American Eugenics The American eugenics movement seemed to correspond with the goals of Nazi Germany. American eugenicists like Leon F. Whitney who was the secretary of the American Eugenics Society admired German’s sterilization laws. In 1934, he stated that eugenicists from England and America “have long been earnestly toward something very like what Hitler has now made compulsory.” It is clear that the American eugenics Movement in some ways, directly and indirectly, influenced the race policies of Germany. Although not as overt, there seems to be a relationship between the American eugenics movement and Nazi Germany, which is often omitted and forgotten in the collective history. However, California’s history regarding eugenics remains …show more content…
The main financial supporter of German eugenics was the Rockefeller Foundation in New York. The Rockefeller Foundation played the central role in establishing and sponsoring major German eugenic organizations like the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Psychiatry, the Institute for Brain Research, and the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Eugenics, and Human Heredity. These organizations were headed by leading German eugenicists like Eugen Fischer and Fritz Lenz. These German Eugenicists had explicit ties to American Eugenics organizations and significant Eugenicists. Fischer was a Carnegie associate and often collaborated with the head of the Eugenics Record Office in the United States, Charles B. Davenport. Lenz once encouraged Laughlin to publish a German translation of his studies on the sterilization laws in the United States in the Archiv für Rassenund Gesellschaftsbiologie, the main German journal of racial hygiene as mentioned above. The Carnegie Institution funded and founded the Eugenic Records Office in Cold Spring Harbor with Charles B. Davenport. Davenport was another significant figure that Kelves did not identify. Davenport also took part in the International Congress of 1912. He developed ties with German Eugenicists and was involved with the opening celebration of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Eugenics, and Human Heredity in 1927. During this celebration, he delivered a speech in support of the international eugenics movement. This signifies that the two movements were aligned and had similar goals socially and politically. Both American and German Eugenic organization were funded by the same foundations meaning that this relationship has been rather active since 1912 and both movements have been arguably intertwined from the