The Eugenic Fortress: The Transylvanian Saxon Experiment in Interwar Romania

290 Pages·2016·6.767 MB·English

by  Tudor Georgescu

The Eugenic Fortress
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CEU Press Studies in the History of Medicine
Volume VII
Series Editor: Marius Turda
5
Published in the series:
Svetla Baloutzova
Demography and Nation
Social Legislation and Population Policy in Bulgaria, 1918–1944
C
Christian Promitzer · Sevasti Trubeta · Marius Turda, eds.
Health, Hygiene and Eugenics in Southeastern Europe to 1945
C
Francesco Cassata
Building the New Man
Eugenics, Racial Science and Genetics in Twentieth-Century Italy
C
Rachel E. Boaz
In Search of “Aryan Blood”
Serology in Interwar and National Socialist Germany
C
Richard Cleminson
Catholicism, Race and Empire
Eugenics in Portugal, 1900–1950
C
Maria Zarimis
Darwin’s Footprint
Cultural Perspectives on Evolution in Greece (1880–1930s)
ii
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The Eugenic Fortress
The Transylvanian Saxon Experiment in Interwar Romania
Tudor Georgescu
CCeennttrraall EEuurrooppeeaann UUnniivveerrssiittyy PPrreessss
BBuuddaappeesstt——NNeeww YYoorrkk
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© 2016 Tudor Georgescu
Published in 2016 by
Central European University Press
An imprint of the
Central European University Limited Liability Company
Nádor utca 11, H-1051 Budapest, Hungary
Tel: [phone] or 327-3000 · Fax: [phone]
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.ceupress.com
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E-mail: [email protected]
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without the permission of the Publisher.
ISBN 978-963-386-139-4
ISSN 2079-1119
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Georgescu, Tudor, author.
Title: The eugenic fortress : the Transylvanian Saxon experiment in interwar Romania / Tudor Georgescu.
Description: New York : Central European University Press, 2016. | Series: CEU Press studies in the history of
medicine, ISSN 2079-1119 ; Volume VII | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Description based on print
version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015049638 (print) | LCCN 2015043867 (ebook) | ISBN 9789633861417 (pdf) |
ISBN 9789633861394 (hardcover)
Subjects: LCSH: Eugenics—Romania—History—20th century. | Fascism—Romania—History—20th century. |
Germans—Romania—Transylvania—History—20th century.
Classification: LCC HQ755.5.R6 (print) | LCC HQ755.5.R6 G46 2016 (ebook) |
DDC 363.9/209498—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015049638
Printed by Prime Rate Kft., Hungary
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C O N T E N T S
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS vi
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ix
INTRODUCTION 1
i. Imagining a “Eugenic Fortress”: Fascist Who and Eugenic What? 8
ii. Exclusions 17
iii. Unpacking the Past 20
CHAPTER I. Locating and Defining the Transylvanian
Saxon Eugenic Discourse 29
i. Heinrich Siegmund and the Origins of Saxon Eugenics 29
ii. Saxon Racial Anthropology between Berlin and Vienna 44
iii. The “Child Enthusiast” Alfred Csallner 51
iv. Fritz Fabritius’s Self-Help, from “Building Society”
to Rebuilding Society 70
v. Wilhelm Schunn’s National Neighborhoods and Honorary Gifts 78
CHAPTER II. Assessing the Dysgenic Crisis: Key Concepts and Theses
in Alfred Csallner’s Definition of Saxon Degeneration 85
i. The Lost Children: Family Planning and the Demographic Collapse 86
ii. The Quality Question: The Nation’s Hereditarily “Best”
under Threat of Extinction 92
iii. Emigration: The Loss of Saxon Hereditary Substance 102
iv. Mixed Marriages: The End of Racial Distinctiveness 103
v. Lebensraum: Of “Foreign Invaders,” Saxon Employers,
and Society’s Scourges, Alcohol and Tobacco 112
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Contents
CHAPTER III. Alfred Csallner in Search of Eugenic
Solutions and Institutional Means 121
i. Eugenic Missionaries: Visions of Priests Old and New 122
ii. Csallner’s Population Policy Proposals and the Church 126
iii. Going It Alone: The Society of Child Enthusiasts, 1927–30 138
iv. The Self-Help Race Office, 1932–35 143
v. The Reinvention of the Race Office as National Department
for Statistics, Population Policy, and Genealogy, 1935–38 145
vi. The National Office for Statistics and Genealogy and Its
Six Departments, 1938–41 149
CHAPTER IV. Fascist Visions of a Eugenic Fortress:
The Self-Help’s Origins and Rise to Power, 1922–33 165
i. Fritz Fabritius and the Origins of Saxon Fascism 166
ii. Early Development, 1922–29 172
iii. Expansion and Radicalization, 1929–32 179
iv. The NSDR Victorious, 1932–33 193
CHAPTER V. Saxon Fascism in Power, 1933–40 203
i. The Self-Help’s Various Forms and Formats, 1933–34 204
ii. War and Peace: The National Community of Germans
in Romania, 1935–40 208
iii. The Mighty Pen: The 1935 National Program
of Germans in Romania 210
iv. Building a Bristling Eugenic Fortress, One Neighborhood at
a Time: Wilhelm’s Schunn’s National Neighborhoods, 1933–40 215
CHAPTER VI. 1940 and Everything After 241
CONCLUSIONS 255
BIBLIOGRAPHY 259
INDEX OF NAMES 277
INDEX OF PLACES 279
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L I S T O F I L L U S T R A T I O N S
Fig. 1. Heinrich Siegmund (NA Sibiu, Brukenthal, LL 1-29, 54, p. 5) 31
Fig. 2. Alfred Csallner (ca. 1940) (Inside cover of Csallner, Rottenholz) 51
Fig. 3. Csallner: “The Increasing Lack of Transylvanian Saxon Children”
(NA Sibiu, CGR, D.XIV.850, p. 27) 89
Fig. 4. Csallner: “The Decline in Our Industriousness due
to Differential Fertility (Kronstadt)”
(NA Sibiu, CGR, D.XIV.850, p. 31) 100
Fig. 5. Dr. Josef Bacon: “The Schässburg Saxons’ Expenditures
in 1921” (NA Sibiu, CGR, D.XIV.850, p. 34.) 117
Fig. 6. The National Community of Germans in Romania: form
and function in late 1935. (Compiled from Wolff, Ein Jahr
Volksgemeinschaft.) 217
Fig. 7. The Neighborhoods National Office and its twenty-two
departments in 1939 (In Schunn, Schulungsbüchlein für
Amtswalter, 7) 218
Fig. 8. “The Chest,” Richttag, January 28, 1939
(NA Sibiu, CGR, D.XIII.B.530, p. 8) 226
Fig. 9. “Communal Supper,” Richttag, January 28, 1939
(NA Sibiu, CGR, D.XIII.B.530, p. 12) 226
Fig. 10. “Presenting of the Honorary Gift” (from Schunn,
Weg und Feinde der NEDR, 40) 229
Table 1. Program of the Bistritz Welfare-Training Course
(July 7–13, 1929)(ZAEV, LK 1929, Bestand 103.90, 19, p. 5) 41
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A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S
First of all, I owe the Wellcome Trust a world of gratitude for its kind and
generous support of my doctoral research that eventually led to this book.
But I am eternally indebted to my beloved wife Sabine, whose obviously
boundless patience with an increasingly erratic husband has never failed
to amaze me. Nor, needless to say, my awesome whirlwinds Dennis and
Anja—I’m sure you’ll read and love this when you’re old enough… I am par-
ticularly thankful to be blessed with parents whose limitless love and trust
have been such an inspiration and source of strength. I would also like to
thank Marius Turda for an incredible journey, cherished memories, and a
heartfelt friendship.
I would also like to thank, again and again, Monica Vlaicu, with whom
I’ve had the pleasure of spending many an afternoon rooting through archi-
val treasures at the Teutsch House. Similarly, I am very grateful indeed to
Alexiu Tatu at the Romanian National Archives, who kindly helped me use
the incredible files his archive holds and who has been a constant source of
support. Thank you, too, to the many friends and colleagues who helped in
all manners, for indulging the many long-winded ramblings about eugen-
ics, for being the best imaginable companions on academia’s winding road.
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A B B R E V I A T I O N S
BSV – Land Preservation Society (Bodenschutzverein)
DVR – National Party of the Germans in Romania (Deutsche Volkspartei
in Rumänien)
FDV – Research Institute of the German National Community in Romania
(Forschungsinstitut der Deutschen Volksgruppe in Rumänien)
HJS – Half-Yearly Journal for Southeast European History, Literature, and Poli-
tics (Halbjahresschrift für Südosteuropäische Geschichte, Literatur und Politik)
IOGT – International Order of Good Templars
ISB – Institute for Statistics and Population Policy of the German National
Community in Romania (Institut für Statistik und Bevölkerungspolitik
der Deutschen Volksgruppe in Rumänien)
LK – Governing Council of the Protestant National Church (Landeskon-
sistorium der evangelischen Landeskirche Augsburger Bekentnisses in
Rumänien)
LSBS – National Department for Statistics, Population Policy, and Geneal-
ogy (Landesarbeitsstelle für Statistik, Bevölkerungspolitik und Sippen-
wesen)
LSS – National Office for Statistics and Genealogy (Landesamt für Statis-
tik und Sippenwesen)
NA Sibiu – Romanian National Archives, Sibiu Branch (Arhivele Naţionale
ale României, Direcţia Sibiu)
NEDR – National Movement of Renewal of the Germans in Romania
(Nationale Erneuerungsbewegung der Deutschen in Rumänien)
NSDAP der VgrDR – NSDAP of the German National Community in
Romania (NSDAP der Deutschen Volksgruppe in Rumänien)
NSDR – National Socialist Self-Help Movement of the Germans in Roma-
nia (Nationalsozialistische Selbsthilfebewegung der Deutschen in
Rumänien)
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Abbreviations
OB – East German Observer (Ostdeutscher Beobachter)
SDT – Transylvanian German Daily (Siebenbürgisch-Deutsches Tageblatt)
VdK – Society of Child Enthusiasts (Verein der Kinderfrohen)
VDR – Association of Germans in Romania (Verband/Volksgemeinschaft
der Deutschen in Rumänien)
VgrDR – German National Community in Romania (Volksgruppe der
Deutschen in Rumänien)
ZAEV – Central Archive of the National Protestant Church A.B. in Roma-
nia, Sibiu (Zentralarchiv des Landeskonsortiums der Evangelischen
Kirche A.B. in Rumänien, Hermannstadt)
ZfSL – Journal for Transylvanian Regional Studies (Zeitschrift für Siebenbür-
gische Landeskunde)
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