author
Eugen Fischer
1874–1967
A German physician and anthropologist, he became one of the most influential academic advocates of eugenics and so-called racial hygiene in the early 20th century. His career is closely tied to the scientific ideas and institutions that helped legitimize racist policy in Nazi Germany.
1 Audiobook
Grundriß der menschlichen Erblichkeitslehre und Rassenhygiene (1/2) Menschliche Erblichkeitslehre
by Erwin Baur, Eugen Fischer, Fritz Lenz
About the author
Born in Karlsruhe in 1874 and educated in medicine and natural sciences, Eugen Fischer built an academic career in anatomy and anthropology before rising to national prominence in Germany. He later directed the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics in Berlin and also served as rector of the University of Berlin.
Fischer is remembered less for neutral scholarship than for the role he played in promoting eugenics and racist theories under the banner of science. His work on heredity and human classification fed into the ideology of so-called racial hygiene, and his influence reached far beyond the university.
Because of that legacy, he is now studied as a major example of how scientific authority can be used to support harmful and dehumanizing ideas. He died in Freiburg im Breisgau in 1967.