Eugen Fischer (July 5, 1874 – July 9, 1967) was a German professor of medicine, anthropology and eugenics . He was one of those responsible for the Nazi German scientific theories of racial hygiene that legitimized the extermination of Jews, sent an estimated half a million Gypsies to their deaths, and led to the compulsory sterilization of hundreds of thousands of other individuals, deemed racially defective, such as the Rhineland Bastards, the mentally ill, and the mentally challenged.
Contents |
Biography
Born in Karlsruhe, Grand Duchy of Baden, Fischer joined the Nazi Party soon after it was established. A two-volume work, Foundations of Human Hereditary Teaching and Racial Hygiene, co-written by him and Erwin Baur and Fritz Lenz, served as the "scientific" basis for Nazism's attitude toward other races.[1] He also authored The Rehoboth Bastards and the Problem of Miscegenation among Humans (1913)(German: Die Rehobother Bastards und das Bastardierungsproblem beim Menschen), a field study which provided context for later racial debates, influenced German colonial legislation and provided "scientific" support for the Nuremberg laws.[2]
In 1908 Fischer conducted field research in German Southwest Africa (now Namibia). He studied the offspring of German or Boer fathers who had fathered children by the native women (Hottentots) in that area. His study concluded with a call to prevent a "mixed race" by the prohibition of "mixed marriage" such as those he had studied. While the Mischling descendants of the mixed marriages might be useful for Germany, he recommended that they be eradicated after their usefulness ended. His recommendations were followed and by 1912 interracial marriage was prohibited throughout the German colonies.[2]
He served as the head of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics, until 1933, when Adolf Hitler appointed him rector of a Berlin University of Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Berlin, now Humboldt University[3].
Under the Nazi regime, Fischer developed the physiological specifications used to determine racial origins. He and his team experimented on Gypsies and African-Germans, taking blood and measuring skulls to find scientific validation for his theories.
Fischer retired from the university in 1942. After the war, he completed his memoirs, which critics claim whitewash his role in the genocidal program of the Third Reich. He died in 1967.
Efforts are under way to have the skulls harvested by Fischer returned from Germany to Namibia. There they will be accorded an appropriate burial. So far, such requests have met significant resistance in Germany.
- This article incorporates information from the German Wikipedia.
Footnotes
- ^ Black p. 269-275.
- ^ a b Holocaust Encyclopedia p. 420.
- ^ Historische Komission München
Reference Works
- Baumel, Judith Tydor (2001). The Holocaust Encyclopedia. Yale University Press. ISBN [[Special:BookSources/0300084323 (Holocaust Encyclopedia)|0300084323 (Holocaust Encyclopedia)]].
- Black, Edwin (2004). War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race. Thunder's Mouth Press. ISBN [[Special:BookSources/1568583214 (Black)|1568583214 (Black)]].
- Fangerau H., Müller I. (2002). "Das Standardwerk der Rassenhygiene von Erwin Baur, Eugen Fischer und Fritz Lenz im Urteil der Psychiatrie und Neurologie 1921-1940". Der Nervenarzt 73: 1039–1046. doi:.
- Mendes-Flohr, Paul R. (1995). The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History. Oxford University Press US. ISBN [[Special:BookSources/019507453X (Mendes-Flohr)|019507453X (Mendes-Flohr)]].
- Weindling P. (1985). "Weimar eugenics: The kaiser wilhelm institute for anthropology, human heredity and eugenics in social context". Annals of Science 42: 303–318. doi:.
External links
- Book Review of The Rehoboth Bastards in Nature (1913)
- 2004 Newspaper Article regarding The Rehoboth Bastards
See also
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
