5 - Degenerate Disease and the Doctors of Death: Racial Hygiene Film as Propaganda in Weimar and Early Nazi Germany

Summary

Nor shall any man's entreaty prevail upon me to administer poison to anyone; neither will I counsel any man to do so. Moreover, I will give no sort of medicine to any pregnant woman, with a view to destroy the child. Further, I will comport myself and use my knowledge in a godly manner.

—Ludwig Edelstein, From The Hippocratic Oath

ONE OF THE MORE DISTURBING DETAILS of the Nazi period is that physicians betrayed their Hippocratic oath and actively participated in mass genocide. Many people, however, are unaware that eugenics was not a product of Nazi ideology; rather, eugenic ideas that were being circulated in the Weimar period were largely responsible for shaping National Socialist ideas about racial purity. This essay reveals how medical hygiene films were used both in the Weimar and Nazi periods as propaganda tools to indoctrinate the German people about the dangers of “incurable” diseases and to compel them to adopt eugenic policies. In particular, I am interested in the role these films played in establishing an authoritative role for the genetics doctor as qualified to “treat” these diseases and thus save the body politic from further contamination. This message is conveyed through a curious mix of films with both narrative and documentary features that highlight the dangers of incurable diseases. These films are presented with scientific legitimacy, providing visual evidence of various physical ailments and symptoms. While the documentary elements establish a sense of scientific validity, the narrative elements play on the audience's emotions regarding the ominous dangers posed by the spread of genetically transmitted diseases that lead to further degradation of the races.

I begin my discussion with a consideration of the historical background that gave rise to the idea of genetic diseases as a condition of racial impurity and the role assigned to the genetics doctor in identifying, classifying, and treating—typically through sterilization—these conditions in the Weimar period. My analysis will include a discussion of various theories and proposed treatments of genetic conditions found in Weimar treatises on racial hygiene, including works by Alfred Hoche, Rudolf Binding, Eugen Fischer, and Fritz Lenz, as well as Walter Ruttmann's narrative film with documentary footage, Feind im Blut (Enemy in the Blood, 1931).