EUGENICS IN GERMANY 



THE German Society for Race 

 Hygiene, founded in the same 

 year (1905) as the American 

 Genetic Association, has been gener- 

 ally recognized as the spokesman 

 for a scientific view of the popu- 

 lation problem in Germany. At its 

 meeting in Munich last October, it 

 issued a revised statement of its prin- 

 ciples. This supersedes the "theses" 

 adopted at the Jena meeting' in 191 4. 

 and special students will find it inter- 

 esting to compare the two statements. 

 In general it may be said that they 

 show no radical points of difference, 

 but an attempt has been made to pro- 

 duce a more comprehensive platform, 

 in the new version. 



The "Leitsatze der Deutschen Ge- 

 sellschaft fur Rassen-hygiene" now 

 stands as follows : 



1. The chief danger to which everv 

 people is exposed is deterioration 

 through the decrease of vigorous and 

 useful racial elements. 



2. A people can survive in the 

 struggle for existence only if it com- 

 prises a large proportion of physically 

 and mentally well-endowed men and 

 women, of good character and morals. 



3. The health, vitality, and cultural 

 productivity of a population are not 

 dependent on conditions of the en- 

 vironment (nourishment, education, in- 

 fectious diseases, etc.) alone, but fun- 

 damentally also on inherited tendencies. 



4. The heritable constitution of a 

 people is not unchangeable. It can be 

 turned in undesirable directions by 

 two different methods : (a) through 

 dysgenic selection, which leaves the 

 more capable members of the popula- 

 tion behind the less capable in respect 

 of reproduction; (b) through direct 

 injury to the germ-])lasni, by rai^ial 

 poisons. 



5. At present among civilized peo- 

 ples a dysgenic selection actually exists 

 to a very large extent. 



6. The social ascent unfortunately 

 brings with it, under present-day condi- 

 tions, real danger of the dying-out of 

 families. 



7. The inadequate reproduction of 

 those members of society who by here- 

 ditary endowment are best qualified 

 for leadership is of the most ominous 

 import to the future of the race. 



8. The most important problem of 

 race hygiene is therefore the preserva- 

 tion of socially valuable families in all 

 classes of the community. 



9. Inadequate reproduction is at 

 present more frequently a result of 

 deliberate birth-prevention, than of 

 unwilled causes (venereal diseases, 

 etc.). 



10. Since not all children born at- 

 tain the age of reproduction, the two- 

 child system leads in a few generations 

 to the disappearance of families. On 

 the average, three children are scarce- 

 ly suflicient to perpetuate the family. 



11. The motives for birth-preven- 

 tion are principally of a social and 

 economic nature, and race-hygiene must 

 therefore in the first place strive for 

 social and economic leforms calculated 

 to destroy or at least diminish the 

 prejudice, among sound and capable 

 married couples, against a sufficient 

 number of children. 



12. In tax legislation really ade- 

 quate attention must be paid to the 

 size of family. At the very least, each 

 income and each estate must be divided 

 (for purposes of taxation) into as 

 many equal pa'rts as there are mem- 

 bers of a family. 



13. From inheritance taxes fami- 

 lies of three or more children should 

 be entirely exempt, except in the case 

 of excessivelv large estates. 



Printed in the Journal of Heredity, v: pp. 435-6, October, 1914. 



382 



