The localities of prostitution — Public prostitution — Street prostitution — Character and dangers of street prostitution — Still greater dangers of brothels — Brothels as centres of sexual corruption and perversity, and as foci of venereal infection — The high school of psychopathia sexualis — The brothel jargon — “Animierkneipen” — Dancing saloons, variety theatres, low music-halls, cabarets, and “Rummel” — “Pensions” and houses of accommodation — Massage institutes — Cafés with female attendants.
Appendix: The Half-World. — Origin of the name — The “Demi-Monde” of the younger Alexandre Dumas — Change undergone by the conception at the present day — Analogy with the Greek hetairæ — Connexion of the half-world with high life — Origin — The social influence of the “grandes cocottes” — The half-world in Germany — The international prostitute.
CHAPTER XIII
Prostitution, and the venereal diseases so intimately connected with it, constitute, properly speaking, the nucleus, the central problem, of the sexual question. The abolition of prostitution and the suppression of venereal diseases would be almost tantamount to the solution of the entire sexual problem. Imagine the extension and the intension of the idea: No prostitution, no more venereal disease!
There is, in fact, no more gratifying notion, no more illuminating ideal, than that of moral and physical purity in the relations between the sexes. At a time in which, especially in social spheres, such abundant activity and such far-seeing ideas of reform are apparent, this notion of a campaign against prostitution and venereal diseases, in the hope of eradicating both evils, should stand in the forefront of all the demands of civilization, in order that finally the tragical influence, the poisonous sting, should be removed from the disordered, unhappy, amatory life of the present day, and herewith, unquestionably, a proper foundation should be laid for a more beautiful future for that life. This idea is unique; it is the greatest of all that man, at length become self-conscious,[243] has ever grasped; and to this idea belongs the future!
The French term prostitution and venereal diseases une plaie sociale, a rodent ulcer in the body of society. I take this apt comparison, and carry it a stage further, to show a clear picture of the way along which we must go in order to eradicate prostitution; for in this respect I am a confirmed optimist. I believe in the possibility of the eradication of venereal diseases, and of the abolition of prostitution within the civilized world by national and international measures. I do not join in the chorus of those who say, “because prostitution has always existed, it must always exist in the future; because venereal diseases have always[244] existed, they are unavoidable accompaniments of civilization.”
How long is it, then, since any attempt has been made to oppose prostitution and venereal diseases? As regards the latter, it is only within the last few years that we have begun, in the battle against them, to make systematic use of the results of scientific research; and the study of prostitution, and the measures based on that study for its control and prevention, do not date further back than the second half of the eighteenth century. In fact, for practical purposes, they date from the appearance of the classical and epoch-making work of Parent-Duchatelet (1836).
We are, indeed, in the very first stages of the campaign against prostitution and venereal diseases. All that has hitherto been done has been to make inadequate, isolated attempts to introduce unsuitable and half-considered regulations, based upon successive misconceptions, which have only made matters worse. To-day medicine, social science, pedagogy, jurisprudence, and ethics have combined in a common campaign; and this is not national merely, but unites all civilized nations in a common cause.
Here we find an actual prospect, a credible hope, of a radical cure of the plaie sociale. But such an ulcer can only be radically cured when we are not content merely with the local treatment of the existing sore; we must simultaneously attack the internal causes of this chronic disease, and in the case with which we have to do the internal causes are even more important than the external—that is to say, ethics, pedagogy, and social science are even more important and indispensable in the campaign against prostitution than medicine and hygiene. We shall never attain our goal by considering and fighting prostitution and venereal diseases, the consequences of prostitution, purely from the medical and hygienic standpoint. In this case, one-sidedness will prove tantamount to failure. The problem of prostitution must be approached from many sides, because the causes that have to be considered are manifold, alike anthropological, economic, social, and psychological, in their nature. There are many varieties of prostitution; in the same way there are numerous and various types of prostitutes. It is, therefore, impossible for one who is acquainted with actual life to hold fast in a one-sided manner to a single theory. Thus, in one and the same case the most various points of view have to be considered.