Archive for Sexology

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The following sampler gives a first impression of the documents in our collection, which contains many more items than are shown here. The entire collection can be studied on location at our archive during regular opening hours.

Please note: All images are quick load JPEG's. To get the full size picture, just click on them for a larger image.

The gynecologist Levy-Lenz worked at Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sexology. During this time, he was one of the first physicians to perform genital reassignment surgery. He also wrote educational materials for the general public, for example about the prevention of STDs. In 1933, he fled to Paris, where he acquired new skills as a cosmetic surgeon. He returned to Berlin in 1935, taking advantage of a sudden climate of tolerance before the Olympic games and opened a surgical practice on the fashionable Kurfürstendamm. He fled Nazi persecution again in late 1936, this time going to Egypt, where he had a very successful career (his first patient was the great singer Om Kalthoum). After WWII, while maintaining his residence in Cairo, he regularly returned to Germany, teaching cosmetic surgery at various hospitals and writing one of the first German textbook on the subject. His "Memoirs of a Sexologist" contain, among other things, descriptions of his work at Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sexology. He also wrote fiction. Several unpublished manuscripts can be studied at our Archive.

1. Photograph of Levy-Lenz taken in the 1950's. [41K]	2. Document, appointing Dr. Levy-Lenz head physician of a military hospital during WWI. [119K]	3. Egyptian medical license for Dr.Levy-Lenz, issued in late 1936. [167K]

4. Postcard indicating the building and appartment in which Levy-Lenz lived and had his medical practice. The address is Midan Soliman Pasha, Cairo. [336K]	5. Metal sign at the front entrance of Levy-Lenz’s apartment building in Cairo, showing the way to his medical practice. [52K]	6. Photo of Levy-Lenz’s villa near the Giza pyramids. [80K]

7. Invitation to a diplomatic reception in Cairo (Levy-Lenz and wife). [160K]	8. Cover of an Egyptian magazine showing Levy-Lenz and a Czech diplomat at a reception in Cairo. [177K]	9. Cover and table of contents of a medical journal edited by Levy-Lenz in Cairo. [310K]

10. Front cover of Levy-Lenz’s memoirs. [139K]	11. Back cover of Levy-Lenz's memoirs with biographical sketch. [288K]	12. English language edition of Levy-Lenz's memoirs. [42K]

13. Cover of Levy-Lenz’s German textbook of cosmetic surgery. [102K]	14. First page of an unpublished dramatic sketch satirizing modern medicine. Our collection also contains other unpublished works of fiction, such as character sketches and short stories. [235K]	15. First page of an untitled 8-page short story written in English by Levy-Lenz (unpublished). [230K]

-- Please note: All images are quick load JPEG's. To get the full size just click on them for a larger image.

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