Feeble-mindedness in related families in four neighboring towns Instructional poster charting rapid spread of mental disability in 1 family
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 11.500 inches (29.21 cm) | Width: 15.250 inches (38.735 cm)
Creator(s)
- Eberhard Brauchle (Illustrator)
- Alfred Vogel (Author)
- Verlag fur nationale Literatur Gebr. Rath (Publisher)
Archival History
The poster was acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1990.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection
Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Scope and Content
Educational poster with a family tree showing how alcoholism and feeble-mindedness are passed down from a couple to their four children and their families. It is from a portfolio of teaching panels designed by Alfred Vogel, a school headmaster and Nazi Party member, to instruct students on the superiority of the Aryan race, the virtue of racial purity, and the burden that Jews, as well as the handicapped, mentally ill, and unfit, place on society. For Hitler's government, the indoctrination of children through the required teaching of Nazi ideology was a powerful tool. The teaching of eugenics and racial biology began in primary school. Vogel's series provided illustrated aids on its key aspects, showing in simple pictures the urgency of the Jewish threat, the danger of racial miscegenation, or mixing of races, and how the pure breed will always be strongest, and mixed breeds must be eliminated.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Poster on cardstock with a title phrase in Fraktur font across the top. Below is a color illustration of a distant view of 4 adjacent towns with tall church spires spread out along a river in an expansive green valley. Below this is a diagram of family relationships and heredity factors. At the top is a horizontal yellow and black line with 4 descending trees composed of lines, squares, and circles of different colors. On the left end, a square with 2 trees, captioned: nach Gemeinde K. geheiratet / in Gemeinde K. [married after church K. / in municipality K.]; center left, an ascending V captioned: Familie M in J., and 2 descending trees captioned: in Gemeinde J. [in municipality J.]; center right has 3 descending trees captioned: nach Gemeinde D. geheiratet / Base / Verwandtenheirat / Vetter / in Stadt P. [married after church D. / cousin / cousin marriage / cousin / in city P.]; the third tree of this connects to the tree on the right end captioned: nach Stadt P. geheiratet [after city P. married]. Along the bottom is a legend with 3 colored squares explaining the code: gold, vollstandig schwachsinn [complete feeble-mindedness]; yellow, leicht schwachsinn [light feeble-mindedness]; blue, trinker [alcoholism]. The chart shows how the diseased trait increases at a faster rate and infects the healthy, with squares for clean traits and circles for diseased. In the final row, 2 parents have passed diseased traits to 10 out of 12 descendants. This poster is no. 27 in Vogel's series, and 1 of 9 in collection 1990.120.
front, top, black ink : Schwachsinn verwandter Familien in vier Nachbarorten [Feeble-mindedness in related families in four neighboring towns] front, bottom, below image, black ink : Vogel: Erblehre und Rassenkunde. - Alle Rechte vorbehalten.- Verlag für nationale Literatur, Gebr. Rath, Stuttgart-(W) [Vogel: Theory of Inheritance and Racial Hygiene. - All Rights Reserved. - Publisher for national Literature, Gebr. Rath, Stuttgart- (Wurttemburg]] front, bottom, right corner outside image, black ink : 27
Subjects
- Heredity--Study and teaching--Germany--Posters.
- National socialism and education--Posters.
- Race--Study and teaching--Germany--Posters.
- Eugenics--Posters.
- Germany--Race relations--Study and teaching--Posters.
- Genetic engineering--Germany--Posters.
- Heredity--Pictorial works.
Genre
- Object
- Posters