Magnus Hirschfeld - The Sexual History of the World War

Hirschfeld was the Founder and Director of the Institute for Sexual Science. This work was 'Intended for circulation among Mature Educated Persons only.' Magnus Hirschfeld (14 May 1868 - 14 May 1935) was a German physician and sexologist educated primarily in Germany; he based his practice in Berlin-Charlottenburg during the Weimar period. An outspoken advocate for sexual minorities, Hirschfeld founded the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee. Historian Dustin Goltz characterized this group as having carried out "the first advocacy for homosexual and transgender rights". "Hirschfeld's radical ideas changed the way Germans thought about sexuality."

Hirschfeld was targeted by the right-wing for being Jewish and gay, he was beaten up by völkisch activists in 1920, and in 1933 his Institut für Sexualwissenschaft was sacked and had its books burned by the Nazis, forcing him into exile. Hirschfeld was the author of some 187 learned works in the four special fields making an entity of the Sexual Sciences: 1) Sexual Biology; 2) Sexual Pathology; 3) Sexual Sociology; and 4) Sexual Ethnology for Physicians and Students of Advanced Sex Science.

Dr. Hirschfeld was assisted in the preparation of Sexual History of the World War by famous physicians, historians and scientists. The book first discusses the general release of sexual restraints caused by the mentality of war and by the separation of soldiers from the influence of home and family. This book functions as a time capsule of progressive attitudes toward human sexuality.

Among the topics covered are: War Wives and Immorality, Eroticism of Nurses, Sensuality in the Trenches, Venereal Diseases, Women Soldiers, Homosexuality, Transvestitism, Regulation of Army Brothels, Prostitution Behind the Lines, Lust in the Conquered Areas, Civilian Debauchery, Genital Injuries, War Eunuchs, Etc.