MONOCULTURE – ARTEFACTS
Erwin Baur, Eugen Fischer, Fritz Lens, "Menschliche Erblichkeitslehre und Rassenhygiene", 1927
Human Heredity and Racial Hygiene was considered to be the "standard textbook on racial hygiene" in Germany and the blueprint for Nazism's attitude toward other ‘races’. The book was commissioned by J. F. Lehmann, an important publisher of medical and nationalist books who became a member of the NSDAP in 1931. Divided into three sections it covers the topic from different perspectives: biological (Outline of the General Theory of Variation and Heredity by German botanist and geneticist E. Baur), anthropological (The Racial Differences of Humans by E. Fischer), and medical (The Pathological Inheritance by F. Lenz). The book served as an inspiration for biological support towards the racial theories of Adolf Hitler, and provided the foundation of scientific legitimacy for eugenics programmes against hereditary diseases, including mental illness.