International Sexual Reform and Sexology in Europe, 1897–1933

This paper looks at the relationship of sex reformers and sexology to social reform in Europe in the 20th century prior to the outbreak of World War I. It considers a variety of emerging sexual classification systems and national reform efforts, with special attention to Magnus Hirschfeld and the Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin, which was destroyed by the Nazis in 1933. It argues that during this time period the international connections between individual reformers and sexologists developed into a transnational network that was able, to a certain extent, to protect and encourage the rights of sexual minorities both within and beyond national borders.