Making Eugenics a Public Issue: A Reception Study of the First German Compendium on Racial Hygiene, 1921-1940

During the 1920s, the world-wide eugenics movement reached a peak level of popularity.
Historians have stressed the key role of the textbook “Human Heredity and
Racial Hygiene” in the popularisation of eugenic thinking in Germany. In this textbook
the well known scientists Erwin Baur (1875-1933), Eugen Fischer (1874-1967)
and Fritz Lenz (1887-1976) tried to combine genetics, anthropology and racial hygiene
to form a “Magna Carta” of eugenics. This paper aims at quantitatively reconstructing
the book’s development into a standard work. 325 contemporary reviews
of the book were analysed. More than 80% of the reviewers evaluated the book positively
recommending it to a variety of readers. Most of the reviewers were Medical
Doctors concentrating on the eugenic aspects of the book. The reception study makes
the reciprocity of eugenics as an accepted science and academics forming it into
science prevalent. Explanations for the uniform reaction of the scientific community
are discussed.

Key words: reception study, interwar years, eugenics