The Eugenic Fortress: The Transylvanian Saxon Experiment in Interwar Romania

Description

The ever growing library on the history of eugenics and fascism focuses largely on nation states, while this monograph asks why an ethnic minority, the Transylvanian Saxons, turned to eugenics as a means of self-empowerment in interwar Romania. The Eugenic Fortress investigates and unpacks the eugenic movement that emerged in the early twentieth century, and focuses on its conceptual and methodological evolution during the interwar period. Further on, the book analyzes the gradual process of politicisation and radicalisation at the hands of a second generation of Saxon eugenicists in conjunction with the rise of an equally indigenous fascist movement. The Saxon case study offers valuable insights into why an ethnic minority would seek to re-entrench itself behind the race-hygienic walls of a 'eugenic fortress', as well as the influence host and home nations had upon its design. Georgescu's work is ground breaking in the sense that the history of this uprooted community is usually handled with sensitivity and serious (and critical) research into Transylvanian Saxon involvement with Nazism has been energetically resisted. Series title page Title page copyright page Contents LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS INTRODUCTION i. Imagining a “Eugenic Fortress”: Fascist Who and Eugenic What? ii. Exclusions iii. Unpacking the Past CHAPTER I. Locating and Defining the Transylvanian Saxon Eugenic Discourse i. Heinrich Siegmund and the Origins of Saxon Eugenics ii. Saxon Racial Anthropology between Berlin and Vienna iii. The “Child Enthusiast” Alfred Csallner iv. Fritz Fabritius’s Self-Help, from “Building Society” to Rebuilding Society v. Wilhelm Schunn’s National Neighborhoods and Honorary Gifts CHAPTER II. Assessing the Dysgenic Crisis: Key Concepts and Theses in Alfred Csallner’s Definition of Saxon Degeneration i. The Lost Children: Family Planning and the Demographic Collapse ii. The Quality Question: The Nation’s Hereditarily “Best” under Threat of Extinction iii. Emigration: The Loss of Saxon Hereditary Substance iv. Mixed Marriages: The End of Racial Distinctiveness v. Lebensraum: Of “Foreign Invaders,” Saxon Employers, and Society’s Scourges, Alcohol and Tobacco CHAPTER III. Alfred Csallner in Search of Eugenic Solutions and Institutional Means i. Eugenic Missionaries: Visions of Priests Old and New ii. Csallner’s Population Policy Proposals and the Church iii. Going It Alone: The Society of Child Enthusiasts, 1927–30 iv. The Self-Help Race Office, 1932–35 v. The Reinvention of the Race Office as National Department for Statistics, Population Policy, and Genealogy, 1935–38 vi. The National Office for Statistics and Genealogy and Its Six Departments, 1938–41 CHAPTER IV. Fascist Visions of a Eugenic Fortress: The Self-Help’s Origins and Rise to Power, 1922–33 i. Fritz Fabritius and the Origins of Saxon Fascism ii. Early Development, 1922–29 iii. Expansion and Radicalization, 1929–32 iv. The NSDR Victorious, 1932–33 CHAPTER V. Saxon Fascism in Power, 1933–40 i. The Self-Help’s Various Forms and Formats, 1933–34 ii. War and Peace: The National Community of Germans in Romania, 1935–40 iii. The Mighty Pen: The 1935 National Programof Germans in Romania iv. Building a Bristling Eugenic Fortress, One Neighborhood at a Time: Wilhelm’s Schunn’s National Neighborhoods, 1933–40 CHAPTER VI. 1940 and Everything After CONCLUSIONS BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX OF NAMES INDEX OF PLACES