Hugo Bettauer's The Erotic Revolution

Hugo Bettauer was a very influential man for his time; he was a journalist and many of his novels became bestsellers. In the 1920’s, a couple of his novels had been made into films. His most notable film Die Freudlose Gasse is about the life of prostitutes in Germany. Sadly, Hugo was murdered because of his strong controversial views on March 26, 1925 in Vienna, by a man named Otto Rothstock. Rothstock was a dental technician and had very close ties to the Austrian Nazi Party. The murder was the fault of the Nazi presses propaganda that was posted around Vienna; the propaganda labeled Bettauer a “perverted sewer rat.” and called for him to be “eliminated” or “lynched.” In the article The Murder of Hugo Bettauer by Martin Kitchen, it is stated …show more content…
The document touched on German life in Weimar Germany, previous to Nazi Germany, but it primarily focused on the major views based on sexuality - and how they were changing. This source is very important as it gives readers a first-hand look at one author’s opinion if the events occurring in 1924 Weimar Germany. The book The Politics of the Body in Weimar Germany by Cornelie Usborne will be tied into the primary document, by discussing sexuality, contraception, and abortion laws in Weimar Germany; as well, the book by Atina Grossman will be tied in using similar themes of preventative measures (contraception), sex counselling clinics, and the “your body belongs to you” - the 1931 campaign against paragraph …show more content…
His demands of more prevalent contraceptive use was taken very seriously and the “Freie Arbeiter Union Deutschlands”, the FAUD (Free Workers Union of Germany) were on his side and strongly supported his opinions on contraception. The FAUD organization, “embraced the fundamental premise that the sexual issue was not a private affair but belonged in the public eye and on the agenda of all workers organizations.” Although in this article is is stating that more prevalent contraceptive use would be beneficial and be more to serve in population maintenance, Bettauer would still agree with everything that Max Winkler expressed in his 1925 pamphlet, as he was an advocate for contraceptive use and the rights of women in their decision to have an abortion. In The Politics of the Body in Weimar Germany: Women 's Reproductive Rights and Duties, Cornelie Usborne expresses that by the mid-1920s contraceptive use became very socially acceptable. One of the largest reasons for it becoming so accepted is that there was a major realization that protection should be