RESEARCH ON HEREDITARY PSYCHOLOGY IN THE CONTEXT OF NAZI EUTHANASIA -NEW DOCUMENTS AND ASPECTS ON SCHNEIDER,CARL, DEUSSEN,JULIUS, AND RUDIN,ERNST

Ernst Rudin (1874-1952), director of the Deutsche Forschungsonstalt fu r Psychiatrie in Munich, was one of the leading psychiatrists in Nazi Germany. Prevailing historical research on Rudin's relation to the sys tematic annihilation of psychiatric patients is dominated by the only hitherto available biographical account which suggests that Rudin priv ately disapproved of the ''euthanasia''-programme, but did not make th is disapproval public. According to this account, neither Rudin nor an y of his co-scientists were in any way actively involved in the system atic killings. In contrast to this image, a general evaluation of the historical sources on the systematic killing of patients clearly shows that due to the fragmentary character of the evidence, any exculpatio n of particular individuals or institutions is premature to date. Furt hermore, the reevaluation of already known archival material and new d ocuments presented here proves that Rudin had a genuine interest in re search which on the one hand made profitable use of the killings, and on the other hand was aimed at formulating scientific criteria for the systematic selection and ''euthanasia'' of those supposedly unworthy to live.Julius Deussen (1906 -1970), since 1939 head of the department for hereditary psychology at the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt, was also a close co-worker of Carl Schneider (1891 - 1946) at the University o f Heidelberg. He coordinated the research on children carried through in the context of the ''euthanasia''-programme between 1943 und 1945. This research sought to systematically correlate clinical and laborato ry findings with the histopathological data of the victims' brains. Fr om the beginning, it included the killing of the patients. Central ele ments of the research programme had been formulated by Deussen already in Munich. Rudin supported the activities of Deussen in Heidelberg an d repeatedly pointed out that they were of importance for the health a nd population policy of the Nazi regime.