The "Act of prevention of hederopathic progeny" ("Gesetz zur Verhütung erbkranken Nachwuchses") came into force on 01 January 1934. Thus, the long discussed question of eugenic sterilisation turned into statutory obligation. The aim of this work is to describe and present the everyday course of forced sterilisation at the Gynaecological Clinic of the Martin-Luther-University Halle in the period of 1934 - 1945. The bases for this evaluation form all patient health files from 1934 till 1945, which were completely preserved in the archives. In this period 1417 girls and women underwent an enforced sterilisation at the Gynaecological Clinic of the Martin-Luther-University. Most of them were sterilized by operative surgery and only 19 were sterilized by Roentgen castration. The operative method by Madlener was used in preference to the Keilexzision procedure. In 86 cases an existing pregnancy was interrupted. 77 women suffered postoperative complications, 3 of them died. Most of the female patients belong to the lower social classes. 25 amounts to be their average age. More of two thirds of them were unmarried at the time of their sterilisation. The catchment area of the Gynaecological Clinic of the Martin-Luther-University is comparable with the Prussian province Saxony at that time. Most of the decisions for sterilisation came from the so called "Hereditary health courts" ("Erbgesundheitsgerichte") in Halle, Torgau and Naumburg. The diagnosis congenital mental deficiency was made in 72%, epilepsy in 12% and schizophrenia in 7% of the cases. The diagnoses congenital deafness, congenital deformity, bipolar disorder, congenital blindness, Huntington’s chorea and severe alcoholism appear to be a minor part. To illustrate the suffering, caused because of the enforcement of this statute, the author encloses extracts of interviews with victims. |