Biomaterial Database

[Franz Josef Kallmann (1897-1965) and the transfer of psychiatric-genetic scientific concepts from national socialist Germany to the U.S.A]. 2009

Anne Cottebrune

Institut für Geschichte der Medizin, Universität Giessen. Anne.Cottebrune@histor.med.uni-giessen.de

The founding of the German Research Institute for Psychiatry and its Genealogic-Demographic Department (Genealogisch-Demographische Abteilung; GDA) in 1918 gave the world the first institutional platform for the field of psychiatric genetics. The years between the two World Wars saw the GDA grow in importance with much international respect. The close collaboration between the GDA's protagonist Ernst Rüdin and the National Socialist regime was certainly not an inhibiting factor for the worldwide recognition of the eugenic research conducted in Munich. Around the mid-1930s, the German psychiatrist émigré Franz Josef Kallmann brought the field of study which had been put into practice in Munich to the United States. He fought an uphill battle to be accepted by the North American scientific community, but finally he was able to establish himself as the main researcher in the field of psychiatric genetics. Interestingly enough, the fact that his kind of research had been heavily supported by the National Socialist regime was not a barrier to his acceptance. The fact that it took him a long time to establish the field of eugenics in the U.S.A. is better explained by the psychoanalytic research methods at the time, which gave hereditary transmission short shrift. At the New York State Psychiatric Institute he was able to continue his research, including the examination of race-hygienic motifs, where he designed a research program that was directly based on concepts and methods from Ernst Rüdin's team of researchers in Munich. The only deviation from the original research was in terms of the use of eugenic prophylaxis where he aligned his research in the context of North American democracy in the post-war era. However, the eugenic goal of elimination of certain categories of peoples remained unchanged.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D011570	Psychiatry	The medical science that deals with the origin, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders.
D005053	Eugenics	The attempt to improve the PHENOTYPES of future generations of the human population by fostering the reproduction of those with favorable phenotypes and GENOTYPES and hampering or preventing BREEDING by those with "undesirable" phenotypes and genotypes. The concept is largely discredited. (McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, 6th ed)	Negative Eugenics,Positive Eugenics,Eugenics, Negative,Eugenics, Positive
D005823	Genetics	The branch of science concerned with the means and consequences of transmission and generation of the components of biological inheritance. (Stedman, 26th ed)
D005858	Germany	A country in central Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, between the Netherlands and Poland, south of Denmark. The capital is Berlin.
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D012586	Science	The study of natural phenomena by observation, measurement, and experimentation.	Sciences
D014481	United States	A country in NORTH AMERICA between CANADA and MEXICO.
D049672	History, 19th Century	Time period from 1801 through 1900 of the common era.	19th Century History,19th Cent. History (Medicine),19th Cent. History of Medicine,19th Cent. Medicine,Historical Events, 19th Century,History of Medicine, 19th Cent.,History, Nineteenth Century,Medical History, 19th Cent.,Medicine, 19th Cent.,19th Cent. Histories (Medicine),19th Century Histories,Cent. Histories, 19th (Medicine),Cent. History, 19th (Medicine),Century Histories, 19th,Century Histories, Nineteenth,Century History, 19th,Century History, Nineteenth,Histories, 19th Cent. (Medicine),Histories, 19th Century,Histories, Nineteenth Century,History, 19th Cent. (Medicine),Nineteenth Century Histories,Nineteenth Century History
D049673	History, 20th Century	Time period from 1901 through 2000 of the common era.	20th Century History,20th Cent. History (Medicine),20th Cent. History of Medicine,20th Cent. Medicine,Historical Events, 20th Century,History of Medicine, 20th Cent.,History, Twentieth Century,Medical History, 20th Cent.,Medicine, 20th Cent.,20th Cent. Histories (Medicine),20th Century Histories,Cent. Histories, 20th (Medicine),Cent. History, 20th (Medicine),Century Histories, 20th,Century Histories, Twentieth,Century History, 20th,Century History, Twentieth,Histories, 20th Cent. (Medicine),Histories, 20th Century,Histories, Twentieth Century,History, 20th Cent. (Medicine),Twentieth Century Histories,Twentieth Century History
D049674	History, 21st Century	Time period from 2001 through 2100 of the common era.	21st Century History,21st Cent. History (Medicine),21st Cent. History of Medicine,21st Cent. Medicine,Historical Events, 21st Century,History of Medicine, 21st Cent.,History, Twenty-first Century,Medical History, 21st Cent.,Medicine, 21st Cent.,21st Cent. Histories (Medicine),21st Cent. Medicines,21st Century Histories,Cent. Histories, 21st (Medicine),Cent. History, 21st (Medicine),Cent. Medicine, 21st,Cent. Medicines, 21st,Century Histories, 21st,Century Histories, Twenty-first,Century History, 21st,Century History, Twenty-first,Histories, 21st Cent. (Medicine),Histories, 21st Century,Histories, Twenty-first Century,History, 21st Cent. (Medicine),History, Twenty first Century,Medicines, 21st Cent.,Twenty-first Century Histories,Twenty-first Century History