Suchergebnisse

Background Hans Asperger (1906–1980) first designated a group of children with distinct psychological characteristics as 'autistic psychopaths' in 1938, several years before Leo Kanner's famous 1943 paper on autism. In 1944, Asperger published a comprehensive study on the topic (submitted to Vienna University in 1942 as his postdoctoral thesis), which would only find international acknowledgement in the 1980s. From then on, the eponym 'Asperger's syndrome' increasingly gained currency in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the conceptualization of the condition. At the time, the fact that Asperger had spent pivotal years of his career in Nazi Vienna caused some controversy regarding his potential ties to National Socialism and its race hygiene policies. Documentary evidence was scarce, however, and over time a narrative of Asperger as an active opponent of National Socialism took hold. The main goal of this paper is to re-evaluate this narrative, which is based to a large extent on statements made by Asperger himself and on a small segment of his published work. Methods Drawing on a vast array of contemporary publications and previously unexplored archival documents (including Asperger's personnel files and the clinical assessments he wrote on his patients), this paper offers a critical examination of Asperger's life, politics, and career before and during the Nazi period in Austria. Results Asperger managed to accommodate himself to the Nazi regime and was rewarded for his affirmations of loyalty with career opportunities. He joined several organizations affiliated with the NSDAP (although not the Nazi party itself), publicly legitimized race hygiene policies including forced sterilizations and, on several occasions, actively cooperated with the child 'euthanasia' program. The language he employed to diagnose his patients was often remarkably harsh (even in comparison with assessments written by the staff at Vienna's notorious Spiegelgrund 'euthanasia' institution), belying the notion that he tried to protect the children under his care by embellishing their diagnoses. Conclusion The narrative of Asperger as a principled opponent of National Socialism and a courageous defender of his patients against Nazi 'euthanasia' and other race hygiene measures does not hold up in the face of the historical evidence. What emerges is a much more problematic role played by this pioneer of autism research. Future use of the eponym should reflect the troubling context of its origins in Nazi-era Vienna.

Am Spiegelgrund, originally an exclusively topographic term, during WW II designated one of the most important killing facilities in the 'children's euthansia' program. It was part of the City of Vienna's public health and welfare system. Its creation in 1940 coincided with attempts to establish Therapeutic Pegagogy as a new discipline in Germany, based on the principles of race hygiene and dominated by the influence of medical doctors. With 'children's euthanasia' an organisation was created that allowed the permanent selection and extermination of children who were deemed of little or no biological or economic value to the German body politic. Everywhere, children and youths were assessed, segregated, and selected in order to separate the 'worthy' from the 'unworthy.' Between 1940 and 1945, altogether 789 children and youths lost their lives in the Spiegelgrund facility. The systematic identification of potential victims for this campaign was only possible due to the cooperation of numerous institutions and individuals. The most important among them was the City of Vienna's Children Admittance Center (KÜST), but there were also important connections to Vienna University, most importantly to the Pediatric Clinic under Prof. Franz Hamburger. One of his assistants, Dr. Elmar Türk performed lethal tuberculosis experiments on children from Spiegelgrund. The head of the clinic's Ward for Therapeutic Pedagogy (Heilpädagogische Abteilung), Dr. Hans Asperger, was also responsible for transferrals of children to the Spiegelgrund clinic. ; Am Spiegelgrund, originally an exclusively topographic term, during WW II designated one of the most important killing facilities in the 'children's euthansia' program. It was part of the City of Vienna's public health and welfare system. Its creation in 1940 coincided with attempts to establish Therapeutic Pegagogy as a new discipline in Germany, based on the principles of race hygiene and dominated by the influence of medical doctors. With 'children's euthanasia' an organisation was created that allowed the permanent selection and extermination of children who were deemed of little or no biological or economic value to the German body politic. Everywhere, children and youths were assessed, segregated, and selected in order to separate the 'worthy' from the 'unworthy.' Between 1940 and 1945, altogether 789 children and youths lost their lives in the Spiegelgrund facility. The systematic identification of potential victims for this campaign was only possible due to the cooperation of numerous institutions and individuals. The most important among them was the City of Vienna's Children Admittance Center (KÜST), but there were also important connections to Vienna University, most importantly to the Pediatric Clinic under Prof. Franz Hamburger. One of his assistants, Dr. Elmar Türk performed lethal tuberculosis experiments on children from Spiegelgrund. The head of the clinic's Ward for Therapeutic Pedagogy (Heilpädagogische Abteilung), Dr. Hans Asperger, was also responsible for transferrals of children to the Spiegelgrund clinic.

AbstractThe Nazi drive for racial order led to the implementation of an authoritarian public health system which systematically subordinated the rights of the individual to the preventive protection of the Volksgemeinschaft. This article focuses on the example of Vienna in order to address the history of venereal disease control, public health politics towards prostitution and medical persecution of socially undesirable behavior under the influence of the biopolitical agenda of the Nazi regime. Combining sexual and racist motives, VD provided the regime with powerful images evoking a threat to the "purity" of the community. On one hand, forced laborers were subjected to a strict segregation from the local population because they personified the threat of infectious transgression. On the other hand, the concern with VD infections led to the stigmatization of women as sexually promiscuous and "antisocial." At the same time, the authorities undertook the systematic reorganization of extramarital sex in the city. The network of brothels set up for this purpose not only served to minimize the dangers of VD; they channelled uncontrolled sexual activities by providing men with outlets for their sexual needs and by subjugating prostitution to the control of the authorities. This indicates that the whole realm of illicit sex was subjected to the principles of economic rationality, hygiene, discipline and visibility, thereby adding the brothel to the classic set of disciplinary institutions.

Since Vienna University's 1997/98 inquiry into the background of Eduard Pernkopf's anatomical atlas, German and Austrian anatomical institutes have been forced to confront their past, particularly the widespread procurement of bodies of victims of National Socialism. This paper focuses on the Anatomical Institute in Innsbruck, which received bodies from an unusually broad array of sources: from prisoners executed at Stadelheim Prison in Munich, prisoners of war from three different camps, military personnel sentenced to death by martial courts, patients from a psychiatric hospital, and several bodies of Jewish Holocaust victims. As in other comparable cases, these bodies were used for scientific publications and medical teaching until long after the war. The Anatomical Institute's collection is currently undergoing a detailed analysis in order to identify any human remains dating from the Nazi period. At the Institute of Histology and Embryology, recent research has led to the discovery of approximately 200 histological slides pertaining to at least five individuals who had been executed under the Nazi regime. In a number of cases, the specimens had been provided by Prof. Max Clara, head of the Leipzig Institute of Anatomy. This study is based on an analysis of the Innsbruck Anatomical Institute's unusually detailed records and numerous documents from various archives, including files pertaining to an inquiry into the institute held after the war by the French occupation authorities.

Thanks to a recent donation by Elsevier, the Medical University of Vienna now holds in its collections the known existing original paintings for Eduard Pernkopf's Atlas of Topographic and Applied Human Anatomy. This atlas is widely considered a pinnacle of the art of anatomical illustration. However, it is severely tainted by its historical origins. Pernkopf was a high-ranking National Socialist and co-responsible for the expulsion of hundreds of Jewish scientists and students from the university. Also, the Vienna Institute of Anatomy, which Pernkopf headed, received during the war the bodies of at least 1377 people executed by the regime, many for their political views or acts of resistance, including at least seven Jewish victims. Although it is impossible to individually identify the people used for the atlas, it is to be assumed that a considerable number of the paintings produced during and after the war are based on the bodies of these victims. Against this background, and out of respect for the victims, use of Pernkopf's atlas in medical teaching and training should be — wherever possible without compromising medical outcomes — reduced to a minimum. Given the strong variability of human anatomy, even the most detailed anatomical illustrations cannot replace teaching and training in the dissection room. As the experience at the Medical University of Vienna and elsewhere demonstrates, Pernkopf's atlas is far from irreplaceable. In keeping with the stipulations of the contract of donation, the Medical University of Vienna considers the Pernkopf originals primarily as historical artifacts, which will support the investigation and teaching of this dark chapter of the history of medicine in Austria, out of responsibility towards the victims. Table of Contents image credit: Medical University of Vienna, MUW-AD-003250-5-ABB-352

The history of eugenics and racial nationalism in Central and Southeast Europe is a neglected topic of analysis in contemporary scholarship. The 20 essays in this volume, written by distinguished scholars of eugenics and fascism alongside a new generation of scholars, excavate the hitherto unknown eugenics movements in Central and Southeast Europe, including Austria and Germany. Eugenics and racial nationalism are topics that have constantly been marginalized and rated as incompatible with local national traditions in Central and Southeast Europe. These topics receive a new treatment here. On the one hand, the historiographic perspective connects developments in the history of anthropology and eugenics with political ideologies such as racial nationalism and anti-Semitism; on the other hand, it contests the 'Sonderweg' approach adopted by scholars dealing with these issues

Following decades of silence about the involvement of doctors, medical researchers and other health professionals in the Holocaust and other National Socialist (Nazi) crimes, scholars in recent years have produced a growing body of research that reveals the pervasive extent of that complicity. This interdisciplinary collection of studies presents documentation of the critical role medicine played in realizing the policies of Hitler's regime. It traces the history of Nazi medicine from its roots in the racial theories of the 1920s, through its manifestations during the Nazi period, on to legacies and continuities from the postwar years to the present