Karl-Maria Kertbeny

Who was Karl-Maria Kertbeny?

Karl-Maria Kertbeny or Károly Mária Kertbeny was an Austrian-born Hungarian journalist, memoirist, and human rights campaigner. He is best known for coining the words heterosexual and homosexual.

The Benkert family moved to Budapest when he was a child — he was equally at home in Austria, Germany and Hungary. Hungarian writer and literary historian Lajos Hatvany has described him in these terms: "This moody, fluttering, imperfect writer is one of the best and undeservedly forgotten Hungarian memoir writers." He translated Hungarian poets' and writers' works into German, e.g., those of Sándor Petőfi, János Arany and Mór Jókai. Among his acquaintances were Heinrich Heine, George Sand, Alfred de Musset, Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm.