Die Transvestiten: Eine Untersuchung über den Erotischen Verkleidungstrieb
Die Transvestiten: Eine Untersuchung über den Erotischen Verkleidungstrieb is a classic 1910 book on crossdressing and transvestism that was written by German sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld. An illustrated companion second volume to the book was published by Hirschfeld and Max Tilke in 1912. In addition, a second edition of Die Transvestiten was published by Hirschfeld in 1925. Subsequent to its publication, the book was translated into English with the title Transvestites: The Erotic Drive to Cross-Dress by Michael Lombardi-Nash in 1991.
Background
Hirschfeld was himself gay and an occasional crossdresser, known by other Berlin crossdressers as "Aunt Magnesia". It has been said that Die Transvestiten was the most significant and authoritative text on transvestism of its time. While the book is about crossdressing, it also clearly includes some people with cross-gender feelings who would likely be referred to as transgender today. The book has often been overlooked in the English-speaking academia.Die Transvestiten includes first-person narratives of crossdressing, Hirschfeld's commentaries on these cases, and theorizing based on the observations. Of the narratives, there were 17 in total, with 16 of them natal male and one of them natal female. In the book, Hirschfeld wished to distinguish transvestism and transgenderism from other forms of sexual and/or gender variance, like homosexuality and paraphilias like fetishism and sadomasochism. Hirschfeld coined the term transvestism in the book. The original data for the cases in the book was destroyed by the Nazis in 1933 when they burned down Hirschfeld's Institut für Sexualwissenschaft in Berlin.