Non-complicit: Revisiting Hans Asperger’s Career in Nazi-era Vienna

Abstract

Recent allegations that pediatrician Hans Asperger legitimized Nazi policies, including forced sterilization and child euthanasia, are refuted with newly translated and chronologically-ordered information that takes into account Hitler’s deceptive ‘halt’ to the T4 euthanasia program in 1941. It is highly unlikely that Asperger was aware of the T4 program when he referred Herta Schreiber to Am Spiegelgrund or when he mentioned that institution 4 months later on the medical chart of another (unrelated) girl, Elisabeth Schreiber. Asperger campaigned vigorously from 1938 to 1943 to have his specialization, Curative Education, take priority in the diagnosis and treatment of disabled children over other fields that promoted Nazi racial hygiene policies. He neither disparaged his patients nor was he sexist. By 1938, he had identified the essentials of Asperger syndrome and described an unnamed boy whom he later profiled (as Ernst K.) in 1944. Rather than doing ‘thin’ research, Asperger made discoveries that were prescient, and some of his activities conformed to definitions of “individual resistance.”

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Vol.:(0123456789)
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Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders (2020) 50:2573–2584
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-03981-7
ORIGINALPAPER
Non-complicit: Revisiting Hans Asperger’s Career inNazi-era Vienna
DeanFalk1,2
Published online: 18 March 2019
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019
Abstract
Recent allegations that pediatrician Hans Asperger legitimized Nazi policies, including forced sterilization and child eutha-
nasia, are refuted with newly translated and chronologically-ordered information that takes into account Hitler’s deceptive
‘halt’ to the T4 euthanasia program in 1941. It is highly unlikely that Asperger was aware of the T4 program when he referred
Herta Schreiber to Am Spiegelgrund or when he mentioned that institution 4 months later on the medical chart of another
(unrelated) girl, Elisabeth Schreiber. Asperger campaigned vigorously from 1938 to 1943 to have his specialization, Cura-
tive Education, take priority in the diagnosis and treatment of disabled children over other fields that promoted Nazi racial
hygiene policies. He neither disparaged his patients nor was he sexist. By 1938, he had identified the essentials of Asperger
syndrome and described an unnamed boy whom he later profiled (as Ernst K.) in 1944. Rather than doing ‘thin’ research,
Asperger made discoveries that were prescient, and some of his activities conformed to definitions of “individual resistance.”
Keywords Asperger syndrome· Euthanasia· Forced sterilization· Hans Asperger· Nazi-era Vienna· T4
Johann ‘Hans’ Friedrich Karl Asperger (1906–1980) was
an Austrian pediatrician and medical educator who is best
known in America from Uta Frith’s 1991 English translation
of his postdoctoral habilitation thesis (Asperger 1944b), ini-
tially published in German (Asperger 1944a). In it, Asperger
provided the first full description of a condition he called
“autistic psychopathy,” referred to here with the modern
name that Asperger eventually accepted, Asperger syndrome
(AS) (Asperger 1979). Upon receiving his medical degree
in 1931, Asperger became a postdoctoral student and was
eventually appointed as head of the Curative Education1
Department (or Ward)—called the Heilpädagogische Sta-
tion—at the University of Vienna’s Children’s Clinic (Asper-
ger Felder 2008). Asperger was still a postdoc when Austria
was annexed by Germany during the Anschluss of March 12,
1938, and he remained so until his habilitation was approved
in 1943. After that, he left Vienna to serve in the military,
returning in August 1945, after WWII ended.
Until recently, Asperger was reputed to have worked
behind the scenes to protect children from the Nazi steriliza-
tion and euthanasia policies that eventually came to Austria
(Feinstein 2010; Silberman 2015). However, two publica-
tions in 2018 have severely tarnished Asperger’s reputa-
tion (Czech 2018; Sheffer 2018). Historian Herwig Czech
asserts that Asperger “publicly legitimized race hygiene
policies including forced sterilizations and, on several occa-
sions, actively cooperated with the child ‘euthanasia’ pro-
gram” (Czech 2018, p.1). He also claims that Asperger’s
descriptions of his patients were unduly harsh, challenges a
number of Asperger’s diagnoses, and suggests that Asper-
ger lied about being threatened by the Gestapo after the
Anschluss. Czech concludes that “future use of the eponym
should reflect the troubling context of its origins in Nazi-era
Vienna” (Czech 2018, p.1).
Historian Edith Sheffer concurs with Czech’s criticisms
and goes further by describing Asperger as a “Nazi child
psychiatrist” (Sheffer 2018, p.67) with “solid far-right-
wing credentials” (Sheffer 2018, p.46). She further asserts
that, “While Asperger did support children he believed to
be teachable, defending their disabilities, he was dismissive
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this
article (https ://doi.org/10.1007/s1080 3-019-03981 -7) contains
supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
* Dean Falk
dfalk@fsu.edu; falk@sarsf.org
1 Department ofAnthropology, Florida State University, 2035
E. Paul Dirac Drive, Suite 206, Tallahassee, FL32310-3700,
USA
2 School forAdvanced Research, 660 Garcia St., SantaFe,
NM87505, USA
1 Curative education is also known as remedial education or special
education.
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