The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics During World War II, 1938/42–1945
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Chapter 4 In the Realm of Opportunity: The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics during World War II, 1938/42–1945 4.1 The “Reorganization” of the Institute under the Banner of Phenogenetics, 1938–1942 4.1.1 Preliminary Considerations in the Years 1938/42 On March 8, 1940, Eugen Fischer wrote a long, confidential letter to Otmar von Verschuer, director of the Institute for Genetic Biology and Race Hygiene at the University of Frankfurt at that time. In this letter Fischer expressed critique – and certainly also self-critique – about the scientific development of his institute since the mid-1930s. At first glance this critical assessment seems surprising. The KWI-A had prof- ited considerably from the genetic and race policy of the National Socialist regime. Money flowed abundantly, research projects received generous support, the expan- sion of the institute proceeded. As the deputy chairman of the Medical Biology Section of the “Academic Council” of the KWG, and even more so as a member of the Expert Committee for “Anthropology and Ethnology” of the Emergency Association of German Science and the Reich Research Council, respectively, the position Fischer held within his area of expertise was central in terms of research strategy.1 The political prestige and social recognition of the KWI-A, and the scientists working there increased constantly. Fischer himself received a number of honors and accolades in the Third Reich, of which his election to membership in the Prussian Academy of Sciences in 1937 was the most important. Just a year ear- lier, in 1939, Fischer had been awarded the Goethe Medal for Art and Science.2 Yet in March 1940 Fischer was not satisfied with the development of the insti- tute. The “Faustian bargain” he had entered into with the National Socialists entailed numerous additional duties for Fischer and his staff, as experts in political bodies, as assessors on the hereditary health courts, as evaluators, teachers, popular 1 Lösch, Rasse, p. 273. 2 Cf. the “Ehrenliste” ibid., p. 277. 241 242 4 The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics speakers for public lectures, as representatives of the new Germany at international congresses, all of which were performed at the cost of the scientific work. More serious was that the emphases of research had shifted as a consequence of the inter- connections with politics – and not necessarily in the direction Fischer would have wished. In 1933, under pressure from Arthur Gütt and with a view to the genetic health policy of the new rulers, Fischer had placed the stress on genetic pathology. With Verschuer’s departure in 1935, Fischer had ceased forcing genetic pathology research, although the projects in progress were continued, and the emphasis was shifted to strengthening genetic psychology instead. The dual course shift had the result that the research program was visibly fragmenting into unrelated, individual projects. Fischer recognized that the institute was in danger of losing its scientific focus. As he wrote in his letter to Verschuer of March 1940: I have been very concerned recently, even as long ago as a year or two before the war, that the institute is working, so to speak, “without a plan.” That was not always the case. When you were here, our first major task was to elaborate and test the twin method, and with this method to set human genetics properly on its feet. And I believe we can say that we man- aged to do this. In this field only touching up should be necessary. Also quite important. The point is to fill in the quite significant gaps and deepen our knowledge. But some areas, for instance, normal morphological attributes, but also numerous diseases, have pretty much been exhausted for twin research.3 Here it becomes apparent once again that from the founding of the KWI-A into the second half of the 1930s, twin research had the function of a scientific paradigm for the institute, providing an ensemble of axioms and premises, concepts, theories and models, methods, tools, and model examplars, symbolic generalizations, and implicit valuations to guide research practice. That this paradigm no longer carried the research in Dahlem – as Fischer expressed clearly – had to do with more than just Verschuer’s departure. Rather, the paradigm had exhausted itself. According to Thomas S. Kuhn, a paradigm shift occurs when the anomalies within a disciplinary system accumulate, that is, when the number of riddles that cannot be solved using the means of the normal science guided by the paradigm predominant up to that time increases at such a rate that the disciplinary system as a whole enters a state of crisis.4 And indeed, in the 1930s, twin research, which for several years had been considered the king’s road of human genetics, as discussed above, reached its conceptual and methodological limits and became the target of criticism. What was sought was a new paradigm that opened up the perspective to solve problems the old one could not. Where should new impulses come from now? Fischer did not believe that the orienta- tion of Verschuer’s institute in Frankfurt could serve as a model for Dahlem: You work more clinically in Frankfurt. I don’t want that here. And perhaps it is correct that a pure research institute like the one here leaves the actual clinical matters to the university institutes, those for genetic biology and truly clinical ones.5 3 Fischer to Verschuer, 8/3/1940, MPG Archive, Dept. III, Rep. 86 A (Münster), No. 9. Quotes and emphases added by hand to the original. 4 Kuhn, Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 5 Fischer to Verschuer, 8/3/1940, MPG Archive, Dept. III, Rep. 86 A (Münster), No. 9. 4.1 The “Reorganization” of the Institute under the Banner of Phenogenetics 243 Aside from the problem of demarcation from the university clinics and institutes working in the area of genetic pathology, Fischer probably foresaw that a clinical orientation of his institute would cause conflicts of competence with two other Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes: the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research, which, under the direction of Hugo Spatz since 1937, had turned increasingly to questions of genetic pathology in neurological disorders, mental illnesses and mental disabil- ity, and above all with the German Research Institute for Psychiatry in Munich under Rüdin. In Munich the very founding of the Department for Genetic Psychology had been taken as an affront, and the vehement exchange of blows concerning diabetes research in 1937 had shown that the two institutes were bound to get in each other’s way in the field of genetic pathology. Against this background it seemed to Fischer, who had never worked purely clinically anyway, that a one- sided orientation of research at the KWI-A toward genetic pathology – while neglecting Fischer’s own original research field, the heredity of “normal” (not pathological) attributes – to be a strategic mistake, although he certainly held genetic pathology to be a constitutive element of his further research strategy. But as Fischer established self-critically, his own research in the field of physical anthropology did not have the potential to constitute a new paradigm either: For my own (personal) work, of course, I have plans that include my doctoral students. The one project is, as for many years, the research of the conditions for the shape of the skull; the other the bastardization problem. But these two topics cannot fill an entire institute, and assistants from the field of medicine, who want to pursue practical activity later, cannot, or at least not exclusively, be set to work on such subjects. And since you have been gone I feel both a great void and a sense of being orphaned.6 The Department for Human Genetics had been dissolved in 1935, as mentioned above. In addition to the Department for Anthropology led by Fischer himself, the only pillar of the institute that remained was the Department for Race Hygiene headed by Fritz Lenz. However, Fischer lamented, it could hardly be expected that new impulses would come from there. For Lenz does not take care of any of this. He works without planning, assigns themes to pupils without a plan. These themes are individual questions of a genetic pathology or race hygiene biological nature, which occur to him while editing Baur-Fischer-Lenz or during his critical perusal of the literature.7 Such occasionally arising, isolated themes were to be pursued in the future as well, and the work of the Department for Genetic Psychology under Kurt Gottschaldt was to be continued according to Fischer’s wishes. But as to the main point, such an institute needs an ambitious plan. And because I can not receive it from Lenz’s sphere of interest, let alone through his initiative, I do it alone. But such a plan is conceived for a number of years, and certainly – not only presumably – longer than I will be in office here. Because I do not doubt in the least that you will be my successor someday, in truth I would like to begin with a long-term plan only if I have the hope that you like it enough to pursue it further. 6 Ibid. In parentheses: handwritten edition. Emphases added by hand to the original. 7 Ibid. 244 4 The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics I once told you in passing that I would like to set up a collection of work for the genetic biology of humans. I will do this in any case. But what I would most like to do now, or at least right after the war, is to begin work in this sense as well.