A female nude from the mid-19th century. (source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Public domain)
In 1908, an unusual report appeared in the German newspaper Blätter für Bibliophilen about a police raid that had taken place in Pressburg (now Bratislava) against a local publishing house producing pornographic literature.
The raid concerned "the matter of the dissemination of obscene pictures and writings", the police "obtaining considerably incriminating material during house searches and thanks to the seizing of postal packages".
The German newspaper that broke the news belonged to one of the most famous publishers of erotic literature, Willy Schindler.
Until recently, the existence of a pornographic publishing house in Pressburg specialising in sadomasochistic titles at the beginning of the 20th century was completely unknown. The fact proves that pornography has been around for centuries. Although initially carrying political messages, at around the middle of the 19th century it slipped into consumerism.
Sadomasochism in Pressburg
"The publishing house was called Hartleb, and we got to know about it thanks to title pages, which state Pressburg as the place of publication," says Ivona Kollárová from the Institute of History of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. "Between 1905 and 1910 approximately 30 books were published. Behind it was former major of the Dutch colonial army, Hermann Hartleb, and production focused exclusively on books with pornographic content."
The historian discovered the mysterious publishing house in the Slovak capital and recently published her findings in a paper.
Official historiography and book printing historians have yet to notice its existence.
This is the only known publisher of pornographic literature in the Slovak territory from the period over a century ago.
"Since the 18th century, Bratislava has been a vibrant centre of book culture," the historian explains. "It had printing houses, publishing houses and bookstores. It can be viewed as part of the European book trade network with strong connections not only to Vienna and Budapest, but also to German trade fair centres such as Leipzig. The pornography trade represented a similar network back then, and Hartleb's business was part of it."
The Hartleb publishing house managed to supply the rest of the country until the 1908 police raid. It ceased operations before World War I.
Among the titles were both classic and lesser-known works of pornographic literature, as well as Marquis de Sade's work, and ran a series by the secretary of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, the famous author of pornographic novels.
The books were in German, the most prevalent language in the city back then. They are decorated with similar pictures, for example illustrations of ladies punishing gentlemen with whips, and whimsical adventures in a sadomasochistic boarding house.
