Eugenics in Germany
At the beginning of the 20 century eugenics is discussed
in many countries, among which the United Nations,
Germany and the United Kingdom stand out.
This subject, closely related to social darwinsm, aims to
improve the human species through the selection of
the (considered positive) genetics characters (positive
eugenics) and the removal of the negative ones
(negative eugenics). In Germany the discussion was
based on the concepts of “scientific racism” and “racial
hygiene” according to them Volk (seen as a popular
community and considered as a group of individuals
linked to each other by racial and cultural characteristics)
should survive and improve as a community even if it
could be detrimental to the individual’s rights.
In 1895 Adolf Jost, one of the forerunners of the
German idea of eugenics, write in his “The right to die”
that the State had to put on individual to death to save
the purity and vitality of Volk.
Eugenics in Germany
At the beginning of the 20 century eugenics is discussed in many countries, among
which the United Nations, Germany and the United Kingdom stand out. This subject,
closely related to social darwinsm, aims to improve the human species through the
selection of the (considered positive) genetics characters (positive eugenics) and the
removal of the negative ones (negative eugenics). In Germany the discussion was
based on the concepts of “scientific racism” and “racial hygiene” according to them
Volk (seen as a popular community and considered as a group of individuals linked
to each other by racial and cultural characteristics) should survive and improve as
a community even if it could be detrimental to the individual’s rights.
In 1895 Adolf Jost, one of the forerunners of the German idea of eugenics, write
in his “The right to die” that the State had to put on individual to death to save the
purity and vitality of Volk.
In 1920 in “The permission to destroy lives which are
unworthy living ”Alfred Hoche
and Karl Binding (the
radical wing of the eugenics
movement) supported the
need and the right to kill
“people who are mentally
dead“, “shells without
humanity”, words which
were summerized in “
lebensunwertes Leben
(“unworthy, uselers life”, “a life which is unwortly being
lived”).
The extremely poor situation in which we find Germany
at the end of the First World War made it particularly
ready to accept ideas of this type. The Great Depression in
1929 increased the feeling of “pityful killing” (killing for
mercy) when the medical and psychiatric institutions were
in great difficulty, due to the reductions in funds. The
greatest representatives of the eugenics movement who
are nationalistic and anti-semite, accepted the National-
socialist ideology with pleasure.
In 1920 in “The permission to destroy lives which are
unworthy living ”Alfred Hoche and Karl Binding (the
radical wing of the eugenics movement) supported the
need and the right to kill “people who are mentally dead“,
“shells without humanity”, words which were summerized
in “ lebensunwertes Leben ( “unworthy, uselers life”, “a life
which is unwortly being lived” ).
The extremely poor situation in which we find Germany
at the end of the First World War made it particularly ready to accept ideas of this type.
The Great Depression in 1929 increased the feeling of “pityful killing” (killing for mercy)
when the medical and psychiatric institutions were in great difficulty, due to the
reductions in funds. The greatest representatives of the eugenics movement who are
nationalistic and anti-semite, accepted the National-socialist ideology with pleasure.
The idea of starting a politics based on “racial hygienic” was
present in Hitler’s ideology since its beginning.
Hitler feels, alongside his whole life, a great repulsion
towards mental handicap and physical malformation,
considering himself “an artist”, he was attracted to beauty
and purity and utterly convinced by the debate going on in
Germany of the eugenics movement.
As an example we can remember same metaphors
mentioned by Hitler to compare those who he intended to
exclude from the German “racial community”: the jews
who had to be cured as a virus or as a cancer which was to
be removed. The disabled were an “alien element”
unconnected with the German racial “corpus”.
« Those who have not got a healthy constitution and
spirit have no right to continue their sufferings in their
kids’ bodies. So the central State has to provide a huge
educational work, which will be seen as a great work one
day, even more important than victories in wars during
our bourgeois time. »
In his “Mein Kamp” Hitler explained his ideas about this
topic clearly:
The idea of starting a politics based on “racial hygienic” was present in Hitler’s ideology
since its beginning.
Hitler feels, alongside his whole life, a great repulsion towards mental handicap and
physical malformation, considering himself “an artist”, he was attracted to beauty and
purity and utterly convinced by the debate going on in Germany of the eugenics
movement. As an example we can remember same metaphors mentioned by Hitler to
compare those who he intended to exclude from the German “racial community”: the
jews who had to be cured as a virus or as a cancer which was to be removed.
The disabled were an “alien element” unconnected with the German racial “corpus”.
« Those who have not got a healthy constitution and spirit have no right to continue
their sufferings in their kids’ bodies. So the central State has to provide a huge
educational work, which will be seen as a great work one day, even more important
than victories in wars during our bourgeois time. »
School became a sort of propaganda for racial hygiene.
One example of an arithmetical problem student had to
solve in Nazi schools:
« An idiot costs 4 marks a day for the Government. A
cripple 4,50; an epileptic 3,50. The average is 4 marks a
day and the hospitalized people are 300,000: how much
could be saved if these people were killed? »
School became a sort of propaganda for racial hygiene.
One example of an arithmetical problem student had to solve in Nazi schools:
« An idiot costs 4 marks a day for the Government. A cripple 4,50; an epileptic 3,50. The
average is 4 marks a day and the hospitalized people are 300,000: how much could be
saved if these people were killed? »
