Fritz Lenz facts for kids

Fritz Gottlieb Karl Lenz (born March 9, 1887, in Pflugrade, Pomerania – died July 6, 1976, in Göttingen, Lower Saxony) was a German geneticist. He was a member of the Nazi Party and an important expert in eugenics in Nazi Germany. Eugenics is a set of ideas that wrongly claim to improve the human race by controlling who has children.

Early Life and Career

Fritz Lenz was a student of Alfred Ploetz. From 1913 to 1933, Lenz took over publishing a magazine called "Archives for Racial and Social Biology." In 1923, he became the first professor to teach eugenics in Munich.

In 1933, Lenz moved to Berlin. There, he started the first special department for eugenics. This department was part of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics.

Research and Publications

Lenz focused on how hereditary human diseases are passed down. He also studied what he called "racial health." The results of his research were published in 1921 and 1932. He worked with Erwin Baur and Eugen Fischer on these books. Later, these works were combined into one book called Human Heredity Theory and Racial Hygiene (1936).

This book and Lenz's ideas about "race as a value principle" made him and his colleagues leading experts in scientific racism in Germany. Scientific racism is the false belief that there are different human races and that some are better than others.

Connection to Nazi Ideology

Lenz's ideas were used to support Nazi ideology. This was the set of beliefs held by the Nazi Party. The Nazis believed that the "Nordic race" was superior. They also believed in getting rid of people they considered "inferior." They called this "life unworthy of life" (Lebensunwertes Leben).

Lenz was part of a group called the "Committee of Experts for Population and Racial Policy." He joined the Nazi Party in 1937. At that time, he was the head of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics.

After World War II

After World War II, Lenz continued to work. He was a Professor of genetics at the University of Goettingen. When asked about the Holocaust, Lenz said it would harm the study of human genetics and racial theory. The Holocaust was a terrible event where millions of people were killed by the Nazis. Lenz continued to believe that his eugenic theories about racial differences were scientifically proven.

Lenz also criticized a statement on race from UNESCO. He wrote that the statement ignored "enormous hereditary differences between men." He also felt it ignored the lack of selection as a cause for the decline of civilization. He believed it went against the science of eugenics.

Fritz Lenz had two sons, Hanfried Lenz and Widukind Lenz.

Lenz's Theories

Lenz believed that human genetics showed a physical link between racial identity and human nature. He even thought this link extended to political groups. Lenz claimed that protests in Germany after 1918 were caused by "inferior racial elements." He warned that Germany's "racial superiority" was in danger. He stated that "The German nation is the last refuge of the Nordic race … before us lies the greatest task of world history." For Lenz, these ideas supported the racial policies of the Nazis.

He supported the Nuremberg laws of 1935. These laws took away rights from certain groups of people. Lenz believed that a person's ancestry, not just their looks, defined their race. He said that even if someone looked like they belonged to the "Nordic race," if they had Jewish ancestry, they were still Jewish. He felt the Nazi laws correctly defined Jewish people by their family background.

Lenz also thought that Slavs were not as good as Nordic peoples. He worried they would "overrun the superior Volk (people)." In 1940, Lenz advised the SS that moving people in the Eastern zone was "the most important task of racial policy." He believed it would decide the racial makeup of the population there for centuries.

See also

• Aktion T4
• Racial policy of Nazi Germany
• Eugenics
• Alfred Ploetz
• Ernst Rudin
• Eugen Fischer
• Racial hygiene
• Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics

Images for kids

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  This poster from around 1938 says: "60,000 Reichsmark is what this person suffering from a hereditary defect costs the People's community during his lifetime. Fellow citizen, that is your money too. Read '[A] New People', the monthly magazine of the Bureau for Race Politics of the NSDAP."