Selling Sex in the Reich

Prostitutes in German Society, 1914-1945
Erscheinungsjahr 2012
ISBN: 978-0-19-965779-7
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 232 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 233 mm, Gewicht: 358 g

Selling Sex in the Reich focuses on the voices and experiences of prostitutes working in the German sex trade in the first half of the twentieth century. Victoria Harris develops a nuanced picture of the prostitutes' backgrounds, their reasons for entering the trade, and their attitudes towards their work and those who sought to control them, as well as of their clients and the wide variety of other players within the wider prostitute milieu. Public responses to the issue of prostitution are revealed through the motivations of the law enforcement agencies, social workers, and doctors who increasingly attempted to manage and contain prostitutes' movements and behaviour and to categorize them scientifically as a group.

Prostitution can help recast our understanding of sexuality and ethics, teaching us much about how German society defined itself through its definition of who did not belong within it. In addition, common conceptions of the relationship between the type of government in power and official attitudes towards sexuality are challenged. For, as Harris shows, the prevalent desire to control citizens' sexuality transcended traditional left-right divides throughout this period and intensified with economic and political modernization, producing surprising continuities across the Wilhelmine, Weimar, and Nazi eras.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Harris, Victoria

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Deutsche Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Prostitution und Sexindustrie: Soziale & Ethische Themen
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- Prologue

- Introduction: Rescuing the Fallen Woman

- 1: The Prostitute Experience

- 2: The Prostitute Milieu

- 3: The Prostitute and Society

- 4: The Prostitute and the State

- Conclusion: Towards an understanding of the prostitute experience

- Bibliography

- Index

Über Autor(innen)

Victoria Harris is a Research Fellow in History at King's College, Cambridge, where she also teaches and supervises topics in Modern European History.