From Neo-Malthusianism to Sexual Reform: The Dutch Section of the World League for Sexual Reform

WRITING ABOUT THE UPCOMING international congress of the World League for Sexual Reform (WLSR), to be held in Vienna from September 16-23, 1930, Dutch writer, educator, and freethinker H. G. Cannegieter wondered why the WLSR was virtually unknown in the Netherlands. ¹ Browsing its list of members and supporters, he managed to find only one Dutch affiliate: birth control pioneer Aletta Jacobs, who had died just a few weeks before the previous WLSR congress in London (1929), in which she had intended to participate. ² On a recent visit to Vienna, Cannegieter had met with Josef Friedjung, president of the organizing committee of the Vienna congress, who inquired about the Dutch public's lack of interest. In replying, Cannegieter referred to "our proverbial prudishness and the political situation, which is governed by reactionary influences," but promised to publish a notice informing the Dutch public about the WLSR and its congress as soon as he returned to the Netherlands. ³

While the WLSR may have attracted little attention in the Netherlands, one man did take an active interest: Bernard Premsela, a physician and self-styled sexologist, nicknamed the "red doctor of Amsterdam," who was familiar with the proceedings of both the Copenhagen and London congresses. ⁴ While he had been unable to attend the latter, he did travel to Vienna in September 1930 to participate in the League's fourth congress. ⁵ Two months later he wrote to F. M. Wibaut, an Amsterdam alderman and leading member of the Sociaal Democratische Arbeiders Partij (Social Democratic Labor Party, SDAP), soliciting his aid to found a Dutch section of the WLSR. Wibaut, who had written Premsela a year before inquiring about the WLSR, promised his full support. ⁶

Surprisingly, we know next to nothing about the history of the Dutch section of the WLSR, though it can, with good reason, be called the predecessor of the postwar Nederlandse Vereniging voor Sexuele Hervorming (Dutch Society for Sexual Reform, NVSH). ⁷ Until recently, we also knew little about the history of its international parent organization or the various national sections that were established in several European countries. ⁸ But according to radical psychoanalyst and sex reformer Wilhelm Reich, in the 1920s the WLSR "comprised the most progressive sexologists and sex reformers in the world." ⁹ Chiefly known for its series of international congresses for sexual reform, organized in the 1920s and 1930s under the leadership of its founding father, German sexologist and sexual reformer Magnus Hirschfeld, the League was committed to a ten-point program of sexual reform. This program addressed themes that are still relevant today, such as sex education, equality between men and women, marriage reform, birth control, and a rational attitude toward homosexuals, but it also raised some issues that "would be out of place in a contemporary, progressive organization," like race betterment through eugenics and the (forced) prevention of venereal disease and prostitution. ¹⁰ The Dutch section of the WLSR subscribed to an adapted version of this program and, though short-lived, infused other Dutch movements for sexual reform with some badly needed new lifeblood.

In the following essay, I will first outline the history of the Dutch section of the WLSR, from its beginnings in 1932 to its demise in 1940, situating it in the context of Dutch sexual reform movements in the first half of the twentieth century. Next, I will analyze its ideas on sexual reform, which were expressed in both its platform and its publication series, Sexueele Hervorming (Sexual reform).

The Nieuw-Malthusiaansche Bond

At the time that Premsela took his first step toward forming a section of the WLSR, the Dutch sexual reform movement was virtually synonymous with the Nieuw-Malthusiaansche Bond (Neo-Malthusian League, NMB). Although there were a few...