Introduction: Introduction and ObjectivesThe new emerging field of urology in Europe in contrast to the US laid its basis on the major established fields in medicine of the time: surgery of the urinary tract, endoscopy, venereology, gynecology and internal medicine. But soon it became a habitat of alert physicians who were interested in the new emerging fields of sexual medicine and sexology. Leopold Casper (1859 -1959 New York) and Carl Posner (1854-1928) of Berlin, Oswald Schwarz (1883 - 1949 London) or Oskar Scheuer (1876-1941 Litzmannstadt) of Vienna, Hermann Rohleder (1866-1934), of Leipzig are among the protagonists of this era.
The venerologist and urologist Samuel Jessner (1859-1929) of Koenigsberg (today: Kaliningrad) is rarely remembered. He held the first lectureship in the German speaking countries for sexology (“Sexuallehren”) at the University of Koenigsberg. Jessner produced several mostly popular writings dedicated to the topic. However, there were no notable sales successes among them. His contribution in the third edition of Albert Moll’s (1862-1939) “Handbuch der Sexualwissenschaften” (Handbook of Sexology) was in a tradition of conservative sex education.
Methods: We analysed printed and archival sources (Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Bundesarchiv) and employ an ergo-biographic approach.
Results: Samuel Jessner was one of the early promotors of academic sexology and sexual medicine in Germany within venero-dermatology, urology and sexual medicine. His major interest was pedagogics of sexuality. It seems that Jessner’s conservative political and social attitude helped him to secure the position as university lecturer at Koenigsberg, because he was not perceived as part of the liberal sexual culture of the Weimar Republic, which was detested in conservative circles.
Conclusions: It took some time in Germany that the specialty of urology - which became board approved and certificated in 1924 - was able to establish therapeutic strategies of its own in the new emerging field of sexual medicine. Chairs or university lectureships within this field of medicine remained very rare in Germany until the present, although the research discipline experienced an extraordinary success story in Germany until 1933, at least outside the universitiesThis is one of the reasons why the German Society for Urology has had established a working group for psychosomatics and sexual medicine since 1987/2002 and a group for andrology.
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