Ernst Rüdin
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[[Image:Ernst rudin.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Ernst Rudin]]
'''Ernst Rüdin''' ([[April 19]], [[1874]] - [[October 22]], [[1952]]), was a [[Switzerland|Swiss]] [[psychiatry|psychiatrist]], [[geneticist]] and [[eugenics|eugenicist]]. Rüdin was born in [[St. Gallen]], [[Switzerland]]. He is known as one of the fathers {{Or|date=September 2007}} of [[racial hygiene]].
== Background ==
Influenced in racial hygiene and [[Social Darwinism]] by his brother-in-law [[Alfred Ploetz]], Rüdin started his career as a psychiatrist and developed the concept of "[[empirical genetic prognosis]]" of [[mental disorder]]s. He published his initial results on the [[genetics]] of [[schizophrenia]] in [[1916]]{{Fact|date=June 2007}}.
Rüdin was the director ([[1917]]-[[1945]]) of the Genealogical-Demographic Department at the [[German Research Institute of Psychiatry]]. {{Fact|date=February 2007}}
Ernst Rüdin was the director of the one of the first [[eugenics]] research institutes, known as the [[Kaiser Wilhelm Institute]] for Genealogy in [[Munich]], [[Germany]]. {{Fact|date=February 2007}} He also headed the [[Max Planck Institute]] for Brain Research {{Fact|date=February 2007}} in Frankfurt and the [[German Society for Rassenhygiene|German Society for Rassenhygiene (Race-hygiene)]] {{Fact|date=February 2007}} and was one of the first members of the organization who attempted to "educate" the public on the "dangers" of hereditary defectives and the value of the [[Nordic theory|Nordic race]] as "culture creators.{{Fact|date=June 2007}}"
His research was later supported with manpower and financial funding from the [[National Socialist Party]]. After 1945, Rüdins connections to the Nazis were the main reason for criticism of psychiatric [[genocide]] in Germany. {{Fact|date=February 2007}}
== Nazi expert ==
Recognized as one of the fathers {{Or|date=September 2007}} of Nazi ideology, his work was endorsed officially by the [[Nazism|Nazi Party]]. He wrote the official commentary for the [[racial policy of Nazi Germany]]: "[[Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring]]"; and was awarded medals from the Nazis and [[Adolf Hitler]] personally.
In 1933, Ernst Rüdin, Alfred Ploetz, and several other experts on racial hygiene were brought together to form the [[Expert Committee on Questions of Population and Racial Policy]] under [[Third Reich|Reich]] Interior Minister [[Wilhelm Frick]]. The committee's ideas were used as a scientific basis to justify the [[racial policy of Nazi Germany]]. The "Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring" was passed by the German government on [[January 1]], [[1934]].
== Quotes ==
"The significance of Rassenhygiene did not become evident to all aware Germans until the political activity of Adolf Hitler and only through his work has our 30 year long dream of translating Rassenhygiene into action finally become a reality." - Ernst Rüdin.
"Whoever is not physically or mentally fit must not pass on his defects to his children. The state must take care that only the fit produce children. Conversely, it must be regarded as reprehensible to withhold healthy children from the state." - Ernst Rüdin at a speech to the German Society for Rassenhygiene, quoting Hitler.
== References ==
* "Aufgaben and Ziele der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Rassenhygiene" Archiv für Rassen- und Gesellschaftsbiologie 28 (1934): pp. 228-29
* "The Science and Politics of Racial Research" by William Tucker. University of Illinois Press, 1994.
* "Psychiatric research and science policy in Germany: the history of the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt fur Psychiatrie (German Institute for Psychiatric Research) in Munich from 1917 to 1945)" MM. Weber, 2000
* "Program and practice of psychiatric genetics at the German Research Institute of Psychiatry under Ernst Rudin: on the relationship between science, politics and the concept of race before and after 1993" by V. Roelcke, 2002
* "Racial Hygiene" by Robert Proctor.
*{{cite journal
| title = Ernst Rüdin, 1874-1952: A German psychiatrist and geneticist
| author = Matthias M. Weber
| journal = American Journal of Medical Genetics
| year = 1996
| volume = 67
| issue = 4
| pages = 323–331
| doi = 10.1002/(SICI)1096-8628(19960726)67:4<323::AID-AJMG2>3.0.CO;2-N
}}
*{{cite journal
| title = Ernst Rüdin, a Nazi psychiatrist and geneticist
| author = Elliot S. Gershon
| journal = American Journal of Medical Genetics
| year = 1997
| volume = 74
| issue = 4
| pages = 457–458
| doi = 10.1002/(SICI)1096-8628(19970725)74:4<457::AID-AJMG23>3.0.CO;2-G
}}
*{{cite journal
| title = Ernst Rüdin (1874-1952) and his genealogic-demographic department in Munich (1917-1986): An introduction to their family studies of schizophrenia
| author = Edith Zerbin-Rüdin, Kenneth S. Kendler
| journal = American Journal of Medical Genetics
| year = 1996
| volume = 67
| issue = 4
| pages = 332–337
| doi = 10.1002/(SICI)1096-8628(19960726)67:4<332::AID-AJMG3>3.0.CO;2-O
}}
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== See also ==
*[[Ethnic cleansing]]
*[[Eugenics]]
*[[Action T4|T-4 Euthanasia Program]]
*[[Werner Heyde]]
*[[Werner Villinger]]
*[[The Gene Illusion]]
== External links ==
*[http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/pages/t067/t06712.html The Simon Wiesenthal Center Multimedia Learning Center Online: Ernst Rudin]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rudin, Ernst}}
[[Category:1874 births]]
[[Category:1952 deaths]]
[[Category:People from the Canton of St. Gallen]]
[[Category:German eugenicists]]
[[Category:Geneticists]]
[[Category:German psychiatrists]]
[[Category:Military psychiatrists]]
[[Category:Nazi era scholars and writers]]
[[Category:German legal history]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses]]
[[Category:Nazi physicians]]
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