Hormones, Heredity, and Race: Spectacular Failure in Interwar Vienna

257 Pages·2012·1.775 MB·English

by  Cheryl A. Logan

Hormones, Heredity, and Race
Studies in Modern Science, Technology, and the Environment
Edited by Mark A. Largent
The increasing importance of science and over the past 150 years— and with it
the increasing social, political, and economic authority vested in scientists and
engineers— established both scientific research and technological innovations
as vital components of modern culture. Studies in Modern Science, Technol-
ogy, and the Environment is a collection of books that focuses on humanistic
and social science inquiries into the social and political implications of science
and technology and their impacts on communities, environments, and cultural
movements worldwide.
Matthew N. Eisler, Overpotential: Fuel Cells, Futurism, and the Making of a Power
Panacea
Mark R. Finlay, Growing American Rubber: Strategic Plants and the Politics of
National Security
Jill A. Fisher, Gender and the Science of Difference: Cultural Politics of Contemporary
Science and Medicine
Finn Arne Jørgensen, More than a Hole in the Wall: The Story of What We Do with
Our Bottles and Cans
Cheryl A. Logan, Hormones, Heredity, and Race: Spectacular Failure in Interwar
Vienna
Gordon Patterson, The Mosquito Crusades: A History of the American Anti-Mosquito
Movement from the Reed Commission to the First Earth Day
Thomas Robertson, The Malthusian Moment: Global Population Growth and the
Birth of American Environmentalism
Mark Solovey, Shaky Foundations: The Politics– Patronage– Social Science Nexus in
Cold War America
Jeremy Vetter, Knowing Global Environments: New Historical Perspectives on the
Field Sciences
Hormones, Heredity,
and Race
Spectacular Failure in Interwar Vienna
CHERYL A. LOGAN
RUTGERS UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY, AND LONDON
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Logan, Cheryl A.
Hormones, heredity, and race : spectacular failure in interwar Vienna / Cheryl A.
Logan.
p. cm. — (Studies in modern science, technology, and the environment)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978– 0– 8135– 5969– 8 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978– 0– 8135– 5970– 4
(e-book)
Physical anthropology— Austria— Vienna— 20th century. 2. Nature and nurture—
Austria— Vienna— 20th century. 3. Endocrinology— Austria— Vienna— 20th century.
4. Heredity— Austria— Vienna— 20th century. 5. Inheritance of acquired characters—
Austria— Vienna— 20th century. 6. Rejuvenation— Austria— Vienna— 20th century.
7. Racism in anthropology— Austria— Vienna— 20th century. 8. Vienna (Austria)—
History— 20th century. 9. Kammerer, Paul, 1880–1 926. 10. Tandler, Julius, 1869–1 936.
11. Steinach, Eugen, 1861–1 944. I. Title.
GN50.45.A9L64 2012
599.909436’130904— dc23
2012023496
A British Cataloging-in-Publication record for this
book is available from the British Library.
Copyright © 2013 by Cheryl A. Logan
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without written permission from the publisher. Please contact Rutgers University
Press, 106 Somerset Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901. The only exception to this
prohibition is “fair use” as defined by U.S. copyright law.
Visit our website: http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu
Manufactured in the United States of America
To Glenn and Myrtle

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
1 Three Failed Scientists 1
PART I: CONSTRUCTING HEREDITY
2 Rehabilitating Sexuality:
Degeneration versus Development 17
3 Paul Kammerer and Flexible Heredity 39
4 Sex, Race, and Heat Rats:
Somatic Induction and the Double Gonad 64
5 “Productive” Eugenics:
Harnessing the Energies of Development 89
PART II: REFORM EUGENICS
6 Heredity, Glands, and Human Constitutions 119
7 Tandler’s Eugenic Enigmas 143
8 Working Jewish in Vienna 171
9 Asymmetry, Failure, and Flexible Heredity 191
Epilogue 202
Notes 205
Index 237

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
W
hen years ago, as a graduate student, I read Arthur Koestler’s The Case of
the Midwife Toad I was persuaded by its tale of how a well-meaning scientist had
been framed and maybe even murdered by his enemies. Today, after a wonder-
ful intellectual journey, I know better than to accept the simplicity of heroes
and villains in history. But that knowledge has come with the often unwitting
help of many individuals to whom I am greatly indebted. My interest was piqued
many years ago by Merle B. Turner. And I could not have realized it without the
tolerance and openness of my colleagues in the Departments of Psychology and
History at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. For years, they tolerated
my wanderings into the history of the life sciences, often with no clear end in
sight. I owe special gratitude to the late Gilbert Gottlieb, and to Timothy John-
ston, Kenneth Caneva, Ronald Cassell, and Karl Schleunes.
Discussions and debates with many other colleagues have also shaped my
thinking and my approach. I would not have become a “real” historian without
the caring help of my great friend Sharon Salinger, who always provided moral,
academic, and substantive encouragement. I am also grateful for the support
of Mitchell Ash and Richard Burian. This project profited enormously from
extended discussions with many colleagues, especially including Mitchell Ash,
Sander Gliboff, and Veronika Hofer. I am also grateful for valuable input from
Margit Berner, Malachi Hacohen, Michael Hubenstorf, Sarah Jansen, Andreas
Lixl, Wolfgang Maderthaner, Arndt Niebisch, Klaus Taschwer, Sarah Wagner,
and the members of the old UNCG German Studies Group. The chance to share
ideas in the classroom with students also clarified my thinking on many, many
issues. Colleagues and students have far more impact than they know.
Laura Edwards, George Michel, Joan Paluzzi, Sharon Salinger, and Karl
Schleunes provided extremely constructive comments on earlier drafts of sev-
eral chapters. They gave me valuable time and offered great suggestions. Gener-
ous advice on numerous translations from the original German was patiently
provided by Andreas Lixl, Arndt Niebisch, and Susanne Rinner; and Paul Silvia
and the UNCG Agraphia group kept me going amid moments of polygraphic
confusion. I am grateful to all. Thanks are also due to an anonymous reviewer
x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
for excellent suggestions on the book’s concepts and structure and to Marsha
Richmond for an extremely helpful reading of the entire work. My editor, Peter
Mikulas, at Rutgers University Press has been a boon throughout. He offered
clear suggestions for revision at various points, saw me through several prob-
lems, offered terrific encouragement, and in the process greatly improved the
final work. And Margaret Case provided especially careful help in polishing the
final product. My gratitude to all, of course, implies no responsibility for any
remaining errors. All are of my own making.
Financial support for the project was provided by grants from the National
Science Foundation, the Fulbright Scholars Program, the UNCG Research Assign-
ments Program, the UNCG International Programs Center, and the UNCG Kohler
Fund. They made it possible to conduct research at archives in Austria and the
United States. The staff and administration of several libraries and archives pro-
vided important information that I might never have found without their help.
I am especially grateful to Roy Goodman and Valerie-Anne Lutz at the American
Philosophical Society, Liana Zhou and Shawn Wilson at the Kinsey Institute, Karl
Sablik and Manfred Skopec at the Institute for the History of Medicine at the
Medical University of Vienna, and Arlene Shaner at the New York Academy of
Medicine. The staffs of the Vienna Rathaus Library, the Rockefeller Archives, the
Austrian National Library, and the University of Wisconsin Special Collections
Department were also very helpful.
Finally, I have been truly honored by the hospitality shown me by the Wil-
liam Tandler family and the Hugh Iltis family. Their generosity and insights were
a special treat that helped me see “figures” as real people. They welcomed me
into their homes and shared important documents and memorabilia as well as
their lovely memories of Tandler, Kammerer, and Iltis.