Hygiene Institutes

Hygiene institutes were nothing new in the early 1930s, when the Nazis took power in Germany. They represented a result of the social hygiene movement that had emerged in Europe in the 19th century, and developed and gained prominence in the early 20th century both in Europe and in the USA. Under the Nazi regime, hygiene research and measures developed quickly in an extreme far-right, racist and nationalist direction, although race, eugenics and nationalist rhetoric played a relevant role in the hygiene field also before, both in Germany and other countries.

The three Berlin based institutions called the Hygiene Institute of the Waffen SS, the Ahnenerbe, and the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics – all active during the Nazi years, the latter being the only one founded before the beginning of Hitler's dictatorship – represent major examples of the historical development and radicalization of hygiene concepts and practices in Nazi Germany.