Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg: Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics

Dr. Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg was always the scientist, always the humanist, she never supported racial theories, she opposed racism, and such ideologically based Eugenics!

The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics (KWI-A) was founded in 1927. The Rockefeller Foundation supported both the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Psychiatry and the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics. The Rockefeller Foundation partially funded the actual building of the Institute and helped keep the Institute afloat during the Depression.

The Kaiser Wilhelm Society was composed of high-level representatives or liaisons with the German government, as well as industrialists and financiers. These also included people with political contacts (especially during the Third Reich, people who insured that National Socialist attitudes would prevail at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes.) Later on, during the Nuremberg War Criminal Trials, interlocking directorates expressing political, financial and governmental direction were discussed and are precisely what existed at the Kaiser Wilhelm Society. In terms of the actual work accomplished at the Kaiser Wilhelm institutes, the most important institute was the KWI-A. This was reflected in the fact that the KWI-A was the only institute with a "W" classification (Wehrwirtschaft; important for a wartime economy). ¹ It was first directed by Eugen Fischer (1927-1942), then Otmar von Verschuer (1942-1945), until the Kaiser Wilhelm institutes were renamed Max Planck Institutes.

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Eugen Fischer, Anthropologist, KWI-A.
First director of the KWI-A. Worked primarily in the area of race eugenics, an area of work that straddled both the Second Reich (in German South West Africa) and the Third Reich. His areas of specialization included Bastard studies, the name then in use for the offspring of mixed races. He coordinated his work with fellow International Federation of Eugenics Organizations member Charles Davenport. Even before Fischer formally became a Nazi in 1940, he devoted himself to directing various programs identified with the Nazi agenda, including twin studies, sterilization, and euthanasia (Action T4). Prior to his retirement from the KWI-A in 1942, Fischer prepared the transition of leadership from himself to Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer, the second Director of the KWI-A, partly through a shift in emphasis from twin study to phenogenetics. Fischer was a racial anti-Semite. He participated in the Final Solution (volkstod) to the Jewish Question when he attended the Frankfurt Institute for the Investigation of the Jewish Question on March 27-28, 1941.

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Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer, Physician, Anthropologist, KWI-A.
Joined the National Socialist Deutsch Workers Party (Nazi) in 1940. Became the second director of the KWI-A. Started at the KWI-A in 1927 (under Eugen Fischer, the first Director of the KWI-A), as the director of the KWI-A Department of Human Genetics; he subsequently became director of the KWI-A Division on Twin Research. In 1935 Verschuer continued to work at the KWI-A but shifted his primary attention to the Frankfurt Institute for Genetic Biology and Racial Hygiene ('Institut für Erbbiologie und Rassenhygiene'), leading the sterilization effort in the city of Frankfurt. Verschuer once again gave his primary attention to the KWI-A in 1942, when he succeeded Fischer as Director of the KWI-A. Verschauer worked primarily in the area of twin studies, with a strong interest in racial hygiene as implemented via sterilization. He was responsible for implementing the transition from twin study to phenogenetics: an approach. that emphasized what modern scientists would call developmental biology. Two of Verschuer's most well-known assistants were Karin Magnussen and Josef Mengele. Karin Magnussen studied eyes from living twins at Auschwitz harvested for her by Mengele at Auschwitz. Verschauer participated in the Final Solution ('volkstod') to the Jewish Question when he attended the Frankfurt Institute for the Investigation of the Jewish Question on March 27-28, 1941. At the close of the war, Verschuer hid or destroyed the records of KWI-A activities and other activities, at his family home.

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Karin Magnussen, Biologist, teacher, KWI-A.
Researcher at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics during Germany's Third Reich, known for her 1936 publication "Race and Population Policy Tools", and her studies of heterochromia iridis (different colored eyes) using iris specimens from Auschwitz concentration camp victims (supplied by her colleague, Joseph Mengele).

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Josef Mengele
Physician, anthropologist. Closely associated with the KWI-A due to his relationship with Otmar Freiherr von Verschuer. Mengele earned doctorates in anthropology from Munich University and in medicine from Frankfurt University. Verschuer was Mengele's doctoral advisor at the Frankfurt Institute for Genetic Biology and Racial Hygiene; Mengele joined Verschuer's staff as a "promising young researcher" in 1937, ² the same year he officially joined the Nazi party. When Verschuer became Director of the KWI-A in 1942, he continued his association with Mengele. A member of the Waffen-SS, Mengele performed human experiments on inmates at Auschwitz death camp, primarily on twins (mainly children). Mengele supplied Karin Magnussen with iris specimens from Auschwitz concentration camp victims, for her studies of heterochromia iridis (different colored eyes). Mengele was the only one of the Nazi anthropologists who was prosecuted before an international court because his crimes were so obvious. He was sentenced in absentia, for he had escaped to South America.

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Prosecution For War Crimes
Fischer, Verschuer, Magnussen and many others involved in medical anthropology during the Third Reich were never prosecuted as war criminals, though it was recommended several times, because it was feared that the German public would utterly lose confidence in both German science and the German medical establishment; thus, the political transition after World War II, into the Cold War, would not be disrupted. Although some of the preceding views may seem controversial, there is ample written documentation to substantiate these views. A more complete historical record continues to be impeded by the limited access provided to the public of further documentation. See Research Materials: Max Planck Society Archive.

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Kaiser Wilhelm Institute and National Socialist Propaganda
Anthropobiology was used to support stereotyped views of Gypsies, Jews, Blacks, the mentally ill, and physically handicapped people. Anthropobiology utilized anthropometry: the measurement and recording of "metrics" (different physical or mental factors) which could then be used to classify people by race or value. To create reproducible anthropometric results, Hermann Werner Siemens developed a technique called "polysymptomatic similarity diagnosis ". This was initially associated with twin research, as such measurements would only be of value if they were understood to be inheritable and independent of the environment.

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Characteristics measured by anthropometry were grouped into distinct stereotypes. For example, "Jews" had a particular type of nose; "Blacks" had kinky hair; "Gypsies" were always criminals; etc. However, the work done at the KWI-A used as criteria to identify races, such as:

hair color and shape

skin color

color of lanugo hairs

eye color

freckles

telangiesctasia

cornification in hair follicles

tongue creases

blood group

skulls (shape, capacity)

facial characteristics

shape of the ear

form of the hand

dactyloscopy (handprints, fingerprints)

body type

spine vertebrae types

Human race crossings

Human internal organs:

heart (shape)

stomach function

taste sensations

anterior pituitary hormone

menarche and climate

hardness of soft tissues

These stereotypes were primarily used to create propaganda support for the Lebensborn program; the sterilization program; the euthanasia program; genocide at concentration camps; deportations; and medical experimentation done by other programs such as the Waffen-SS (low pressure experiments, hyper- and hypothermia experiments, etc.). For details, see the Doctors' Trial, also known as the Nuremberg Medical Trial.
The purpose of the propaganda was to dehumanize those who were considered to be enemies of the Third Reich. Methods of dehumanization included the use of stereotypes in newspapers (Julius Streicher cartoons) and films such as Jud Suss (1940 film). At that time, films that were very popular internationally, such as "Nosferatu" (directed by F. W. Murnau, starring actor Max Schreck), depicted dehumanized forms with very wan complexions, long noses and long ears, and cadaverous body shapes, who drank blood. Unfortunately, some people in the 21st century still believe these things. ^{3, 4, 5}

Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg: No Supporter of Eugenics Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics

Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg: No Supporter of Eugenics
Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics