Leopold Sachermasoch

Russian author of the semi-autobiographical "Venus in Furs," 1874. His name is the source of the word ‘masochism,’ coined to describe the enjoyment of physical or psychological pain inflicted upon oneself. The characters in his short stories and novels share the same trait. His works include "The Don Juan from Kolomea," 1866 and "The Legacy of Cain," 1870-77. The son of a police chief, Sacher-Masoch was born into minor nobility. Despite his privileged background, he grew up during a time of ethnic and economic turmoil. Daily, he heard stories of the fighting between the Polish peasants and the landowners and the atrocities that resulted from their battles; these tales of torture undoubtedly had a major impact in his life and in his sexual imagination. He studied at the Universities of Prague and Graz and worked as a teacher for a brief time before beginning his writing career. His first ‘romantic’ encounter reportedly took place with his aunt, Countess Zenobia, when she asked him for help removing her furs. Alone with her in her bedroom, he began kissing her feet; she kicked him away with a cruel laugh. Later, during a game of hide and seek, he had concealed himself behind her clothes rack, when suddenly the countess and her lover entered the room. Her husband soon followed, to be greeted by a punch to the nose. The countess picked up her whip and ordered both men to leave the room. The clothes rack toppled over, leaving Sacher-Masoch in plain sight. His aunt proceeded to whip him vigorously, a punishment that to his surprise produced feelings of lust and excitement. As he grew older, he managed to engage in a number of relationships that satisfied both his fetish for furs and his need to be dominated and humiliated by a strong cruel woman, but his sexual needs were almost overwhelming, and he was constantly searching for further satisfaction. He hunted for the ‘ideal female torturer’ by placing newspaper ads, drawing up "love contracts" for the conditions of his bondage. He began to focus his writing on his erotic desires and had an impressive collection of whips and chains. He found himself unable to become aroused without the use of fur, which he associated with feminine sexual potency. He owned several cats and kept them by his side while he wrote. He found a beautiful woman to wear furs and whip him in 1889, and on 12/08/1889, he signed a contract with Fanny Pistor, alias Baroness Bogdanoff, giving her absolute power over him. From that time on, Sacher-Masoch became her slave and traveled with her as her servant. Eventually, however, their liaison ended. He then met Wanda Rumelin, an articulate and intelligent woman who, with her mother, had been thrown into destitution after her father abandoned them. They married and she rapidly produced two sons. She also took over the care of her husband’s illegitimate daughter by a previous mistress and constantly worried about the survival of the three children. Though Wanda found her husband’s unusual sexual needs distasteful, whenever she refused to go along with him, he stopped writing. This frightened her as she knew they were reliant on his income, and so she would eventually give in to his demands. She found his desires abhorrent but feared he would divorce her and take the children if she didn’t give him the humiliation and punishment he craved. Despite this, he found the relationship frustrating, saying that she was incapable of satisfying his unique needs, and begged her to take a lover. After ten years together, she eventually left him. While official reports state that Sacher-Masoch died on 9 March 1895 in Lindheim, there is a claim that he died in an asylum in 1905. Link to Wikipedia biography