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Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.

Print Price: $94.50

Format:
Paperback
232 pp.
156 mm x 234 mm

ISBN-13:
9780199657797

Publication date:
May 2012

Imprint: OUP UK


Selling Sex in the Reich

Prostitutes in German Society, 1914-1945

Dr. Victoria Harris

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.

Readership : All those interested in the social and political history of Germany in the first half of the twentieth century, under imperial, Weimar, and Nazi regimes.

Reviews

  • Review from previous edition: "Harris' eye-opening and thought-provoking analysis of the history of prostitution in German society contributes substantially to our understanding of continuities across periods and to a more precise characterisation of the prostitutes' working environment."

    --Ulrike Zitzlsperger, Times Higher Education
  • "An engaging, readable study...captivating, well-researched... This book should be read by everyone with an interest in modern German social history, gender and womens history, the history of sexuality, and even labour and urban history."

    --Julia Sneeringer, German History

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

There are no Instructor/Student Resources available at this time.

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

Writing History - William Kelleher Storey and Towser Jones
Suicide in Nazi Germany - Christian Goeschel
The Burgher and the Whore - Dr. Lotte van de Pol
Streetlife - Dr. Leif Jerram

Special Features

  • Focuses on the voices and experiences of the prostitutes themselves.
  • Develops a nuanced picture of their backgrounds, attitudes, and reasons for entering the trade.
  • Looks at a broad range of public responses to prostitution over the period, from law enforcement agencies to social workers and doctors.
  • Identifies a remarkable consistency in the development of public attitudes to prostitution, from Wilhelmine Germany, through the Weimar years and into the Third Reich.