Robert Beachy

An unprecedented examination of the ways in which the uninhibited urban sexuality, sexual experimentation, and medical advances of pre-Weimar Berlin created and molded our modern understanding of sexual orientation and gay identity. Known already in the 1850s for the friendly company of its “warm brothers” (German slang for men who love other men), Berlin, before the turn of the twentieth century, became a place where scholars, activists, and medical professionals could explore and begin to educate both themselves and Europe about new and emerging sexual identities. From Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, a German activist described by some as the first openly gay man, to the world of Berlin's vast homosexual subcultures, to a major sex scandal that enraptured the daily newspapers and shook the court of Emperor William II—and on through some of the very first sex reassignment surgeries—Robert Beachyuncovers the long-forgotten events and characters that continue to shape and influence the way we think of sexuality today. Chapter by chapter Beachy's scholarship illuminates forgotten firsts, including the life and work of Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, first to claim (in 1896) that same-sex desire is an immutable, biologically determined characteristic, and founder of the Institute for Sexual Science. Though raided and closed down by the Nazis in 1933, the institute served as, among other things, “a veritable incubator for the science of tran-sexuality,” scene of one of the world's first sex reassignment surgeries. Fascinating, surprising, and informative—Gay Berlin is certain to be counted as a foundational cultural examination of human sexuality.

Birthplace of a Modern Identity

Gay Berlin

Die Erfindung der Homosexualität: Eine deutsche Geschichte 1867 - 1933

Das andere Berlin

This volume offers a detailed account of Leipzig’s social and political history from 1750-1840 and then argues persuasively that the city played a catalytic role in the introduction of a Saxon constitutional monarchy after 1830.

The Soul of Commerce: Credit, Property, and Politics in Leipzig, 1750-1840

In un’indagine senza precedenti e senza censure, Robert Beachy svela come la sessualità disinibita, la sperimentazione sessuale e i progressi in campo medico nella Berlino di inizio Novecento siano stati decisivi per dare forma alla concezione moderna di orientamento sessuale e di identità gay. Capitolo dopo capitolo Gay Berlin getta luce su eventi e su personaggi troppo a lungo dimenticati e che continuano ancora oggi a influenzare il modo in cui pensiamo la sessualità: dallo scandalo che nel 1907 infiammò la corte dell’imperatore Guglielmo II fino ai primi pionieristici interventi chirurgici di cambiamento di sesso; dall’impegno di Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, attivista tedesco descritto da molti come il primo uomo apertamente omosessuale, all’attività del dottor Magnus Hirschfeld, fondatore dell’Istituto per la ricerca sessuale, il primo a rivendicare (nel 1896) che il desiderio per lo stesso sesso è una caratteristica immutabile e biologicamente determinata. Un saggio sorprendente, destinato a diventare una pietra miliare nella riflessione sulla sessualità e a influenzare il dibattito contemporaneo sull’identità e i diritti degli omosessuali.

Ralf Roth

This volume furthers our understanding of who actually ran cities in the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and develops greater understanding of the relationship between elite and power in cities. To develop answers, two fields of research, which have often remained separate, have been brought together: the economic, social and cultural history of elite and the political history of power resources and decision-making. By looking at specific case studies through the lens of these issues, the volume will encourage the reader to challenge common perceptions of a monolithic elite and to replace them with a more sophisticated view of urban power as an interplay between various economic, social, political and cultural elite groups.

Robert Beachy

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