International Women’s Day : ode to Beate Uhse

On March 8, International Women’s Day 2020, we want to put the spotlight on a special woman: Beate Uhse. Beate Uhse is the woman who made sex, which nowadays is impossible to imagine without sex toys and accessories, available for all in public shops. This happened during a time when nobody spoke openly about sexuality, especially not about sexual pleasure. Beate Uhse was a big player in the erotics industry and was perceived as a champion of women’s sexual liberation.

Beate Uhse’s childhood

Beate Köstlin was born on 25 October 1919 in East Prussia, now called Russia. Beate’s parents raised her with liberal values. Her mother, one of the first female doctors in Germany, had a straightforward attitude towards sex and sexuality and provided women with contraconception.

Beate also learned that girls were just as valuable and talented as boys. In 1937 Beate decided to become a pilot in Berlin. After getting her pilot licence on her 18th birthday, she became a competitive stunt pilot.

Captain at the Luftwaffe

In 1939 Beate married her stunt pilot instructor, Hans-Jürgen Uhse, and five years later they had a son. When her husband died the following year in a plane crash, Beate Uhse didn’t stop flying. She was promoted to Captain of the German Luftwaffe in 1944. However, she never spoke about her role in the war afterwards.

Moved with her son

As a former pilot in the German armed forces, Beate Uhse wasn’t allowed to fly anymore when World War II was over.  She moved to Flensburg, Germany with her son. In order to earn a living, she started selling products door to door. During her work, she met housewives who revealed how scared they were of getting pregnant during these post-war years of uncertainty.

Beate was reminded of the contraconception methods her mother taught her and she used this knowledge. She created a brochure that explained a contraception method to help women identify their fertile and unfertile days.

Brochure, Pamphlet X

Later, Beate started to sell the brochure, Pamphlet X, through her mail order company. The 32,000 copies she had already sold by then served as her startup capital to start a company that would become a great success.

The start of a great success

In 1951, Beate started selling condoms and books about hygiene within a ‘marriage’, the term that was used back then to indicate sexuality between two partners. The catalogue she set up offered items that everyone might need, but nobody ever spoke about. Another aspect that contributed to the success of the company was her personalised approach.

Ten years later, the company grew so fast that Beate already had 200 employees and the world’s first sex shop opened in Flensburg, Germany. At the time, this shop was described as a specialty shop for marital hygiene.

Not everyone is happy about the shop

Not everyone was excited about the shop. Among other things, the police were called to take action against the shop. Poeple said Beate’s work was going against morality and decency. As a result, Beate Uhse was sued more than 2,000 times in 1992. The German booksellers association would not appoint her as a publisher and she also wasn’t allowed to join the local tennis club. But, because she was Beate Uhse, she simply started her own tennis club.

The arrival of sex toys

In the 70s, the laws regarding this subject became less strict. Therefore Beate Uhse’s company could now focus on lust and pleasure instead of marital hygiene. Besides condoms, creams, and magazines, various sex toys, lingerie items and sexual stimulators were added to the catalogue and the inventory of the shop.

When pornography was legalized in Germany in 1975, Beate Uhse’s company also started distributing videos. Feminists sometimes criticized her for this, because they said she promoted work that made women look like sex objects.

Beate Uhse was an early influencer

Eventually Beate Uhse gained recognition for her groundbreaking work. Among other things, she was invited to sign the Gold Book of Flensburg for her 80th birthday. Ten years earlier, in 1989, she was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit.

Beate Uhse was an emancipated woman who left her mark as a pilot and founder in the by men dominated branches of her successful company. She undoubtedly contributed to publishing taboo subjects and she wasn’t afraid of threats, court cases or social exclusion.

Beate Uhse died from pneumonia in 2001 when she was 81 years old.

Beate Uhse now

It is obvious that we owe a lot to Beate Uhse. Like a female Hugh Hefner, she drew attention to the erotics industry for women, so men and women would become equals. We now consider things like Fifty Shades of Grey and porn for women as normal parts of everyday life, but this was still unthinkable in Beate’s time. Perhaps these things wouldn’t even exist without Beate Uhse and her commitment to sexual evolution!

Besides the shops she opened in Germany, which also went through quite a few changes, several online shops were created in her name. Pabo and Adam et Eve are also part of this. All of them are online erotics shops that offer something for everyone.