Customer Reviews

Sex after Fascism: Memory and Morality in Twentieth-Century Germany

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an academic book about the effect of National Socialism on the sexuality of Germans throughout the mid-20th century. It takes as a starting point widely held beliefs (such as the repressive nature of Nat. Soc. on sexuality) and cliches of popular entertainment (such as the Nazi-BDSM connection), and it attempts to explain their origins by giving a thorough account of the actual perspectives and lived experiences of people from the Weimar era to after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

To summarize, during Weimar, there was a general loosening of restrictions that resulted in increased skin in publications, etc., and the Communists and Socialists of the time promoted sexual liberation by setting up the period equivalents to our Planned Parenthood. Because of the connections of Weimar sexuality with business and Communism, Nazis allied with traditional conservatives (e.g., Catholics) and promised to turn back the clock on the sexual revolution during their rise to power. However, once in power, with both practical and ideological justifications and motivations, Nazis used youth groups and publications such as the SS magazine Das Schwarz Korps to promote pre- and extra-marital sex and sexual "fun" in general.

After the defeat of Germany in WWII, there was a general cultural nihilism that led to even further "liberalization" with the lines between dating and prostitution blurred, etc., and extensive fraternization with the Allied Occupiers on the part of women. This lasted until the early-to-mid-1950's when there was a sudden reversal. The medical and publishing industries starting promoting what we think of today as the "traditional nuclear family with a male head."

As a result of the reversal, the generation growing up during this period was unaware of the previous attitudes and assumed that the sexual restraint was a hold-over from the Nazi era. Thus, the "sexual revolution" of the '60s and '70s and the creation of now deeply entrenched misperceptions of Nazism, some of them coming out of serious though inaccurate historical works. The book goes on to examine sexuality in the German post-war leftist movements and contains a chapter on sexuality in East Germany during the Cold War.

Homosexuality is touched on throughout, and other topics such as abortion are addressed briefly.

In general, this is an excellent work and an important historical corrective that should be read by anyone interested in (1) WWII, (2) sexual politics and philosophy, (3) the Cold War and modern European left. The biggest drawback is a failure to examine influences and psychology. For instance, prior to the '50s, Germany was on a very different sexual trajectory from America, but afterwards they were more or less in parallel. Why? Eisenhower and reconstruction? This is an interesting and unexplored question. Also, discussion of the apparently contradictory confluence of brutal genocidal inhumanity and free-love sexual fulfillment in the same people is inadequate. Perhaps these are topics for their own books altogether.

Anyhow, as the blurb says, it may be too much for the lay reader, but it is worth it if you're interested.