Biologists under Hitler

Ute Deichmann

Translated by Thomas Dunlap

    An exhaustive chronicle of biologists and their research under the Nazis...[Readers] will find painstaking detail, a clear understanding of the scientific subject-matter and determination to expose the amoral behaviour of scientists who worked under a criminal regime.
       --Richard Bessel, Times Literary Supplement

    Although the 1980s and early 1990s saw an explosion of literature on science in National Socialist Germany, many disciplines, institutions, and other important topics still have not been covered...Ute Deichmann's book thus fills a gap in the literature...This is a comprehensive and detailed study of biologists and biology in social, political, and financial context.
       --Kristie Macrakis, American Historical Review

    Biologists Under Hitler examines the impact of Nazism on the lives and research of a generation of German biologists. Drawing on previously unutilized archival material, Ute Deichmann, herself a biologist, not only explores what happened to the biologists forced to emigrate but also investigates the careers, science, and crimes of those who stayed in Germany. Biologists Under Hitler combines exhaustive research with capsule biographies of key scientists to overturn assumptions about science under the Nazi regime...As a thorough and comprehensive account of biological science in Nazi Germany, Biologists Under Hitler is of interest to historians of science, historians of the Nazi era, and biologists, as well as those who wish to learn about the relationship between scientific truth and political realities.
       --Bulletin of the Institute of Holocaust Research

    Many critics regard this volume as the most thorough and comprehensive account of biological science in Nazi Germany.
       --Jack Fischel, Indiana Jewish Post & Opinion

    We are now fortunate to have an English edition of this distinguished work, the first book-length treatment of the history of biology under the Nazis. Deichmann shows that, contrary to conventional wisdom, the biological sciences were handsomely supported during the Nazi period.
       --Robert Proctor, Pennsylvania State University

  • Cover: Biologists under Hitler
  • A photo of the author

Ute Deichmann is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Genetics of the University of Cologne. She was a recipient of the 1995 Ladislaus Laszt International Ecumenical and Social Concern Award of the Ben Gurion University of the Negev.