Psychiatric research and 'euthanasia'. The case of the psychiatric department at the University of Heidelberg, 1941-1945

Abstract

The history of German psychiatry is characterized not only by the influential traditions of Kraepelin and Jaspers, but also by the “euthanasia” program that involved the killing of more than 100,000 psychiatric ill and mentally handicapped people as a consequence of the social and health policy of the National Socialists. Since the early 1980s, much work has been done on both the ideological background and the actual practice of the “euthanasia” program (Burleigh, 1994; Friedlander, 1995; Proctor, 1988; Schmuhl, 1987; Weindling, 1989; Weingart, Kroll, & Bayertz, 1988). As early as during the planning stages of the systematic killings, some of the psychiatrists involved realized that these could provide the opportunity for a new kind of research without ethical restrictions. Professor Carl Schneider, who held the Chair of Psychiatry and Neurology at the University of Heildelberg from

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