Ewald Meltzer
Ewald Meltzer (born August 11, 1869 in Auerbach / Vogtl. , † January 30, 1940 in Herrnhut ) was a German physician .
Life
Ewald Meltzer studied medicine in Jena . During his studies in 1889 he became a member of the Teutonia Jena fraternity . As a penitentiary doctor in Waldheim , he advocated the preventive detention of "incorrigible professional criminals". Later, for almost 30 years, he ran the Katharinenhof in Großhennersdorf near Löbau , an educational institution for around 250 children (of whom only 25 survived the T4 campaign ).
In his work “The problem of the abbreviation of life unworthy of life”, probably the most haunting refutation of the text “The release of the destruction of life unworthy of life” by Karl Binding and Alfred Hoche (1920), Meltzer came to the judgment in 1925: “The suggestion of killing spiritual Disabled people , no matter how severely disabled, are to be rejected for legal and ethical reasons. ”In the run-up to this paper, Meltzer conducted a standardized survey in 1920 among the parents of the children in the care entrusted to him. The parents were first asked: "Would you in any case agree to a painless shortening of your child's life after it has been determined by experts that it is incurably stupid?" Meltzer published the surprising result of the survey in 1925 in the above Font. 73% of the respondents answered 'yes' to the first question on the questionnaire. Meltzer's survey results served the organizers and those responsible for the T4 campaign as a basis for legitimation for the state-ordered 'euthanasia' murders.
Meltzer himself was an opponent of euthanasia . However, he expressed himself in later lectures and writings, how many euthanasia critics in the dialectic of supporters, he, for example, wrote: "The risk of flooding of our cultural life with inferior people need us encourage countermeasures." , Although he only the sterilization meant. In 1931 he wrote in the magazine for the treatment of anomalous people : "The normally gifted part of the people must ... take a defensive front against the negative variant."
Meltzer last worked at the Katharinenhof during his retirement.
The facility for people with disabilities Ewald-Meltzer-Heim in Herrnhut ( Großhennersdorf ) is named after Ewald Meltzer .
Publications (selection)
- The problem of the abbreviation “life unworthy of living” , Halle a. S.: C. Marhold, 1925
- The Katharinenhof , Großhennersdorf: Verl. D. Melt Foundation, 1923
- Guide to the care of the feeble-minded and idiots , Hall a. S.: C. Marhold, 1914
- as editors with Adolf Dannemann , Georg Gnerlich, August Hentze, H. Schoberl, Erich Stern : Enzyklopädisches Handbuch der Heilpädagogik. 2 volumes, Halle an der Saale 1934.
literature
- Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Who was what before and after 1945 . 2nd Edition. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 .
Web links
- Literature by and about Ewald Meltzer in the catalog of the German National Library
Individual evidence
- ^ Ernst Elsheimer (ed.): Directory of the old fraternity members. Edition 1925/26. Frankfurt am Main 1925/26, p. 291.
- ↑ a b Götz Aly: The burdened. 'Euthanasia' 1939-1945. A history of society , S. Fischer, Frankfurt 2013, p. 28ff.
- ↑ http://bidok.uibk.ac.at/library/finke-liebe.html
- ^ Diakoniewerk Oberlausitz eV: Ewald-Meltzer-Heim .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Meltzer, Ewald |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German medic |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 11, 1869 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Auerbach / Vogtl. |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 30, 1940 |
| Place of death | Herrnhut , Upper Lusatia |