Albert Reibmayr (medical doctor)

Albert Reibmayr (* 1848 in Meran , County of Tyrol , Austrian Empire ; † October 6, 1918 in Sarnthein (Sarntal) ) was a doctor working in Austria. As a writer, he has dealt with medical massage and therapeutic questions since the 1880s, with human biology , social hygiene and anthropology as well as with cultural and racial theory since the 1890s .

Life

As a South Tyrolean, Reibmayr first studied medicine at the University of Innsbruck . In 1867 he was reciprocated in the Corps Athesia . He moved to the University of Graz , where he was awarded a Dr. med. received his doctorate. Until 1875 he worked as a military doctor at Garrison Hospital No. 10 in Innsbruck. According to the titles of his writings, he practiced as a spa doctor in Vienna , Bad Ischl , Meran and Brixen from 1880 . His wife (1850–1921) was born Dierzer von Traunstein from Linz ( Upper Austria ). She gave birth to her son Albert on April 20, 1881 in Linz , who became a painter and graphic artist. In 1922 the son donated a portrait of his father to the Upper Austrian State Museum .

Theories

Through his writings and practical courses, Reibmayrs acquired the reputation of a protagonist in medical massage before turning to biological concepts. In his publication Inzucht und Mixing in humans , published in 1897 , he presented - initially without a racial-typological aspect - a biological social doctrine in which he presented inbreeding and "mixing" as decisive mechanisms of social and cultural progress and as a biological explanation for the occurrence of historical cycles. A " caste " of the ruling class and cultural workers ( "inbred caste") would be biologically protect by prohibiting the Ausheirat and despite souped systems so - without the "biological replenishment" - degenerate , which is reflected in increasing susceptibility to tuberculosis and madness show. Although the “inbred caste” could artificially maintain their rule for a certain time, it ultimately collapsed as a result of civil war and revolution. After that, their highly cultivated plants would get back into the natural process of selection. In order to avoid this, Reibmayr recommended "mixing" as "nature's remedy against degeneration". By “mixing it with a still healthy blood, provided with unspoiled root characters and feelings”, degenerating families, castes and whole peoples should be refreshed, whereas the influx of likewise degenerating blood would amount to “blood poisoning”. “Mixing” with an “aspiring natural people ” is beneficial, even if temporary “barbarism” occurs on the way to new “cultural bloom”.

Reibmayr developed his biological breeding theory - using racial-typological assumptions - in the book The Development History of Talent and Genius , published in 1908, into a concept of the “ Aryan genius ”: The mixture of “inbred blood with highly bred characters” from various sources causes “in the talented inheritance mass “A kind of“ fermentation ”, and from this emerges“ what we call an ingenious system ”, from which“ a real genius ”grows under appropriately beneficial social conditions. A small distance between the species and breeding lines promotes breeding success in the sense of a luxuriation . But if the breeding lines stand out too far, "an opposing weakening or even abolition of the root characters and feelings that are important for genius" could prevent breeding success. Reibmayr attributed poor framework conditions for breeding success and a tendency to “blood chaos” to the metropolises of the great empires, where there is a constant mixture, which leads to the fact that geniuses grow from the combinations, their inner heterogeneity and their natural liberal-cosmopolitan tendency in the closer fatherland "downright destructive and damaging" effects. In order to avoid the "almost epidemic occurrence of pathological and degenerate talent and genius", a people must successfully shield itself. This can be achieved through natural protective walls such as mountains, seas, rivers and deserts and through a sedentary lifestyle. In this context, Reibmayr contrasted the sedentary peasantry of the “Aryans” - by which he understood Teutons , Celts and Slavs - with the nomadic way of life of the “ Semites ”. Because the latter had rejected agriculture and had felt it as a punishment from time immemorial, the "great mutual dislike of the two races and the resulting enmity" arose, which "runs like a red thread through the whole history of civilized mankind". Due to his negative assessment of nomadism, Reibmayr advised the "Aryans", who looked back on Celtic and Germanic roots, to "mix" with Slavs, because "the Asiatic, nomadic bloodshed" is undoubtedly in this eastern group and shows itself "in corrosive, destructive instincts" . In Germany, Reibmayr established three “breeding zones” for geniuses. The "center of the German thoroughbred characters" is the middle area between the Rhine and Elbe. This area is joined by another zone to the west and south of the “ old Roman line ”. Finally, in a precarious border position with the Slavic East, there would be a third, less favored zone east of the Elbe.

In line with his theories, Reibmayr characterized the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche as a genius with a “Polish-German” and “aristocratic-bourgeois blood mixture”. This is the product of a “mixture of nations and classes”, a “typical example” of “talents and geniuses of a period of degeneration”.

The concepts of breeding, genius and races developed by Reibmayr formed a reference and a basis for writings by Houston Stewart Chamberlain , Ernst Kretschmer , Wilhelm Lange-Eichbaum , Herman Lundborg and William McDougall .

Fonts

• Under the rule of the knife. A warning from a friend of suffering mankind , Vienna 1882
• The massage treatment. Popularly depicted , Vienna 1883
• The technique of massage , Toeplitz and Deuticke Verlag, Vienna 1884
• Ischl as a terrain curort , Vienna 1886
• Experiences with terrain cures . In: Wiener Medizinische Blätter , 1888, p. 295
• Massage and its utilization in the various disciplines of practical medicine , Franz Deuticke Verlag, Leipzig and Vienna 1889 ( digitized version )
• The abdominal massage. With special consideration of massage and therapeutic gymnastics in gynecology , Franz Deuticke Verlag, Leipzig and Vienna 1889
• Der Praktiker , Franz Deuticke Verlag, Leipzig and Vienna 1893
• The marriage of Tuberculosis and its consequences , Franz Deuticke Verlag, Leipzig and Vienna 1894 ( digitized version )
• Inbreeding and mixing in humans , Franz Deuticke Verlag, Leipzig and Vienna 1897 ( digitized version )
• The immunization of families against hereditary diseases (tuberculosis, syphilis, mental disorders). A word of reassurance for doctors and the educated . Franz Deuticke Verlag, Leipzig 1899
• About the influence of inbreeding and mixing on the political character of a population . In: Ludwig Woltmann , Hans KE Buhmann (ed.): Politisch-Anthropologische Revue , 1 (1902), No. 1, pp. 21–37
• The physical harm to today's student youth . In: Ludwig Woltmann (ed.): Political-anthropological review . 3 (1904/1905)
• The biological dangers of today's women's emancipation . In: Ludwig Woltmann (ed.): Political-anthropological review . 5 (1906/1907), pp. 445-468
• On the influence of the mixture of blood on the character of excellent men . In: Ludwig Woltmann (ed.): Political-anthropological review . 6 (1907/1908), No. 2, pp. 127-145
• The history of the development of talent and genius , 2 volumes, JF Lehmanns Verlag, Munich 1908 ( digitized version )
• The history of the development of the main characters and artistic disposition of the Hamito-Semitic race . In: Ludwig Woltmann (Ed.): Politisch-Anthropologische Revue , 9 (1911), pp. 609–625
• Breeding the religious talent and genius in the Israelite-Jewish people . In: Ludwig Wortmann (Ed.): Politisch-Anthropologische Revue , 10 (1911), No. 4/5, pp. 169–192, 240–260
• The main biological causes of today's rural exodus . In: Archive for Race and Society Biology , Volume VII (1911), pp. 349–376
• The influence of economic conditions on the fate of races and peoples and on the political-historical process of eradicating them . In: Archive for Racial and Social Biology , including Racial and Social Hygiene, JF Lehmanns Verlag, Munich 1937, Volume 31, Issue 6, pp. 473-482 (posthumous publication)

literature

• Bernhard Wilhelm Matz: The constitution typology from Ernst Kretschmer. A Contribution to the History of Psychiatry and Psychology in the Twentieth Century . Dissertation FU Berlin, Berlin 2000, chapter genius and race , p. 183 ff. ( PDF ), chapter race, genius, psychopathy , p. 369 ff. ( PDF )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1960, 72/37.
2. ↑ Biography in: Richard Thurnwald : Zeitschrift für Völkerpsychologie und Soziologie , CL Hirschfeld, Leipzig 1926, p. 41 (footnote 2)
3. ↑ Victor Silberer (Ed.): Militär-Zeitung , Volume 28 (1875), p. 352
4. ^ Correspondence sheet of the German Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory , Volume XXVIII, p. 50
5. ↑ Archive for race and Society biology: including race and Society hygiene . Volume V (1908), p. 743
6. ↑ Ellen Hastaba: Tyrol's artist 1927 . Universitätsverlag Wagner, Innsbruck 2002, ISBN 3-7030-0365-0 , p. 279
7. ↑ 80th annual report of the Upper Austrian Museum Association for the years 1922 and 1923. Linz 1924, p. 21, online (PDF) in the forum OoeGeschichte.at
8. ↑ Thomas Mittmann: From “favorite” to “primary enemy” of the Jews. The anti-Semitic reception of Nietzsche in Germany until the end of National Socialism . Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2006, ISBN 3-8260-3273-X , p. 117 ( Google Books )