ABSTRACT
The image of Vienna as a breeding-ground for modern ideas, a melting-pot of different peoples and their opposing interests, as a city that despite its size and the seriousness of its problems merrily waltzed to its downfall, is popular and widespread. The intellectual and artistic achievements in Vienna during the belle époque (1890–1914) have received considerable scientific attention. The political problems, the social differences, the nationality question, and the virulent anti-Semitism have also been studied in detail. However, there has been remarkably little interest in the sexual morality and the sexual experiences of the ‘moderns’. And this despite the fact that ‘the sexual question’ was a topic of much debate at the time. From Vienna sexology received major impulses (Breuer, Krafft-Ebing, and of course Freud). The first German-language pornographic novel, Josefine Mutzenbacher. Die Geschichte einer wienerischen Dime von ihr selbst erzählt, appeared here in 1905. In short, this is an interesting topic which has as yet received little attention – reason enough for an inquiry into this phenomenon.
