The German Society for Social-Scientific Sexuality Research (, ) is a

sexuality Human sexuality is the way people experience and express themselves sexually. This involves biological, psychological, physical, erotic, emotional, social, or spiritual feelings and behaviors. Because it is a broad term, which has varied ...

research and counselling organization (cf.

sexology Sexology is the scientific study of human sexuality, including human sexual interests, Human sexual activity, behaviors, and functions. The term ''sexology'' does not generally refer to the non-scientific study of sexuality, such as social crit ...

) based in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

, Germany. It is primarily devoted to sociological, behavioral, and cultural sexuality research.

History

The DGSS was founded in 1971 by German sexologist

Rolf Gindorf Rolf Gindorf (14 May 1939 – 26 March 2016) was a German sexologist. He was a member of Mensa. In 1971 he founded the German Society for Social-Scientific Sexuality Research. He received the 2004 Magnus Hirschfeld Medal. Publications G ...

and colleagues. It is the oldest non-medical sexological society existing in German-language

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

(that is:

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (, ; ; ), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein ( ), is a Landlocked country#Doubly landlocked, doubly landlocked Swiss Standard German, German-speaking microstate in the Central European Alps, between Austria in the east ...

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

, and parts of

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, and

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

). Its governing and international advisory boards have included many noted scholars, among them Rüdiger Lautmann,

John Money John William Money (8 July 1921 – 7 July 2006) was a New Zealand American psychologist, sexologist and professor at Johns Hopkins University known for his research on human sexual behavior and gender. Money advanced the use of more accur ...

, Gisela Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg, John Gagnon,

Igor Kon Igor Semyonovich Kon (; 21 May 1928 – 27 April 2011) was a Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental coun ...

, Liu Dalin, and Martin S. Weinberg. Society presidents are listed below. From the very beginning, the DGSS has emphasized the importance of the social, behavioral, and cultural sciences for an adequate understanding of the human sexualities in their many forms, facets, and variations. In addition to traditional sexological fields like

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

physiology Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...

, and

medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

, the DGSS focus has centered on the

social sciences Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of society, societies and the Social relation, relationships among members within those societies. The term was former ...

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

, and

ethnology Ethnology (from the , meaning 'nation') is an academic field and discipline that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology). Sci ...

, embracing also educational, legal, and historical aspects. In 1978, the DGSS added a pioneering

counselling Counseling is the professional guidance of the individual by utilizing psychological methods especially in collecting case history data, using various techniques of the personal interview, and testing interests and aptitudes. This is a list of c ...

institute () to its scientific and research activities. Since then, more than 33,000 clients received sexual counselling or

psychotherapy Psychotherapy (also psychological therapy, talk therapy, or talking therapy) is the use of Psychology, psychological methods, particularly when based on regular Conversation, personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase hap ...

Gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

and

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

people form a considerable group.

AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

counseling and HIV testing has been provided since 1983. Under difficult circumstances, with habitually low financial resources and extremely modest outside support, the DGSS has nevertheless managed to hold increasingly successful national and international sexological congresses, establishing a close cooperation with most German and many foreign sexological societies. An impressive number of scientific publications, including many books and a book series (, published by

de Gruyter Walter de Gruyter GmbH, known as De Gruyter (), is a German scholarly publishing house specializing in academic literature. History The roots of the company go back to 1749 when Frederick the Great granted the Königliche Realschule in Be ...

since 1986;

LIT Verlag LIT Verlag is a German academic publisher founded in 1980. Its managing director is Wilhelm Hopf. Its principal place of publication is Münster; further publishing offices are located in Berlin, Vienna, Hamburg, London, Zurich, and New York Cit ...

since 2003) give a fairly adequate impression of sexological research by the DGSS and its members. Once the Berlin wall had fallen, the DGSS was able to move its congresses to the original birthplace of sexology, and to resume the tradition of the Berlin sexological conferences started in 1921 by

Magnus Hirschfeld Magnus Hirschfeld (14 May 1868 – 14 May 1935) was a German physician, Sexology, sexologist and LGBTQ advocate, whose German citizenship was later revoked by the Nazi government.David A. Gerstner, ''Routledge International Encyclopedia of Queer ...

. From July 25–27, 1997, the 13th DGSS Congress of Social Scientific Sex Research and 6th International Berlin Conference for Sexology took place at Berlin's

Humboldt University The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public university, public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III of Prussia, Frederick W ...

, with the theme "100 Years of

Gay Liberation The gay liberation movement was a social and political movement of the late 1960s through the mid-1980s in the Western world, that urged lesbians and gay men to engage in radical direct action, and to counter societal shame with gay pride.Hoff ...

". Scientists (most of them gay) came from many countries in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australia. From June 29 through July 2, 2000, the 14th DGSS Congress and 5th Conference of the European Federation of Sexology (EFS) was held at Berlin's House of World Cultures, hosting some 270 delegates from 34 countries, with the theme "For A Millennium of Sexual Health". In 2002, the 15th DGSS Conference from June 21–23 was moved, following the DGSS president-elect Gunter Runkel, to the

Leuphana University of Lüneburg Leuphana University Lüneburg is a public university in Lüneburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Leuphana was founded in 1946 as a college of education (). Leuphana has since established a unique university model within the German academic landscape th ...

, near

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

. Its general theme: "Sexualities in the Third Millennium - Recent Developments in Sexuality Research". Again, sexologists from many nations attended, colleagues from the United States forming the largest contingent. In 2004, the 16th DGSS Conference on "Sexualities and Social Change" was again held in Lüneburg, where the 17th Conference ("Sexuality and Love") also took place on September 22–24, 2006. The 18th DGSS Conference ("Sexuality and the Media") took place in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

from November 7–9, 2008, again with many Americans scheduled to attend.

Presidents

(1971–1979, Vice President until 2004, now Honorary President) * Helmut Kentler (1979–1982) * Ernest Borneman (1982–1986, now Honorary President) * Erwin J. Haeberle (1986–2002) * Gunter Runkel (2002–2006), * Jakob Pastoetter (since 2006)

Magnus Hirschfeld Medal recipients

Since 1990, the DGSS has been awarding its

Magnus Hirschfeld Medal The Magnus Hirschfeld Medal is awarded by the German Society for Social-Scientific Sexuality Research (DGSS) for outstanding service to sexual science, granted in the categories "Sexual Research" and "Sexual Reform". It is named in honour of Germa ...

s for Sexual Science and for Sexual Reform.

For contributions to sexual research

* 1990 Ernest Borneman (Austria) * 1992 John Paul De Cecco (USA) * 1994 Liu Dalin (China) * 1997

Jonathan Ned Katz Jonathan Ned Katz (born 1938) is an American author of human sexuality who has focused on same-sex attraction and changes in the social organization of sexuality over time. His works focus on the idea, rooted in social constructionism, that the ...

(USA) * 2000 Milton Diamond (USA) * 2002

(USA) * 2004 Martin S. Weinberg (USA) * 2006 Richard Green (USA/UK) * 2008 Hu Peicheng (China) * 2016 João Décio Ferreira (Portugal)

For contributions to sexual reform

* 1990 Herman Musaph (Netherlands) * 1992 (Hungary) * 1994

Ruth Westheimer Karola Ruth Westheimer (née Siegel; June 4, 1928 – July 12, 2024), better known as Dr. Ruth, was a German and American sex therapist and talk show host. Westheimer was born in Germany to a Jewish family. As the Nazis came to power, her paren ...

("Dr. Ruth"; USA) * 1997 Maj-Briht Bergström-Walan (Sweden) * 2000

Oswalt Kolle Oswalt Kolle (2 October 1928 in Kiel – 24 September 2010 in AmsterdamOswalt Ko ...

(Netherlands) * 2002

Manfred Bruns Manfred Bruns (1934 – 22 October 2019) was a federal prosecutor at the Federal Court of Justice of Germany, and a famous German gay civil rights activist. He was until 2016 a member of the Board of Directors of the Lesbian and Gay Association ( ...

(Germany) and William Granzig (USA) * 2004

(Germany) * 2006

Rita Süssmuth Rita Süssmuth ( ''née'' Kickuth; ; born 17 February 1937) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). She served as the tenth president of the Bundestag. From 1985 to 1988, she served as Federal Minister for Youth, Famil ...

(Germany) * 2008 Robert T. Francoeur (USA)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:German Society For Social-Scientific Sexuality Research Research institutes in Düsseldorf Sexology organizations Sexual orientation and medicine Organizations established in 1971 Medical and health organisations based in North Rhine-Westphalia 1971 establishments in West Germany