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  • The Nazi Symbiosis: Human Genetics and Politics in the Third Reich
  • Amy Carney
The Nazi Symbiosis: Human Genetics and Politics in the Third Reich. By Sheila Faith Weiss. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010. Pp. 392. Cloth $45.00. ISBN 978-0226891767.

For nearly three decades, historians of science and medicine, as well as of modern Germany, have examined science under National Socialism. One of the most prominent subjects has been biomedical science, particularly genetics and eugenics. With this work, Sheila Faith Weiss once again contributes to the field, this time by examining the “symbiotic” relationship between German scientists and the Nazi state, a relationship which she defines as a “Faustian bargain.” Weiss analyzes how and why this bargain came to be and explores its evolution during the Third Reich.

To assess the relationship between science and politics, Weiss chooses four examples to demonstrate the circumstances under which such “bargains” were sealed. The first two cases examine alliances between the regime and two branches of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society: the Institute for Anthropology and the Institute for Psychiatry. These institutes were important centers for investigating human heredity, and Weiss demonstrates how the research carried out by many of their personnel provided scientific legitimacy for the regime’s racial policies. She additionally appraises the morally problematic research that each institute engaged in during World War II, specifically in connection with the euthanasia program as well as the experiments conducted in the extermination and concentration camps.

While these two examples focus on the production of biomedical knowledge, the other two cases evaluate its dissemination. The third case explores how scientists legitimized racial science by holding public lectures and participating in national and international conferences. Conversely, whereas the first three cases highlight the contributions by academics, the final example looks at the ways in which secondary-school [End Page 430] biology teachers sought to educate their students about racial science. Although these teachers were not as prominent as the scientists, they were better able to disseminate the racial views promoted by the state and supported by the scientific elite because they routinely interacted with many students.

By employing these specific cases to explain how racial science was legitimized and popularized, Weiss tries to achieve a number of objectives. One goal is to present contextualized history, which she achieves in two ways. The first is historical: for each case, she provides background information that enables the reader to understand the continuities in German science from the Weimar Republic through the Nazi period. She argues that the existence of a vibrant scientific community before 1933 was a necessary precursor to the later symbiosis. The second way is geographical: Weiss outlines the connections that existed between German scientists and their counterparts in other countries, especially the United States. All of this strongly suggests that German scientists were well-regarded professionals engaged in legitimate scientific activity—and were not, as is popularly assumed, mere quacks promoting pseudoscience.

Weiss wants her study to be a resource for scholars, as well as for an interested lay audience. In her acknowledgements, she explains that her motivation to write the book was the absence of an accessible one on this topic for upper-level undergraduate courses. This well written study helps elucidate the relationship between science and politics in the Third Reich and has enough details to satisfy scholars. At the same time, it provides an insightful narrative that a lay audience will find accessible and that will serve as a useful learning aid for students.

Amy Carney
Penn State University–Erie
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