German Society for Racial Hygiene

The German Society for Racial Hygiene (German: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Rassenhygiene) was an organization founded on June 22, 1905 by the physician Alfred Ploetz in Berlin. Its goal was for society to return to a healthy and blooming, strong and beautiful life" as Ploetz put it. The Nordic race was supposed to regain its "purity" through selective reproduction and sterilization.[1]

Hartheim Euthanasia Centre in 2005

At the time the society received generous support by the imperial government and it was the only organization of its kind in the world. Since Ploetz wanted to establish an international movement, the society was soon renamed International Society for Racial Hygiene with branches in Berlin including Erwin Bauer, Munich, and Freiburg with the well-known human geneticists Fritz Lenz and Eugen Fischer and from 1910 Stuttgart, which included the geneticist Wilhelm Weinberg.[2] Branches in Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Netherlands were also established in the early 20th century.[3] In 1924, the organization was named back to German Society for Racial Hygiene.[4]

By 1933, the Society for Racial Hygiene had 1,300 members, many of them academics, as well as high functionaries in the NSDAP.[5]

The society wanted to establish "Racial Hygiene/Eugenics" as a scientific subject and contributed substantially to their implementation in Germany. With both adoption of the ideas of "Racial Hygiene" by the National Socialist movement and with concrete consultations on political racial measures, the society took directly to influence on important law changes, which were integral part of the National Socialist regime led by Adolf Hitler.

References

  1. ↑ Schafft, Gretchen Engle: "From Racism to Genocide: Anthropology in the Third Reich". University of Illinois Press. 2004. Pg. 42.
  2. ↑ Carlson, Elof Axel: "The Unfit: a history of a bad idea". CSHL Press. 2001. Pg. 321.
  3. ↑ Schafft 2002, pg. 42
  4. ↑ Hubbard, Ruth: "Abortion and Disability: Who Should and Should not Inhabit the World" in Davis, Lennard J. (ed.): "The Disabilities Studies Reader". Routledge. 1997. Pg. 191.
  5. ↑ Burleigh, Michael; Wippermann, Wolfgang: "The Racial State: Germany 1933-1945". Cambridge University Press. 1991. Pg. 52.