Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Photo: VitVit, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Berl%C3%ADn_Humboldtova_univerzita_3.jpg)
Gallery of Volkmar Sigusch
Goethe University Frankfurt. Photo: 25asd, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Frankfurt_Bockenheim_J%C3%BCgelhaus_22.jpg)
Career
Gallery of Volkmar Sigusch
University of Hamburg. Photo: Merlin Senger, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:UniHHHauptgebaeude.jpg)
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Photo: VitVit, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Berl%C3%ADn_Humboldtova_univerzita_3.jpg)
Goethe University Frankfurt. Photo: 25asd, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Frankfurt_Bockenheim_J%C3%BCgelhaus_22.jpg)
Volkmar Sigusch was a German physician, psychiatrist, sociologist, sexologist, university professor, and author. He founded and directed the Institute for Sexual Science at Goethe University Frankfurt from 1973 to 2006, helped establish sexology as an academic field in Germany, and developed the approach known as critical sexology.
Background
Volkmar Sigusch was born on June 11, 1940, in Bad Freienwalde in Brandenburg, then part of Germany. He was the son of Herbert Sigusch and Gertrud, née Anders. He grew up in the German Democratic Republic and left for West Germany in 1961, the year the Berlin Wall was built, after beginning his medical studies in East Berlin.
His early intellectual formation joined medicine with philosophy, psychology, and sociology. In Frankfurt am Main he encountered the Frankfurt School tradition through Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno, whose critical social theory later informed his approach to sexuality and medicine. The political division of postwar Germany and the competing academic cultures of East and West formed the historical setting for his subsequent work.
Education
Sigusch began studying medicine at Humboldt University of Berlin and continued his education in Frankfurt am Main and Hamburg, where he also studied psychology and philosophy. Humboldt University, founded in 1810, represented the research-oriented German university tradition and was one of East Berlin's principal institutions of higher education during the early years of the German Democratic Republic. His studies in Frankfurt brought him into contact with Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno, leading figures of the Institute for Social Research and the Frankfurt School.
At the University of Hamburg he completed the medical state examination in 1966 and received the Doctor of Medicine for an experimental-psychological study of prejudice. Hamburg's Institute for Sex Research, founded in 1959 as the first university institution of its kind in postwar Germany, provided the setting for his early professional specialization. In 1972 he completed his habilitation in sexology, a qualification that helped establish the field as an independent university discipline in Germany.
Sigusch's early professional development took place at the University of Hamburg, where he combined medical training with psychiatry, psychotherapy, psychology, sociology, and sexology. Between 1966 and 1972 he completed required clinical training in psychiatry and psychotherapy and worked in the intellectual environment created by Hans Giese and Hans Bürger-Prinz. The University of Hamburg, founded in 1919, had become an important center for interdisciplinary research and for the institutional development of postwar German sexology.
In 1972 Sigusch was appointed to the newly established chair of sexology at Goethe University Frankfurt. Goethe University, founded in 1914 and named after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in 1932, was a major comprehensive university whose medical and social-science faculties supported the interdisciplinary character of his work. In 1973 he founded the Department of Sexology at the university hospital, later renamed the Institute for Sexual Science, and directed it until his emeritus retirement and the institute's closure in 2006.
At Frankfurt he also held a professorship in special sociology, focused on the sociology of sexuality, and served for twelve years as managing director of the Center for the Psychosocial Foundations of Medicine. His institute combined clinical work, empirical research, social theory, sexual medicine, and public discussion of homosexuality, gender identity, sexual dysfunction, AIDS, and sexual law. Sigusch's approach challenged purely biological or diagnostic accounts of sexuality and became associated with critical sexology, which treated sexuality as simultaneously bodily, psychological, social, historical, and political.
Sigusch was a founding figure in the International Academy of Sex Research in 1973 and helped establish the Zeitschrift für Sexualforschung in 1988. From 1979 to 1986 he edited the cultural periodical Sexualität konkret. He was also associated with the editorial work of Beiträge zur Sexualforschung and Archives of Sexual Behavior. After his retirement he continued writing and practicing as a sexual and couples therapist in Frankfurt.
Sigusch helped establish sexology as an independent university discipline in Germany and became the first professor appointed to a German university chair specifically devoted to sexology.
He founded and directed the Institute for Sexual Science at Goethe University Frankfurt from 1973 to 2006, developing an interdisciplinary center for sexual medicine, clinical work, empirical research, and social theory.
He developed the approach known as critical sexology, which connected sexual medicine and empirical research with sociology, critical theory, history, and the study of social regulation.
He co-founded the International Academy of Sex Research and helped establish the Zeitschrift für Sexualforschung in 1988.
His textbook Sexuelle Störungen und ihre Behandlung became an important reference work in sexual medicine and psychotherapy.
Works
edited volume
Ergebnisse zur Sexualmedizin
(A volume presenting work from the Institute for Sex Resea...)
(A critical theory presented in ninety-nine fragments, exa...)
2013
Views
Sigusch's philosophy of sexuality was shaped by critical theory, social science, medicine, and empirical research. He rejected the idea that sexuality could be fully explained through fixed biological drives or reduced to diagnostic categories, emphasizing instead its historical, cultural, interpersonal, and political dimensions.
He regarded sexuality as a field in which personal freedom, social regulation, medical authority, and moral judgment intersect. His concept of critical sexology sought to examine these forces without imposing a single ideal of sexual life, while defending the dignity and rights of people whose sexualities or gender identities had been stigmatized.
Membership
Sigusch held leading positions in the German Society for Sexual Research, serving as its first chairman from 1978 to 1982 and again from 1997 to 2000. The society promoted interdisciplinary research, clinical knowledge, and professional discussion in sexology.
He was a founding member of the International Academy of Sex Research, an international scholarly society established in the 1970s for researchers working in sexology. He was also recognized as a Fellow of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sex and as a Charter Member of the Harry Benjamin Gender Dysphoria Association, reflecting his participation in international professional networks concerned with sexuality and gender.
First chairman
German Society for Sexual Research
,
Germany
1978 - 1982
First chairman
German Society for Sexual Research
,
Germany
1997 - 2000
Founding member
International Academy of Sex Research
,
International
1973
Fellow
Society for the Scientific Study of Sex
,
United States
Charter member
Harry Benjamin Gender Dysphoria Association
,
International
Personality
Sigusch was described in professional accounts as intellectually energetic, theoretically independent, and strongly committed to interdisciplinary inquiry. His writings and public interventions show a willingness to challenge established medical and moral assumptions about sexuality.
Quotes from others about the person
Sigusch was widely described by professional and institutional sources as a pioneer of modern German sexual medicine and as the founder of critical sexology.
Interests
Modern painting
Philosophers & Thinkers
Max Horkheimer; Theodor W. Adorno; Michel Foucault
Connections
Sigusch was the son of Herbert Sigusch and Gertrud, née Anders. His intellectual and professional connections included Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno, whom he encountered during his studies in Frankfurt, and the Hamburg sexologists Hans Giese and Hans Bürger-Prinz, under whose institutional and clinical influence his specialization developed.
At Goethe University Frankfurt he worked with researchers and clinicians including Martin Dannecker, Reimut Reiche, Agnes Katzenbach, Gunter Schmidt, Eberhard Schorsch, and Sophinette Becker. His professional collaborations extended to the editorial and research networks surrounding the Zeitschrift für Sexualforschung and Beiträge zur Sexualforschung.
Father:
Herbert Sigusch
He was a bank employee and died during the Second World War.
