Anthroposophical Doctors under National Socialism
Did anthroposophical doctors follow, profit from, or oppose the medicine under National Socialism and its “New German Medicine” [Neue Deutsche Heilkunde]?
How did the anthroposophical medical profession position itself with regard to the guidelines and consequences of Nazi medicine—from the biological census of the entire population under the dictate of “public health” and maximum performance to the exclusion of Jewish colleagues, forced sterilizations of human beings, and killing of psychiatric patients?
If the anthroposophical medical profession was really part of a civil society resistance movement, as often emphasized by anthroposophists, why, after the ban on the Anthroposophical Society in November 1935, were they still able to continue working in practices, clinics, and individual curative education homes, with anthroposophical medicines at their disposal that Weleda and Rudolf Hauschka continued to produce? Did they belong to the regime—were they ultimately a privileged and cooperative group with ideological convergence, as critics have repeatedly claimed? Leading National Socialists like Otto Ohlendorf, along with their families, liked to receive treatment from anthroposophical practitioners. The well-known anthroposophical pediatrician Wilhelm zur Linden described his politically prominent clientele in a widely circulated autobiography. He was perhaps not the only one whose large practice was popular with high-profile National Socialists (though also with members of the opposition.) Did anthroposophic medicine fit into the National Socialists’ biopolitical concept, with its valorization of the “natural,” the ecological, and the prophylactic? The leading Nazi ideologues wanted stronger immunity, vitality, and resistance, more “health” and “vitality” for the “German people.” Was anthroposophical medicine the suitable form of “biological medicine” for them?
In 2016, these and similar topical and highly charged questions led the Academy of the Society of Anthroposophic Doctors in Germany [Akademie der Gesellschaft Anthroposophischer Ärztinnen und Ärtze in Deutschland, GAÄD] to ask the Ita Wegman Institute to conduct a study on anthroposophic medicine, pharmacy, and curative education during the era of National Socialism, in collaboration with an independent, highly qualified scientific advisory board, the Nazi medical historians Thomas Beddies and Heinz-Peter Schmiedebach, both professors at Charité, The Institute for the History of Medicine and Ethics in Medicine at the Berlin University of Medicine. The first of three volumes with over 900 pages has now been published by the renowned Schwabe publishing house (Basel/Berlin), the oldest scientific publishing house in the world (founded in 1488 as Offizin Petri [Office of Petri]). This first volume covers the relationship between anthroposophy and National Socialism (and vice versa) as well as the activities of anthroposophical medical professionals from 1933 to 1945. Volumes two and three will be published by Schwabe in 2025 on Weleda and Wala (vol. 2) and on anthroposophical psychiatry and curative education (vol. 3).
This text is an excerpt from an article published in the (online exclusive) Goetheanum Weekly. You can read the full article on the website. If you are not yet a subscriber, you can get to know the Goetheanum Weekly for 1 CHF./€.
read moreBook Peter Selg, Susanne H. Gross, Matthias Mochner, Antroposophie und Nationalsozialismus: Die anthroposophische Ärzteschaft [Anthroposophy and National Socialism. The anthroposophical medical profession] (Basel: Schwabe, 2024).
Title image Secret State Police Office (later Reich Security Main Office), 1933, Berlin, Prinz-Albrecht-Straße 8. Source: Federal Archives.