Johannes Heinrich Schultz and National Socialism.
BACKGROUND
Johannes Heinrich Schultz (1884-1970) established the set of techniques known as "autogenic training." From 1936 until 1945 he worked as assistant director of the Göring Institute. His role during National Socialism has been underestimated in our opinion.


METHODS
We considered Schultz's academic publications and his "autobiography" from 1964.


RESULTS
Schultz publicly advocated compulsory sterilization as well as the "annihilation of life unworthy of life" and developed a diagnostic scheme which distinguished between the neurotic/curable and the hereditary/ incurable. In fact, this classification was then employed to decide between life and death. In order to justify the "New German Psychotherapy" alongside eugenic psychiatry, Schultz carried out degrading and inhuman "treatments" of homosexual prisoners of concentration camps who were in mortal danger.


CONCLUSIONS
This study was based on written documents. We were not able to interview contemporary witnesses.


CONCLUSIONS
By advocating compulsory sterilization and the "annihilation of life unworthy of life" and by the abuse of homosexuals as research objects Schultz violated fundamental ethical principles of psychiatry.
Institute for History, Theory and Ethics inMedicine, RWTH Aachen, Germany. jkbrunner@gmx.de
Jürgen
J
Brunner
Matthias
M
Schrempf
Florian
F
Steger
D001326:Autogenic Training / Q000266:history*; D003209:Concentration Camps / Q000266:history*; D005053:Eugenics / Q000266:history*; D005858:Germany; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D017767:Holocaust / Q000266:history*; D018451:Homosexuality, Male / Q000266:history*; D006805:Human Experimentation / Q000266:history*; D006801:Humans; D007585:Jews / Q000266:history*; D008297:Male; D028683:National Socialism / Q000266:history*; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000266:history*; D013244:Sterilization, Involuntary / Q000266:history*