"What am I?"

Nineteenth-Century Medical Science, Intersexuality, and Freakification in the Life of Karl Hohmann

Abstract

This paper explores the life of Karl Hohmann, an
intersex individual who lived in Germany in the
mid-1800s. Hohmann was examined as a medical
specimen throughout his adult life as doctors at
the time believed he was a “true lateral hermaphrodite.” The authors examine the way that cultural
beliefs about gender and sex intersected in the
nineteenth century.