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(Deirdre McGowan, Head of Law, School of Social Sciences, Law, and Education, Technological University Dublin)

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(Julia Roos, Associate Professor of History, Indiana University, Bloomington)

This book is an annotated translation into English of Zehn Lebenslaeufe Berliner Kontollmaedchen und zehn Beitraege zur Behandlung der geschlechtlichen Frage (1905) (Ten Life Histories of Berlin Prostitutes under Police Control and Ten Contributions to the Management of the Sexual Question) by Dr. Wilhelm Hammer (1879-1940(?)). The author worked as an assistant physician at the women's ward at the Berlin municipal homeless shelter in the Froebelstrasse, where he recorded Ten Life Histories. Dr. Hammer wrote Ten Life Histories as a contribution to the Grossstadt-Dokumente [Metropolis Documents], a sociological work in fifty volumes edited by Hans Ostwald (1873-1940) published between 1904 and 1908. In addition to its interest for prostitution research, Ten Life Histories sheds valuable light on aspects of cultural and social life in the German Empire of this period, particularly on the school and welfare systems and, more generally, on women's role in society at the time.