Ploetz, Rüdin, Fischer, Lenz, von Verschuer : pionniers et cautions scientifiques de l’« hygiène raciale »
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Created in 1905 by the biologist Alfred Ploetz, the Society represented initially a pluralist network of researchers who believed that the “value” or “non value” of individuals implied controlling the quality of their genetic inheritance. This would be carried out by positive or negative eugenic actions, either accepted according to some or imposed according to others. Among the scientists within the network, besides Alfred Ploetz who died in 1940, were the anthropologist Eugen Fisher, the biologists of human heredity Friedrich Lenz and Otmar von Verschuer and the psychiatrist Ernst Rüdin. The latter were already well known in the second half of the Weimar Republic. From 1933 on, the exclusion of their liberal colleagues enabled them to give free rein to their determination to rule “German science” and to control the field even beyond the Reich border. Yet, after 1945, the older among these scientists never lost their prestige while the younger ones were free to resume their academic careers.
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