[Early sources of urologic and venereologic sexual medicine from Vienna : Protagonists at the interface of two new medical specialties].

Abstract

The Austrian Society for the Promotion of Sexual Medicine and Sexual Health (Österreichische Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Sexualmedizin und der Sexuellen Gesundheit [ÖGFSSG]) was founded in 2014. This foundation looked back upon the increasing efforts to develop this field of academic knowledge since the middle of the 19th century, in which Viennese medicine played an important role. This article highlights key Viennese players who had a particular interest in sexual medicine from a urological perspective around 1900. They worked in the wider area of several disciplines, striving for specialization in the environment of a rapidly growing metropolis with multiple cultural influences. The scholars presented here as a collection of sources contributed to the upswing in sexual medicine through their work by venturing into an area in which no medical or other discipline had previously been able to claim sovereignty of interpretation.