© 1998 • 256 pp.
Paper • $30 • ISBN  978-087969531-6

The Human Genome Project has associated many mutant genes with physical ailments and the genetic basis of certain behavioral characteristics is being seriously discussed. In the 1920s and 1930s, advocates for eugenics claimed that genes influenced human behavior, but with no valid evidence. In Germany the Nazis adopted their ideas to justify violent anti-semitism. In this new, expanded edition of the English translation of his compelling book Tödliche Wissenschaft, the distinguished German geneticist Benno Müller-Hill documents the long-suppressed collusion of eugenics and racist politics which resulted in the mass murder of millions. In a new Afterword, he warns against the misuse today of newly emerging knowledge about human heredity. In an accompanying essay, Nobel Laureate James D. Watson, an architect of this new era of genetics, vividly describes a recent visit to Berlin and his impressions of the legacy of eugenics in German science.

Author's Preface to the English Edition

Acknowledgements

Translator's Preface

Translator's Notes on Terminology

A Note on German Academic Organization

Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations Used in the Text

Introduction

A German Chronicle of the Identification, Proscription, and Extermination of Those Who Were Different

From the Ostracism of the Jews to the Sterilization of Mental Patients

From the Killing of Mental Patients to the Killing of Jews and Gypsies

The Use of Those Who Had Been Deprived of Their Rights as Material for Anthropological and Psychiatric Research

On the Role and Self-image of Some Anthropologists

Nine Questions

Miss Gertrud Fischer, the daughter of Professor Eugen Fischer

Professor Widukind Lenz, the son of Professor Fritz Lenz

Dr Helmut von Verschuer, the son of Professor Otmar von Verschuer

Professor Edith Zerbin-Rüdin, the daughter of Professor Ernst Rüdin

Mrs Susanne Lüdicke, Professor Fischer's medical technician, and Dr Lore von Kries

Professor Wolfgang Abel

Dr Engelhard Bühler

Dr Adolf Würth

Professor Hans Grebe

Mrs Irmgard Haase, Professor Otmar von Verschuer's medical technician

Professor Georg Melchers

Professor Werner-Joachim Eicke

Professor Hans-Joachim Rauch

Five Days in Berlin, James D. Watson

The Specter of Kakogenics, Benno Müller-Hill

Bibliography

Notes and References

Name Index

Subject Index

Autobiographical Note