Hans Harmsen, “Contemporary Questions of Eugenics” (1931)

Eugenics was a central part of Nazi philosophy. The following is an extract from a 1931 speech on Eugenics, given at a conference of directors of Welfare related charitable organisations. That the speaker, Hans Harmsen, was invited to talk about Eugenics, shows how influential the subject was at the time: it was not only Germany in which the subject of Eugenics was considered at the time.

Source: Hans Harmsen, “Contemporary Questions of Eugenics” (1931)

1. Eugenics and Public Welfare

It must be emphatically pointed out that hereditary-biological health is not identical with “high quality.” Rather, universal experience has taught us that even the physically and mentally frail can be high-quality human beings in ethical and social terms. Structural changes in our population and quantitative and qualitative changes in population growth – which have resulted, above all, in the shrinking of the average family size among those groups who, in terms of hereditary biology, are industrious and socially productive – make it apparent that our approach to public and charitable welfare is in urgent need of a eugenic reorientation. Differentiated care must take the place of undiscriminating public welfare. Substantial expenditures should be made only for those groups of needy individuals who are expected to recover their full productive capacity. By contrast, for all others, welfare services should be limited to humane provisioning and preservation. To the greatest extent possible, those who carry hereditary traits that give rise to social inferiority and the need for care should be prevented from procreating.

2. Destruction of Life Unworthy of Living

This conference is unanimously agreed that the recently voiced demand to permit the destruction of “life unworthy of living” must be emphatically rejected, both from a religious and a national-pedagogical standpoint.

Source Material for Classroom Use – see all of our Source Banks here – Germany 1919-39 Source Material

Sources: The Weimar Republic 1918–29 – Sources: Hitler’s rise to power, 1919–33 – Sources: Nazi control and dictatorship, 1933–39 – Sources: Life in Nazi Germany, 1933–39