author
Alfred Hoche
1865–1943
A German psychiatrist whose name is closely tied to some of the darkest ethical debates in modern medicine, he remains a troubling and important figure in early 20th-century intellectual history. His work is studied today less for celebration than for what it reveals about psychiatry, power, and the danger of dehumanizing ideas.
1 Audiobook
Die Freigabe der Vernichtung lebensunwerten Lebens Ihr Maß und ihre Form; Zweite Auflage
by Karl Binding, Alfred Hoche
About the author
Born on August 1, 1865, in Wildenhain, Alfred Hoche was a German psychiatrist who studied medicine in Berlin and Heidelberg and later worked at the University of Freiburg. He became known in psychiatric circles for his academic writing and for his role in debates about mental illness, medicine, and society.
Hoche is most remembered for the 1920 book he wrote with jurist Karl Binding, Permitting the Destruction of Life Unworthy of Life. That work argued for killing certain severely ill or disabled people and became one of the most infamous texts associated with the history of eugenics and so-called "euthanasia" in Germany.
He died on May 16, 1943, in Baden-Baden. Today, Hoche is remembered as a controversial and cautionary figure whose writings are examined in the context of medical ethics, the history of psychiatry, and the ideas that helped prepare the ground for later Nazi crimes.