M HKA Ensembles

Book, 16.9 x 23.9 x 2.2 cm.

Collection: Collection MHKA, Antwerp.

Wilhelm Schallmayer (1857-1919) was a psychiatrist and Germany’s first advocate of eugenics. According to Schallmayer, racial hygiene (eugenics) was supposed to become a common philosophy, unifying all kinds of political parties for the purpose of improving heredity within the population. In Vererbung und Auslese im Lebenslauf der Völker he sought to demonstrate that a shift in ethical values away from the traditional family model and excepted gender roles eventually had resulted in a rapid increase in homosexuality and subsequent decline of Greco-Roman civilisation. Highly inspired by Darwinian evolution theory and the idea of the preservation of the species through biological development, Schallmayer believed that the preservation of the state must become the main goal of politics in order to survive in the competitive struggle among nations. In contrast to other eugenicists of his time, who asserted and promoted cultural and intellectual superiority of the Nordic race above others, Schallmayer’s approach was not racist. He was the first to address the subject from a managerial logic of efficiency. Thus among his suggestions was the introduction of a system of bonuses and fees in order to encourage high-level civil servants and representatives of educated middle classes to have larger families.