Ice age
Dating from this period, two Venus figurines from the Kostienki site in southern Russia are in part bound with leather straps. Timothy Taylor comments that the figurines „are explicitly sexual, sharing themes of objectification and possession, that I feel are inherent in all the so-called Venus figurines.“ (Timothy Taylor: „The Prehistory of Sex“, USA 1996)
1376 B.C.E
An Egyptian tomb relief in limestone depicts the aristocrat couple Bastret and Ra-Nates. Bastret holds a stick in her left hand, and with her right hand points commandingly to a man, who kneels naked before her with his penis erect. The inscriptions translate as: „Behold, from the very beginning of our age it has fallen to the exalted woman to strike the flesh of the disobedient“. Does anyone have the English original quote? Unfortunately this is not from a scholarly source; we would be grateful for information comfirming the existence of this relief and the accuracy of the interpretation. (WHAP Magazine, No. 12, p. 36)1st Century AD
In the Satyricon attributed to the Arbiter Gaius Petronius, the narrator Encolpus is cured of his impotence by Enothea, a priestess of Priapus, who inserts into his anus a dildo coated with oil, pepper and ground nettle seed, thereafter massaging his thighs with the same mixture, and and concluding by flogging his genitals with nettles. (Titus Petronius Arbiter „Satyricon“, chapter 16)218 to 222
Reign of the Roman emperor Elagabalus (Heliogabal). Pieces of jewelry occur around this date depicting him standing naked, with whip and an erection, on a curricle drawn by two slaves. Undoubtedly not consensual, nevertheless the first known mention of pony play. (Frischauer, Paul „Weltgeschichte der Erotik. Teil 2“, Knaur 1995, p.59)circa 300
The Roman grammarian Sextus Pompeius Festus desribes people paying to have themselved whipped as„Flagratores“. The motivation would appear not to be sexual in this case, more probably a form of penace on the part of the client. (Dühren, Eugen (d.i. Iwan Bloch): „Englische Sittengeschichte“. 2. veränderte edn., Louis Marcus Verlagsbuchhandlung, Berlin 1912, Vol.I, p.352) (Encyclopaedia Britannica)circa 300
Mallanaga Vatsyayana compiles the „Kama Sutra“. It lists four ways of striking in the act of love; the areas of the body appropriate for this; and the lustful cries that the bottom may utter. The text specifies that beating, along with pinching and biting during intercourse, should only occur with the consent of the partner, as not all women find it arousing. First known text on S&M practises and safety guidelines. („Die Liebeslehren des Kama Sutra“, Unipart Verlag Stuttgart 1996)1 August 527
Empress Theodora ascends the throne of the Eastern Empire. According to the historian Prokopius she had „one of her servants, a most comely youth, beaten with sticks without cause, although she was herself enamoured of him.“ Hirschfeld reports that the servant, named Aurobindus; „had been her childhood companion and later became her slave, meaning he was obliged to witness her orgies without himself partaking of them“. Hirschfeld’s source for this is unclear. (Prokopius, Historia arcana, chapter 16, around 550 A.D.) (Hirschfeld, Magnus: „Geschlechtsanomalien und Perversionen. Ein Studienbuch für Ärzte, Juristen, Seelsorger und Pädagogen“. Nordische Verlagsgesellschaft, Frankfurt, Stockholm 1955, p.392)circa 540
Birth of Géry de Cambrai, patron saint of slaves and captives, in Yvry, Luxemburg. He went on to become bishop of Cambrai, died around 625 and was buried in the St-Médard church near Cambrai in France. (Gorys, Erhard „Lexikon der Heiligen“, dtv 1997, p. 112)circa 1200
The Song of the Nibelungen describes the wedding night of Brunhild and king Gunther: „In her arms she grasped the peerless knight; she weened to bind him, as she had done the king, that she might have her case upon the bed. The lady avenged full sore, that he had rumpled thus her clothes. What availed his mickle force and his giant strength? She showed the knight her masterly strength of limb; she carried him by force (and that must needs be) and pressed him rudely ’twixt a clothes-press and the wall. („The Nibelungenlied“, translated by Daniel B. Shumway (Houghton-Mifflin Co., New York, 1909)Between 1200 and 1300
Henri d’Andely relates in „Le Lai d’Aristote“ the allegory of the philosopher Aristotle, who permitted Phyllis, a beautiful courtesan, to saddle him up and ride him like a horse, bridle and all. The image of intellect under the lash of beauty was subsequently a frequent motif for artists such as Hans Baldung Grien, „Aristotle and Phyllis“, Germany 1513. An earlier example is in Freiburg on the gothic tapestry known as the Maltererteppich, dating from c. 1310/1320: „Weiberlisten (the craftiness of women)“, section: Der „zeltende“ Aristoteles. (Frischauer, Paul „Weltgeschichte der Erotik. Part 1“, Knaur 1995, pp. 245-247) (Noyes, John K.: „The Mastery of Submission“. Cornell University Press, Ithaca et al. 1997, p. 99)circa 1210
The flagellation movement arises in central Italy. This was a lay movemant of religious fanatics; its adherents would flog or castigate themselves in penance, drawing blood in the process. Religious flagellantism spread throughout central and western Europe and reached its peak during the Black Death years of 1348 and 1349. Pope Clement VI (1332-1352) issued a bull denouncing the flagellants, and the Council of Constance prohibited the movement in 1417. During the 16th century numerous other penitant and flagellant groups emerged in France. In 1601 the Paris Parliament issued a directive against the brotherhood of flagellants in Bourges and soon followed this with the prosecution of all flagellant groups, citing among other grounds their immorality. Further prosecutions continued sporadically until around 1820. It is a matter of debate as to whether or not the flagellation movement contained a sexual element. As Giovanni Frusta puts it, „fanaticism and superstition prepared the ground; sensuality followed later to complete the opus.“ (dtv Lexikon München 1999)1336
Birth in Samarkand of the Asian conqueror Timur, more commonly known as Tamerlane or Tamburlaine. According to Meibom, Timur had himself flogged „to increase his lust“; no source is given for this.1347
Birth of saint, mystic and doctor of the church Caterina Benincasa or Catherine of Sienain Siena in Italy. Patron saint of Italy, she died in 1380. In 1374 under accusation of immoral and unreligious behaviour she was called before the General Chapter of the Dominicans to explain herself. Benincasa was extremely partial to being chastised in complete undress by her fellow sisters on a regular basis, in order to attain „ecstatic“ intoxication. The sexual character of her religious visions thus engendered is well attested by her contemporaries. (Gorys, Erhard „Lexikon der Heiligen“, dtv 1997, p. 170)1489 or 1494
Birth in Leiden in the Netherlands of Lucas van Leyden. His woodcut „The Enslaved Husband“ depicts a man bridled with a woman riding him side-saddle holding the reins; she is gazing down on him, whip in hand. Lucas died in 1533. (Encyclopaedia Britannica)1498
Italian humanist and philosopher Pico della Mirandola writes in „Disputationum adversus astrologos“ („Against the Astrologers“): „There is now alive a man of prodigious and almost unheard-of kind of lechery, for he is never inflamed to pleasure but when he is whipt; and yet he is so intent on the act, and longs for the strokes with such an earnestness, that he blames the flogger that uses him gently, and is never thoroughly master of his wishes unless the blood starts and the whip rages smartly over his limbs. This creature begs the favour of the woman whom he is to enjoy, brings her a rod himself, soaked and hardened in vinegar a day before for the same purpose, and entreats the blessings of a whipping from the harlot on his knees; and the more smartly he is whipt, he rages the more eagerly, and goes the same pace both to pleasure and pain – a singular instance of one who finds a delight in the midst of torment; and he is not a man very vicious in other respects, he acknowledges his distemper and abhors it.“ Whereas the astrologers ascribe the cause to the heavenly bodies, Mirandola repeats his acquaintance’s own explanation that his education was to blame, since he „had been educated with a number of wicked boys who set up this trade of whipping among themselves and purchased of each other these infamous stripes at the expence of their modesty.“ Mirandolas theory that adherents of these practises are „jittery lechers“ and „frigid beings“ who can only thus revive their jaded sex drives has persisted right into the 21st century.1516
In his „Lectiones antiquae“, Ludovicus Caelius Rhodiginus (1469-1525) describes one individual in these terms: „It is certain, upon the oath of credible persons, that not many years since there lived a man, not of a salaciousness resembling that of cocks, but of a more wonderful and almost incredible sort of lechery – who, the more stripes he received, was the more hurried to coition. The case was prodigious, since it was a question which he desired most – the blows, or the act itself, unless the pleasure of the latter was measured by the number of the former; besides, it was his manner to heighten the smartness of the rod with vinegar the day before it was to be used, and then to request the discipline with violent entreaties. But if the flogger seemed to work slowly, he flew into a passion and abused her. He was never contented unless the blood flowed – a rare instance of a man who went an equal pace to pleasure and to pain, and who, in the midst of torture, either satisfied or excited a pleasing titillation, and a furious itch of lust.“1534
In his medical text „Onomastikon Medicinae“, Otto Brunfels (1488-1534) describes a man „who never could enjoy his wife if he was not soundly flogged to it before he made the attempt“, and also describes the trial of a cheese merchant accused of adultery, in which a prostitute testifies „that he could never have a forcible erection and perform a man’s part till she had whipped him on the back with rods, and that when the business was over he could not be brought to a repetition unless excited by a second flogging“. He also writes: „Besides, it is not many years since that a person of a small post in a noted town in Holland, very much addicted to venery, was caught in the very act with a woman whom he could never effectually enjoy without being stimulated by flogging.“circa 1539
Birth ofPierre de Brantôme, Seigneur de Bourdeille. In his widely-known and often reprinted memoirs, Brantôme describes a noblewoman who took pleasure in beating her chambermaids and parlormaids, and also a „grandseigneur, who does likewise with his wife“. He also describes a woman of good reputation receiving four strokes of the rod from her mother every other day, not in punishment, but because the movement it induced in her body and buttocks gave her pleasure. He goes on to describe a high-ranking man whose flaccidity at the age of 84 was thrashed into life prior to performing his conjugal rights.1558
Death of the French Advisor of Parliament Andre Tiraqueau. According to Ludovicus Caelius Rhodiginus, Tiraqueau was a devotee of sexual flagellation.circa 1580
The English Poet Christopher Marlowe writes in an epigram: „When Francus comes to solace with his whore, / He sends for rods and strips himself stark naked; / For his lust sleeps, and will not rise before / By whipping of the wench it be awaked. / I envy him not, but wish I had the power, / To make his wench but one half hour.“1624
The engraving „The Parlor Game „, Amsterdam 1624, shows a nobleman with his head deep in the lap of a lady’s skirts, being spanked on the buttocks by another two ladies. The title is an allusion to the convention of apology in the society of the time.1625
First known mention, by John Barclay in his „Icon animorum“, of the anecdote of the Russian wife who feels unloved because her husband no longer beats her. The story was extensively reported even into the 20th century1639
The German physician Johann Heinrich Meibom the Elder (1590-1655), a professor of medicine in Helmstaedt, describes in „Tractatus de usu flagrorum in re medica et venerea“ men who are aroused by whipping. He postulates that the lashes heat the semen in the kidneys and then cause the arousal in the scrotum. Even Iwan Bloch, writing in the early 20th century, fell back on this explanation of the physiology in his „Englische Sittengeschichte“ (English Life and Customs).Mid 17th century
Foundation in Russia by Danila Filippov of the Boshiye Iyundi sect („People of God“ in Russian), later more generally known as Khlysty (from the Russian word Khlyst, „whip“). The church service comprised ecstatic dances and a revival of flagellantism. The sect suffered repeated persecution; we do not have information as to when it eventually died out1660
In one of the earliest erotic novels, the „Académie des Dames“ (1660), a young woman permits an elderly priest to cane her on her bare behind.1669
Publication by the Danish physician Thomas Bartholinus of a new edition of Meibom’s ’Tractatus’. It contains two additional letters, in which Bartholinus corresponds with Meibom the Younger, swapping in particular information on flagellation in Russia.1676
In „The Virtuoso“ by the British dramatist Thomas Shadwell, the aged libertine Snarl is flogged by a young prostitute. She inquires of him: „I wonder that should please you so much, that pleases me so little?“ and his reply: „I was so us’d to’t at Westminster-School, I cou’d never leave it off since.“1682
First performance of „Venice Preserv’d“ by British playwright Thomas Otway. In Act III, Scene 1 according to Pisanus Fraxi „the servile senator, Antonio, visits his mistress, Aquilina to ’have a game of romp’ and desires her to spit in his face. He plays the part of a dog and gets under the table, begging her to use him like a dog, to kick him, &c.; until the courtesan fetches a whip and flogs him out of the room.“1698
In his „Flagellum salutis“, Kristian Frantz Paullini upholds Meibom’s Theory in its essentials, but is of the opinion that the lashes to the kidney region heat up blood, rather than semen.1700
Publication of Abbé Boileau’s „Historia Flagellantium de recto et perverso flagrorum usu apud christianos“. The book was soon available in French translation; in ten polemic chapters it covers religious flagellation from the time of the ancients to the end of the 17th century. The author incessantly rails against the profane and sexual aspects of „discipline“. He also warns of spreading flagellation through mental infection. Boileau became the subject of frequent attacks by a variety of religious orders, not least of which were the Jesuits.1704
Edward Ward, writing „London Spy“, describes in detail an episode he witnessed in a brothel, in which a man of about 60 asked if there were rods in the house. When Ward asks what this question means, he is toldJune 28, 1712
Birth of the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau in Geneva. Rousseau’s masochism is described in his autobiography „Confessions“.1718
Publication in London of Meibom’s „Tractatus“ in English translation. It includes a picture of a man flogging a woman, with another woman looking on.1720
Martin Schurig devotes a chapter of his „Spermatologia historico-medica“ to erotic flagellantism, with particular attention to the practise of „urtication“, which is flagellation with nettles.October 23, 1734
Birth in Sacy near Auxerre in France of the author and typographer Nicolas-Edme Restif, better known as Restif de la Bretonne. Restif de la Bretonne is described by Havelock Ellis as the first well-documented case of a shoe- and foot fetishist. The (rare) term „retifism“ for shoe and foot fetishism is derived from his name.June 2, 1740
Birth in Paris of the writer Donatien-Alphonse-François de Sade who – albeit 9 involuntarily – gave his name to the term sadism.
1748
In John Cleland’s „Fanny Hill: The Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure“, the female protagonist meets an „unhappy man“ who is „in a habitual state of conflict with and dislike of himself for being enslaved to so peculiar a taste, by the fatality of a constitutional ascendant, that render’d him incapable of receiving any pleasure till he submitted to these extraordinary means of procuring it at the hand of pain.“March 9, 1749
Birth in Bignon of the French politician and orator Honoré-Gabriel Riqueti Comte de Mirabeau. Mirabeau wrote a series of erotic novels, among them „Hic et Hec ou l’Élève des RR. PP. Jésuites d’Avignon“, which includes praise for the joys of flagellation.1767
Birth of Jacques Baron Révérony de Saint-Cyr. Saint-Cyr was influenced by de Sade und was author of various plays, scientific works and novels. He was, according to Iwan Bloch, the first sadistic author.1767
After the death of his father, de Sade raises in rank from Marquis to Comte de Sade. The title Marquis goes to his eldest son Louis-Marie. De Sade often calls himself Marquis until 1790. In the major part of the later literature, he is also designated with the old title.June 27, 1772
De Sade and his servant Latour order three girls into an apartment in Marseille, where these are whipped with birches, and also whip the men. Several sexual actions take place. The women eat anise candy which are offered to them by De Sade. On the next day, all complain about indisposition, the eighteen-year-old Marianne Laverne vomits blood. Probably the candy contained an unknown substance which should provoke flatulence („carminative“ effect).July 25, 1772
In Louis Petit de Bauchaumont’s „Les Mémoires secrets pour servir à l’histoire de la république des lettres“, the rumor is spread that De Sade had given the sick prostitutes the toxic aphrodisiac cantharidine („Spanish Fly „). Although this rumor can never be proven, is it reported as fact well into the late 20th century.September 3, 1772
De Sade and Latour are sentenced to death in a hasty trial in their absence for the attempted poisoning of the prostitutes, and are executed „in effigie“ as straw dolls on the 12. September 1772 in Aix-en-Provence. The two men are on the run at that time. The proceeding is nullified on the 30. June 1778, since there is no proof for the charge.1777
The Englishman J.L. Delolme publishes Boileau’s „Historia Flagellantium“ in an edited and commented edition in English: „The History of the Flagellants, or the Advantages of Discipline; Being a Paraphrase and Commentary on the ’Historia Flagellantium’ of the Abbé Boileau, Doctor of the Sorbonne etc.“ A new edition is published 1784 in London with the title „Memorials of Human Superstition etc.“ (de Lolme, Jean Louis: „The History of the Flagellants, or The Advantages of Discipline: Being a Paraphrase and Commentary on the „Historia Flagellantium“ of the Abbé Boileau, Doctor of the Sorbonne ..“ M. Hingeston, London 1777)July 2, 1778
Rousseau dies in Ermonville near Paris.circa 1780
Drawing of „Xanthippe and Sokrates“ by J. Smith. A woman sits sidewise on a beardy man. In the left hand a whip, she directs him with her right hand.1781
Rousseau’s autobiographic work „Confessions“ (finished 1765) is published. In it, he describes the arousal that he felt when thinking of dominant women ever since he was punished as child by his approx. 30-year-old teacher Miss Lambercier.1785
De Sade writes the „Les 120 Journées de Sodome ou l’Ecole du Libertinage“, 120 days of Sodom, while being held as a prisoner in the Bastille When the Marquis leaves the Bastille 1789, the manuscript stays behind and comes into possession of the family Villeneuve-Trans who kept it safe for three generations. Until the twentieth century, it was thought to be lost.1786
The caricaturist James Gillray publishes a flagellation scene: „Lady Termagant Flaybum going to give her stepson a taste of her dessert after dinner“.1788
In his publication „Castigation and its effect on the sexual instinct“ (Traité du fouet, et de ses effects sur le physique de l’amour, ou Aphrodisiaque externe), the French physician François Amédée Doppet expands the theory of Meibom and Paullini with the note that with women the heat caused by the beating ascends into the vagina. He also reports on the use of castigations in prostitution: even at the entry of „locations where lust is for sale“ one could see various means of castigation. „If you ask, like the simple man from the countryside, what for these weapons are meant? she will answer you in a childlike manner that they serve for pleasure.“ He advises that children shall not be beaten on their buttocks, so as not to awaken their sexual instinct, and that one shall not talk about castigating and discipline in the presence of nuns, since „the female sex is more easily excited, and so more subject to pollutions.“18. century, prior to the publication of „Venus School Mistress“
A flower bouquet, fastened to the breast, is reported as having served as distinctive mark of flagellant prostitution.1788
„Venus School Mistress or Birchen Sports“ is published in England, a flagellant publication of great popularityApril 2, 1791
Honoré-Gabriel Riqueti Comte de Mirabeau dies in ParisSeptember 2, 1791
The composer and musician Frantisek Koczwara from Prague (the spelling of his name varies, Kotzwarra etc. is also found) begs a London prostitute – as he had also done in the past, according to witnesses – to hang him and lower him down again five minutes later, and dies in this process. The prostitute, Susanna Hill, is arrested for murder, but is found not guilty. The protocols of the proceeding and all additional documents are burned to ashes because of their dangerousness for the public moral. Koczwara is the first testified victim of sexual asphyxia.1791
The first version of De Sade’s „Justine ou les Malheurs de la vertu“ is published in France. In the same year, a second, extended version, in 1792 a third, and in 1794 a fourth are published. The final edition is published in 1797 in ten volumes, together with „Juliette“.December 1792
still looking for the quote It is not clear if this club ever existed; later literature often does refer to this report nevertheless.1792
Mercier de Compiègne translates Thomas Bartholinus’ edition of Meibom’s „Tractatus“ into French and adds new annotations and additions.1796
The first version of De Sade’s „Juliette, ou les Prospérites du vice“ is published in France. The final version is published in 1797 in ten volumes together with „Justine“.1797
In the „Spectateur du Nord“, the philologist Charles de Villers publishes the essay „Lettre sur le Roman intitulé Justine ou les Malheurs de la Vertu“, which contains a short summary of „Justine“, as to „spare the readers of the ’Spectateur’ the lecture of this terrible book“. About the distribution of the work he writes: „Everybody wants to know what kind of book this is; one asks for it, one searches it, it is distributed, the editions are sold out, then reprinted, and so the most abominable venom circulates in fatal abundance.“1801
Under Napoleon I., the works of de Sades are confiscated and destroyed in France. Since they were already widely distributed internationally, the confiscation did only show marginal results. The books are also continually reprinted.1803
De Sade is hospitalized in the Parisian prison hospital Charenton.February 3, 1806
Restif de la Bretonne dies in Paris.1808
English chalk illustration „The Parlour Game“ by James Gillray. A man knees and kisses the shoes of a woman, many people watch.December 29, 1809
The British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone is born in Liverpool. The four-time Prime Minister of England used to flagellate himself after indulging with prostitutes in ’strange and humbling pursuits’. He recorded these fustigations in his diary with a special signDecember 2, 1814
De Sade dies in the Parisian asylum Charenton.May 19, 1815
The works of De Sade are confiscated in France.Some years after de Sade’s death
During the relocation of de Sade’s body, the physician Ramon examines his skull. By application of the pseudo-scientific theory of phrenology he detects that the skull – according to theory – resembles the skull of a pious father of the church. Ramon lends the skull to his colleague Spurzheim. Since the death of the latter it is lost. A mold of the skull, which was made by Spurzheim, is on display at the Musée de l’Homme in ParisOctober 30, 1821
The Russian author Fjodor M. Dostojewski is born. Dostojewski’s erotic fantasies included the simulated and real act of corporal punishment. Unfortunately, Anna Snitkina later obliterated the obscene details in her letters from Dostojewski. At the time of their marriage, his addiction to violent and unusual kinds of sexuality were widely known. He was also a foot fetishist1825
Works of de Sade are confiscated in France.1828
For Theresa Berkley, the owner of a flagellation brothel in Charlotte Street no. 28, London, a special whipping bench is constructed which becomes generally known as the „Berkley Horse“. The original of the Berkley Horse goes to the London „Society of Arts“ after her death.1829
Saint-Cyr dies in insanity1834
The author and laywer Carl August Fetzer publishes – under the pseudonym of Giovanni Frusta and as an alleged translation from the Italian – „The flagellantism and the Jesuits’ confessions“. The publication illuminates the sexual misuse of religious flagellantism1834
J. Janin describes in „Le marquis de Sade“ the popularity of the works of the Marquis de Sade in the First Empire and during Restauration. Auctioneers reported that in almost every inventory of an estate the books of de Sade could be found. They were said to be distributed by the police more than in by any other means.January 27, 1836
The Austrian author and involuntary eponym of „masochism“, Leopold von SacherMasoch, is born in Lwow (Lemberg).
1836
Theresa Berkley dies. Her memories that had been announced for publication long in advance are held back by the executor of her will, Dr. Vance, and are not published even after his death. Her numerous boxes with correspondence – reported to have included very compromising letters – were probably destroyed by Vance. Nevertheless, hints towards these memories can be found sometimes; it is not clear whether they have been privately printed at some pointApril 5, 1837
The British poet Algernon Charles Swinburne is born in London. The pre-raffaelite openly confessed his masochism, longed for the whipping bench of Eton for all his life, and wrote many poems on the pleasures of flagellation.August 14, 1840
The German psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing is born in Mannheim. At the age of 32, Krafft-Ebing becomes professor for psychiatry in Zurich. In his „Psychopathia sexualis“ he later introduces the concepts of „sadism“ und „masochism“15. December 1843
Works of de Sade are confiscated in France.1843
The Ruthenian physician Heinrich Kaan publishes his study „Psychopathia sexualis“, in which sins of the flesh are reinterpreted as diseases of the mind. Following this initiative, other physicians and psychiatrists also begin to use medieval theological terms of disapproval like „deviation“, „aberration“, and „perversion“. Originally, these had referred to „false“ religious beliefs or heresy; now they begin to turn into (pseudo)medical concepts. The whole process is known in cultural history as the ’medicalization of sin’.October 15, 1844
The German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche is born in Röcken near Lützen. The philosopher himself was probably no sadomasochist, but mentions among the four women in his life one married woman, whom he beat during sex and who, clad as man, beat him. One photo taken in May 1882 shows him together with Paul Rée in front of a cart on which the Russian author Lou Andreas-Salome sits and swings a whip.1847
The first German translation of Meibom’s „Tractatus“ is published with the title „Von der Nützlichkeit der Geißelhiebe in medizinischer und physischer Beziehung usw.“ in J. Scheible’s work „Der Schatzgräber“ (The treasure hunter).Since the middle of the 19th century
In several European cities, the police takes increasing action against flagellation brothels.May 6, 1856
The Austrian physician Sigmund Freud is born in Freiberg (today Pribor). He later made Krafft-Ebing’s ideas about sadism and masochism a central part of his theory of psychoanalysis.
1857
The deeply religious French physician Bénedict-Auguste Morel holds the theory that bodily and mental degeneration are the reasons also for incorrect sexual behavior. Until Freud, this theory dominates the psychiatrists’ thinking, and is the basis for Krafft-Ebing’s theories. For the Nazis, it is one rationale for the mass murder in the name of „Rassenhygiene“ (racial hygiene).February 2, 1859
The British physician and essayist Henry Havelock Ellis is born in Croydon. Between 1897 und 1928, Ellis publishes the „Studies in the Psychology of Sex“ in seven volumes. He discerns that sadism and masochism are no contraries, and that the pleasure of both variants is limited to the sexual context. In England his works are forbidden until 1935. In his autobiography, he writes about his own urophilia (usage of urine in sexual context) and declares, „It proved of immense benefit to me, for it was the germ of a perversion and it enabled me to understand sympathetically the nature of perversions.“ (Encyclopaedia Britannica)1862
The diplomat Karl Freiherr von Martens dies and is thus hindered to finish a large publication on flagellation. The manuscript is lost. After his death, von Marten’s extensive collection of castigation and punishment tools is auctioned publicly in Dresden.1862
The novel „Aus den Memoiren einer Sängerin“ (From the memories of a Singer) is published, an alleged autobiography of the famous singer Wilhelmine SchröderDevrient (1804-1860). The novel contains numerous sadomasochistic scenes, some of them clearly influenced by de Sade’s „Justine“. Iwan Bloch gives a short summary of this book in his work „Der Marquis de Sade und seine Zeit“ (Marquis de Sade and his time). (Dühren, Eugen (d.i. Iwan Bloch): „Der Marquis de SMay 28, 1866
The German graphic artist Franz von Bayros is born in Agram. Many of his erotic works have S&M themes1867-1874
The British magazine „Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine“ prints hundreds of letters about very tight-laced corsetry, many with clearly sadomasochistic undertone. Many authors take these reports as proof for the general usage of tight-laced corsets in the Victorian era. However, according to the cultural historian Valerie Steele, these letters are mainly products of fetishist fantasies.May 14, 1868
The Jewish physician and sexual reformer Magnus Hirschfeld is born in Kolberg (Pommern).1870
The Englishmen James G. Bertram publishes – under the pseudonym „Rev. Wm. Cooper“ – an illustrated book about: „Flagellation and the Flagellants. A History of the Rod in all countries from the earliest period to the present time“. A German translation is published 1899, titled: „Der Flagellantismus und die Flagellanten. Eine Geschichte der Rute in allen Ländern“.1870
Sacher-Masoch publishes his novel „Venus im Pelz“ (Venus in Furs), which becomes a bestseller. Following this, circles of readers and fans of Sacher-Masoch form, which are the germ cell of the sadomasochistic subculture. In personal ads, too, people search for like-minded people and possible partners referring to Sacher-Masoch’s writings.May 15, 1871
At the foundation of the German Reich, only the distribution of obscene texts and pictures is made a punishable offence in the Reichsstrafgesetzbuch, article § 184. „Obscene“ is explained as „obscenity in a sexual context that could hurt the sense of shame of normal-disposed persons“.May 15, 1871
From a clause in Prussian law the paragraph § 175 enters the German Reichsstrafgesetzbuch. It says: „Unnatural sexual acts between male persons or between humans and animals are to be punished by incarceration; civil rights can also be forfeited.“ The conviction numbers under § 175 in the criminal statistics range from 300 to 700 until 1924, whereas at the end of the Weimar Republic, the numbers rose to about 800 to 1100 convictions per year.April 8, 1872
Iwan Bloch is born in Delmenhorst. The dermatologist publishes – also under the pseudonym Eugen Dühren – numerous sexological works and is considered to be the co-founder of modern sexology. He also did valuable research on de Sade.August 21, 1872
The British graphic artist Aubrey Beardsley is born in Brighton. Beardsley draws numerous sadomasochistic scenes, like in 1895 a frontispiece for the flagellant’s club in London, which is said to relay to a close group in the Victorian society. In 1897, he draws „Juvenal whipping a woman“April 8, 1872
The American escape artist and magician Ehrich Weiss, better known as Harry Houdini, is born in Appleton, Wisconsin. Houdini is sort of a patron of all bondage practitioners, even though he cheated. At his time, he was one of the rare sources for publicly available bondage picture in often extreme situations1875
The British philosopher and occultist Aleister Crowley is born. Crowley is said to have had SM relationships with men and women.July 1879
In the British high society, the magazine „The Pearl“ is distributed. Algernon Charles Swinburne is considered to be the editor of this magazine with flagellation themes. Ten issues are published until December 1880.1879
Under the pseudonym Pisanus Fraxi, the Brit Henry Spencer Ashbee publishes „Centuria librorum absconditorum“, which includes an essay about flagellation. Many later publications obtain their information on the history of sadomasochism solely from this text – with or without giving it as a source.August 26, 1880
The French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, originally Wilhelm Apollinaris de Kostrowitzky, is born in Rom. Apollinaire predicted that the works of de Sade, which he edited, would dominate the 20th century. He wrote several erotic novels, the best-known being „The Eleven Thousand Rods“1880
Emile Zola’s novel „Nana“ is published. A prostitute ruins a man. She orders him to crawl on all fours and to bark like a dog. She laughs at him and humiliates him. Zola was inspired by the true story of the Duke Muffat, who was enslaved by a beautiful, sadistic prostitute all his life.February 2, 1882
The Irish author James Augustine Aloysius Joyce is born in Dublin. Joyce wrote to his lover Nora Barnacle: „Ich wäre entzückt, wenn ich jetzt meine Haut unter Deiner Hand brennen fühlen könnte … Ich wünschte, Du würdest mir einen Klaps geben oder sogar eine Tracht Prügel. Ich wünschte, Du wärest stark, stark, Liebste, und hättest einen großen, vollen, stolzen Busen und dicke, runde Schenkel. Ich würde mich gern von Dir auspeitschen lassen, Nora, Liebes!“ We don’t know whether Nora obliged his wishes.July 25, 1882
Percy Grainger is born in Melbourne, Australia. The famous Australian pianist, composer, conductor und self-confident sadomasochist extensively documented his flagellant obsession with photographs. He dies at February 20, 1961 in White Plains, USA.1883
Sir Richard Burton and F.F. Arbuthnot translate the „Kama Sutra“ into English for the first time. One of the numerous translation mistakes is that strokes with the Samdanschikam- („pincer“)-technique on the breasts are described as real strokes with iron pincers instead as a hand position derived from a dance.1886
Krafft-Ebing publishes the first edition of „Psychopathia sexualis“ with a volume of 110 pages and 45 case studies. In the chapter „Parästhesie der Geschlechtsempfindung (Perversion des Geschlechtstriebs)“ (perversion of the sexual drive) on pp. 34-56, Krafft-Ebing discusses the heterosexual deviations from the norm. „As perverted has to be declared every expression of sexual drive that does not comply to the aims of nature, e.g. procreation.“ (p. 35) What he later refers to as „sadism“ and „masochism“ is described here as „1) murder for lust and related appearances, (lust, potentiated by cruelty, lust for murder up to anthropophagy“. Von Krafft-Ebing does not offer a theory for the origins of those sexual deviations. „An ugly phenomenon „, he writes, „which we shall remind even here in the appendix, is the paedicatio mulierum, depending on circumstances uxorum (anal sex with women, depending on circumstances even with wifes, translation K.P.). Libertines perform it for titillation on inexpensive prostitutes or on their wives. (…) Sometimes the fear of further insemination can make the man pursue this action, and cause the wife to tolerate it!“ (p. 107)1887
In his essay „Le Fetichisme dans l’amour“, the French psychologist Alfred Binet uses the expression „fetishism“ for the first time in its modern meaning. The concept of erotic fetishism is taken up later by von Krafft-Ebing and othersAugust 15, 1888
The British archaeologist, author and colonial agent Thomas Edward Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia, is born in Tremadoc (Wales). 1917, Lawrence was captured by Turkish soldiers in Deraa, raped several times, and beaten with a cane. After his return to England, he paid the Scotsman John Bruce for years to whip him on a regular base, as Bruce told the „Sunday Times“ in 1968. Lawrence dies at May 19, 1935 after a motorbike accident.1888
The Austrian psychoanalyst Theodor Reik is born in Vienna. A masochist himself, Reik studied psychology and later moved on to psychoanalysis, after he met Freud in 1910. His anecdotic, chatty publications contributed to the distribution of the psychoanalytic views on masochism.May 1, 1889
The Hanau District Administrator Graf Wilhelm von Bismarck, son of the Reichskanzlers (German Chancellor) Otto von Bismarck, meets the Strasbourgian first-class prostitute Emilie Klopp in the „Frankfurter Hof“ in Frankfurt/Main. He pays her 25 000 Mark (today worth approx. ¤250 000) in exchange for six letters that the German Emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II. has written to her in the year 1885. The original letters have not survived, but Wilhelm von Bismarck writes about them: „L (Emilie Klopp negotiated under the pseudonym ’E. Love’) indicated that in the letters unusual inclinations for the complication of normal intercourse are manifested, like the binding of arms.“ After he had seen the letters, he remarked: „Writing such things down makes your hair stand on end, and I would deny authorship, too.“December 6, 1890
The German painter Rudolf Schlichter is born in Calw. He belongs to the „Dada“ scene in Berlin and dies May 3, 1955, in Munich. Many of his pictures are tinged with fetishism and sadomasochism. E.g., in 1927 he painted the aquarelle „Domina mea“: It shows a woman in boots who places one foot into the neck of a kneeling man.July 12, 1892
The Polish author, illustrator and Kafka translator Bruno Schulz is born in Drogobytsch in Galicia. Schulz illustrated „Venus in Furs“. His „Book of an Idolator“ deals with the domination of man by woman. His etchings are none too sophisticated but very explicit. On November 19, 1942 he is murdered by the Gestapo.1892
In the book „Pierers Konversations-Lexikon“, „sadism“ is described as the „disposition towards debauchery; in literature: disposition towards pornography“.October 15, 1893
In the magazine „Zeitgeist“, an addition to the „Berliner Tageblatt“, an article of Otto Brandes with the title „Die Auspeitscherin“ (the whipperess) is published.March 9, 1895
Official date of death of Sacher-Masoch by heart stroke, as given by his family. According to other sources he died 1905 in a lunatic asylum in MannheimSeptember 24, 1896
The American author F. Scott Fitzgerald is born. Fitzgerald was a foot fetishist, describes this disposition as „Freudian complex“, and went to great lengths to hide his own naked feet from the gaze of others.May 15, 1897
Magnus Hirschfeld establishes the „Wissenschaftlich-humanitäre Komitee“ (scientific-humanitarian committee) with the aim to support scientific research on sexualityMarch 16, 1898
Aubrey Beardsley dies of tuberculosis in Menton at the age of 25. Shortly before, he converted to Catholicism and condemned his own frivolous art works1898
The German Volkswartbund is founded, which opposed public immorality by dirty literature. In the fifties and sixties of the 20th century, the Volkswartbund is an eager supplier of the BPjS (Bundesprüfstelle fuer jugendgefährdende Schriften – German Federal Agency that checks texts, videos and arts concerning their liability to corrupt the young)1899
The German sexologist Albert Moll reports on cases of flagellation between gays and draws a parallel between passive flagellation and a preference for passive anal intercourse, which he both attributes to an appetite for stimulation of the buttock area. probably in: Moll, Albert: „Untersuchungen über die Libido sexualis“, Vol. I. Fischer, Berlin 1898 (not checked))www.datenschlag.org/english/dachs/dachs_english.pdf
