Hans Asperger, National Socialism, and “race hygiene” in Nazi-era Vienna

Abstract

BackgroundHans Asperger (1906–1980) first designated a group of children with distinct psychological characteristics as ‘autistic psychopaths’ in 1938, several years before Leo Kanner’s famous 1943 paper on autism. In 1944, Asperger published a comprehensive study on the topic (submitted to Vienna University in 1942 as his postdoctoral thesis), which would only find international acknowledgement in the 1980s. From then on, the eponym ‘Asperger’s syndrome’ increasingly gained currency in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the conceptualization of the condition. At the time, the fact that Asperger had spent pivotal years of his career in Nazi Vienna caused some controversy regarding his potential ties to National Socialism and its race hygiene policies. Documentary evidence was scarce, however, and over time a narrative of Asperger as an active opponent of National Socialism took hold. The main goal of this paper is to re-evaluate this narrative, which is based to a large extent on statements made by Asperger himself and on a small segment of his published work.MethodsDrawing on a vast array of contemporary publications and previously unexplored archival documents (including Asperger’s personnel files and the clinical assessments he wrote on his patients), this paper offers a critical examination of Asperger’s life, politics, and career before and during the Nazi period in Austria.ResultsAsperger managed to accommodate himself to the Nazi regime and was rewarded for his affirmations of loyalty with career opportunities. He joined several organizations affiliated with the NSDAP (although not the Nazi party itself), publicly legitimized race hygiene policies including forced sterilizations and, on several occasions, actively cooperated with the child ‘euthanasia’ program. The language he employed to diagnose his patients was often remarkably harsh (even in comparison with assessments written by the staff at Vienna’s notorious Spiegelgrund ‘euthanasia’ institution), belying the notion that he tried to protect the children under his care by embellishing their diagnoses.ConclusionThe narrative of Asperger as a principled opponent of National Socialism and a courageous defender of his patients against Nazi ‘euthanasia’ and other race hygiene measures does not hold up in the face of the historical evidence. What emerges is a much more problematic role played by this pioneer of autism research. Future use of the eponym should reflect the troubling context of its origins in Nazi-era Vienna.

Asperger, nazistene og barna – historien om en diagnoses tilblivelse

“…Ironisk nok sa Asperger senere i livet at han aldri ville utsatt sin familie eller pasienter for en liknende streng oppvekst. Asperger var sterkt troende katolikk, et faktum som har blitt brukt som argument for hans uskyld (2). Ifølge Czech er det misvisende.…”

“…Asperger var en sterk kritiker av psykoanalysen og troen på at oppvekst og traumer var formende for barnas utvikling, snarere vektla han biologiske og konstitusjonelle forklaringer i tråd med nazismens rasehygiene (2). Avvik ble forklart med en «generell underlegenhet i nervesystemet», en tanke som skinner igjennom i tekstene han publiserte etter krigen (2). Hans motstand mot psykoanalysen og traumers rolle i psykopatologiutvikling blir saerlig tydelig i hans forklaring av seksuelle overgrep mot barn.…”

“…Han hevdet at barn som ble utsatt for overgrep, måtte ha en medfødt disposisjon, en «skamløshet» som gjorde at de «tiltrakk» seg slike hendelser. Dessuten ville barn med «sunn personlighet» vokse av seg selv alvorlige seksuelle traumer (2). Det var ingen motsetning mellom den tradisjonen som Asperger sto i og en biologisk sykdomsforståelse.…”

“…Asperger konstruerte i stor grad bildet av seg selv som motstander av nazismen og som barnas redningsmann, et bilde som i ettertiden ukritisk har blitt videreformidlet. To omfattende forskningsarbeider med utgangspunkt i det samme arkivmaterialet går i rette med skjønnmalingen av Aspergers rolle under nazismen: Edith Scheffers bok Asperger's Children: the Origin of Autism in Nazi Vienna (1) og en artikkel av Herwig Czech (2).…”

Asperger's Children. The Origins of Autism in Nazi ViennaEdithShefferNew York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2018. 317 pp. (cloth) ISBN 978‐0‐393‐60964‐6.

“…This spring, Herwig Czech's article in Molecular Autism, entitled “Hans Asperger, National Socialism, and ‘race hygiene' in Nazi‐era Vienna,” made an impact not only on the scientific world of autism researchers, but also on a wider audience (Czech, ). A prominent Dutch newspaper headed an article on Czech's research with the quote: “Pioneer Asperger collaborated with the Nazis,” thereby tarnishing the reputation of a man who gained eponymous fame for his early work with children with autism.…”