Blood and Homeland: Eugenics and Racial Nationalism in Central and Southeast Europe, 1900-1940

Eugenics and Catholicism in Interwar Austria

Eugenics and Catholicism in Interwar Austria Monika Löscher Since the end of the nineteenth century, various proposals for the genetic betterment of human beings have been posited. These plans were not designed solely in Nazi Germany, but represented a worldwide trend. Eugenics, or “racial hygiene” as it was referred to in German-speaking Europe, was simultaneously a scientific and a political program, and was shaped by the interaction of science, politics and the interest of the general public. It was not only the political Right that elaborated eugenic proposals; all interwar movements across the political spectrum were influenced by this new science, although they developed different approaches. Protestant countries such as the US, some cantons of Switzerland, and Scandinavia, for example, all opted for “surgical solution”1 (including sterilization laws); however, eugenic movements also existed in Catholic countries, and were developed on the basis of social concerns for the “hereditarily healthy” (erbgesunden) and the reversal of social degeneration. The Fédération Internationale Latine des Societés d’Eugénique, founded in Mexico in 1935, represented leading eugenicists from the Catholic countries of southern Europe and South America. According to Stefan Kühl, the work of the federation was not simply undertaken against Nazi race policy, but rather against the wider negative impact of Anglo-American eugenics. Kühl also states that the federation was closely connected to the Catholic Church.2 Moreover, Nancy Leys Stepan suggests that Latin Hispanic eugenicists were in fact liberals and anti-clericals.3 The aim of this chapter is to examine the relationship between Catholicism and eugenics in interwar Austria. Unfortunately, a systematic analysis of Catholic eugenics in Austria, focusing on the interaction between science, Catholicism, politics and society, is still lacking. I shall therefore distinguish between the “official” church and its teachings (including encyclicals and pastoral letters) and the “Catholic milieu,” which accepted the authority of the Catholic Church, but also expressed independent opinions. One important point is worth remembering : the ideas surveyed were not simply accepted by the Catholic Church; nor did all Catholics in Austria think in the same way. The demands of the German theologians, Joseph Mayer (1886–1967) and Hermann Muckermann (1877–1962), for instance, who argued in favor of eugenic sterilization, were certainly not representative of the majority of views within the Catholic Church, despite the fact that their work was widely read in interwar Austria. The main contention of this chapter is that the Catholic Church had no genuine interest in eugenics, in part because most eugenic demands conflicted with the ideas about sexual morality and natural justice prescribed by Catholicism. However, the very existence of the traditional Catholic family was seen to be in danger, and therefore eugenics was advocated as a means to return to and retain Catholic values. Although the Catholic Church rejected sterilization, as well as abortion, there was no real criticism of eugenics. Thus eugenics, particularly the criteria of “superiority” and “inferiority” upon which it was based, was not officially condemned.4 Some eugenic claims were condemned, such as the prescription of conscious “human breeding,” but eugenic thinking on a general level was accepted. According to the Catholic understanding of eugenics, therefore, the principle of employability (Arbeitsfähigkeit )—that is, to value people by means of their capacity to work—and the diagnosis of degeneration (Entartung) were accepted as irrefutable arguments. Moreover, a number of characteristics in the discourse playing a role in völkisch eugenics were also important for the “Catholic milieu,” including, most notably, the fear of a “dying nation” caused by the declining birthrate, the depiction of sexually transmitted diseases , and alcoholism as the “gravedigger” of society. In interwar Austria, eugenics was shaped by particular political and social circumstances. Each milieu, and each political camp, formed its own conception about eugenics. Catholic eugenics attempted to refashion sexual morality as a “better form of eugenics” by justifying its claim on the basis of natural science. 300 “Blood and Homeland” The “Catholic Milieu” in Interwar Austria In the First Austrian Republic, Catholicism constituted a defensive ideology against modernity, reflected in the anti-revolutionary and antiEnlightenment spirit of the Catholic Church.5 Although the percentage of Catholics dropped between 1910 and 1934 from 93.7 per cent to 90.5 per cent, Austria was considered a Catholic country. In Vienna, during the same period, the number of Catholics dropped from 87 per cent to 79 per cent.6 In...