Frits Bernard

Frits Bernard (28 August 1920, Rotterdam – 23 May 2006, Rotterdam) was a clinical psychologist, sexologist and gay and pedophile activist in the Netherlands.

He was also a leading member and author for the Dutch Society for Sexual Reform and established a foundation in his own name.

Bernard founded Enclave Kring (Enclave Circle), which led the Enclave International Fellowship in the 1950s.

This made him the founder of the first pedophile movement.

Biography

At the age of 7, Bernard and his family moved to Spain, where he attended the Internationale Duitse School in Barcelona. He learned Catalan, English, French and Spanish. He returned during the Second World War to the Netherlands, where he studied humanities and psychology at the University of Amsterdam and the Catholic University of Nijmegen. In the 1950s, he joined the gay rights organization, Cultuur en Ontspannings-Centrum, where, under the pseudonym Victor Servatius, he wrote many articles for Vriendshap (Friendship, the magazine of the movement) dealing with homosexuality, political science and also, for the first time, on pedophilia. At the same time, he created the Enclave Kring (Enclave Circle), the first public pedophile movement. Bernard published his novels, Costa Brava and Persecuted Minority, in 1960. He also published a newsletter on pedophilia, and organized in the framework of conferences and support for pedophiles.

In 1964, an editorial change at Vriendschap prevented him from continuing his collaboration with the COC. By the end of the 1960s Bernard found a forum for his work in the Dutch Society for Sexual Reform (NVSH). With Edward Brongersma, Bhawna Singh Sandhu, and Peter van Eeten he published Sex met Kinderen (Sex with Children) in 1972 for the NVSH.

Works

Novels

• Costa Brava, Enclave, Rotterdam (1960). Amsterdam, Southernwood Press (1988) ISBN 90-72450-01-9
• Persecuted minority (Vervolgde Minderheid), Enclave, Rotterdam (1960). Amsterdam, Southernwood Press (1989). ISBN 90-72450-03-5

Studies

• Pedophilia: A Factual Report, Enclave, Rotterdam (1985). ISBN 90 71179 02 

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Frits Bernard (1920-2006) was a Dutch clinical psychologist, sexologist and pedophile activist.

Education

Born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands in 28 August 1920, he moved to Barcelona seven years later to attend the International German School. He returned to the Netherlands to study in 1939. He studied at the University of Amsterdam and later received his doctorate from the Catholic University of Nijmegen.

Activism

Beginning in 1940, and building upon the remnants of the Dutch branch of the Scientific-Humanitarian Comittee Bernard begun organizing the Enclave Kring, the first organization for pedophiles. In 1960 Enclave moved to Rotterdam. It later developed into the "International Enclave Movement" where people from various countries joined. Its objectives were to:

"to break down prejudice about the issues of erotic contacts and relationships between minors and adults [...] to provide information and advice as well as to initiate a direct assistance program [and makes steps] toward a revision of the penal code."

Bernard also became active, in the late 1950s, in COC (Netherlands Association for the Integration of Homosexuality) and contributed articles in its magazine, Vriendschap using the pseudonym "Victor Servatius". In the early 1970s he became active in the Dutch Society for Sexual Reform and was instrumental in establishing the pedophile work groups within the organization. He was also one of the editors of Sex met kinderen (1972), the first attempt in the Netherlands for a public discussion of pedophilia.

Bernard wrote for a great number of magazines set up by boylovers and pedophiles like NIKS (organ of the NVSH pedophile work groups), Magpie, Pan: A Magazine about Boy-Love, O.K., Koinos, Le petit gredin, L'espoir and others.

Bernard is also author of two novellas, Costa Brava (1960) and Vervolgde minderheid (1960) which have been translated into English, German and French.

Scholarly work

As a clinical psychologist Bernard worked as an advisor in various conutries including the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Pakistan. He was member of the board of directors Association for the Advancement of Social Scientific Sex Research, Düsseldorf, member of the German Society for Sex Research, Frankfurt/Main, member of the board of directors of the Association for Humane Sexuality, Berlin and member of the Association for Sexology, Utrecht.

He contributed many articles in scholarly journals in English, Dutch and German including the Journal of Sex Research.

In 1979, he founded the Bernard Institute for the study of sexuality and later served at the editorial board of Paidika: The Journal of Paedophilia.

Fritz Bernard passed away in May 23, 2006.

Reference

(Frits Bernard, "The Dutch Paedophile Emancipation Movement," Paidika: The Journal of Paedophilia 1, no. 2 (1987): 35-45.

Source 

PAEDOPHILIA, A factual report, 
Dr. Frits Bernard

Dutch Society for Sexual Reform

The Dutch Society for Sexual Reform (Dutch: Nederlandse Vereniging voor Seksuele Hervorming, NVSH) is a Dutch sexual advocacy organization. The NVSH was founded in 1946, as the successor of the Dutch Neo-Malthusian League, a birth control organisation which opened the first birth control clinic in the world in 1881, in Amsterdam. The NVSH was once the only source of condoms in the Netherlands.

Up to the 1960s, a great deal of energy went into building up the organisation, which in its heyday ran over 60 birth control clinics in The Netherlands. Much work in those early years was put into improving the quality and availability of contraceptives (condom, diaphragm and spermicidal jelly). In 1966 the society reached a membership of 220,000. Contraceptives were officially legalized in 1970, after which membership began to fall. In 2002, the number was about 1500 and late 2008 about 700.

According to its website, the NVSH aims at what it calls the sexual emancipation of individuals and the improvement of sexual conditions in society, including:

• Equality for men and women
• Availability of good contraception and abortion services
• Informative sex education at all levels of education
• Training of sex teachers and researchers at university level
• No restraints on pornography
• Criticism of marriage and the family
• No discrimination against any form of voluntary sex
• Critical concern about population growth

The NVSH website states that they advocate acceptance of all forms of human sexuality, including those forms that are commonly labeled "abnormal". The website states that NVSH considers the use of the label "normal" to be "problematic", with regard to sexual practices such as premarital sex, adultery, homosexuality, masturbation, oral and anal sex, zoophilia, and pedophilia.