14 Facts About Eugen Fischer

Eugen Fischer was a German professor of medicine, anthropology, and eugenics, and a member of the Nazi Party.

Eugen Fischer served as director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics, and served as rector of the Frederick William University of Berlin.

Eugen Fischer was born in Karlsruhe, Grand Duchy of Baden, in 1874.

Eugen Fischer studied medicine, folkloristics, history, anatomy, and anthropology in Berlin, Freiburg and Munich.

Eugen Fischer studied the Basters, offspring of German or Boer men and Black African women in that area.

Eugen Fischer's study concluded with a call to prevent the production of a mixed race by the prohibition of mixed marriages such as those which he had studied.

Eugen Fischer argued that while the existing "Mischling" descendants of the mixed marriages might be useful for Germany, he recommended that they should not continue to reproduce.

Eugen Fischer's recommendations were followed and by 1912 interracial marriage was prohibited throughout the German colonies.

In 1927, Eugen Fischer was a speaker at the World Population Conference which was held in Geneva, Switzerland.

Eugen Fischer did not officially join the Nazi Party until 1940.

Eugen Fischer wrote The Rehoboth Bastards and the Problem of Miscegenation among Humans, a field study which provided context for later racial debates, influenced German colonial legislation.

In 1933, Eugen Fischer signed the Vow of allegiance of the Professors of the German Universities and High-Schools to Adolf Hitler and the National Socialistic State.

Efforts to return the Namibian skulls which were taken by Eugen Fischer were started with an investigation which was conducted by the University of Freiburg in 2011 and they were completed with the return of the skulls in March 2014.

In 1944, Eugen Fischer intervened in an attempt to get his friend Martin Heidegger, the Nazi philosopher, released from service in the Volkssturm militia.