The Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institute for anthropology, human heredity and eugenics, 1927-1945: crossing boundaries

When the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics opened its doors in 1927, it could rely on wide political approval, rangingfrom the Social Democrats over the Catholic Centre to the far rightwing of the party spectrum. In 1933 the institute and its founding director Eugen Fischer came under pressure to adjust, which they were able to ward off through Selbstgleichschaltung (auto-coordination). The Third Reich brought about a mutual beneficial servicing of science and politics. With their research into hereditary health and racial policies the institute’s employees provided the Brownshirt rulers with legitimating grounds. First book to examine German biomedical science and its social applications in the country’s most renowned institute for the human sciences in the inter-War years. Confronts the daunting question of how the life sciences under National Socialism could terminate in bestial medical crimes on ‘valueless’ human beings. This case study offers a sophisticated analysis of the complex interface of science, politics and ethics. INDICE: Acknowledgements. List of Abbreviations. Introduction. 1. A ‘Purely Theoretical Institute for the study if the nature of man’ The Founding of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Genetics and Eugenics, 1920-1927. 2. The Human of the Future Under the Scrutiny of Research. 3. The ‘Faustian Bargain’ . 4. In the Realm of Opportunity. 5. Boundary Transgression. 6. Index of Persons. 7. Sources and Literature.

• ISBN: 978-1-4020-6599-6
• Editorial: Springer
• Encuadernacion: Cartoné
• Páginas: 365
• Fecha Publicación: 01/01/2008
• Nº Volúmenes: 1
• Idioma: Inglés