author
Fritz Lenz
1887–1976
A central figure in German racial hygiene, he helped turn eugenics into an academic and political project in the early 20th century. His career links the history of genetics to some of the darkest ideas promoted in Nazi Germany.
2 Audiobooks
Grundriß der menschlichen Erblichkeitslehre und Rassenhygiene (2/2) Menschliche Auslese und Rassenhygiene
by Fritz Lenz
Grundriß der menschlichen Erblichkeitslehre und Rassenhygiene (1/2) Menschliche Erblichkeitslehre
by Erwin Baur, Eugen Fischer, Fritz Lenz
About the author
Born in Pomerania in 1887, he studied medicine and went on to become one of Germany’s best-known advocates of eugenics, then often called “racial hygiene.” Sources agree that he held major academic posts in Munich and later in Berlin, where he was associated with the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute and became an influential voice in debates about heredity, race, and population policy.
He is most often remembered for the role he played in shaping the pseudoscientific racial thinking that supported Nazi policy. Reference works and museum materials describe him as a member of the Nazi Party and as an important specialist in eugenics whose ideas helped legitimize persecution and exclusion.
He died in Göttingen in 1976. Today, his legacy is discussed less for scientific achievement than for the way his work shows how medicine, genetics, and state power can be used in deeply harmful ways.