Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T15:29:25.893Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The fate of the mentally ill in Germany during the Third Reich1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Joachim-Ernst Meyer
Joachim-Ernst Meyer*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, University of Göttingen, Germany FRG
*
2Address for correspondence: Professor J. E. Meyer, Psychiatrische Klinik, von Sieboldstr. 5, 3400 Göttingen, Germany FRG.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

This paper surveys the measures taken against mental patients in Germany during the National Socialist regime. It covers the eugenic sterilization programme, the killing of handicapped children, the so called Action T4 (the killing of adult psychiatric patients) and the second phase of Action T4 after its official termination, i.e. between 1941 and 1945. The possible social and political causes of these measures, and the attitude of German psychiatrists to them are discussed. In particular, attention is drawn to a prevalent fear of national degeneration, to social Darwinism, and the ideas of Binding & Hoche on ‘permission for the extermination of worthless life’.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 18 , Issue 3 , August 1988 , pp. 575 - 581
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

Based on the 10th Aubrey Lewis Lecture, delivered at the Institute of Psychiatry, London, on 4 November 1987.

References

Aly, G. & Roth, K. H. (1984). The legalisation of mercy killings in medical and nursing institutions in Nazi Germany from 1938 until 1941. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 7, 145–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Binding, K. & Hoche, E. (1920). Die Freigabe der Vernichtung lebensunwerten Lebens. Meiner: Leipzig.Google Scholar
Bock, G. (1986). Zwangssterilisation im Nationalsozialismus. Westdeutscher Verlag: Opladen.Google Scholar
Bumke, O. (1939). Diskussion zu Faltlhauser ‘zur Frage der Sterilisierung geistig Abnormer’ Allgemeine Zeilschrift für Psychiatrie 96, 373.Google Scholar
Chorover, St. (1980). From Genesis to Genocide. MIT Press: Cambridge, Mass. London.Google Scholar
Darwin, Ch. (1859). On the Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Natural Struggle for Life. John Murray: London.Google Scholar
Ehrhardt, H. (1965). Euthanasie und Vernichtung ‘lebensunwerten’ Lebens. Enke: Stuttgart.Google Scholar
Galton, F. (1983) inquiry into Human Faculty and its Development. Macmillan: London.Google Scholar
Gruchmann, L. (1972). Euthanasie und Justiz im Dritten Reich. Vierleljahresschrift für Zeitgeschichte 20, 235–279.Google Scholar
Gütt, A., Rüdin, E. & Ruttke, F. (1934). Gesetz zur Verhütung erkranken Nachwuchses vom 14.7.1933. Lehmann: München.Google Scholar
Hanauske-Abel, H. (1986). From Nazi holocaust to nuclear holocaust: a lesson to learn? Lancet ii, 271–273.Google Scholar
Haycroft, J. B. (1895). Darwinism and Race Progress. Swan Sonnenschein: London.Google Scholar
Jost, A. (1895). Das Recht auf den Tod. Dieterich'scher Verlag: Göttingen.Google Scholar
Klee, E. (1983). ‘Euthanasie’ im NS-Staat. Fischer: Frankfurt.Google Scholar
Lauter, H. & Meyer, J. E. (1982). Mercy killing without consent. Historical comments on a controversial issue. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 65, 134–141.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lenz, F. (1921). Grundriss der menschlichen Erblichkeitslehre und Rassenhygiene. Lehmann: München.Google Scholar
Lifton, R. J. (1986). The Nazi Doctors. Basic Books: New York.Google Scholar
Meltzer, E. (1925). Das Problem der Abkürzung lebensunwerten Lebens'. Marhold: Halle.Google Scholar
Meyer, J. E. (1988). ‘Die Freigabe der Vernichtung lebensunwerten Lebens’ von Binding und Hoche im Spiegel der deutschen Psychiatrie vor 1933. Nervenarzt 59, 85–91.Google Scholar
Mitscherlich, A. & Mielke, F (1960). Medizin ohne Menschlichkeit. Fischer: Frankfurt.Google Scholar
Nowak, K. (1984). ‘Euthanasie’ und Sterilisierung im'Dritten Reich'. 3. Auflage. Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht: Göttingen.Google Scholar
Platen-Hallermund, A. (1948). Die Tötung Geisteskranker in Deutschland. Verlag Frankfurter Hefte: Frankfurt.Google Scholar
von Schlabrendorff, F. (1979). Begegnungen in 5 Jahrzehnten. Wunderlich: Tübingen. S. 356–375.Google Scholar
Schmidt, G. (1965). Selektion in der Heilanstalt 1939–1945. Ev. Verlagsanstalt: Stuttgart.Google Scholar
Spencer, H. (1864). The Principles of Biology. Williams and Norgate: London.Google Scholar
Wertham, F. (1986). A Sign for Cain. R. Hale: LondonGoogle Scholar