EUGENICS IN GERMANY 



Society For Race-Hygiene Adopts Resolutions Calling For Extensive Program of 

 Positive Measures to Check Decline in Birth-Rate. 



G. V"oN Hoffmann, 

 Austro-Hiingarian Consul General at Berlin, Germany. 



THE GERMAN Society for Race- 

 Hygiene, Munich, founded in 

 1905, at its last annual meeting 

 in Jena discussed the declining 

 birth-rate and published a series of 

 resolutions on the subject. The topic 

 was chosen in view of the fact that 

 restrictive eugenics ordinarily dominate 

 similar assemblies and the literature, 

 thereby causing in the public the 

 wrong impression that positive eugenics 

 are of a subordinate importance. The 

 chief difference between the resolutions 

 of the Society and utterances on the 

 same subject coming from other sources 

 is found in laying more stress upon the 

 inner moral forces of men. It is not 

 necessary to emphasize that although 

 the danger of the declining birth-rate is 

 great in Germany, the decline is even 

 worse in many other countries. 

 The resolutions are the following : 



A. THE SITUATION. 



1. The future of the German people 

 is at stake. The German Empire can 

 not in the long run maintain its true 

 nationality and the independence of its 

 development, if it does not begin without 

 delay and with the greatest energy to 

 mould its internal and external politics 

 as well as the whole life of the people 

 in accordance with eugenic principles. 

 Most important of all are measures for 

 a higher reproduction of healthy and 

 able families. 



2. The rapidly declining birth-rate 

 of the health}' and able families neces- 

 sarily leads to the social, economical 

 and political retrogression of the Ger- 

 man people. 



3. The insufficient rc])roduction is 

 partly caused by the encroachment on 

 the reproductive faculty of gonorrhoea, 

 syphilis and alcohol. 



4. But the main cause of the declin- 

 ing birth-rate is at present the increasing 

 wilful restriction of the number of children. 



5. The most important motives for 

 the restriction of the number of children 

 are: 



(a) The fear of economic disadvan- 



tages and of the difficulties 

 attending care and education 

 of children in consequence of 

 a large family, 



(b) considerations of inheritance, 



(c) the impossibility to reconcile 



women's out of home work 

 with the education of a large 

 number of children, 



(d) the embarassment caused bv the 



housing systems in large cities. 



6. The decline of the birth-rate is 

 greatly hastened by the shamelessly 

 advertised manufacture and organized 

 sale of means preventing conception or 

 causing abortion and by the propaganda 

 of Neomalthusianism. 



B. PREVENTION. 



In order to secure a posterity sufficient 

 in number and ability, the German 

 Society for Race-Hygiene demands : 



1. Furtherance of inner colonization 

 [back-to-the-farm movement] with privi- 

 leges of succession in favor of large 

 families. 



2. Creation of family-homes for 

 large families in cities (garden-cities, 

 small cottages with gardens, etc.). 



3. Economic assistance of large 

 families through payment of a sub- 

 stantial relief to married mothers who 

 survive their husbands, and considera- 

 tion of the number of children in the 

 payment of public and private em- 

 ployees. 



4. Abolition as far as possible of 

 certain impediments to marriage which 



43.5 



