The Avantgarde of the ‘Rasse’. Nazi ‘Racial Biology’ at the German Charles University in Prague, 1940–1945
The Avantgarde of the ‘Rasse’. Nazi ‘Racial Biology’ at the German Charles University in Prague, 1940–1945

Summary/Abstract: During the WWII and the German occupation of Bohemia and Moravia, racial biology (Rassenbiologie) became institutionally established at the Faculty of (Natural) Sciences of the German Charles University in Prague in 1940–1945. Collections of the forcibly dissolved Czech Institute of Anthropology were placed at disposal of the new institute. According to local German academicians, its establishment was supposed to contribute to the so far insufficient research in the field of physical anthropology in Bohemia and Moravia. In fact, however, the new institute was from its very inception closely linked to the SS Race and Settlement Main Office/Racial Office (Rassenamt), and the various activities which their employees engaged in when implementing Nazi racial and ethnic policies in Bohemia and Moravia. The first – and also the last – head of this institute was SS-Standartenführer, Professor Dr. phil. habil. Bruno K. Schultz (1901–1997), a prominent representative of Nazi racial science and racial hygiene and – as a chief of the Rassenamt in 1941–1944 – person responsible for criteria and methods used by RuSHA members in carrying out mass selections. By engaging in such activities, the relevance of the institute goes far beyond purely academic engagement.

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