Lothar Loeffler

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Lothar Loeffler (born January 28, 1901 in Erfurt , † October 23, 1983 in Boll ) was a German anthropologist , physician and university professor. During National Socialism he was one of the leading racial biologists and racial hygienists . In the Federal Republic of Germany he was involved in family , youth and marriage counseling as well as radiation protection .

Life

Study and early research

The son of a ministerial director studied medicine in Berlin , Breslau and Tübingen , where he became a member of the Saxonia Association . In Tübingen he passed the state examination in 1924 and obtained his doctorate in 1926. med. with Wilhelm Weitz . The title of his dissertation was "On the state of health of the German student body and the welfare measures of the economic aid of the German student body until the spring of 1924".

Loeffler, on the mediation of Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer, moved in October 1927 from the Pharmacological Institute of the University of Tübingen as an assistant to the newly founded Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics in Berlin-Dahlem . There he carried out "experimental studies on the question of the artificial generation of genetic changes" using " arsenic-containing substances" on white mice . In October 1929 he moved to the Anthropological Institute at Kiel University , where he initially worked as an assistant to Otto Aichel . From 1931 Loeffler was a lecturer at the University of Kiel. In Kiel he completed his habilitation in 1932 with the work “About a mutation in the white house mouse, its genetics and its significance for human genetics”.

Political activity

Even before the " seizure of power ", Loeffler became a member of the NSDAP and the SA in 1932 . He also joined the NS Teachers 'Association (NSLB) and the NS Doctors' Association . In 1933/34 he headed the "Lecturer's Body" in Kiel. Since 1934, he has been a member of various hereditary health courts as a medical assessor , which were set up when the law for the prevention of genetically ill offspring came into force . In doing so, he helped to decide whether to order compulsory sterilizations .

University professor in Königsberg

In 1934 Loeffler was appointed full professor of genetic and racial biology at the University of Königsberg , where he also headed the Institute of Racial Biology. In Königsberg he was also the lecturer. (At the Institute for Racial Biology, Bernhard Duis was the senior physician, who in 1949 received the research center for human genetic and constitutional biology at the Medical Faculty of Hamburg). From 1935 to 1942 Loeffler was a member of the Gauleitung in East Prussia and, as Gauamtsleiter in Königsberg, he headed the NSDAP's office for racial politics . In 1936 he was next to Verschuer at number one on the list of appointments at the University of Frankfurt am Main to take over the new University Institute for Hereditary Biology and Racial Hygiene in Frankfurt am Main . He declined the offer because Frankfurt "with its many Jews seemed too conflictual to him."

Loeffler's area of ​​expertise was initially radiation genetics . In the emergency community of German science , Loeffler belonged together with Nikolai Wladimirowitsch Timofejew-Ressowski and Heinrich Martius to a commission appointed in September 1933 under Alfred Kühn to develop research strategies for "germ damage by X-rays and radium rays". In order to realize this project, he received research funding from the Notgemeinschaft and the Reich Health Office to carry out radiation genetic animal experiments together with Timofejew-Ressowski and Paula Hertwig . At the same time he carried out a study on the germ damage caused by X-rays in humans. From 1934 he was a specialist in race research for the Emergency Association of German Science.

Loeffler's anti-individualistic and macro-historical use of a scientifically objectified concept of race is considered paradigmatic for medicine under National Socialism . In his lecture The Thought of Selection as a Requirement in Medicine , a ceremonial speech given on January 30, 1936, he said:

“Preservation of the health of the national body is only possible through constant selection . […] We know that our life here on earth, which lasts for 30, 60 and 80 years, is rooted in another dimension, is only a small visible part of the larger life that passes through us. We are only a part of the life of our ancestors, which flows through the generations, whose will, work and lack is in us. […] We doctors are the guardians of this life of our people. To recognize this task, however, means responsibility, means breaking and revolutionizing against old thinking. [...] The law for the prevention of hereditary offspring is only a rough sieve, but a start. "

- Lothar Loeffler : The thought of selection as a requirement of medicine (1936).

In 1942 Loeffler successfully campaigned for the promotion of serological work on racial differentiation in humans by his colleague in Königsberg, Karl Horneck , who carried out experiments on prisoners of war in the special colonial medical hospital in St. Médard near Bordeaux .

University professor in Vienna

During the Second World War , Loeffler moved from the University of Königsberg to the University of Vienna as Professor of Hereditary and Racial Biology in 1942 , where he also took over the newly founded Institute for Racial Biology and Racial Hygiene as director and worked until the beginning of May 1945. The establishment of the institute was decided in 1939 and provided with funds amounting to one million Reichsmarks . Loeffler's appointment was delayed due to power struggles within the university. Because Loeffler had demanded that the institute should also include anthropology, which is part of the philosophical faculty. He would have belonged to two faculties, as in Konigsberg, and anthropology would have become an examination subject for doctors and philosophers. The controversy that resulted from this reflected a fundamental debate that had been going on for some time between the more anthropological and the more medically oriented racial hygienists. In fact, Loeffler wanted to demonstrate the importance of selection for medicine and turn the Anthropological Institute into a department of racial hygiene. With the "Department for Experimental Genetics" under the direction of Georg Gottschewski , he set up the first and only such department in the " Ostmark ". At Loeffler's Institute, Horst Geyer headed the Department of Psychology, Neurology and Psychiatry from 1943 to 1945.

Loeffler was considered a staunch National Socialist. It is reported that he taught in Vienna in SA uniform. As head of the institute, he also led the institute's own racial hygiene department and held lectures on racial hygiene. In the summer semester of 1944 he also gave an interdisciplinary lecture on the subject of “ Judaism as a racial and social problem”.

In 1942 Loeffler carried out a study for the “Reich Committee for the Scientific Assessment of Hereditary and Congenital Severe Sufferings” in the course of child euthanasia on “hereditary biological issues according to social aspects”, in which he used data from Ernst Wentzler , who was a leader in child euthanasia provided. From 1944, Loeffler was a member of the scientific advisory board of Karl Brandt , the authorized representative for health care .

In July 1943, months after the surrender of the German Africa Corps , Loeffler applied to the colonial department of the Reich Research Council for funding for a project to demonstrate the importance of the “ Cromagnon race ” for North Africa in order to support the political conception of the Axis powers , according to which North Africa actually belong to Europe. The working hypothesis was the assumption of a "White Africa" ​​in racial differentiation from a "Negro Africa".

post war period

After the end of the war Loeffler was interned by the Allies until October 1945 . In 1950 he became an institution doctor at the Evangelical Annastift in Hannover-Kleefeld . From April 1949 he found employment with the German Society for Anthropology as an expert on paternity reports and was chairman of their working group for anthropological and hereditary biological reports until 1965. From 1952 he was a member of the Lower Saxony State Health Council and chaired the Lower Saxony State Working Group for Youth and Marriage Counseling . Since it was founded in 1949, he worked in a leading position at the German Working Group for Youth and Marriage Counseling and became its chairman in 1970. In 1954 he also became a consulting doctor for the regional association of the Inner Mission Hanover.

His reputation as a radiation geneticist earned Loeffler an appointment in the radiation biology working group of the German Atomic Energy Commission in 1957 , which set “important groundwork for the further development of human genetics in Germany” (). The background was that politics and industry feared an increase in environmental radioactivity and thus the mutation rate through the increased use of atomic energy . Loeffler was the only human geneticist within this working group whose members were appointed for life and had great influence. He brokered funds from the commission to colleagues such as Verschuer, Hans Nachtsheim and Wolfgang Lehmann , who, like Loeffler himself, had been leading genetic biologists and racial hygienists during National Socialism. In 1959 Loeffler organized a symposium for the Radiation Biology Working Group at which international geneticists met in Barsinghausen on the subject of the mutation rate in laboratory animals and humans . In addition to Verschuer and Lehmann, Heinrich Schade , Peter Emil Becker and Nachtsheim students Georg Gerhard Wendt and Friedrich Vogel were among the participants . A pilot project was launched, according to which Verschuer should carry out a genetic inventory of the residents of the Münster administrative district . With financial support amounting to millions of euros from the Federal Ministry for Nuclear Energy and Water Management , 15 jobs were created and the new construction of Verschuer's Human Genetic Institute was funded. The establishment of an institute for human genetics in Kiel under Lehmann was also financed with the funds of the Atomic Commission.

Since 1952 Loeffler belonged to the Eugenic Working Group of the Inner Mission , where advice was given on the amendment of the Sterilization Act. The sterilization was seen as a measure to an alleged threat of overpopulation to prevent. Along with Verschuer, Loeffler was one of those who advocated a eugenic indication for voluntary sterilization. He was a member of the Working Group for Dental Radiation , a corresponding member of the Christian Institute for Marriage and Family Studies in Basel and was a member of the board of the German Society for Anthropology . In 1961, Loeffler was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit, 1st class , for his commitment to radiation protection . From 1954 to 1959 he was a lecturer in social biology at the Technical University of Hanover and from 1968 to 1972 at the Medical University of Hanover .

Publications

  • About the state of health of the German student body and the welfare measures of the “Economic Aid of the German Student Union” up to spring 1924. Lothar Loeffler / Zugl .: Tübingen, Med. Diss., 1926. Hochschulverl, Göttingen (1924).
  • X-ray damage to the male germ cell and offspring. Results of a survey of x-ray doctors and technicians. Urban & Schwarzenberg, Berlin 1929.
  • Brief note on blood group tests in lower monkeys. o. O. 1931.
  • Studies of family statistics on elementary school teachers from Württemberg with special consideration of the problem of different reproduction. Lehmann, Munich 1932.
  • Tables for calculating the ear height of the head. Fischer, Jena 1932.
  • About a mutation in the white house mouse, its genetics and its significance for human genetics. Kiel, Med. Hab.-Schr. Borntraeger, Leipzig 1932.
  • Preliminary notification of mutation in mammals. o. O. 1932.
  • The biological crisis of the German people and genetic legislation of the national state. In: People in the process of being. 1, No. 5 1933, pp. 35-45.
  • The idea of ​​selection as a requirement in medicine. Lehmanns, Munich 1936.
  • Racial hygiene. In: German Science. 1939, pp. 101-104.
  • and Otto Buurman: youth and marriage counseling. Presentations. Stephansstift, Hanover 1952.
  • The crisis of interpersonal relationships in marriage and the request for divorce. Lecture, go on October 30, 1953. In: Social work. 3, No. 2 1954, pp. 49-56.
  • (Ed.): Work, leisure and family with regard to marriage, old age and youth. Presentations u. Results d. Workshop d. German Working group f. Youth and Marriage counseling in 1955 in Nuremberg. Under the supervision of ... on behalf of d. Board of Directors d. German Working group f. Youth and Marriage counseling, Detmold, ed. by Lothar Loeffler. Thieme, Stuttgart 1955.
  • Current Problems of Gender Relations. Presentation, issued on April 18, 1955. In: Social work. 4, No. 12 1955, pp. 572-582.
  • The change in the population structure, its influence on age. Lecture. In: Social Work. 5, No. 11 1956, pp. 481-488.
  • Marriage and family as gifts and responsibilities. On behalf of the board of the German Association for Youth and Marriage Counseling eV in Detmold on the occasion of its tenth anniversary. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1959.
  • (Ed.): The spontaneous and induced mutation rate in test animals and humans. International Symposium d. Working group IV4 "Radiation Biology" d. German Atomic Commission from February 27 to March 1, 1959 in Barsinghausen-Hanover. Lectures with contributions to the discussion. Scientific Arranged: Lothar Loeffler. Gersbach, Munich 1960.
  • and Wolfram Kowalewsky: Marriage and age of majority. Problem of the early declaration of majority and marriage from the point of view of social workers, judges and marriage counselors. Luchterhand, Berlin-Spandau 1961.
  • Radiation protection in research and practice. In: Radiation protection in research and practice, Bacq, Zénon Marcel, 1963.
  • and Günter Struck: Introduction to marriage counseling. Grünewald, [Mainz] c1971, ISBN 978-3-7867-0307-5 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Association of Old Lüneburgers and Saxony: Directory of addresses , 1969, p. 21
  2. ^ Harry Scholz, Paul Schroeder: Doctors in East and West Prussia. Life and achievement since the 18th century. Würzburg 1970, p. 39.
  3. ^ A b c Hans-Christian Harten, Uwe Neirich, Matthias Schwerendt: Racial hygiene as an educational ideology of the Third Reich. Bio-bibliographical manual. Berlin 2006, p. 429.
  4. ↑ Hans-Walter Schmuhl: Crossing borders. The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics 1927–1945. History of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society under National Socialism, Volume 9. Wallstein, Göttingen 2005, p. 520.
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Ernst Klee: The personal dictionary for the Third Reich. Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 376.
  6. ^ A b Hans-Walter Schmuhl: Crossing boundaries. The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics 1927–1945. History of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society under National Socialism, Volume 9. Wallstein, Göttingen 2005, p. 77.
  7. ↑ Michael Grüttner, Biographical Lexicon on National Socialist Science Policy , Heidelberg 2004, p. 111.
  8. ↑ Ute Felbor: Racial Biology and Hereditary Science in the Medical Faculty of the University of Würzburg 1937–1945. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1995 (= Würzburg medical historical research. Supplement 3; also dissertation Würzburg 1995), ISBN 3-88479-932-0 , p. 110 f. and 219.
  9. ↑ Michael Grüttner: University policy between Gau and Reich. In: The NS-Gaue: regional middle-level instances in the centralized "Führer state". In: Jürgen John, Horst Möller, Thomas Schaarschmidt (eds.): Series of quarterly books for contemporary history: special issue. Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-58086-0 , p. 182.
  10. ^ Peter Weingart, Jürgen Kroll, Kurt Bayertz: Race, Blood and Genes. History of eugenics and racial hygiene in Germany. Frankfurt / Main 1992, p. 441.
  11. ↑ Hans-Walter Schmuhl: Crossing borders. The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics 1927–1945. History of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society under National Socialism, Volume 9. Wallstein, Göttingen 2005, p. 239.
  12. ↑ Hans-Walter Schmuhl: Crossing borders. The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics 1927–1945. History of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in National Socialism, Volume 9. Wallstein, Göttingen 2005, p. 514ff.
  13. ↑ Gerhard Kaiser: Border confusions. Literary Studies in National Socialism. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2008, p. 312f.
  14. ↑ Quoted from: Urban Wiesing (Hrsg.): Ethik in der Medizin. A study book . 2nd Edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 2004, pp. 55f.
  15. ↑ Hans-Walter Schmuhl: Crossing borders. The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics 1927–1945. History of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in National Socialism, Volume 9. Wallstein, Göttingen 2005, p. 512ff.
  16. ↑ Edith Saurer : New institutes founded 1938–1945. In: Gernot Heiss, Siegfried Mattl, Sebastian Meissl, Edith Saurer, Karl Stuhlpfarrer (Ed.): Willing Science. The University of Vienna 1938–1945. Verlag für Gesellschaftskritik, Vienna 1989, ISBN 3-85115-107-0 , p. 318.
  17. ↑ The Uneveners . In: Der Standard , April 16, 2010.
  18. ↑ Eberhard Gabriel, Wolfgang Neugebauer (ed.): From forced sterilization to murder. On the history of Nazi euthanasia in Vienna. Part II, Vienna 2002, p. 268
  19. ^ Herbert Posch, Doris Ingrisch, Gert Dressel: "Anschluss" and Exclusion 1938. Displaced and remaining students from the University of Vienna. Münster 2008, p. 210.
  20. ^ Gudrun Exner: Population statistics and population science in Austria 1938 to 1955. Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2007, ISBN 978-3-205-77686-4 , p. 208.
  21. ↑ Hans-Walter Schmuhl: Crossing borders. The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics 1927–1945. History of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society under National Socialism, Volume 9. Wallstein, Göttingen 2005, p. 236.
  22. ^ Ernst Klee: German Medicine in the Third Reich. Careers before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt a. Main 2001, p. 176f.
  23. ↑ Hans-Peter Kröner: From race hygiene to human genetics . The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics after the war. Gustav Fischer, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-437-21228-1 , p. 2 .
  24. ↑ Hans-Peter Kröner: The influence of the German atomic commission from 1955 on the biosciences. In: Rüdiger vom Bruch and Brigitte Kaderas (eds.): Sciences and science policy. Inventories of formations, breaks and continuities in Germany in the 20th century . Stuttgart 2002, p. 469.
  25. ^ Ernst Klee: German Medicine in the Third Reich. Careers before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt a. Main 2001, pp. 271f.
  26. ^ Uwe Kaminsky: Between racial hygiene and biotechnology. The continuation of eugenics using the example of the Evangelical Church, 1945 to 1969. (2005), pp. 65f. ( PDF )
personal data
SURNAME Loeffler, Lothar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German anthropologist, physician and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH January 28, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Erfurt
DATE OF DEATH October 23, 1983
Place of death Boll