RUDIN,ERNST, 1874-1952 - A GERMAN PSYCHIATRIST AND GENETICIST

Ernst Rudin (1874-1952) was one of the major representatives of German psychiatry, genetics, and eugenics in the first half of the twentieth century, Born in Switzerland, he was influenced early on by his broth er-in-law Alfred Ploetz, who propagated the ideas of social Darwinism and ''racial hygiene'' in Germany after 1890, Rudin began his career i n psychiatry at Emil Kraepelin's clinic in Munich, where he developed the concept of ''empirical genetic prognosis'' of mental disorders, He published his first results on the genetics of schizophrenia in 1916, From 1917-1945 Rudin was director of the Genealogical-Demographic Dep artment at the German Institute for Psychiatric Research, which Kraepe lin had founded, After a short interruption from 1925-1928, Rudin retu rned to Munich and enlarged the department, After 1933 the National So cialist government and party endorsed Rudin's work by supplying financ ial and manpower support, Nazi health policy required a scientific bas is to justify its actions, and Rudin's ideas corresponded partially wi th this kind of thinking, In 1934 he prepared the official commentary on the ''Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring.'' T he connections of Rudin's department to National Socialism can be unde rstood as one of the main reasons for the critical attitude towards ps ychiatric genetics in Germany after 1945. (C) 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.