FEMALE SEXUALITY AND HISTORICAL TIME - A COMPARISON OF SEXUAL BIOGRAPHIES OF GERMAN WOMEN BORN BETWEEN 1895 AND 1936

Ninety-one German women ages 50 to 91 years (birth cohorts: 1895 to 19 36) were interviewed in-depth about their sexual development through t he life span. This article presents the results on the historical chan ge in female sexuality during childhood, puberty, and young marriage. The sample was divided into four subgroups, according to the year of b irth, which were compared to each other In contrast to the older group s, a higher percentage of women in the younger cohorts had experience in childhood sexual play, masturbation, ''real'' and faked orgasm with historical time only having a slight influence on marital sexuality a nd fertility experiences. Data indicate that subjects born later were not only more experienced sexually but changed intraindividually more often in sexual matters, whereas the older women mostly ''conserved'' the sexual morals and habits learned in youth. Subjective sexual exper ience of the interviewees is illustrated by quotations.