Ballast existences

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Ballast existences was a propaganda term introduced in 1920 by the Freiburg doctor and euthanasia advocate Alfred Hoche . In the course of the global economic crisis and increasing cost-benefit considerations, he accompanied the rhetorical-theoretical mercy death discussion (see euthanasia ) during the Weimar Republic , while during the Nazi era it was put into practice through forced sterilization , forced abortion and the murder of the sick .

Discourse after the First World War

Alfred Erich Hoche (before 1923)

At the end of the 19th century the discussion about killing on demand, euthanasia and the destruction of life unworthy of life began . The discussion about “euthanasia”, as active killing was euphemistically called, was given a special dynamic after the end of the First World War through the publication The Release of Destruction Unworthy of Life , written by the lawyer Karl Binding and the psychiatrist Alfred Hoche. When it came to the issue of the active killing of so-called “ballast existences”, the two authors were less concerned with racial hygiene than with saving economic resources in psychiatry . The cost-benefit considerations of these authors were taken up again during the global economic crisis and the cost question of maintaining the ballast existence was made more urgent. Even before the National Socialist seizure of power, a decidedly anti-individualist racial hygiene relativized the value of individual human life. Aggressive social Darwinism, for example, had rhetorically released life unworthy of life to killing when the racial legislation created the legal basis for eliminating ballast existences and the mentally already dead .

National Socialist propaganda

The National Socialist system of rule made the fight against “ballast existences” part of its program. Propaganda films of the Racial Political Office such as The Sins of the Fathers (1935), Away from the Path (1935), Erbkrank (1936), What you inherit…. (1936) or Victims of the Past (1937) were implemented and initially z. Sometimes only used as internal party training material with limited public impact. In these films, disgust through the presentation of “ballast existences” and the cost argument were combined in order to morally legitimize and propagate euthanasia . The feature film Ich klage an (1941) followed after protests and resistance against the registration of sick persons and the implementation of euthanasia became noticeable.

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ralf Forsbach: Health ideal of National Socialism. In: HW Grönemeyer et al. (Hrsg.): Health in the mirror of disciplines, epochs, cultures. de Gruyter, 2008, ISBN 978-3-484-85001-9 , p. 131 ff.
  2. ↑ Ernst Klee : 'Euthanasia' in the Third Reich. completely revised New edition. Frankfurt am Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-596-18674-7 , p. 26.
  3. ^ Jens Martin Rohrbach: Ophthalmology in National Socialism. Schattauer Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-7945-2512-6 , p. 139.
  4. ↑ Michael Cranach: Psychiatry in National Socialism: The Bavarian Hospitals and Nursing Centers between 1933 and 1945. de Gruyter, 2012, ISBN 978-3-486-71451-7 , p. 22.
  5. ^ Richard Weikart: The role of evolutionary ethics in Nazi propaganda and in ideological Nazi instruction. In: Wolfgang Bialas (Hrsg.): Moral orders of National Socialism. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2014, ISBN 978-3-647-36963-1 , p. 199.
  6. ↑ Michael Cranach: Psychiatry in National Socialism: The Bavarian Hospitals and Nursing Centers between 1933 and 1945. de Gruyter, 2012, ISBN 978-3-486-71451-7 , p. 25.
  7. ↑ Uwe Kaminsky: "Gnadentod" and Economism. In: Wolfgang Bialas (Hrsg.): Moral orders of National Socialism. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2014, ISBN 978-3-647-36963-1 , S, p. 245.