Part 1: 3 misconceptions
Part 2: 2 more misconceptions
Hirschfeld’s other Books
Misconception #1: the claim that Die Transvestiten is Hirschfeld’s definitive work on trans topics.
The Bulloughs, Cross Dressing, Sex, and Gender, 1993 describe the book as “may well be the key work on cross dressing, even to this day”.
Most accounts of Hirschfeld on trans topics rely only on this 1910 book, Die Transvestiten, and sometimes the 1912 pictorial supplement, Der erotische Verkleidungstrieb. This is especially so with writings in English, in that these two are the only ones from Hirschfeld with a proper translation.
A list of Hirschfeld’s writings on trans and other Zwischenstufen persons (intermediaries) – the last two are in French as Hirschfeld spent his last years in exile in France:
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1899. „Die objektive Diagnose der Homosexualität“. Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen, 1.
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1905. Geschlechtsübergänge: Mischungen männlicher und weiblicher Geschlechtscharaktere (Sexuelle Zwischenstufen). Verlag der Monatsschrift für Harnkrankheiten und sexuelle Hygiene, W. Malende, Leipzig.
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1906. Berliner Tageblatt, 11. December, cited from Monatsbericht des Wissenschaftlich-humanitären Komitees, VI, 1,
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1910. Die Transvestiten: Eine Untersuchung über den erotischen Verkleidungstrieb, mit umfangreichem kasuistischem und historischem Material. Verlag Alfred Pulvermacher, Berlin.
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1912. with Max Tilke. Der erotische Verkleidungstrieb: Die Transvestiten. Verlag von Alfred Pulvermacher & Co., Berlin.
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1912. with Ernst Burchard. „Zur Kasuistik des Verkleidungstriebs“. Ärztliche Sachverständigen-Zeitung, 18(23).
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1913. with Ernst Burchard. „Ein Fall von Transvestismus bei musikalischem“. Neurologisches Centralblatt, 52.
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1918. Sexualpathologie. Ein Lehrbuch für Ärzte und Studierende. Bonn. Volume II: Sexuelle Zwischenstufen. Das Mannlicher Weib und der Weiblicher Mann. (5 Sections: Hermaproditismus, Androgynie, Transvestitismus, Homosexualität, Metatropismus)
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1926. „Ein Transvestit“ in Ludwig Levy-Lenz (ed). Sexualkatastrophen. Bilder aus dem modernen Geschlechts- und Eheleben. A H Payne.
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1930. Geschlechtskunde, auf Grund dreißigjähriger Forschung und Erfahrung bearbeitet. Stuttgart. Volume IV Bilderteil.
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1933. 'L'amour et la science'. Voila, 3, 199, 1 Juli.
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1935. translated by W R Fürst. Le Sexe Inconnu. Éditions Montaigne.
For his more considered thoughts, it is essential to consult Sexualpathologie, Geschlechtskunde and Le Sexe Inconnu.
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Hirschfeld’s opinions, jargon and influence also appear in publications by his associates, which should also be considered.
Rainer Herrn. Schnittmuster des Geschlechts 2005:73:
“Hirschfeld's construction of transvestitism initially found its way into the discourse of sexual science and psychiatry only hesitantly. In 1911, the psychiatrist Theodor Ziehen was the first to use Hirschfeld's term in a textbook (Ziehen 1911, p. 622-3). Primarily due to the lack of published case studies, Hirschfeld tried to convince some of his sexually scientific colleagues of his new discovery through direct contact with transvestites. To this end, he invited sexologists who were friends or well-disposed towards him to a meeting. The renowned psychiatrist Paul Näcke reports on this:
'I myself had not yet seen such a case [...] and was therefore very grateful to Hirschfeld when he introduced me and several colleagues to about ½ dozen transvestites in his flat on 19 October 1911, two of whom appeared in very elegant ladies' clothes.' (Näcke 1912, pp. 237-238)
Following this presentation, which was attended by “several sexologists” - Näcke only mentions "Dr. Burchard and Dr. Merzbach" - a dialogue developed between the scientists and the transvestites, who, with one exception, were heterosexual. After this meeting, Näcke, who had already written several reviews, wrote the above-mentioned approving report on Hirschfeld's transvestite concept, but with the reservation that not all transvestites were heterosexual, but that bisexual, homosexual and asexual ones also existed. Hirschfeld came back to this later.
A total of eleven reviews were found for the text volume Die Transvestiten (The Transvestites), and a further eight for the book published two years later (Hirschfeld & Tilke 1912) in leading medical, legal and criminological journals. The majority of the reviewers report approvingly on Hirschfeld's separation of transvestites from homosexuals, their assignment to the intermediate stages, and on his proposal to make the official legitimisation of wearing clothes of the "other" sex dependent on medical certificates.” (DeepL translation)
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1911. Theodor Ziehen. „Psychiatrie für Arzte und Studierende“. Vierte, vollständig umgearbeitete Auflage.
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1912. Ralph Pettow. „Zur Psychologie der Transvestie“. Archive für die gesamte Psychologie, XXII.
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1912. Paul Näcke. „Zum Kapitel der Transvestiten nebst Bemerkungen zur weiblichen Homosexualität“. Archiv für Kriminal-Anthropologie und Kriminalistik, 47 (3/4).
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1913. Ossian Oehmig. „Beitrag zur Lehre vom Transvestitismus“. Zeitschrift für die gesamte Neurologie und Psychiatrie, 15.
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1916. Max Marcuse. „Ein Fall von Geschlechtsumwandlungstrieb“. Zeitschrift für Psychotherapie und medizinische Psychologie, VI.
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1920. Hans Abraham. „Einige Bemerkungen über den weiblichen Transvestitismus“. Mitteilungen aus dem Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, X(4).
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1921. Hans Abraham. Der weibliche Transvestitismus. Dissertation at Friedrich-Wilhelm-Universität, Berlin.
The translations that we do have :
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1931. French translation by Pierre Vachet. Perversions sexuelles, d’après l’enseignement du docteur Magnus Hirschfeld, par son premier assistant le docteur Félix Abraham. Paris: François Aldor. Discussion.
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1932. English translation by Jerome Gibbs. Sexual Pathology: A Study of Derangements of the Sexual Instinct, Julian Press. Some extracts from Sexualpathologie, but no trans content.
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1936. Magnus Hirschfeld, edited and translated by Dr Costler (Arthur Koestler), revised by Norman Haire. Sexual Anomalies and Perversions: Physical and Psychological Development and Treatment : a Summary of the Works of the Late Magnus Hirschfeld. Francis Aldor. The closest that we have to a translation of Sexualpathologie. Discussion.
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1991. English translation by Michael A Lombardi-Nash. Tranvestites: The Erotic urge to Crossdress. Prometheus Books.
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1998. Anonymous English translation. Felix Abraham. “Genital Reassignment on Two Male Transvestites”. The International Journal of Trangenderism. 2, 1. Archive
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2022. English translation by Michael A Lombardi-Nash. The Erotic Drive to Cross-Dress Illustrated Part (Supplement to Transvestites). Urania Manuscipts.
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English translation by Ericka Christie & Anne M Callahan of “Chapter XII: Androgyne Mania” from Le Sexe Inconnu. Online.
The Title
Misconception # 2: the assumption that the title is accurate
The full title is Die Transvestiten: Eine Untersuchung über den Erotischen Verkleidungstrieb which translates as The Transvestites: An Investigation into the Erotic Disguise Drive. Michael Lombardi-Nash slightly revised this for his 1991 translation: Transvestites: The Erotic Drive to Cross-Dress.
An ongoing problem was and is created by the word Erotischen.
It is generally accepted that being trans* is not a sexual orientation. Trans persons may be androphilic, gynephilic, asexual, hypersexual. None of these is part of the definition of being trans. For sure some persons do find cross-dressing arousing, but it is a severe distortion to put it in the title. Trans persons, however dressed, at work, shopping, walking in the street, visiting others etc, are not doing something erotic. Transvestitenscheins were issued to enable working in the desired gender – not an erotic activity.
Initially, Hirschfeld had complied with the general opinion at that time that Geschlechtsverkleidung (German for cross-dressing) was a type of homosexuality. However among his patients and elsewhere he encountered trans women who were not at all androphilic, and objected to the assumption. For 1910’s Die Transvestiten, Hirschfeld overcompensated, and for the 17 case studies that comprise Part 1, he systematically excluded gay trans persons. This created a problem re ‘female transvestites’, almost none of whom went with men or had a husband. Only one such case was included: his 15th case, Helene N, who alternated between men and women.
Rainer Herrn: (Schnittmuster des Geschlechts 2005:57-8)
“Hirschfeld had described cross-dressing as a characteristic typically associated with homosexuals around 1900, and in 1906 he distinguished for the first time between homosexual and heterosexual cross-dressers. And although there were enough homosexual men in the environment of the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee who presented themselves in women's clothes - not only at balls - including Hermann von Teschenberg and Willibald von Sadler-Grün - Hirschfeld chose for his casuistry of seventeen cases exclusively those who neither exhibited same-sex inclinations nor had corresponding experience. At the same time, he also knew other homosexual transvestites personally, as can be seen in Volume II of his Sexual Pathology” (DeepL translation)
Hirschfeld of course reverted back in Sexualpathologie, 1918. As quoted in Koestler-Haire’s Sexual Anomalies and Perversions, p197 hard copy, p167 ecopy:
“From the comprehensive data at our disposal we find that about 35 per cent of transvestites are heterosexual and an equal percentage homosexual, while about 15 per cent are bisexual. The remaining 15 per cent are mostly automonosexual, but also include a small proportion of asexuals”.
Hirschfeld had altered the meaning of ‘transvestism’ by making it by definition an erotic activity. The Transvestitenscheinen were issued - at least nominally - for mainly vocational reasons. They were not regarded as erotischen Verkleidungstrieb (erotic urge to dress up). They were issued so that the trans person could live, work and get on with life - the frequency or lack of a sex life did not come into it.
Darryl Hill questions just how heterosexual, the 16 male-born cases studies in Die Transvestiten were? He writes (p324)
“Despite the fact that Hirschfeld wanted to differentiate transvestites from homosexuals, a minority of the cases described homosexual experiences and fantasies. Vern and Bonnie Bullough [p210] observed homosexual fantasies in six of the cases: Messrs. C, D, F, I, J, and P. Including Mr. J, however, is a mistake, since he did not relate any homosexual fantasy. Only one case study, Mr. F, clearly desired men and had had both previous experiences and fantasies. Hirschfeld recorded this: "At twenty-one, on vacation in the Orient, he consented to anal intercourse by Arabians" (51).
Even more problematic for Hirschfeld's contentions was the fact that many of the male cases entertained sexual desires for men but only when presenting themselves as women. Since the man-to-woman crossdressers largely see themselves as women, this desire is probably best understood as heterosexual, but even in that day it was probably partly seen as homosexual. Following this rationale, Messrs. B and M expressed desires to be with men when dressed as a woman. Mr. B indicated a willingness to flirt with men only when dressed as a woman: "I have never had an inclination toward men; only when dressed as a woman do I like to flirt and play with them" (27). Mr. M, who desired to be the passive partner in a heterosexual encounter, said that he was willing to give sex with men a try but only as a woman.
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Hirschfeld's contemporaries criticized him for not seeing the latent homosexual tendencies in most of his respondents, mainly because he failed to use deep psychoanalysis, but these tendencies are obvious even without psychoanalysis.”
Some may see most of Hirschfeld’s 16 case studies in Part One of the book as Autogynephiles or something similar (this is not my opinion) and therefore Erotischen as an appropriate label. Even if this were the case, it would apply to Part One of the book only, and not to Part Two “Criticism (Differential Diagnosis)” or Part Three Ethnology and History”. So Arguably Erotischen could be acceptable in the subtitle for Part One, but is definitely inappropriate in the title of the entire book.
However, it is Die Transvestiten that is mostly read, and Kurt Freund and Ray Blanchard in the 1980s, as they developed their concept of Autogynephilia, were able to cite Hirschfeld as a pre-cursor.
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Kurt Freund, Betty Steiner & S. Chan. Two types of cross-gender identity. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 11, 1982:49–63.
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Ray Blanchard. “Origins of the Concept of Autogynephilia”. Feb 2004.
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Darryl B Hill. “Sexuality and Gender in Hirschfeld's Die Transvestiten: A Case of the ‘Elusive Evidence of the Ordinary’”. Journal of the History of Sexuality, 14, 3, 2018.
Trans words in German
Misconception # 3: the claim that Hirschfeld ‘coined’ transvest* words.
Book after book after book claims that Hirschfeld ‘coined’ Transvestiten, etc. The earliest claim that I have found re Hirschfeld supposedly coining Transvestiten (not Transvestitismus) is in Charlotte Wolff’s 1986 biography where she simply says on p107 that he coined it, but gives no support to the claim. The problem of course, as I have pointed out several times, is that one cannot coin a word, or group of words, that already exist. It seems that he did introduce the transvest* words unto German, and they quickly did replace the rather cumbersome Geschlechtsverkleidung. He also altered the meaning to make transvesting an erotic activity.
However various transvest* or travest* words had existed in Italian, French and English since the 17th century, sometimes but not always meaning gender crossing. Those who claim that Hirschfeld ‘coined’ the terms implicitly imply that he was so badly read that he was unaware of the various forms of these words. For a man of his education, who had travelled in the US, England, France and Italy, this is unlikely.
Then there is the word Transvestitenschein, the licence or permission to transvest. The Paris Préfecture de Police had been issuing Permissions de Travestissement since 1800, and Transvestitenschein is a translation of Permissions de Travestissement (altering the emphasis from the permission to the actual licence). Hirschfeld rendered the French word travestissement into German as Transvestismus, and travesti/e as Transvestiten.
Hirschfeld had an extended stay in Paris in 1892 while studying for his medical exams, and would have become aware of the French practice. He made contact there with the eminent Jewish physician Max Nordau. In 1910 just before finishing Die Transvestiten, Hirschfeld spent a few months in London and then Paris.
Hirschfeld was also an active nudist, and German and French nudist groups had joint meetings. We know that it was at such a meeting that Hirschfeld met the French future sexologist Pierre Vachet. Vachet was still a teenager in 1910 (he was born in 1892) but as he was training to become a doctor, he would have talked about medical practices in Paris.
Hirschfeld mentions the French Permissions de Travestissement in his Die Transvestiten, although he does not give the French expression.
P274-5 in the Lomabardi-Nash translation, “There are cases in which women work in bricklayers’ suits and driving uniforms, and the police overlook that. At the governor’s office they said that strictly speaking the present question could only be decided by a police regulation dated November 7, 1800, that made the authorization of the many frequent masquerades at the time subject to a physician’s certificate that the male or female applicant needed the special clothing for reasons of health. Exceptions to this have occurred from time to time, for example, Aurore Dupin (George Sand), Rosa Bonheur and Marguerite Bellanger, the Margo of Napoleon III, who made the empress jealous. In earlier days there were more applications for permission to wear men’s clothing, but since the introduction of clothing that easily reminds a person of the stronger sex, for example, for women who ride bicycles, the desire of women for other manly apparel appears to have decreased.”
P384: “A French farmer from the suburbs of Paris went to the police for permission to wear women’s clothing and received it, for “business reasons” no less. He said that a woman’s dress was necessary as a part of his equipment to do his kind of work at a nursery garden. Permission for the same thing was granted to a Paris potato merchant.”
P385: “Rosa Bonheur, too, in her petition to the government for permission to wear men’s clothing, gave as her reason that dresses prevented her from finding artistic motifs in nature.”
