Fritz Lenz

Born in 1887, Fritz Lenz was a German geneticist and physician who became one of the best-known advocates of racial hygiene, or eugenics, in Germany. He taught at major universities and helped shape debates about heredity and public health during the Weimar and Nazi eras.

Lenz is especially remembered for promoting theories about heredity, race, and social policy that supported forced sterilization and other harmful measures. His writings were influential in Nazi Germany, where eugenics was turned into state policy.

He died in 1976. Today, Lenz is studied less for scientific achievement than for his role in giving academic authority to racist and inhumane ideas.