1914 WWI. The Lizt Society
provides the design of the swastika to manufacturers of talismans worn
by German soldiers. Lizt says the war will purge the world of
democracy and usher in the Aryo-german empire. During WWI, the
British War Drive uses the symbol of the swastika and members are
awarded swastika lapel pins.
1914 Hitler is declared unfit for
the Austrian army and moves to Munich, where he is recruited as an
infantryman.
1914 First Conference of Race
Betterment is given at Battlecreek, Michigan. Many psychiatrists
gather to discuss the fact that the future of the race depends on
addressing the mentally ill. A segregation and sterilization program
is proposed, calling for the sterilization of 5.76 million
"defective and antisocial" Americans by 1955.
1916 Madison Grant publishes
The Passing of the Great Race, concerning Nordic superiority.
Hitler later writes him a letter thanking him for writing this book,
saying the book was his Bible.
1916 Lewis Terman, psychology
professor at Stanford, publishes the first Americanized version of the
IQ test. Regarding feeble-mindedness, he states, "...all feeble-
minded are at least potential criminals. That every feeble-minded
woman is a potential prostitute would hardly be disputed by
anyone." He claims mental deficiency is common among
"Spanish-Indian and Mexican families of the Southwest and also
among negroes. Their dullness seems to be racial or at least inherent
in the family stocks from which they come..." He goes on to
recommend that .".children of this group should be segregated in
special classes...They cannot master abstractions, but they can often
be made efficient workers....There is no possibility at present of
convincing society that they should not be allowed to reproduce,
although from a eugenic point of view they constitute a grave problem
because of their unusually prolific breeding."
Date Unknown—1917-18
In Zurich, psychiatrist Ritter writes a report on Hitler and sends it
to Hindenburg's presidential office.
1918 The Family Planning Movement
in Britain publishes a work concerned with birth control, promoting
the threat to the race posed by uncontrolled breeding. End of WW I
German economy in ruins, with groups of soldiers and workers
throughout Germany forming revolutionary socialist republics in
various cities. Nationalists and monarchists form private armies and
mobilize a counter- revolution.
The Thule Society (a mystical group and a
branch of the German Order which is named for the legendary homeland
of the German race) stockpiles weapons and trains volunteers to
support the counter-revolution. Its leader pledges that the swastika
will arise victorious. The establishment of a democracy in post WWI
Germany is seen by Thule and others as a betrayal of the ancient
German, Aryan ideal. The symbol of the Thule Society is the
swastika.
The founder of the Thule Society secretly
sponsors the formation of a worker's discussion group. Its chairman
belongs to Thule and its most active member, Anton Drexler, proposes
the group be formed into a political party. The Thule Chairman
agrees.
1918 WWI comes to an end. During WWI, roughly half of the patients in
German mental hospitals (at least 50,000) are starved to death or die from disease.
1918 German psychiatrist Emil
Kraepelin founds the Institute for Psychiatry in Munich. Funding
comes later (1928) from the Rockefeller Foundation.
c 1918 Adolf Hitler is in the
hands of psychiatrist Bumke, who examines him and treats him for
"hysterical blindness."
Jan. 5, 1919 The workers' discussion group founded by the Thule Society becomes the German Workers Party.
April 30, 1919 20,000 men, led by
detachments armed and led by Thule, storm Munich as part of the
counter-revolution. Many wear the swastika.
Sept. 12, 1919 Adolf Hitler is
sent by the army to spy on the German Workers' Party. He joins and is
a frequent speaker. He works with three key people in the party:
Alfred Rosenberg (a disciple of Chamberlain); Dietrich Eckart (of the
Thule Society); and Rudolph Hess, future deputy fuhrer).
1919 Von Lizt dies. He is
replaced as Germany's leading mystic by Jeorge Luntz, the founder of
Ostara, who is already a respected biblical scholar, ex-monk
and established mystic in his own right. Mixing occult doctrines and
eugenics into what he calls Theozoology, Luntz claims the aryan race
committed bestiality with a sub-human species long ago which accounts
for the many mixed races that threaten aryan dominance. This
interbreeding led to the diminution of the inherent aryan paranormal
abilities (telepathy, etc.). He proposes that the racially impure and
mentally ill or physically unsound should be sterilized. Other
inferior races are to be taken to Madagascar or used as slaves. He
says Jews should be deported to Madagascar, used as slaves or
incinerated. (His proposals are all given serious consideration by the
SS and some are put into practice.)
1919 Hitler trains to become an
instructor in psychopolitical reconditioning for returning soldiers.
He is also instructed in the skills of agitation and public speaking.
January, 1920 Weimar legislators
pass a "marriage advising law," requiring government
licensing offices in Germany to distribute a pamphlet to all couples
seeking marriage licenses, advising them of hereditary aspects of
tuberculosis, feeblemindedness and mental illness.
January, 1920 German Workers'
Party changes its name to the National Socialist German Workers'
Party. It formally adopts the swastika in its most familiar form as
its official symbol this year. (Prior to this, both curved, straight,
clockwise and counterclockwise swastikas have been in use. The curved
swastika of the Thule will continue to be used later by the Lutwaffe
and Storm Troopers.
1920-23 Alfred Rosenberg
introduces Hitler to what he claims is a secret Jewish doctrine of
world domination called the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
It is actually a 19th century forgery by the secret police of the Czar
in Russia. Hitler is also introduced to the works of Stewart
Chamberlain and is coached in public speaking by a well-known teacher
of drama.
1920 Walter R. Hess in
Switzerland and other researchers perform experiments on fully awake
animals involving direct stimulation using electrodes inserted into
their brains.
1920 Karl Binding and
psychiatrist, Alfred Hoche, publish The Permission to Destroy Life
Unworthy of Life. The killing of large numbers of people who are
determined to be physically and/or mentally unfit is portrayed as a
healing act.
1920s Eugenic research in Germany
receives heavy financial support, the largest supporter being the
Rockefeller Foundation, which gives money to the Kaiser Wilhelm
Institute for Anthropology, Eugenics and Human Genetics in Berlin.
This support continues after the Nazis come to power.
1920s Thyroids, ovaries,
testicles and other glands are removed from tens of thousands of
mental patients around the world, as these glands are seen as having
an effect on mental state.
1920s-1930s Sterilization of the
mentally ill and retarded is common in U.S. and Europe.
1920s Groups heavily focusing on
eugenics are formed in Canada, France, Belgium, England, Bulgaria,
Denmark, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Russia, German, Austria,
Switzerland, Australia.
1921 Robert Yerkes, professor of
psychology at Harvard University and past President of the American
Psychological Association, publishes a report on "Relation of
Intelligence Ratings to Nativity." He concludes that,
"...in general, the Scandinavian and English speaking countries
stand high on the list, while the Slavic and Latin countries are
low..."
1921 The second International
Congress of Eugenics is held in New York. The sponsoring committee
includes Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, among others.
1922 H.H. Laughlin, expert Eugenics Agent of the United States House of Representatives Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, publishes the Model Eugenical Sterilization law. This model forms the basis for many state sterilization laws and for Nazi Germany's 1933 law. Included in the list of people who should be subject to mandatory sterilization: Feeble minded, insane, criminalistic (including the "delinquent and wayward"), blind, ("including those with seriously impaired vision"), deformed ("including the crippled") and dependent, including "orphans," "ne'er do wells," "the homeless," "tramps" and "paupers."
1922 Euthanasia by medical
doctors is discussed at the conference of the Society for Forensic
Psychiatry in Dresden and rejected.
