Blood and Homeland

Eugenics and Racial Nationalism in Central and Southeast Europe, 1900-1940
Editor: 
Marius Turda
Paul J. Weindling
ISBN: 
978-963-7326-77-6
cloth
$111.00 / €95.00 / £90.00
ISBN: 
978-963-7326-81-3
paperback
$40.95 / €33.95 / £29.95
Publication date: 
2007
476 pages

The history of eugenics and racial nationalism in Central and Southeast Europe is a neglected topic of analysis in contemporary scholarship. The 20 essays in this volume, written by distinguished scholars of eugenics and fascism alongside a new generation of scholars, excavate the hitherto unknown eugenics movements in Central and Southeast Europe, including Austria and Germany. 

Eugenics and racial nationalism are topics that have constantly been marginalized and rated as incompatible with local national traditions in Central and Southeast Europe. These topics receive a new treatment here. On the one hand, the historiographic perspective connects developments in the history of anthropology and eugenics with political ideologies such as racial nationalism and anti-Semitism; on the other hand, it contests the 'Sonderweg' approach adopted by scholars dealing with these issues.

Introduction

Marius Turda and Paul Weindling: Eugenics, Race and Nation in Central and Southeast Europe, 1900-1940

Part I. Ethnography and Racial Anthropology

Egbert Klautke: German “Race Psychology” and Its Implementation in Central Europe: Egon von Eickstedt and Rudolf Hippius

Margit Berner: From “Prisoners of War Studies” to Proof of Paternity: Racial Anthropologists and the Measuring of “Others” in Austria

Maria Teschler-Nicola: “Volksdeutsche” and Racial Anthropology in Interwar Vienna: The “Marienfeld Project”

Rory Yeomans, Of Yugoslav Barbarians and Croatian Gentlemen Scholars: Nationalist Ideology and Racial Anthropology in Interwar Yugoslavia

Sevasti Trubeta: Anthropological Discourse and Eugenics in Interwar Greece

Part II. Eugenics and Racial Hygiene in National Contexts

Michal Simunek, Between “Eugenics” and “Racial Hygiene”: Plans for the Regulation of Human Heredity in the Czech Lands, 1900-1925

Magdalena Gavin, Progressivism and Eugenic Thinking in Poland, 1905-1939

Marius Turda, “Faj egészségtana” or “Eugenika”? The First Debates on Eugenics in Hungary, 1910-1918

Christian Promitzer, Taking Care of the National Body: Eugenic Visions in Interwar Bulgaria, 1905-1940

Ken Kalling, The Self Perception of A Small Nation: The Reception of Eugenics in Interwar Estonia

Paul J. Weindling, Central Europe Confronts German Racial Hygiene: Friedrich Hertz, Hugo Iltis and Ignaz Zollschan as Critics of Racial Hygiene

Part III. Religion, Public Health and Population Policies

Kamila Uzarczyk, “Moses als Eugeniker”? The Reception of Eugenic Ideas in Jewish Medical Circles in Interwar Poland

Monica Löscher: Eugenics and the Catholic Church in Interwar Austria

Sabine Schleiermacher, Eugenics and Protestantism: Public Health, Population Policy and Protestant Welfare Organisations during the Weimar Republic

Herwig Czech, From Welfare to Selection: Vienna’s Public Health Office and the Implementation of Racial Hygiene Politics under the Nazi Regime

Maria Bucur, Fallen Women and Necessary Evils: Eugenic Representations of Prostitution in Interwar Romania

Part IV. Anti-Semitism, Nationalism and Biopolitics

Răzvan Pârâianu, Culturalist Nationalism and Anti-Semitism in Fin-de-Siècle Romania

Attila Pók, The Politics of Hatred: Scapegoating in Interwar Hungary

Aristotle Kallis, Racialist Politics and Bio-Medical Totalitarianism in Interwar Europe

Roger Griffin, Tunnel Visions and Mysterious Trees: Modernist Projects of National and Racial Regeneration, 1880-1939

Choice

"These essays make the convincing argument that race was more important in Eastern Europe, compared with eugenics in other parts of the world, and that the region's political leaders believed that racial nationalism was the key to creating national identity, thus their support to the science of better breeding. Summing up: recommended for upper-division undergraduates and above."

Medical History

"The editors tell us that in Central and Eastern Europe, eugenics and national racism were the cornerstones used in building the nation and the state. Far from giving in to the siren call of the forces of reaction, this 'parti de la nature', as Claude Lévi-Strauss calls it, brought together two modern and highly toxic substances: eugenics and ultra nationalism."

Slavic Review

"Filled with new information and original ideas and offering intriguing incentives for further research, this well-edited volume is not only a remarkable edition to the literature on European eugenics but provides invaluable insights into the broader currents of intellectual life in central and southeast Europe."
2007

Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas

"Bisher kaum bekannt war die Entwicklung der Eugenik in den ostmitteleuropäischen Staaten. Marius Turda und Paul J. Weindling haben sich dieses weissen Flecks angenommen und bieten mit ihrem Sammelband einen umfangreichen Überblick zu verschiedenen Aspekten und Tendenzen in den Ländern von Österreich bis Rumänien und von Estland bis nach Bulgarien. Während die Forschung zur Eugenik meist im Bereich der Medizinalgeschichte oder im Kontext des Nationalsozialismus abgehandelt wird, gehen die Autoren des Buches der Frage in einem allgemeinhistorischen Zusammenhang nach: Wie beeinflusste eugenisches Denken die Ausformung der Nationalismen in den jungen Staaten des 'Cordon sanitaire' oder konstituierte ihn gar? Der Sammelband is nicht nur ein aufschlussreiches Kompendium, er wird ein Standardwerk zum Thema Eugenik in Ostmitteleuropa bleiben."
2007

Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas

"Bisher kaum bekannt war die Entwicklung der Eugenik in den ostmitteleuropäischen Staaten. Marius Turda und Paul J. Weindling haben sich dieses weissen Flecks angenommen und bieten mit ihrem Sammelband einen umfangreichen Überblick zu verschiedenen Aspekten und Tendenzen in den Ländern von Österreich bis Rumänien und von Estland bis nach Bulgarien. Während die Forschung zur Eugenik meist im Bereich der Medizinalgeschichte oder im Kontext des Nationalsozialismus abgehandelt wird, gehen die Autoren des Buches der Frage in einem allgemeinhistorischen Zusammenhang nach: Wie beeinflusste eugenisches Denken die Ausformung der Nationalismen in den jungen Staaten des 'Cordon sanitaire' oder konstituierte ihn gar? Der Sammelband is nicht nur ein aufschlussreiches Kompendium, er wird ein Standardwerk zum Thema Eugenik in Ostmitteleuropa bleiben."
2007

Transitions Online

"The Central European University Press is to be congratulated for publishing two outstanding scholarly analyses of the root causes of anti-Roma racism, which is rapidly taking center stage in the drama of the East European transition process. The books (Blood and Homeland and The Roma in Romanian History) fill a large gap in urgently needed knowledge. They may well become essential research tools for politicians and social and educational planning departments that are approaching the challenge of European integration. The books will be useful also for university courses in history, sociology, and politics, as well as Holocaust and genocide studies."