4/21/25
After Liberation
● Gay men and women remained marginalized in German Society
● Sexual relations between remained illegal in Germany through out
Eighteenth Century
● Enlightenment : influence led to decrease in control by the Church and state in control of
sex
● Decrease in belief that women were irredeemably lustful
● Some say this was the first sexual revolution
● (Julie Hardwick was less convinced)
● Emphasis on sexual dimorphism :
○ Difference between men’s and women’s bodies, were scientifically defined and
immovable
● What happens with intersex individuals?
○ Essentialized either ovaries or testes as markers of true sex
○ Reinforced a binary between genders
Example of Karl M. Baer
● From the perspective of “Nora” born in 1884 in Saxony (some french roots)
● Born in a Jewish family and named Martha in reality
● Pseudonym N.O Body
○ Allusion yo Theodor Herzel’s 1902 Zionist novel
● Child had “ambiguous genitalia” ; it’s possible that the child had Hypospadias
○ Common condition now where the urethra opens under the penis
● Father called the child’s genitalia “this dreadfully disagreeable thing”
○ Parents and doctor meet and are like do not talk about this thing
○ Dad thought that Karl could not be a man and that Karl had to live as a woman
Growing Up
● Sexual experimentation as a 5 year old
○ The kids were playing together and they looked at what each other had down
there
○ Karl spent a lot of time alone though
● Puberty crisis
○ Karl experiences a voice drop and begins to grow a beard
○ No signs of breasts starting to develop
● Father’s death = economic hardship
○ Karl is forced to get a job in a fashion shop
○ Referred to as “the manly one”
● Lived with the other shop women, lived in constant fear of his sexual difference being
discovered
, ○ Started to feel sexual urges ; was living as a woman though ; thought maybe she
was a lesbian
○ “Martha” began to slowly realize that something was wrong with her
Magnus Hirschfield and Karl
● Jewish German physician, sexologist and LGBTQ advocate
● Died in exile in France in 1935 because of Nazi persecution
● Studied Karl Baer and helped him get surgery to “change” his gender
● “The sex of a person lies more in his than in his body”
○ He doesn’t want to assign a gender to someone based off of their genitalia
○ “It is not possible to establish a clear diagnosis of sex, even with the help of a
microscope, either in vivo or during surgery, not even in post mortem” -
Hirschfield
Movement to Medicalize Sex
● Rather than make it a Christian moralist issue now focused on it social effects
○ “Deviant” sexual behavior
○ Categorized and labeled all sorts of sexual behavior
● Doctors get to decide the final arbitration of deviant sexual behavior rather than priests
● Set up Hirshfield's Scientific-Humanitarian Committee for Decriminalization of
Homosexual Acts
● 1919 Government funded Hirschfield’s Institution of Sexual Science in Berlin
● Became both a center of research but also a social hub for transgender, gay and lesbian
individuals
● Rise of the term homosexual : first coined by Karoly Maria Kertbeny
French Historian Jules Michelet
● 1850’s : wrote rhapsodies to women’s reproductive organs
○ Described how they produced a painful or euphoric state, like falling in love
○ Menstruation proved women’s weakness as a recurring wound
● Role of women in childbearing
● Men and women interact based on these sexual difference (unified, complimentary, and
harmonious)
● Ideas about gender and sex get tied together with politics as countries become obsessed
with birth rates
Research leads to major changes for individuals
● Einar Mogeans Wegener later called herself Lili Elbe after she received 5 surgeries to
reassign her sex
● Elbe went to Hirschfield for sex reassignment surgery, which was highly experimental at
the time ; she contemplated suicide for learning of these options
● A Danish court annulled the couple’s marriage in October 1930
● Elbe was able to have her sex and name legally changed
After Liberation
● Gay men and women remained marginalized in German Society
● Sexual relations between remained illegal in Germany through out
Eighteenth Century
● Enlightenment : influence led to decrease in control by the Church and state in control of
sex
● Decrease in belief that women were irredeemably lustful
● Some say this was the first sexual revolution
● (Julie Hardwick was less convinced)
● Emphasis on sexual dimorphism :
○ Difference between men’s and women’s bodies, were scientifically defined and
immovable
● What happens with intersex individuals?
○ Essentialized either ovaries or testes as markers of true sex
○ Reinforced a binary between genders
Example of Karl M. Baer
● From the perspective of “Nora” born in 1884 in Saxony (some french roots)
● Born in a Jewish family and named Martha in reality
● Pseudonym N.O Body
○ Allusion yo Theodor Herzel’s 1902 Zionist novel
● Child had “ambiguous genitalia” ; it’s possible that the child had Hypospadias
○ Common condition now where the urethra opens under the penis
● Father called the child’s genitalia “this dreadfully disagreeable thing”
○ Parents and doctor meet and are like do not talk about this thing
○ Dad thought that Karl could not be a man and that Karl had to live as a woman
Growing Up
● Sexual experimentation as a 5 year old
○ The kids were playing together and they looked at what each other had down
there
○ Karl spent a lot of time alone though
● Puberty crisis
○ Karl experiences a voice drop and begins to grow a beard
○ No signs of breasts starting to develop
● Father’s death = economic hardship
○ Karl is forced to get a job in a fashion shop
○ Referred to as “the manly one”
● Lived with the other shop women, lived in constant fear of his sexual difference being
discovered
, ○ Started to feel sexual urges ; was living as a woman though ; thought maybe she
was a lesbian
○ “Martha” began to slowly realize that something was wrong with her
Magnus Hirschfield and Karl
● Jewish German physician, sexologist and LGBTQ advocate
● Died in exile in France in 1935 because of Nazi persecution
● Studied Karl Baer and helped him get surgery to “change” his gender
● “The sex of a person lies more in his than in his body”
○ He doesn’t want to assign a gender to someone based off of their genitalia
○ “It is not possible to establish a clear diagnosis of sex, even with the help of a
microscope, either in vivo or during surgery, not even in post mortem” -
Hirschfield
Movement to Medicalize Sex
● Rather than make it a Christian moralist issue now focused on it social effects
○ “Deviant” sexual behavior
○ Categorized and labeled all sorts of sexual behavior
● Doctors get to decide the final arbitration of deviant sexual behavior rather than priests
● Set up Hirshfield's Scientific-Humanitarian Committee for Decriminalization of
Homosexual Acts
● 1919 Government funded Hirschfield’s Institution of Sexual Science in Berlin
● Became both a center of research but also a social hub for transgender, gay and lesbian
individuals
● Rise of the term homosexual : first coined by Karoly Maria Kertbeny
French Historian Jules Michelet
● 1850’s : wrote rhapsodies to women’s reproductive organs
○ Described how they produced a painful or euphoric state, like falling in love
○ Menstruation proved women’s weakness as a recurring wound
● Role of women in childbearing
● Men and women interact based on these sexual difference (unified, complimentary, and
harmonious)
● Ideas about gender and sex get tied together with politics as countries become obsessed
with birth rates
Research leads to major changes for individuals
● Einar Mogeans Wegener later called herself Lili Elbe after she received 5 surgeries to
reassign her sex
● Elbe went to Hirschfield for sex reassignment surgery, which was highly experimental at
the time ; she contemplated suicide for learning of these options
● A Danish court annulled the couple’s marriage in October 1930
● Elbe was able to have her sex and name legally changed
