Eugen Fischer 199876 225046420 2008-07-11T17:03:43Z Olessi 220894 cats {{for|the historian|Eugen Fischer (historian)}} [[Image:Eugen Fischer.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Eugen Fischer, circa 1938.]] '''Eugen Fischer''' ([[July 5]], [[1874]] – [[July 9]], [[1967]]) was a [[Germany|German]] professor of [[medicine]], [[anthropology]] and [[eugenics]] . He was one of those responsible for the [[Nazi Germany|Nazi German]] [[scientific racism|scientific theories]] of [[racial hygiene]] that legitimized the [[Holocaust|extermination of Jews]], sent an estimated half a million [[Roma (people)|Gypsies]] to their death in the [[Porajmos]], and led to the [[compulsory sterilization]] of hundreds of thousands of other individuals, deemed racially defective, such as the [[Rhineland Bastard]]s, the mentally ill, and the mentally retarded. == Biography == Born in [[Karlsruhe]], [[Grand Duchy of Baden]], Fischer joined the [[Nazi Party]] soon after it was established. A book, ''Human Hereditary Teaching and Racial Hygiene'', co-written by him and [[Erwin Baur]] and [[Fritz Lenz]], served as the "scientific" basis for [[Nazism]]'s attitude toward other races. He served as the head of the [[Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics]], until 1933, when [[Adolf Hitler]] appointed him rector of the [[University of Berlin]]. Under the Nazi regime, Fischer developed the physiological specifications used to determine racial origins. He and his team experimented on Gypsies and African-Germans, taking [[blood]] and measuring [[skull]]s to find scientific validation for his theories. Fischer retired from the university in 1942. After the war, he completed his memoirs, which critics claim whitewash his role in the [[genocide|genocidal]] program of the [[Third Reich]]. He died in 1967. ==References== *{{cite journal|title=Weimar eugenics: The kaiser wilhelm institute for anthropology, human heredity and eugenics in social context| author= Weindling P.|volume= 42|year= 1985| pages= 303–318| doi=10.1080/00033798500200221|journal=Annals of Science}} *{{cite journal|title= Das Standardwerk der Rassenhygiene von Erwin Baur, Eugen Fischer und Fritz Lenz im Urteil der Psychiatrie und Neurologie 1921-1940|author=Fangerau H., Müller I.|journal= Der Nervenarzt |volume= 73|year= 2002|doi=10.1007/s00115-002-1421-1|pages=1039–1046}} == See also == *[[Ex-Nazi]] *[[Nazi eugenics]] *[[Racial policies of the Third Reich]] *[[Scientific racism]] {{BD|1874|1967|Fischer, Eugen}} [[Category:1874 births]] [[Category:1967 deaths]] [[Category:German eugenicists]] [[Category:Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences]] [[Category:Nazi physicians]] [[Category:People from Karlsruhe]] [[Category:People from the Grand Duchy of Baden]] [[Category:University of Freiburg alumni]] [[Category:University of Freiburg faculty]] [[Category:University of Munich alumni]] [[Category:University of Würzburg faculty]] [[Category:Humboldt University of Berlin faculty]] [[de:Eugen Fischer]] [[fr:Eugen Fischer]] [[pt:Eugen Fischer]]