The Medical Examination and Biological Selection of University Students in Nazi Germany

This article looks at the history of the medical inspection and biological selection of students in the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany. It discusses the emergence of regular medical inspection of various social groups, including students, in the 1920s and explains why the Nazis were so eager to make health inspections—complete with anthropological and racial surveys—an integral part of the admission process to German universities. It examines why certain individuals, mainly young physicians, complied with the Nazi laws and why others, such as female and fraternity students, older and established physicians in the university clinics, and university administrators, sought to sabotage the procedures. Finally, it explains the failure of biological selection on university campuses in the context of the evolving educational and social policies of the Nazi regime.