Ten life histories

This book is an annotated translation into English of Zehn Lebensläufe [Ten Life Histories] by Dr. Wilhelm Hammer, relating to prostitution in the German Empire in the early twentieth century. It sheds valuable light on cultural and social life of the time, including the school system, welfare institute and women’s role in society.

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«Dr. Hammer’s account of lives of registered prostitutes illustrates the complexity of discourses on medical supervision and police control of sexuality in early twentieth-century Berlin. This English edition provides historians of sexuality with insight into medical experts’ role in producing social truth and how the women profiled resisted control.»


(Deirdre McGowan, Head of Law, School of Social Sciences, Law, and Education, Technological University Dublin)





«For anyone interested in the history of prostitution, retrieving the lives and voices of sex workers poses the greatest challenge. This makes Ten Life Histories of Berlin Prostitutes a particularly precious source. Jill Suzanne Smith’s and Stephen Carruthers’s engagingly written introductions adeptly situate Hammer’s study in the contexts of Imperial Germany around 1900 and Berlin’s role as a major center of sexual reform. The translation from the German is eminently readable. Thanks to the editors, English-speaking audiences finally have access to this major document on battles over prostitution at the height of the industrial age.»


(Julia Roos, Associate Professor of History, Indiana University, Bloomington)





This book is an annotated translation into English of Zehn Lebensläufe Berliner Kontollmädchen und zehn Beiträge zur Behandlung der geschlechtlichen Frage (1905) (Ten Life Histories of Berlin Prostitutes under Police Control and Ten Contributions to the Management of the Sexual Question) by Dr. Wilhelm Hammer (1879–1940(?)). The author worked as an assistant physician at the women’s ward at the Berlin municipal homeless shelter in the Fröbelstrasse, where he recorded Ten Life Histories. Dr. Hammer wrote Ten Life Histories as a contribution to the Großstadt-Dokumente [Metropolis Documents], a sociological work in fifty volumes edited by Hans Ostwald (1873–1940) published between 1904 and 1908. In addition to its interest for prostitution research, Ten Life Histories sheds valuable light on aspects of cultural and social life in the German Empire of this period, particularly on the school and welfare systems and, more generally, on women’s role in society at the time.