Vacher de Lapouge and the rise of Nazi science

Journal of the History of Ideas

Volumn 61, Issue 2, 2000, Pages 285-303

  Hecht, Jennifer Michael ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0041412907     PISSN: 00225037     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3654029     Document Type: Article

References (100)

1. See Michael R. Marrus, "Reflections on the History of the Holocaust," Journal of Modern History, 66 (1994), 92-116.
2. See Christopher R. Browning, The German Foreign Office and the Final Solution: A Study of Referate DIII of Abteilung Deutschland (New York, 1978), and Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland (New York, 1992).
3. See Christopher R. Browning, The German Foreign Office and the Final Solution: A Study of Referate DIII of Abteilung Deutschland (New York, 1978), and Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland (New York, 1992).
4. The phrase is Browning's.
5. See Robert J. Lifton, The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and Genocide (New York, 1986); Robert N. Proctor, Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis (Cambridge, Mass., 1988); Paul Weindling, Health, Race and German Politics between National Unification and Nazism, 1970-1945 (Cambridge, 1989).
6. See Robert J. Lifton, The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and Genocide (New York, 1986); Robert N. Proctor, Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis (Cambridge, Mass., 1988); Paul Weindling, Health, Race and German Politics between National Unification and Nazism, 1970-1945 (Cambridge, 1989).
7. See Robert J. Lifton, The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and Genocide (New York, 1986); Robert N. Proctor, Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis (Cambridge, Mass., 1988); Paul Weindling, Health, Race and German Politics between National Unification and Nazism, 1970-1945 (Cambridge, 1989).
8. George Mosse, The Crisis of German Ideology: Intellectual Origins of the Third Reich (New York, 1964) and Toward the Final Solution: A History of European Racism (Madison, 1978); Daniel Gasman, The Scientific Origins of National Socialism: Social Darwinism in Ernst Haeckel and the German Monist League (London, 1971); Benno Müller-Hill, Murderous Science: Elimination by Scientific Selection of Jews and Others, Germany 1933-1945, tr. George R. Fraser (Oxford, 1988).
9. George Mosse, The Crisis of German Ideology: Intellectual Origins of the Third Reich (New York, 1964) and Toward the Final Solution: A History of European Racism (Madison, 1978); Daniel Gasman, The Scientific Origins of National Socialism: Social Darwinism in Ernst Haeckel and the German Monist League (London, 1971); Benno Müller-Hill, Murderous Science: Elimination by Scientific Selection of Jews and Others, Germany 1933-1945, tr. George R. Fraser (Oxford, 1988).
10. George Mosse, The Crisis of German Ideology: Intellectual Origins of the Third Reich (New York, 1964) and Toward the Final Solution: A History of European Racism (Madison, 1978); Daniel Gasman, The Scientific Origins of National Socialism: Social Darwinism in Ernst Haeckel and the German Monist League (London, 1971); Benno Müller-Hill, Murderous Science: Elimination by Scientific Selection of Jews and Others, Germany 1933-1945, tr. George R. Fraser (Oxford, 1988).
11. George Mosse, The Crisis of German Ideology: Intellectual Origins of the Third Reich (New York, 1964) and Toward the Final Solution: A History of European Racism (Madison, 1978); Daniel Gasman, The Scientific Origins of National Socialism: Social Darwinism in Ernst Haeckel and the German Monist League (London, 1971); Benno Müller-Hill, Murderous Science: Elimination by Scientific Selection of Jews and Others, Germany 1933-1945, tr. George R. Fraser (Oxford, 1988).
12. Lapouge, "L'Anthropologie et la science politique," Revue d'anthropologie, 16 (1887), 151.
13. See Hecht, "French Scientific Materialism and the Liturgy of Death: The invention of a secular version of Catholic last rites (1876-1914)," French Historical Studies, 20 (1997), 703-35.
14. Lapouge, "L'Anthropologie et la science politique," 142.
15. Ferdinand Brunetière, "Après une visite au Vatican," Revue des deux mondes, 127 (1895), 113, 104.
16. Lapouge, "L'Anthropologie et la science politique," 143.
17. Lapouge, L'Aryen, son role social (Paris, 1899), 512.
18. Ibid., 398.
19. Les sélections sociales (Paris, 1896), 306-7.
20. Ibid., 307.
21. Ibid., 191.
22. Lapouge, L'Aryen, ix.
23. Ibid., 509, 508.
24. Lapouge, "L'Anthropologie et la science politique," 136-57; and " Questions Aryennes," Revue d'anthropologie, 18 (1889), 181-93.
25. Lapouge, "L'Anthropologie et la science politique," 136-57; and " Questions Aryennes," Revue d'anthropologie, 18 (1889), 181-93.
26. See Geoffrey G. Field, "Nordic Racism," JHI, 38 (1977), 523; and Walter Kaufmann, Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist (Princeton, 1974), 292.
27. See Geoffrey G. Field, "Nordic Racism," JHI, 38 (1977), 523; and Walter Kaufmann, Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist (Princeton, 1974), 292.
28. Hans F. K. Günther, Racial Elements of European History, tr. G. C. Wheeler (New York, 1927).
29. Ibid., 257.
30. See Robert C. Walton, "The Holocaust: Conversion to Racism through Scientific Materialism - 'The People Like Us Who Killed the Jews.' " The History of European Ideas, 19 (1994), 787-94; and Geoffry G. Field, Evangelist of Race. The Germanic Vision of Houston Stewart Chamberlain (New York, 1981).
31. See Robert C. Walton, "The Holocaust: Conversion to Racism through Scientific Materialism - 'The People Like Us Who Killed the Jews.' " The History of European Ideas, 19 (1994), 787-94; and Geoffry G. Field, Evangelist of Race. The Germanic Vision of Houston Stewart Chamberlain (New York, 1981).
32. Houston Stewart Chamberlain, Foundations of the Nineteenth Century, tr. John Lees, intro. George Mosse (New York, 1977).
33. The only extensive study of Günther is Hans-Jurgen Lutzhöft, Der Nordische Gedanke in Deutschland 1920-1940 (Stuttgart, 1971); and see the review in Field. " Nordic Racism."
34. The only extensive study of Günther is Hans-Jurgen Lutzhöft, Der Nordische Gedanke in Deutschland 1920-1940 (Stuttgart, 1971); and see the review in Field. " Nordic Racism."
35. There is a very large collection of Lapouge's correspondence housed in the Paul Valéry library of the University of Montpellier. It includes many letters to and from Woltmann, Ammon, and Schemann, as well as a host of other racial theorists. Many of these correspondences were extensive and of long duration. The Lapouge/ Schemann correspondence, for example, extended from 1898 to 1934.
36. For instance, under the title. "Die Geschichte einer Idee." Ammon published six lengthy articles on Gobineau, Lapouge, and Nietzsche in the Deutsche Zeitung, translated and published in the Revue internationale de sociologie, in 1898.
37. On Ammon see Hedwig Conrad-Martius, Utopien der Menschenzüchtung: Der Sozialdarwinismus und seine Fogen (Munich, 1955).
38. Fonds Vacher de Lapouge, Université de Montpellier, Bibliothèque Paul Valéry (hereafter FVL/UM) Correspondence: Lapouge/ Schemann.
39. See Ludwig Schemann, Gobineaus Rassenwerk (Stuttgart, 1910), which cites Lapouge extensively throughout, esp. 80-86, and Die Rasse in den Geisteswisenschaften (Munich, 1928); also Ludwig Woltmann's Politische Anthropologie (Leipzig, 1903), esp. 296-97. Just before he died, Woltmann dedicated his Die Germanen in Frankreich (Jena, 1907) to Lapouge.
40. See Ludwig Schemann, Gobineaus Rassenwerk (Stuttgart, 1910), which cites Lapouge extensively throughout, esp. 80-86, and Die Rasse in den Geisteswisenschaften (Munich, 1928); also Ludwig Woltmann's Politische Anthropologie (Leipzig, 1903), esp. 296-97. Just before he died, Woltmann dedicated his Die Germanen in Frankreich (Jena, 1907) to Lapouge.
41. See Ludwig Schemann, Gobineaus Rassenwerk (Stuttgart, 1910), which cites Lapouge extensively throughout, esp. 80-86, and Die Rasse in den Geisteswisenschaften (Munich, 1928); also Ludwig Woltmann's Politische Anthropologie (Leipzig, 1903), esp. 296-97. Just before he died, Woltmann dedicated his Die Germanen in Frankreich (Jena, 1907) to Lapouge.
42. See Ludwig Schemann, Gobineaus Rassenwerk (Stuttgart, 1910), which cites Lapouge extensively throughout, esp. 80-86, and Die Rasse in den Geisteswisenschaften (Munich, 1928); also Ludwig Woltmann's Politische Anthropologie (Leipzig, 1903), esp. 296-97. Just before he died, Woltmann dedicated his Die Germanen in Frankreich (Jena, 1907) to Lapouge.
43. FVL/UM, Correspondence: Schemann to Lapouge, 25 October 1899.
44. For a discussion of Woltmann see Mosse, The Crisis of German Ideology, 99-103; and Robert Proctor, "From Anthropologie to Rassenkunde," Bones, Bodies, Behavior: Essays on Biological Anthropology, ed. George W. Stocking (Wisconsin, 1988). Proctor, 143, recognizes Woltmann's theoretical dependency on Lapouge: "In 1902 Woltmann founded the Politisch-anthropologische Revue, a journal that for twenty years would serve as Germany's leading organ for the Nordic supremacist movement. Drawing from Gobineau and Vacher de Lapouge, Woltmann argued that racial struggle was the moving force behind all of human history." Lapouge published eight articles in the Politisch-anthropologische Revue.
45. For a discussion of Woltmann see Mosse, The Crisis of German Ideology, 99-103; and Robert Proctor, "From Anthropologie to Rassenkunde," Bones, Bodies, Behavior: Essays on Biological Anthropology, ed. George W. Stocking (Wisconsin, 1988). Proctor, 143, recognizes Woltmann's theoretical dependency on Lapouge: "In 1902 Woltmann founded the Politisch-anthropologische Revue, a journal that for twenty years would serve as Germany's leading organ for the Nordic supremacist movement. Drawing from Gobineau and Vacher de Lapouge, Woltmann argued that racial struggle was the moving force behind all of human history." Lapouge published eight articles in the Politisch-anthropologische Revue.
46. Woltmann, Die Germanen in Frankreich (Jena, 1907). See also FVL/ UM, Correspondence: Lapouge/ Woltmann, 1902-1907, and Alain de Benoist, "Ludwig Woltmann et le Darwinisme Allemande ou le socialisme prolet-aryen." Nouvelle Ecole, 38 (July 1982), 87-98.
47. Woltmann, Die Germanen in Frankreich (Jena, 1907). See also FVL/ UM, Correspondence: Lapouge/ Woltmann, 1902-1907, and Alain de Benoist, "Ludwig Woltmann et le Darwinisme Allemande ou le socialisme prolet-aryen." Nouvelle Ecole, 38 (July 1982), 87-98.
48. Woltmann, Die Germanen in Frankreich (Jena, 1907). See also FVL/ UM, Correspondence: Lapouge/ Woltmann, 1902-1907, and Alain de Benoist, "Ludwig Woltmann et le Darwinisme Allemande ou le socialisme prolet-aryen." Nouvelle Ecole, 38 (July 1982), 87-98.
49. FVL/UM, Correspondence: Ammon to Lapouge, 17 May 1892.
50. Ibid., 4 February 1893.
51. FVL/UM, Correspondence: Schemann to Lapouge, 24 April 1900.
52. See the letter from Chamberlain to Frick in Der revolutionaere Staatsmann (Berlin, 1939), 44.
53. See Hecht, "The Solvency of Metaphysics: The Debate Over Racial Science and Moral Philosophy in France, 1890-1919." Isis, 90 (1999), 1-24.
54. Chamberlain, Foundations, 94.
55. Ibid.
56. Lapouge, Der Arier: und seine Bedeutung fur die Gemeinschaft (Frankfurt, 1936).
57. Kincade was the European correspondent for the Review of Reviews. FVL/UM, Correspondence: Lapouge Kincade.
58. FVL/UM, Correspondence: Lapouge Günther.
59. Lutzhöft, Der Nordische Gedanke: Field, "Nordic Racism" 525.
60. FVL/UM, Correspondence: Lapouge to Schemann, 28 May 1931.
61. Karl Saller, Die Rassenlehre des Nationalsozialismus in Wissenschaft und Propaganda (Darmstadt, 1961), 27.
62. FVL/UM, Lapouge to Plate, 20 March 1930. Plate (1862-1937) was the center of a scandal in 1923, when he gave a lecture on the racial qualities of the Germans and advised Jews not to attend. In a published response to the disciplinary actions which were taken against him Plate insisted that "people should be urgently warned against interbreeding between Jews and Aryans." Cited in Field. "Nordic Racism," 537, from Hans Peter Bleuel, Deutschlands Bekenner: Professoren mischen Kaiserreich und Diktatur (Munich, 1968), 151.
63. FVL/UM, Lapouge to Plate, 20 March 1930. Plate (1862-1937) was the center of a scandal in 1923, when he gave a lecture on the racial qualities of the Germans and advised Jews not to attend. In a published response to the disciplinary actions which were taken against him Plate insisted that "people should be urgently warned against interbreeding between Jews and Aryans." Cited in Field. "Nordic Racism," 537, from Hans Peter Bleuel, Deutschlands Bekenner: Professoren mischen Kaiserreich und Diktatur (Munich, 1968), 151.
64. FVL/UM, Lapouge to Plate, 20 March 1930. Günther later dedicated one of his books to Plate.
65. Saller, Die Rassenlehre, 27-28. See also Proctor, " From Anthropologie to Rassenkunde." 158; Bracher, The German Dictatorship, 166; and Eugene Davidson, The Trial of the Germans: Nuremberg 1945-1946 (New York, 1966), 265.
66. Saller, Die Rassenlehre, 27-28. See also Proctor, " From Anthropologie to Rassenkunde." 158; Bracher, The German Dictatorship, 166; and Eugene Davidson, The Trial of the Germans: Nuremberg 1945-1946 (New York, 1966), 265.
67. Saller, Die Rassenlehre, 27-28. See also Proctor, " From Anthropologie to Rassenkunde." 158; Bracher, The German Dictatorship, 166; and Eugene Davidson, The Trial of the Germans: Nuremberg 1945-1946 (New York, 1966), 265.
68. Saller, Die Rassenlehre, 27-28. See also Proctor, " From Anthropologie to Rassenkunde." 158; Bracher, The German Dictatorship, 166; and Eugene Davidson, The Trial of the Germans: Nuremberg 1945-1946 (New York, 1966), 265.
69. The German term for "Anthroposociologie" was "Sozialanthropologie." See Hans Fabricius, Reichsinnenminister Dr. Frick: der revolutionaere Staatsmann (Berlin, 1939), 44.
70. Fabricius, Reichsinnenminister Dr. Frick, 44.
71. FVL/UM, Lapouge to Grant, 23 March 1919. Madison Grant, The Passing of a Great Race (New York, 1916). Assire's French translation was published as Le déclin de la grande race in 1926.
72. FVL/UM, Lapouge to Assire, 2 April 1932.
73. Consider, for example, Bracher on Mein Kampf: "The book borrowed from the Rassenkunde des deutschen Volkes (Munich, 1922) by the anthropologist Hans F. K. Günther and his theories of 'Notification.' " The German Dictatorship: The Origins, Structure, and Effects of National Socialism (New York, 1970), 128. See also Joachim C. Fest's The Face of the Third Reich: Portraits of the Nazi Leadership (New York, 1970). Günther is cited here as the source of Hitler's race theory, 99-100. According to Nolte, "Hitler was probably not familiar with Vacher de Lapouge, but the ideas which Lapouge was one of the first to express were well known to him." Ernst Nolte, Three Faces of Fascism: Action Française, Italian Fascism, National Socialism, tr. L. Vennewitz (New York, 1966), 515. n.4.
74. Consider, for example, Bracher on Mein Kampf: "The book borrowed from the Rassenkunde des deutschen Volkes (Munich, 1922) by the anthropologist Hans F. K. Günther and his theories of 'Notification.' " The German Dictatorship: The Origins, Structure, and Effects of National Socialism (New York, 1970), 128. See also Joachim C. Fest's The Face of the Third Reich: Portraits of the Nazi Leadership (New York, 1970). Günther is cited here as the source of Hitler's race theory, 99-100. According to Nolte, "Hitler was probably not familiar with Vacher de Lapouge, but the ideas which Lapouge was one of the first to express were well known to him." Ernst Nolte, Three Faces of Fascism: Action Française, Italian Fascism, National Socialism, tr. L. Vennewitz (New York, 1966), 515. n.4.
75. Consider, for example, Bracher on Mein Kampf: "The book borrowed from the Rassenkunde des deutschen Volkes (Munich, 1922) by the anthropologist Hans F. K. Günther and his theories of 'Notification.' " The German Dictatorship: The Origins, Structure, and Effects of National Socialism (New York, 1970), 128. See also Joachim C. Fest's The Face of the Third Reich: Portraits of the Nazi Leadership (New York, 1970). Günther is cited here as the source of Hitler's race theory, 99-100. According to Nolte, "Hitler was probably not familiar with Vacher de Lapouge, but the ideas which Lapouge was one of the first to express were well known to him." Ernst Nolte, Three Faces of Fascism: Action Française, Italian Fascism, National Socialism, tr. L. Vennewitz (New York, 1966), 515. n.4.
76. Consider, for example, Bracher on Mein Kampf: "The book borrowed from the Rassenkunde des deutschen Volkes (Munich, 1922) by the anthropologist Hans F. K. Günther and his theories of 'Notification.' " The German Dictatorship: The Origins, Structure, and Effects of National Socialism (New York, 1970), 128. See also Joachim C. Fest's The Face of the Third Reich: Portraits of the Nazi Leadership (New York, 1970). Günther is cited here as the source of Hitler's race theory, 99-100. According to Nolte, "Hitler was probably not familiar with Vacher de Lapouge, but the ideas which Lapouge was one of the first to express were well known to him." Ernst Nolte, Three Faces of Fascism: Action Française, Italian Fascism, National Socialism, tr. L. Vennewitz (New York, 1966), 515. n.4.
77. He is often ciled above Rosenberg as the single most important racial theorist; Proctor. "Nazi Medicine," 323, speaks of Günther's "widely recognized status as father of German Rassenkunde and the Nordic movement," 323. Sailer takes a very strong view on Günther's importance, arguing a direct relationship between Nazi theories and Günther's work.
78. Wolfgang Wippermann, "Das Berliner Schulwesen in der NS-Zeit: Fragen, Thesen und Methodische Bemerkungen," Schule in Berlin, ed. Benno Schmoldt (Berlin, 1989), 57-73.
79. Michael Burleigh and Wolfgang Wippermann, The Racial State: Germany, 1933-1945 (New York, 1991), 213.
80. Quotation from the Kopenicker of the Dorotheenschule, cited in Wippermann, "Das Berliner Schulwesen in der NS-Zeit," 65.
81. Bracher recognizes but only briefly (14, 15) the profound influence of early scientific racist doctrine and that of Lapouge in particular.
82. Davidson, The Trial of the Germans, 40.
83. Steve Jones, The Language of Genes (New York, 1993), 201.
84. Josef Ackermann, Heinrich Himmler als Ideologe (Gottingen, 1970), 110-12. Richard Breitman, The Architect of Genocide: Himmler and the Final Solution (New York, 1991), 34,
85. Josef Ackermann, Heinrich Himmler als Ideologe (Gottingen, 1970), 110-12. Richard Breitman, The Architect of Genocide: Himmler and the Final Solution (New York, 1991), 34,
86. Bracher, The German Dictatorship, 259. On the relationship between Schultze-Naumburg and Lapouge, see FVL/UM, Lapouge and Anneau nordique (headed by Schultze-Naumburg).
87. Peter Viereck, Metapolitics: The Roots of the Nazi Mind (New York, 1961), 254.
88. René Martial, "Un precurseur des groupements sanguines: Vacher de Lapouge," Mercure de France, 272 (1936), 620-25.
89. Edgar Tatarin-Tarnheyden, "Georges Vacher de Lapouge: visionnaire français de l'avenir européen," Cahiers Franco-Allemands, 9 (October-December 1942), 336-46.
90. Ibid., 336, 339, 344, 345.
91. Die Sonne, 6 (1929).
92. Lapouge, "Wie die Anthroposocociologie in Frankreich erdrosselt wurde." Die Sonne. 13 (1936), 193-95.
93. See "Grassen Georges Vacher de Lapouge," Die Sonne: Monatschrift fur nordische Weltanschauung, 7 (1930); Lapouge, "Anmerkungen zum rassenhygienischen Auslese-programm," Die Sonne, 8 (1931), 481-90; Günther, "Unsprache von Prof. Dr. Hans F. R. Günther," Die Sonne, 7 (1930); and, Dr. Werner Kulz, "George Vacher de Lapouge," Die Sonne, 13 (1936), 170.
94. See "Grassen Georges Vacher de Lapouge," Die Sonne: Monatschrift fur nordische Weltanschauung, 7 (1930); Lapouge, "Anmerkungen zum rassenhygienischen Auslese-programm," Die Sonne, 8 (1931), 481-90; Günther, "Unsprache von Prof. Dr. Hans F. R. Günther," Die Sonne, 7 (1930); and, Dr. Werner Kulz, "George Vacher de Lapouge," Die Sonne, 13 (1936), 170.
95. See "Grassen Georges Vacher de Lapouge," Die Sonne: Monatschrift fur nordische Weltanschauung, 7 (1930); Lapouge, "Anmerkungen zum rassenhygienischen Auslese-programm," Die Sonne, 8 (1931), 481-90; Günther, "Unsprache von Prof. Dr. Hans F. R. Günther," Die Sonne, 7 (1930); and, Dr. Werner Kulz, "George Vacher de Lapouge," Die Sonne, 13 (1936), 170.
96. See "Grassen Georges Vacher de Lapouge," Die Sonne: Monatschrift fur nordische Weltanschauung, 7 (1930); Lapouge, "Anmerkungen zum rassenhygienischen Auslese-programm," Die Sonne, 8 (1931), 481-90; Günther, "Unsprache von Prof. Dr. Hans F. R. Günther," Die Sonne, 7 (1930); and, Dr. Werner Kulz, "George Vacher de Lapouge," Die Sonne, 13 (1936), 170.
97. Günther, "Zum Tode des Grassen Georges Vacher de Lapouge," Rasse: Monatschrift der Nordischen Bewegung (1936) 95-98.
98. Ibid., 98.
99. Kulz, "Marquis de Lapouge zum Gedenken!" Volke und Rasse, 6 (1936), 255-58.
100. Ibid., 258.