This portfolio of ‘Begegnungen’ or ‘Encounters’ shows a small selection of Hildebrand drawings on one of his (and presumably his clients’)  favourite themes, the young male prostitute. Although homosexual acts were forbidden by law in Weimar Berlin, prostitution thrived as young men, often fresh from the army, desperately sought quick ways of supporting themselves financially.

Hildebrand’s drawings, created many years after such scenes were commonplace, appear to be based on personal experience as much as artistic imagination, and it has been suggested that the older bespectacled man in many of the drawings represents the artist himself.

We are very grateful to Hans-Jürgen Döpp for these images; Hans-Jürgen, the compiler of many books on erotic art, curates the Venusberg online gallery and bookshop which you can find here.