

... probability. The need for variation certainly has an influence on the type of activity, but not on the inclination of the sexual drive in and of itself. This false conclusion may well be attributable to the assumption that homosexualism can be equated with masochism, sadism, fetishism, and similar disturbances, along with which it has often been jointly discussed since Krafft-Ebing. The latter [phenomena] are something quite different, namely morbid hypertrophies of normal drives, not sexual intermediates (mixtures of male and female qualities) as many authors mistakenly believe in complete misapprehension of the title we have chosen. Everyone who loves would like to conquer the beloved, the sadist wants to bring her into his power; the lover would like to be her obliging servant, the masochist her slave, her "dog"; the lover places a lock of his girl's hair in a locket, the fetishist keeps a collection of women's braids in his drawer. Naturally, a homosexual can, by exception, just like a heterosexual, be a sadist, masochist, or fetishist, perhaps all of them at once, but a homosexual can never be a heterosexual and vice-versa. Gross[1] comments: "The so-called sexually oversatiated man is not oversatiated, he only feels that of the two paths that were open to his nature: the heterosexual and the homosexual - the first was not the right one for him and so he arrived on the second path."

Here the author discerns quite rightly that there are psychological hermaphrodites or bisexuals, who are viewed by many as libertines or at least as people who arbitrarily leave the woman. I openly admit that, ...
 

________________________
[1] Archiv fuer Kriminalanthropologie, p. 195.

[page 36:]

... based on my observation material, I am not yet in a position to make a conclusive judgment about the occurrence, frequency, and significance of the bisexuals. Earlier I considered them a very extensive group. But conscientious exploration of many married Uranians has made me uncertain. Krafft-Ebing emphasized, when he described psychological hermaphroditism as the first stage in innate contrary sexual feeling,[1] that the inclination toward the other sex is much weaker and more episodic, "while the homosexual feeling showed itself as the primary and, in terms of time and intensity, predominant one in the sexual life." In order to see clearly here, as in the entire question, the sexual drive must absolutely be distinguished from the sexual acts that are possible. Only the natural drive is decisive. Only do not believe that someone who can have intercourse with both sexes, also loves both of them. If you survey Uranian husbands, you will usually hear that they got married either in complete ignorance of their condition or because they thought they could become free of the drives that tormented them. Let us look for once at the situation as it truely is. A young Uranian is growing up. From all sides he has heard praise of love for women, and it appears to him as the most desirable goal. The entire heterosexual environment acts upon him as a powerful suggestion. His awakening and strengthening sensuality, in that it makes him follow the general drives of his comrades, leads him to a kind of idolization of female persons. He knows nothing of Uranism; he considers pederasty disgusting, from everything that he has heard about it. The time comes when "the only thing he lacks is a wife." Someone calls his attention to a girl ...
 

________________________
[1] Psychopathia sexualis, p. 254.

... who is practically made for him and or he gets to know one whom he finds "nice", usually one who has many masculine characteristics according to her outer appearance and inner nature. The distinction between love and friendship is definitely not easy to make; so in all honesty he enters into marriage and "dutifully" performs sexual intercourse perhaps once a week, often - as it says in a folk song - "not for the sake of vile lust, but in order to fulfill God's will." His marriage is even harmonious, while there are many unhappy marriages all around him, in which the husbands satisfy their sensuality with other women. But he does not covet his neighbor's wife. So he dies without ever becoming aware of his mistake; for many people spend their entire lives in a kind of twilight, automatically following other people's example, considering their individual feelings as "weaknesses", and everything, even complicated things, play out only in their unconscious. Their soul functions as a reflector. In spite of all of their apparent activity, they never come out of a dark brooding state. But finally for many - a light goes on, and the conscious mind wins the victory over the unconscious. But then often the realization comes too late. "Since I have become aware," a high state official writes to us, "I have clothed my friendship for my wife in the garb of love, and my love for my sweethearts in the garb of friendship, and so I continue to walk through life by deceiving my environment - after having been deceived myself."

Krafft-Ebing[1] emphasizes very nicely that sexual frigidity can in reality be a sign of psychological hermaphroditism. Over the long term, however, ...
 

________________________
[1] ibid., p. 252.

[page 38:]

... it is likely that only people gifted with a very weak sexual drive will fall victim to this error. Many so-called bisexuals have to be aroused for coitus in a very strongly mechanical manner, while others need artificial assistance of a psychological nature. In order to characterize this group, I would like to reproduce a selection of responses that I received from bisexuals about the kind of "normal" sexual intercourse they have. A married university professor reports: "I am capable of coitus with the other sex without special fantasies and tricks, and I do not have any aversion to it, although I don't get any enjoyment either." A manufacturer writes: "If I had been aware of the literature that explained homosexuality, I would not have brought the misfortune of marriage on myself. It was to some extent an act of desperation based on the crazy notion I might be able to change myself; but I only made myself doubly unhappy, and unfortunately I made a good woman unhappy, too, who deserved a better fate than to be married to a Uranian. The act is possible, and I can achieve an ejaculation, but without any feeling of joy at all and afterwards I am very exhausted. During the intercourse, which I find revolting, I cannot manage to think of a beautiful boyish figure." An officer relates: "I have visited many brothels, and with success, that is, I did not embarrass myself. I always told the ladies that they ought to lead a proper life again soon and they assured me that they had never seen such a well-behaved gentleman. Before starting I usually got the shakes, but I had to preserve my good reputation, and afterwards I boasted like a general after a victorious battle." An interpreter says: "I have also had lots of intercourse with women, but only when I was slightly drunk." A worker, who has a wife and children, gives the following account: "I perform intercourse, but ...
 
 

[page 39:]

... with the greatest aversion and while doing it I feel miserable enough to die; right afterwards I would like more than anything to be able to do the act with a man." A lawyer responds: "For many years I have been going to a brothel every two or three weeks. I have never had intercourse with women other than prostitutes. I like many decent girls, but, because men attract me much more intensely and I long for the embrace of a man after intercourse with a woman, I do not take the trouble to subject myself to the long preliminaries that are necessary to win over girls who are not prostitutes. I have never felt sentimental love for women, except for a dance class infatuation when I was 17, while in the last ten years I have felt three strong passions for men." A businessman responds: "I can practice intercourse with women, but only by thinking of the guy who had the woman before me." A young Berlin worker relates: "When I was seventeen years old and all of my age-mates were acquiring relationships and brides, I also took a girl for myself. Because I was not aware of my peculiar nature, it was self-evident to me that later as a man I had to take a wife. In the sexual act, the sensual stimulation always had to be brought about by psychological means. Afterwards, I was very tired from the great effort, and I swore that I would never do such a thing again. At the time I felt very attracted to one of my [male] relatives. I, as the older one who had the greater influence with women, always had to chat up girls and afterwards we often performed the act one after the other. Watching his hot temperament stimulated me extremely and then performing the intercourse was easy for me." An anonymous letter writer reports: "I ...
 
 

[page 40:]

... also have intercourse with women, but only with simple girls under the age of 20; really there was only one Polish girl who excited me, who had short hair and did not wear a corset, and was very boyish." I would like to conclude these paradigms from life with the statement of a patient who recently consulted with me because of sexual hyperaesthesia which was so strong that he got erections looking at the statues of boys while walking across the Schlossbruecke [Palace Bridge] in Berlin. He was a 42-year-old Jewish businessman. In order to achieve potency for coitus, it was not enough to think about a man whom he liked, rather he also had to talk about him, something like this: "Do you remember the servant of the count, who collected the merchandise this morning? Did you like him? He was a fine young man, wasn't he? His uniform seemed like it was new. Didn't you think it was a little tight on him? How old do you think he was?" Only when he held such conversations with his wife, the purpose of which it took a lot of skill to hide, did he manage to ejaculate and - to conceive children, of whom he had three. Is that not true unnaturalness? This gentleman traveled approximately every quarter from the provinces to Berlin to have intercourse there with a soldier; thus he was one of the "periodic pederasts" of whom Tarnowsky[1] as well as Bloch[2] assume that they are normal-sexual from birth who only have an attack of homosexuality from time to time, comparable to "periodic insanity." In truth, however, they are simply homosexuals who are also able to have heterosexual intercourse. The former is nature for them, the latter art. We will no more view them as bisexuals than we will the heterosexuals who can also ejaculate ...
 

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[1] Benjamin Tarnowsky, a syphilidologist in St. Petersburg, Die krankhaften Erscheinungen des Geschlechtssinns, Berlin 1886, p. 13.
[2] Bloch, ibid., p. 15.

[page 41:]

... in homosexual intercourse. Persons who are capitvated, with all the signs of infatuation, at one time by a woman and another time by a man - who would be real bisexuals - I have never been able to discover. It appears to me that an approximately equally strong feeling for both sexes would most likely occur among fetishists, masochists, and sadists. Thus I know a [male] oral fetishist who is inclined to both sexes about equally and a [female] sadist who enjoys torturing feminine men as much as normal girls. In such cases, the perversion itself is so dominant that it asserts itself regardless of gender; the perversion thus cancels out the inversion. Theoretically one might view the occurrence of bisexuality among sexual intermediates as likely, when one considers the joining of male and female characteristics that both strive toward a certain complement. On the other hand, it should be kept in mind that every individual sexual characteristic, including after all the sexual drive, takes either a male or female form, not only those that occur singly, but also the bisymmetrical ones, like the gonads. One might conclude from this that it is also case for the sexual drive center. In any case, I consider a pronounced, uncomplicated drive toward both sexes to be unlikely, but I repeat that I would not yet like to make a conclusive judgment on this question.

Many homosexuals consider themselves bisexual until they are seized by a "grande passion" by which they are made aware of the difference between "fondness" and "love". Let me remind the reader of the case of the head teacher described above. It has already been pointed out how difficult it is to realize one's own Uranian psychological condition, of which one has heard nothing at all or only very ...
 
 

[page 42:]

... negative things. Even when the realization gradually begins to dawn, in most people the mind resists the feeling with all of its power. More than once I have been able to make an early diagnosis of homosexuality, based on physical and mental stigmata, with persons who had no idea of their Uranian nature; subsequent facts confirmed the correctness of the diagnosis. Thus I can recall a gentleman whom I often met at parties. One time he was telling me about a suicide whom we both knew and he added in a rather dismissive manner: "he is supposed to have had sexual contact with men." I could not help replying to him: "Do you know who else feels the same way? You yourself do; your chaste chumminess with women, your many years of strongly idolizing the [male] sculptor X., your effeminate characteristics and movements, your skill in imitating the famous [female] singer X. in her voice and attitude, say enough." He rejected my assumption with great firmness and broad objections. After a long time I saw him again, happy about the clarity and inner peace that he had finally achieved, which came about in him following my justified hint.

It is very difficult to make a correct judgment about one's own nature, so difficult that many unfortunate people feel guilty their entire lives without being so, and the difficulty increases when it is a matter of correctly assessing the causes of a psychological condition that deviates from the norm. Every physician knows how unreliable are the statements of a patient about the reason for a physical pain, how often in the case of inherited or bacterial diseases - for example tuberculosis - a trauma, a cold, stress, or excitement are mentioned as the cause, even though we know for a fact that none of these occasions can furnish a sufficient ...
 
 

[page 43:]

... cause, and that the main condition must have been there beforehand. If this is possible in the physical area, how much more so in the mental. The layman almost never attributes nervous and psychological problems to an inner nature, but rather always to external events. For this reason, of course, a physician will always have to assess the statements of his clients in a critical and comparative manner. To charge a physician with gullibility, as has often happened in the matter of homosexuality, means to accuse him of a lack of critical thinking, and that signifies an awful vote of no confidence with respect to his professional suitability. It is just as awful, however, to declare that homosexuals are liars. Schrenck-Notzing[1] stated that "the self-confessions of Uranians can be taken into account only with the greatest reservations." The author accords them full faith and credibility in only one thing, namely what they report about the therapeutic success of hypnosis, even though it is known how often hypnotized persons in particular tell untruths to the doctor who is treating them "par complaisance" [i.e. merely to be polite]. But while Schrenck and Cramer[2] assume only unconscious self-suggestion under the influence of literature on the subject, Bloch[3] goes much further and speaks of subjective deceptions and falsifications that Uranians put into their autobiographies. "The uncritical theories of an Ulrichs," Bloch states, "were taken for truth by many Uranians and transferred to their own condition." And in a later passage[4] he adds "Ulrichs's writings, which are ...
 

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[1] ibid., p. 195.
[2] A. Cramer, Die kontraere Sexualempfindung in ihren Beziehungen zum § 175 des Reichsstrafgesetzbuches. Berliner klinische Wochenschrift 1897, No. 13, p. 961.
[3] ibid., p. 13.
[4] ibid., 198.

[page 44:]

... teeming with obscene details, are in the hands of all Uranians." How well things would have been for Ulrichs if this statement were even one-percent true. I have a letter in my possession that Ulrichs addressed from Aquila to an acquaintance in Germany on February 6, 1892, thus three years before his death and about 30 years after the appearance of his first books "on the riddle of male-male love." In this highly interesting, thorough document, he describes his situation and then comments literally:

"Your intention to do something for me in another way is very, very friendly. Certainly, but it puts me in an embarrassing position, I don't know what to say, or how I should respond to it. A certain feeling of shame holds me back, while I could accept subscriptions to my newsletter whole-heartedly. My Latin newsletter is a small, entertaining document for scholars who know Latin, which does not limit itself to a certain field, preferably prose, but also brings small poems; it appears about once every two months. In my writings, I have repeatedly expressed thoughts like yours, which encouraged me to think that we form a great invisible bond. It is not true that I had to leave my home and fatherland. No one forced me to leave Germany, and I could return at any time. It is the writings, the writings, that have made a beggar of me, in that they have earned me nothing. They should have been given new editions long ago. Instead - oh! It was so difficult for me even to find bookstores to sell these works."

Thus writes the man whose writings are supposed to be in the hands of every Uranian, although Bloch will not believe these statements, of course, because Ulrichs was a ...
 
 

[page 45:]

... Uranian, after all. Krafft-Ebing already rejected with firmness the rather facile objection "that he was swindled."[1] Recently, Moebius[2] also addressed this accusation; he writes: "The claim that these people are lying or fooling themselves is not tenable, for even if it is true in one case or another, there are so many unimpeachable biographies remaining that there can be no doubt of the originality, the power, and the permanence of abnormal feelings." We would like to emphasize again in the face of Bloch's grave accusation against homosexuals that the great uniformity of innumerable reminiscences by Uranians of all classes, especially even from Uranian workers who have never read a book on the subject, lifts the truthfulness of what has been said beyond all doubt, and, moreover, that in a very large number of cases these statements were confirmed by family members, fathers, mothers, and acquaintances - just a short time ago a Protestant clergyman consulted me about a Uranian son, who was likewise studying theology, and he said: "From the beginning he was different from my 5 other sons." Finally, the reports often enough come from Uranians who have never in their life performed a homosexual act, people of unimpeachable integrity, who have not the slightest reason to speak untruths. Of the many autobiographies at our disposal, I have reproduced only one in the appendix; it comes from a very simple worker, it is not even spelled correctly, but, if fidelity and faith still exist at all, then I vouch for the truth of what this unassuming man says. Let ...
 

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[1] In the document "Ueber sexuelle Perversionen" published by Urban und Schwarzenberg, 1901, p. 130.
[2] Dr P.J. Moebius in Leipzig. Geschlecht und Entartung, published by Marhold in Halle, 1903, p. 30.

[page 46:]

... the reader read this life story: where can there be any talk in this case of a need for variation, a hunger for stimulation, the easy susceptibility of the sexual drive to influences, suggestion, imitation, or a random trauma? Does not this one biography alone contain a formidable accusation against Wachenfeld and Bloch, who form their judgment on such an important question from an ivory tower, without having seen, heard, or examined those whom they judge?

Of course, it is not enough to research through the life stories of homosexuals, but rather many years of observation of many Uranians of all age levels and classes, their views on life and their living habits, is necessary in order to be able to form a judgment on their overall personality. This task is made more difficult by the fact that, because of the state of things, much has become "second nature" to many Uranians due to self-education and habit, that does not occur with them originally. In making psychological realizations, one will have to pay attention not only to positive statements, but also to negative traits, thus for example among many Uranians the sexual rejection of the other sex is much more dominant than the positive inclination toward their own, which has been turned aside or silenced through intense mental effort.

Exploration and observation is very greatly supported by bodily examination of the largest possible number of intermediates of all kinds. On the other hand, we cannot assign such great importance yet to homosexual [brain] sections, as long as the sexual center in the brain has not been identified and we still have so little knowledge about the sexual differences between male and female brains. The finding made by Ruedinger and recently confirmed by Waldeyer, that the gyri of the frontal and temporal ...
 
 

[page 47:]

... lobe in the woman are less developed than in the man, is based on far too little comparison material to provide a basis for an anatomical examination of Uranian corpses, any more than the sexual differences in the cerebellum to which we will return in greater detail later.

Using the means stated, we are in a position to draw adequate conclusions, nonetheless, as long as a sufficient number of individual observations are available; as the end result of this objective research, we will be able to offer definite proof that Uranism and same-sex feeling, i.e. homosexuality, are never gotten from external causes, are never acquired, but rather are always innate.