Dora Kahlich-Konner

Dorothea 'Dora' Maria Kahlich-Könner , maiden name Könner (born December 5, 1905 in Persenbeug , Austria-Hungary , † March 28, 1970 in Vienna ), was an Austrian anthropologist . As an employee at the Anthropological Institute of the University of Vienna, she worked from 1938 to 1945 with hereditary-anthropological investigations and measurements in the service of National Socialist racial hygiene .

Live and act

1924 to 1938

After graduating from the English School for Teachers in Krems an der Donau in 1924 , Dora Könner studied history and geography as an extraordinary student, and from 1929 anthropology and paleontology at the University of Vienna . Before completing her studies, she became an employee of the hereditary biological working group founded by Josef Weninger at the Anthropological Institute . From 1932 she took on unpaid organizational activities for the Anthropological Institute and administered the institute library. She obtained her doctorate in 1934 with the help of the material left by Rudolf Pöch on the genetic and racial informative value of the humerus . Since 1934 she earned her living mainly by performing the anthropomorphic measurements on test subjects necessary for the “morphological similarity analysis” for Weninger's expert reports in paternity processes. From 1936 to 1938 she held an unpaid assistant position at the Anthropological Institute under Josef Weninger - from 1938 Eberhard Geyer - with the task of hereditary research into the morphology of hands and feet . In 1937 she presented her research results at a conference of the " German Society for Race Research " in Tübingen.

From the “Anschluss” of Austria to 1945

With the “Anschluss” of Austria , the Nuremberg Laws of 1935 also applied to Austria. The "similarity comparison" of physical morphological features, which was previously used exclusively to clarify disputed paternity, now acquired a special status in connection with the " Aryan proof " and as a result the hereditary-racial-anthropological expert activities increased. Paternity examinations were now carried out in cases of unclear “ German-blooded ancestry” in order to prove or exclude a Jewish father. The test subjects had to be present with their parents and siblings for the procedure. If the parents died, photos were used for the "similarity analysis". If there were no photographs, the supposed “racial appearance” of the person examined was decisive. From 1938 "race reports" were one of the most important tasks of anthropology, for which the Anthropological Institute of the University of Vienna was well prepared due to its hereditary and racial collections.

With reference to her services to the NSDAP , Dora Könner was appointed as a paid “third assistant” in 1938. For “race reports”, which the Anthropological Institute was commissioned by the National Socialist Office for Family Research , she carried out findings on Jews. Occasionally she was also active as an independent expert on questions of parentage and paternity determinations .

Dora Könner developed a particular interest in anthropological research into the "Jewish race". In the autumn of 1938, she and the anthropology student Herbert Kahlich, her future husband, carried out racial studies on the Jewish inmates of the Lainzer supply house in Vienna. She measured 58 men and 41 women in order to publish this "material [...] in connection with the Jewish material already available at the institute" (experts). The publication did not materialize, however. In 1941/42, together with Elfriede Fliethmann , she processed the data on the Jewish and Polish population collected in the then General Government and stayed there several times for surveys and measurements. In 1942, together with Fliethmann, she carried out findings on around 500 people from 106 Jewish families from Tarnów , of which fingerprints, photographs, findings sheets and statistical evaluations are now available in the Department of Archaeological Biology and Anthropology of the Natural History Museum Vienna .

After the end of the war

Like other anthropologists who had to give up their positions in the public service after the end of the war due to their work for the Nazi regime, Dora Kahlich-Könner worked as an appraiser in paternity proceedings after 1945. In 1959 she became a private assistant to the coroner Leopold Breitenecker . She also worked at the Institute for Blood Group Research at the University of Vienna and specialized in serology in the 1960s .

She died in the General Hospital in Vienna in 1970.

Fonts

• The racial diagnostic value of the humerus : Investigations on hominids and anthropoids , dissertation, University of Vienna 1934
• Anthropological and morphological observations on the human hand , 1938.
• Preliminary report on racial recordings of Jews. In: Negotiations of the German Society for Race Research 10 (1940)

literature

• Götz Aly , Susanne Heim : thought leaders of annihilation. Auschwitz and the German plans for a new European order. extended new edition. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-596-19510-7 . (Chapter: Emancipation )
• Brigitte Fuchs: Kahlich-Könner, Dora Maria. In: Brigitte Keintzel, Ilse Korotin : Scientists in and from Austria. Life - work - work. Böhlau, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-205-99467-1 , pp. 339–342.

Remarks

1. ↑ Hereditary biological and racial anthropological studies were usually divided into three sections: The first and most important part comprised the “physiognomic status” of the person concerned, i.e. H. The expert assessed morphological and metric characteristics on the face, head, hands and feet as well as general body characteristics such as height and skin color. Another part of the investigation referred to the " dactyloscopic findings ", in which the hand and finger prints of a person were taken and evaluated. The third part comprised the photographic recordings of the persons concerned for the purpose of documenting the characteristics assessed and providing evidence. In: The anthropological department of the Natural History Museum during the Nazi era; Reports and documentation of research and collection activities 1938–1945. Department of Archaeological Biology and Anthropology of the Natural History Museum Vienna, p. 15.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Brigitte Fuchs: "Race", "People", Gender: Anthropological Discourses in Austria. Campus, Frankfurt / New York 2003, ISBN 3-593-37249-5 , p. 304.
2. ↑ Brigitte Fuchs: Kahlich-Könner, Dora Maria. In: Brigitta Keintzel, Ilse Korotin (ed.): Scientists in and from Austria. Life - work - work. Böhlau, Wien et al. 2002, ISBN 3-205-99467-1 , pp. 339–342.
3. ↑ quoted from Brigitte Fuchs: "Race", "People", Gender. Anthropological Discourses in Austria 1850–1960. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt 2003, p. 303.
4. ↑ MD-rounder: Preliminary report on rassenkundliche shooting of Jews. In: Negotiations of the Society for Race Research. 10, special issue for the 16th year Anthrop. Number 1940, pp. 121-126.
5. ↑ Götz Aly, Susanne Heim: Vordenker der Vernichtung. Auschwitz and the German plans for a new European order. revised New edition. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt 2013, ISBN 978-3-596-19510-7 , pp. 182f.
6. ^ Maria Teschler-Nicola, Margit Berner: The anthropological department of the Natural History Museum in the Nazi era; Reports and documentation of research and collection activities 1938–1945. Department of Archaeological Biology and Anthropology, Natural History Museum Vienna, p. 21. (PDF)
7. ^ Brigitte Fuchs: Scientists in and from Austria. 2002, p. 342.