Downfall of Eugenic Thinking and Policy
Introduction:
Examples:
1. Nazi Eugenics
Germany and Nazi Eugenics
Foundations of Modern German Eugenics:
In recent history the most noted large scale implementation of eugenics took place in Germany in the early half of the 19th by the Nazi regime. Germans prior to Nazism and the Nazi’s themselves however did not refer to what is defined above as eugenics rather they have their own word and a slightly different definition. The Germans and Nazi’s called eugenics Rassenhygiene in German or “Race Hygiene”. To the Germans Race Hygiene has a slightly broader definition to eugenics than did Galton. It included Galton’s basic eugenic beliefs of improving hereditary through the quality of population but in addition to this race hygiene included an absolute increase in population. The foundations of these German eugenic ideas which can be traced the to the principals of Nazism philosophy and thought were the writing of a Bavarian and German physician Wilhelm Schallmayer (1857-1919)
The foundations of Schallmayer’s writings are based off of three principals that have been interpreted in many ways, one of which was instrumental into the Nazi belief of having an “Aryan Race”. The first of these three principals that Schallmayer addressed were the social problems as a result of going through the industrial revolution in Germany at that time and how to resolve them. The second was resolution on how to evaluate intellectual thinking and its influences on society from a medical perspective. Finally, the third was “selectionist” theory of Darwinism. Schallmayer used these three pillars as a way to evaluate and improve the efficiency of not only Germany but Western Europe.
The two most influential pillars of Schallmayer to be picked and evolved by the Nazi’s were the last two regarding medical influences and his intertwined view on “selectionist” theory of Darwinism. Schallmayer believed that for Germany to be truly efficient in the post industrial revolution that there needed to be changes to the way medical patients were to be taken care of. Schallmayer very educated in this field as a doctor himself believed that Germans and Western Europeanist were diluting society by keeping those alive who were genetically inferior and unable to survive. By this he meant that as technology was increasing doctors had the ability to save more patients. As a result of this these patients would go on to breed with either other inferior humans or worse healthy humans and dilute the population.
This dilution of society he saw to have multiple negative effects on society both short term and long term. The short term problems he identified were through this method doctors were wasting their time curing for people who will only father or mother children whom will have the same problems wasting future doctor’s time. He believed it would be in best interest instead for doctors to attempt to find cures for these diseases so that they can prevent people from contaminating the blood stream and creating more and more inefficiencies in the future. The long term affects of this he saw was that if there was no reducing the rate of what he deemed genetically inferior people they would continue to increase as a part of the population causing many more inefficiencies in society. This basic belief had a large influence on Nazi regime and to the development of their laws and policies. However it needs to be noted that Schallmayer did not suggest that Germans take the path of genocide as a method to cure these problems. Schallmayer insisted that although the feeble minded and genetically inferior people who could not take care of themselves were drains on society, to simply rid them would be inhumane. Schallmayer supported therapeutic medicine for these people in addition to public hygiene. However he ultimately insisted that for society to reach its maximum efficiency it was best to have doctor’s spend their time trying to cure these illness’s and diseases and prevent them in the future rather than to simply appease those who are infected and inferior
Nazi Beliefs and Influences of Race Hygiene
“The tale of what happened in Germany is a special example of how wrong a road can be taken when a political philosophy grasps scientific findings and warps their meaning to suit its own bias. “(pg177)
There are many different opinions about how the exact form of Race Hygiene was instituted by the Nazi’s. One belief by many scholars is that they believed Schallmayer’s writings were inconclusive and that to full reach maximum efficiency the only true weight to cut the dead weight lost was genocide. Another belief taken by scholar Robert Proctor is that the Nazi simply interpreted statistics the way they deemed in their best interest. Proctor traces this belief back to the works of a Russian scientist N.W. Timofeeff-Ressovsky who worked in Germany prior to the Nazi regime taking power and worked throughout their control. Timofeeff’s research showed that “there is a real medical and social problem involved in the increase of genetic load carried by a population, and insisted that thought should be given to remedial measures” (179). To the Nazi’s this work of Timofeef statistical work proved that for Schallmayer’s writings to be perfected measures needed to taken to prevent the dilution of society.
The Nazi’s then began to take measure to make sure this dilution did not occur through sterilization laws. Hitler in 1933 created the Mass Sterilization law which was coauthored by Arthur Arthur Gütt, a physician and director of public health affairs, Ernst Rüdin a German a psychiatrist and Falk Ruttke a German lawyer. This law stated that “Individuals who were subject to the law were those men and women who “suffered” from any of nine conditions assumed to be hereditary: feeblemindedness, schizophrenia, manic-depressive disorder, genetic epilepsy, Huntington’s chorea (a fatal form of dementia), genetic blindness, genetic deafness, severe physical deformity, and chronic alcoholism.”**were forced to become sterilized an unable to reproduce. This took place on an estimated 400,000 Germans.
The next sterilization law, the Marital Health Law came in October 1935. This law banned marriages and intercourse between any “hereditary healthy” individuals and those who were deemed to be genetically inferior. Hitler believed that this would be a good first stride into weeded out the inefficiencies and turning Germany into what he deemed a “healthier nation”. Later sterilization laws came down against homosexuals and other forms of minorities. In 1938 Hitler and the Nazi’s finally attempted their last form of sterilization by segregating the Jew’s. His efforts in this form were almost successful as he as he was able to force them to move into ghettos and concentration camps killing over 6 million of them in concentration camps, over 1/3 of the world wide Jewish population.
In conclusion it is believed by scholars such as Proctor that the reason the German’s were unsuccessful in World War II was because they broke Schallmayer’s Rassenhygiene model. Schallmayer’s Rassenhygiene model had three pillars and the Nazi’s only really implemented two and neglected the idea that the larger the population, the more effective the society can be. By killing so many Jew’s and others despite their slave labor in concentration camps hurt the Nazi’s efforts as they put too much effort into trying to destroy what they believed to be the pollution of society when in fact if they had tried to potentially “cure” their problem by altering some of their beliefs they would have had a larger work force at a more efficient level ultimately reaching the beliefs of Schallmayer’s Rassenhygiene model and a better shot to improve society and win the war.
