Introduction

Abstract

This chapter defines the new historiographical concept of ‘sexual treason’ and illustrates how it can be used to produce new insights into the histories of the German Empire at war, in defeat, through revolution and under occupation. Sexual relationships between soldiers and civilians took on many forms during the First World War: some were consensual, others were violent; some were state regulated, others were illegal. In each of these scenarios, sexual treason discourses were used to persuade, define and punish men and women. Though an important part of the German home and fighting front experiences, the sexual history of the First World War has, until recently, been largely ignored by historians.