Anthropology at War: World War I and the Science of Race in Germany

309 Pages·2010·1.81 MB·English

by  Andrew D. Evans

Anthropology at War

Anthropology at War
World War I and the Science of
Race in Germany
ANDREW D. EVANS
The University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London
Andrew D. Evans is assistant professor of history at the State University of
New York at New Paltz.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
Ó 2010 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2010
Printed in the United States of America
18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-22267-7 (cloth)
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-22268-4 (paper)
ISBN-10: 0-226-22267-5 (cloth)
ISBN-10: 0-226-22268-3 (paper)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Evans, Andrew D. (Andrew David), 1968–
Anthropology at war : World War I and the science of race in Germany /
Andrew D. Evans.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-22267-7 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-22268-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-226-22267-5 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-226-22268-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Anthropology—Germany—
History—20th century. 2. Racism in anthropology—Germany—History—
20th century. I. Title.
GN17.3.G3E93 2010
301.0943'09041—dc22 2009051469
a The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments / vii List of Abbreviations / xi List of Illustrations / xiii
INTRODUCTION / 1
ONE / Institutionalizing the “Most Recent Science”: Anthropology in
the World of German Learning at the Fin de Siècle / 21
TWO / The Meaning of Race: The Liberal Paradigm in
Prewar German Anthropology / 57
THREE / Nationalism and Mobilization in
Wartime Anthropology, 1914–18 / 97
FOUR / “Among Foreign Peoples”: Racial Studies of
POWs during World War I / 131
FIVE / Capturing Race: Anthropology and Photography in
POW Camps during World War I / 155
SIX / Anthropology in the Aftermath: Rassenkunde, Racial Hygiene,
and the End of the Liberal Tradition / 189
CONCLUSION / 223
Notes / 231 Bibliography / 271 Index / 285

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am pleased to be able to express my thanks, at long last, to the many
individuals and institutions that helped make this book a reality. At In-
diana University I was blessed to work with scholars who communicated
the delight of doing academic work. James M. Diehl showed me how to
navigate the archives, and reacted to every draft that I gave him with gentle
encouragement and good humor. The late William B. Cohen pushed me to
trust my sources and follow through on my conclusions. These two scholars
served as my intellectual role models, and I am profoundly grateful that I
was able to learn from them. Ann Charmichael, Della Cook, and Albrecht
Holschuh provided excellent suggestions and saved me from many errors.
Other members of the faculty at Indiana—especially Carl Ipsen, Larry Fried-
man, and George Alter—offered advice and support at key junctures. My
research was supported by grants from the College of Arts and Sciences,
Graduate School, and Department of History at Indiana University.
After Indiana, I found an intellectual home in the Department of History
at the State University of New York at New Paltz. My colleagues in the de-
partment and within the wider institution have been an unflagging source
of support. I am particularly indebted to Katherine French, Susan Lewis, and
Louis Roper, who have been instrumental in supporting my writing and re-
search. Lee Bernstein gladly (and promptly) read everything I gave him and
provided valuable critiques. Bruce Milem gave excellent advice over instant
coffee and reminded me that, according to Gilles Deleuze, “complaining is
an affirmation of life.” My students at New Paltz, particularly those in my
World War I seminar, continue to invigorate me with their enthusiasm and
curiosity. A Creative Projects Award and a pre-tenure fellowship leave from
SUNY New Paltz also aided in the completion of this project.
viii / Acknowledgments
Beyond Indiana and New York, I have also benefited from the aid and
generosity of colleagues far and wide. I especially would like to thank the
many people who read and commented on sections of the work in vari-
ous forms, including Tim Schmitz, Kay McAdams, Patrick Ettinger, Timothy
Pursell, Katherine Clark, Brian Els, John Tomasic, Marina Mogilner, Monique
Scheer, Reinhard Johler, Christian Marchetti, Eleanor Hight, Gary Sampson,
Glenn Penny, Andy Donson, Lynn Nyhart, Belinda Davis, and Sara Pugach.
I am especially grateful to Jeff Wilson, Sue Marchand, Henricka Kuklick, and
an anonymous reviewer for the University of Chicago Press, each of whom
provided pointed and judicious comments on the entire manuscript. Matti
Bunzl deserves special thanks for his repeated reading of the manuscript
and his excellent critiques. I am deeply thankful to Andre Gingrich, who
provided shrewd and lively guidance at a key juncture in the process of
preparing the manuscript. In addition, I owe a particular debt of gratitude
to David Brent at the University of Chicago Press for his continual support
of the project. His assistant Laura Avey was also critical in seeing this book
to fruition, as was my manuscript editor, Renaldo Migaldi. Mark Seidl has
my sincere thanks for preparing the index. I also benefited from conversa-
tions and correspondence with Niels Lösch, Wolfgang Wippermann, Rainer
Buschmann, Marion Melk-Koch, Margot Kahyless, Sierra Bruckner, Andrew
Zimmerman, John David Smith, Brent Maner, and Diethelm Prowe.
Librarians and archivists also provided invaluable guidance and helped
to make my time with the sources profitable. I want to thank the staff at the
Indiana University Library, the Sojourner Truth Library at SUNY New Paltz,
the Vassar Library, and the New York Public Library for their assistance.
In Germany I benefited from the help and expertise of staff at a variety of
archives, but several individuals deserve special mention. I am particularly
indebted to Horst Junker at the archive of the Berliner Gesellschaft für An-
thropologie, Ethnologie, und Urgeschichte; Dr. Elisabeth Tietmeyer at the
Berlin Museum für Völkerkunde; and Dr. Heidelies Wittig-Sorg at the Staat-
sarchiv in Hamburg. Staff members at the Handschriftenabteilung of the
Staatsbibliothek in Berlin cheerfully filled my endless requests.
Some of the material in this book appeared first in other venues.
These earlier versions include “Race Made Visible,” German Studies Review
31/1 (2008): 87–108; “A Liberal Paradigm? Race and Ideology in Late-
Nineteenth-Century German Physical Anthropology,” Ab Imperio: Studies
of New Imperial History and Nationalism in the Post-Soviet Space 8 (1/2007):
113–38; “Anthropology at War: Racial Studies of POWs during World War
I,” in Worldly Provincialism: German Anthropology in the Age of Empire, edited
by H. Glenn Penny and Matti Bunzl (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan
Acknowledgments / ix
Press, 2003), 198–229; “Capturing Race: Anthropology and Photography in
German Prisoner-of-War Camps during World War I,” in Colonialist Photog-
raphy: Imag(in)ing Race and Place, edited by Eleanor Hight and Gary Samp-
son (New York: Routledge, 2002), 226–56. I am grateful to the editors of
these publications for their support, and to the publishers for permission to
reuse the material in this book.
Finally, I would like to thank friends and family for their continued sup-
port. I am indebted to Jeff Fleisher, Tom Berger, Stephen Kingsley, Kazaan
Viveiros, Debbie Gershenowitz, Paul Murphy, Dean Kotlowski, Adrienne
Russell, Ellen Willow, David Kelly, and Catherine Lerat for their friendship
and intellectual comaraderie. The friendship and support of the Schoeller
family—Ina, Jochen, Christina, Bernd, and Dieter—has sustained me since
my first visit to Germany as a college student. Likewise, the hospitality of
Tom and Elke Seel made me feel at home in Germany when I was far from
my own home. I give my deepest thanks to the members of my family for
their continued encouragement: Carolyn Evans, Peter Evans, Kammi Evans,
Daniel Evans, Deborah Murdock, Robert Bryan, Angus Murdoch, Alice
Wakefield, Alec Murdoch, and Kris Parker. My sons Christopher and Henrik
kept me grounded in the small delights of life. More than anyone else,
however, my partner, spouse, and intellectual companion Lydia Murdoch
deserves special gratitude. She continually inspired me with her own work
and showed me, by her example, how scholarship should be done. At every
stage in this project and in our crowded daily lives, I have depended on her
sound counsel, humor, and love.
This book is dedicated to the memory of my father, David C. Evans, who
was also a professional historian and teacher. In his wry and modest way,
he introduced me the joys of intellectual work without ever seeming to do
so. Even more important, he quietly provided a model for how to live in the
world. For these things, I am forever grateful.