Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Offspring

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Basic data
Title: Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Offspring
Short title: [Hereditary Health Act] (not official)
Abbreviation: [GzVeN] or [EGG] (not official)
Type: Law of the Reich Government (Art. 1 G of March 24, 1933)
Scope: German Empire
Legal matter: Administrative law , procedural law
Issued on: July 14, 1933
(RGBl. I p. 529)
Entry into force on: January 1, 1934
Last change by: February 4, 1936
(RGBl. IS 119)
Effective date of the
last change: 		March 11, 1936
(Art. 71 Para. 4 WRV)
Expiry: div., by occupation law / constitution
Weblink: 100 (0) key documents to German history in the 20th century
Please note the note on the applicable legal version.
Reichsgesetzblatt of July 25, 1933

The law for the prevention of hereditary offspring (GzVeN) of July 14, 1933 ( RGBl. I p. 529) was a German sterilization law . It came into force on January 1, 1934. In the National Socialist German Reich, the law served so-called racial hygiene by “ rendering sterile ” of supposed “ hereditary diseases ” and alcoholics . The sterilization procedures were legalized by reports from so-called hereditary health courts . The sterilization was carried out on application (by the person concerned, but mainly by the civil servant physician or "for the inmates of a hospital, sanatorium or nursing home or a penal institution" by the head of the institution), decided by the hereditary health courts, which were affiliated to a district court . This legalized the forced eugenic sterilization .

History of origin

The law was based on a draft planned before the National Socialist takeover, which was drawn up in 1932 by the Prussian Health Department under the leadership of eugenicists such as Hermann Muckermann , Arthur Ostermann , the second director of the Berlin Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Biology , Richard Goldschmidt , and others. The draft included sterilization on a voluntary basis; However, during the deliberations, this point was criticized by the health expert of the Social Democratic parliamentary group in the Prussian parliament Benno Chajes , who suggested compulsory sterilization for certain cases with reference to legislation in some US states and the Swiss canton of Vaud . He also called for social indications to be introduced into the draft in addition to eugenic and medical indications. Although this legislative proposal received broad support, it was no longer law due to the political chaos following the deposition of the Prussian government .

In contrast to this early draft law, which provided for sterilization on a voluntary basis, the law passed under the National Socialists was tightened in several points; now there was the possibility of compulsory sterilization, which could be applied for by medical officers or directors of the "sick, therapeutic, nursing or penal institutions".

The law was passed on July 14, 1933. The official justification for the law states: “The progressive loss of valuable hereditary material must result in severe degeneration of all civilized peoples. Today there is a demand from wide circles to eliminate the biologically inferior genetic material by enacting a law for the prevention of genetically ill offspring. So the sterility should bring about a gradual purification of the national body and the eradication of pathological hereditary factors. "The governmental legal commentary including two specialist surgical articles appeared in 1934 in JF Lehmanns Verlag , Munich: Arthur Gütt , Ernst Rüdin , Falk Ruttke :" Law for the prevention of genetically ill offspring from July 14, 1933. With contributions: The interventions to render the man sterile and emasculate, by Erich Lexer . The interventions to render women sterile, by Albert Döderlein ”.

Extension of the law from 1935

With the first amendment to the Sterilization Act, the “Act to amend the Act to Prevent Hereditary Offspring” of June 26, 1935 (RGBl. 1935 I p. 773), the so-called “voluntary” castration of men was permitted “to protect them from to free a degenerate sex drive ”( homosexuals and sex offenders were meant ) and at the same time the“ removal of the gonads ”or“ disinfection ”was defined gender-neutral and castration (removal of the ovaries on both sides ) was introduced in women.

On the other hand, the sterilization law was extended to an abortion law. In the case of abortions for reasons of racial hygiene or medical indication, impunity was assured and, in the case of "hereditary diseases" pregnant women, sterilization was coupled with abortion. In other words, only if compulsory sterilization was decided did a eugenic abortion also take place up to and including the 6th month. This did not apply to "genetically healthy" women who were pregnant by a "genetically ill" man. Initially, the law required the consent of the pregnant woman, but the "Fourth Ordinance for the Implementation of the Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Diseased Offspring" of July 18, 1935 stated that the intervention could also be carried out with the consent of "the legal representative or the carer", if the woman “could not understand the meaning of the measure”.

In addition to the already existing medical indication, the “racial indication” in 1938 and the “ethical indication” in 1943.

Target groups and impact

The law provided a list of diseases that were considered "hereditary diseases".

"Hereditary illness within the meaning of this law is anyone who suffers from one of the following diseases:

  1. congenital idiocy,
  2. Schizophrenia ,
  3. circular (manic-depressive) insanity,
  4. hereditary epilepsy,
  5. hereditary St. Vitus dance ( Huntington's chorea ),
  6. hereditary blindness ,
  7. hereditary deafness ,
  8. severe hereditary physical deformity. "
- Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Offspring. 14 July 1933.

Furthermore, anyone who suffers from severe alcoholism can be made sterile .

The number of sterilization applications fell after 1936. With the beginning of the Second World War , sterilizations were restricted on August 31, 1939 by an ordinance. After an increase in 1940, the number of sterilization requests continued to decrease until 1944. In view of the " total war effort ", the business operations of the hereditary health courts ceased on December 1, 1944. In the province of Brandenburg , the tasks of the hereditary health courts were taken over by the Berlin Hereditary Health Court by ordinance of the Reich Ministry of Justice .

By May 1945, between 300,000 and 400,000 people were forcibly sterilized in regional hospitals according to a corresponding judgment by the hereditary health courts. In over half of those affected, the reason given was “nonsense”. In total, 5,000 to 6,000 women and around 600 men died from complications during the medical procedure as a result of the application of the law, and many also suffered from consequential health problems.

Dealing with the law after 1945

After the German surrender in May 1945, the GzVeN, like a large part of the laws passed during the National Socialist era, was not repealed by the Control Council laws and continued to apply . In the Control Council Directorate, the head of the legal department of the US military government, Charles H. Fahy , spoke out in favor of a provisional suspension of the law until it could possibly be used again in the public interest. Some countries then adopted their own regulations:

  • In Thuringia, the law was repealed on August 20, 1945.
  • Bavaria repealed the law on November 20, 1945.
  • According to an ordinance issued in Hessen on May 16, 1946, the law was no longer applicable until further notice.
  • Württemberg-Baden suspended the law by a law passed on July 24, 1946.

The Soviet occupation ordered the repeal of the law in their zone on January 8, 1946. The British occupation issued an Ordinance on Resumption of Hereditary Health Proceedings on July 28, 1947. However, there were no more hereditary health courts, so the law was no longer applied in practice.

After 1949, parts of the law continued to apply in the newly founded Federal Republic of Germany , while it remained repealed in the German Democratic Republic . Insofar as the provisions of the GzVeN contradicted the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany (Article 123, Paragraph 1 of the Basic Law), their validity ended when the same came into force.

Since the beginning of the 1950s, the medical profession and the judiciary in the Federal Republic of Germany made demands for a new introduction and regulation of forced eugenic sterilizations, but these could not be implemented.

The German government said on February 7, 1957 before the German Bundestag :

“The law for the prevention of genetically ill offspring of July 14, 1933 is not a typical National Socialist law, because even in democratically governed countries - e. B. Sweden, Denmark, Finland and some US states - have similar laws; The Federal Compensation Act basically only grants compensation payments to those persecuted by the Nazi regime and, in a few exceptional cases, to victims who have suffered damage as a result of particularly serious violations of the rule of law. "

With this assessment, the victims of the law were not entitled to receive compensation under the Federal Compensation Act .

Still valid regulations of the GzVeN on measures with the consent of the person concerned were repealed by Article 8 No. 1 of the law of June 18, 1974 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 1297 ). In 1986 the Kiel District Court declared that the Hereditary Health Act contradicted the Basic Law.

Memorial stone in the Weilmünster Clinic for the victims of Nazi forced sterilization

In 1988 the Bundestag outlawed the forced sterilizations carried out on the basis of the GzVeN. The resolution states:

  1. "The German Bundestag declares that the forced sterilizations provided for in the law for the prevention of genetically ill offspring of July 14, 1933 and carried out on the basis of this law during the period from 1933 to 1945 are National Socialist injustices."
  2. "The German Bundestag outlaws the measures that are an expression of the inhumane National Socialist view of 'life unworthy of life'."
  3. "The German Bundestag shows respect and compassion for the victims of forced sterilization and their families."

On August 25, 1998, the Bundestag passed the "Law on the Repeal of National Socialist Injustice Judgments in the Administration of Criminal Justice and the sterilization decisions of the former hereditary health courts . It thus repealed the legally binding decisions on sterilization issued by the hereditary health courts on the basis of the GzVeN.

In 2007 the GzVeN was outlawed "in its design and application" by the German Bundestag as a "National Socialist injustice". The victims of the GzVeN, however, are still not recognized as victims of National Socialism and so have no legal right to compensation under the Federal Compensation Act.

Known victims of the law

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Legal commentary by Arthur Gütt , Ernst Rüdin and Falk Ruttke (1934)

Law sheets:

  • Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Offspring. From July 14, 1933. RGBl. I No. 86, July 25, 1933, pp. 529-531 (effective January 1, 1934; online at ALEX ).
  • Ordinance for the implementation of the law for the prevention of genetically ill offspring. From December 5, 1933. RGBl. I No. 138, December 7, 1933, pp. 1021-1036 ( online at ALEX ).
  • Second ordinance for the implementation of the law for the prevention of genetically ill offspring. May 29, 1934. RGBl. I No. 62, June 8, 1934, pp. 475-476 ( online at ALEX ).
  • Third ordinance for the implementation of the law for the prevention of genetically ill offspring. From February 25, 1935. RGBl. I No. 22, February 28, 1935, pp. 289-292 ( online at ALEX ).
  • Law amending the law to prevent hereditary offspring. From June 26, 1935. RGBl. I No. 65, June 27, 1935, p. 773 ( online at ALEX ).
  • Fourth ordinance for the implementation of the law for the prevention of genetically ill offspring. From July 18, 1935. RGBl. I No. 82, July 25, 1935, pp. 1035-1037 (entry into force on the day after the proclamation, Articles 5-8 on October 1, 1935; online at ALEX ).
    • Law for the Protection of the Hereditary Health of the German People (Marriage Health Law). From October 18, 1935. RGBl. I No. 114, October 19, 1935, p. 1246 (entry into force on the day after the proclamation, § 2 determined by the Reich Minister of the Interior; online at ALEX ).
    • First ordinance to implement the Marriage Health Act. From November 29, 1935. RGBl. I No. 135, December 10, 1935, pp. 1419-1427 ( online at ALEX ).
  • Second law amending the law to prevent hereditary offspring. From February 4, 1936. RGBl. I No. 16, February 26, 1936, p. 119 ( online at ALEX ).
  • Fifth ordinance for the implementation of the Act for the Prevention of Hereditary Diseases. From February 25, 1936. RGBl. I No. 16, February 28, 1936, p. 122 (entry into force on May 1, 1936; online at ALEX ).
  • Sixth ordinance for the implementation of the law for the prevention of genetically ill offspring. 23 December 1936. RGBl. I No. 125, December 31, 1936, pp. 1149-1150 ( online at ALEX ).
  • Ordinance on the implementation of the Act for the Prevention of Hereditary Children and the Marriage Health Act. From August 31, 1939. (Does not concern the Ostmark and the Reichsgau Sudetenland) RGBl. I No. 157, September 1, 1939, pp. 1560–1561 (entry into force on the day of proclamation; online at ALEX ).
  • Ordinance on the introduction of the law for the prevention of hereditary offspring and the law for the protection of the hereditary health of the German people in the Ostmark. From November 14, 1939. RGBl. I No. 227, November 16, 1939, pp. 2230-2232 (effective January 1, 1940; online at ALEX ).
    • Second regulation for the implementation of the Marriage Health Act. From October 22, 1941. RGBl. I pp. 650–651 (Comes into force on December 1, 1941, expires when Section 2 of the Marriage Health Act of October 18, 1935 comes into force; online at ALEX ).
  • Seventh ordinance for the implementation of the law for the prevention of genetically ill offspring. From November 14, 1944. RGBl. I p. 330 (effective December 1, 1944; online at ALEX ).
  • Austria:
    • Announcement of the Provisional State Government of May 29, 1945, regarding the repeal of the law for the prevention of genetically ill offspring (3rd announcement on the repeal of legal provisions of the German Reich). In: StGBl. No. 17/1945
    • Law of June 26, 1945 on measures in the areas of marriage law, civil status law and hereditary health law. In: StGBl. No. 31/1945

Literature:

  • Arthur Gütt , Ernst Rüdin and Falk Ruttke : Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Offspring of July 14, 1933. With excerpt from the law against dangerous habitual criminals and on measures of security and reform of November 24, 1933. Lehmann , Munich 1934; second, revised edition 1936.
  • Reichsärztekammer (Hrsg.): Guidelines for termination of pregnancy and sterility for health reasons. Edited by Hans Stadler. JF Lehmanns Verlag, Munich 1936, pp. 9-25 ( legal provisions ).

literature

  • Udo Benzenhöfer : On the genesis of the law to prevent hereditary offspring, Klemm & Oelschläger, Münster 2006, ISBN 3-932577-95-7 .
  • Gisela Bock : Forced Sterilization under National Socialism. Studies on race politics and gender politics. TU Berlin , Habil. 1984. Monsenstein and Vannerdat , Münster 2010, ISBN 978-3-86991-090-1 .
  • Helia-Verena Daubach: Justice and hereditary health. Forced sterilization, stigmatization, disenfranchisement. The “Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Diseases” in the case law of the hereditary health courts 1934–1945 and its consequences for those affected up to the present; [from December 6th to 8th, 2009… conference under the title “Justice and Hereditary Health”]. Ministry of Justice of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Düsseldorf 2008.
  • Robert Detzel: The law for the prevention of genetically ill offspring from July 14, 1933. Its history. University of Heidelberg Diss. 1992.
  • Paul Nikolai Ehlers: The practice of sterilization processes in the years 1934–1945 in the Düsseldorf administrative district with special consideration of the Duisburg and Wuppertal hereditary health courts. VVF, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-89481-066-1 .
  • Christian Ganssmüller: The genetic health policy of the Third Reich. Planning, implementation and enforcement. Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg , Dissertation 1985; Böhlau, Cologne 1987, ISBN 3-412-02987-4 .
  • Dagmar Juliette Hilder: Forced Sterilization under National Socialism. The implementation of the "Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Offspring" in the Marburg State Hospital. University of Marburg , dissertation 1996. Görich & Weiershäuser, Marburg 1996, ISBN 3-932149-07-6 .
  • Annette Hinz-Wessels: NS-hereditary health courts and compulsory sterilization in the province of Brandenburg. Bebra Wissenschaft, Berlin 2004, ISBN 978-3-937233-11-6 .
  • Elisabeth Herrmann (as Elisabeth Claasen): Ich, die Steri 1969, ISBN 3-88414-074-4 .
  • Sabine Kramer: "An honorable waiver of offspring". Theoretical foundations and practice of compulsory sterilization in the Third Reich using the example of the case law of the Celle Hereditary Health Court. Nomos, Baden-Baden 1999, ISBN 3-7890-5807-6 .
  • Gerhard Leuthold: Publications of the medical literature in the years 1933-1945 on the subject of the "Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Diseases Offspring of July 14, 1933". University of Erlangen-Nuremberg , Diss. Med. 1975.
  • Astrid Ley: Forced sterilization and the medical profession. Background and goals of medical practice 1934–1945, Frankfurt / M. 2004, ISBN 3-593-37465-X .
  • Kurt Nowak : "Euthanasia" and sterilization in the "Third Reich". The confrontation of the Protestant and Catholic churches with the “Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Children” and the “Euthanasia Campaign”. University of Leipzig , dissertation 1971. V&R, Göttingen 1978, ISBN 3-525-55557-1 .
  • Jens-Uwe Rost: Forced sterilizations due to the “Hereditary Health Act” in the area of ​​the Schwerin health department. Helms, Schwerin 2004, ISBN 3-935749-46-5 .
  • Christiane Rothmaler: Sterilizations according to the “Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Diseased Offspring” of July 14, 1933. An investigation into the activity of the Hereditary Health Court and the implementation of the law in Hamburg between 1934 and 1944. University of Hamburg , Diss. 1986. Matthiesen, Husum 1991, ISBN 3-7868-4060-1 .
  • Hans-Walter Schmuhl : Racial hygiene, National Socialism, euthanasia. From prevention to the destruction of 'life unworthy of life' 1890–1945 , 2nd edition, V&R , Göttingen 1992 (1st edition 1987). Reading sample on Google Books
  • Hans-Walter Schmuhl: Crossing borders. The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics 1927–1945. Wallstein, Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-89244-799-3 .
  • Christoph Schneider: The nationalization of the body. The “Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Children” and the Church. A document analysis. Hartung-Gorre, Konstanz 2000, ISBN 3-89649-516-X .
  • Maike Treyz: The law to prevent hereditary offspring. In: National Socialist Family Policy Between Ideology and Implementation. 2001, pp. 181-209.
  • Armin Trus: The “cleansing of the people's body”. Eugenics and "euthanasia" under National Socialism. An introduction to materials. Metropol, Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-86331-457-6 .
  • Peter Weingart , Jürgen Kroll and Kurt Bayertz : Race, Blood and Genes. History of eugenics and racial hygiene in Germany. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt 1988, ISBN 3-518-57886-3 .
  • Stefanie Westermann: Silent suffering. Dealing with the Nazi forced sterilizations in the Federal Republic of Germany. Böhlau, Cologne 2010, ISBN 978-3-412-20562-1 .
  • Roland Zielke: Sterilization by law. The legal initiatives for sterility in the files of the Federal Ministry administration 1949-1976. Charité , Diss. Med. 1st edition. Die Buchmacherei, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-00-020580-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Application by the Bundestag parliamentary groups of the CDU / CSU and SPD to outlaw the law for the prevention of genetically ill offspring ( BT-Drs. 16/3811 , PDF, 76 kB).
  2. ↑ See Hans-Walter Schmuhl : Border Crossing. The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics 1927–1945. , Wallstein Verlag , Göttingen 2005.
  3. ^ Sheila Faith Weiss: The Race Hygiene Movement in Germany. OSIRIS, 2nd series, 3, 1987, pp. 225f
  4. ↑ Peter Malina: Pedagogy and therapy without segregation. in Basics of the Rights of Disabled People to Life TAFIE (Ed.) 5th Overall Austrian Symposium 1989, pp. 131–164
  5. ↑ RGBl. I p. 539, § 3
  6. ↑ a b c d Printed matter 16/38111 - Application to ostracize the law for the prevention of genetically ill offspring of July 14, 1933 In: German Bundestag - 16th electoral period , December 13, 2006.
  7. ↑ Gisela Bock : Forced Sterilization under National Socialism. Studies on race politics and gender politics. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1986, p. 95.
  8. ↑ Gisela Bock: Forced Sterilization under National Socialism. Studies on race politics and gender politics. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1986, p. 99.
  9. ↑ a b Armin Trus: The "cleaning of the people's body", eugenics and "euthanasia" in National Socialism . Metropol, Berlin 2019, p. 88 .
  10. ↑ RGBl. I 1933, p. 529.
  11. ^ Annette Hinz-Wessels: NS-hereditary health courts and compulsory sterilization in the province of Brandenburg. Bebra Wissenschaft, Berlin 2004, p. 73.
  12. ↑ Stefanie Westermann, Richard Kühl, Dominik Gross: Medicine in the service of "genetic health": Contributions to the history of eugenics and "racial hygiene" , Volume 1 of Medicine and National Socialism , LIT Verlag Münster, 2009; P. 18. ISBN 978-3-643-10478-6 .
  13. ↑ a b A. Scheulen: On the legal situation and legal development of the Inherited Health Act 1934 , February 3, 2005.
  14. ↑ Plenary Protocol 2/191 , p. 10876 (A), quoted from A. Scheulen: On the legal situation and legal development of the Hereditary Health Act 1934 , 2005.
  15. ↑ Bundestag printed paper 11/1714 , quoted from A. Scheulen: On the legal situation and legal development of the Hereditary Health Act 1934 , 2005.
  16. ↑ Agenda item 27 in minutes 16/100 of the plenary session of the German Bundestag from May 24, 2007 , p. 10285 ( PDF; 2.5 MB ); Parliament , nos. 22-23 of May 29, 2007.
  17. ↑ Katja Neppert: Why weren't those forcedly sterilized by the Nazis received compensation? In: Halved reason and total medicine. On the fundamentals, real history and further effects of psychiatry under National Socialism Ed. M. Hamann and H. Asbek, Berlin 1997, p. 219.
  18. ↑ Anna Catherin Loll, Rene Althammer: Forgotten Nazi Victims - Forced Sterilization Fight for Their Rights . In: Kontraste , June 30, 2010.