As early as 14 July 1933, right after the seizure of power, the “Law for the Prevention of Hereditary Diseases” was passed. The aim was the “gradual purification of the national body and the eradication of pathological hereditary dispositions”. All those suffering from “congenital imbecility, schizophrenia, circulatory insanity, hereditary falling sickness, hereditary St Vitus’s dance, hereditary blindness or deafness, severe physical deformity or severe alcoholism” could now be made infertile against their will. The possibilities for the state to intervene in the lives of those affected were continually expanded, e.g. through forced abortion, marriage bans and the hereditary biological screening of the entire family.

 

When the Hereditary Health Act came into force on 1 January 1934, a separate jurisdiction was established at the same time. In the hereditary health courts and the higher hereditary health courts, one judge and two doctors each decided on applications for infertility. On the basis of the Hereditary Health Act, probably 360,000 forced sterilisations were carried out between 1934 and 1945.

 

The only notable resistance to this law came from the Catholic Church: it refused to carry out sterilisations in Catholic hospitals. In its institutions, it was able to save many of its patients from being sterilised by strictly segregating the sexes and putting up secure fencing. Before 1933, the bishops – because they declared every life to be inviolable – had opposed abortion and voluntary sterilisation. After 1933, they opposed forced sterilisation, forced abortions on eugenic grounds, and later “euthanasia” for the same reasons.

 

The sterilisation procedure was precisely defined in legal and bureaucratic terms. For patients in Wittenau, the medical director applied for sterilisation in over 90% of the cases. The prison provided the Hereditary Health Court with the medical history, a specialist medical report and, if necessary, an intelligence test to back up the diagnosis. The court based its decisions on the written documents. In exceptional cases, the person concerned was heard himself. Once the decision was legally binding, the patient had to undergo sterilisation in a hospital by means of surgery or X-ray irradiation, even against his will. From January 1934 to September 1938, the hereditary health courts decided that more than 1,700 patients in Wittenau should be sterilised. By the end of the war, the figure was probably over 2,000. An appeal against the decision could be lodged with the court of the next higher instance. Thus, not every sterilisation order was followed by immediate infertility treatment. Months, sometimes even years, could pass until then.

 

Over time, the number of complaints increased significantly. In 1934, there were complaints in only 3% of the cases, but by 1938 that figure had risen to 25%. Often the complaint was justified by the fact that it was not hereditary diseases but external factors such as material hardship, unemployment, family conflicts or lovesickness that had made admission and treatment necessary. For most patients, this only brought a postponement, but not a prevention of sterilisation.

 

The patients in Wittenau condemned to sterilisation mostly came from the lower classes. Many were domestic workers, labourers and craftsmen. The forced operations were carried out in Rudolf Virchow Hospital, Neukölln Hospital, Spandau Hospital, Moabit Hospital and Auguste Viktoria Hospital, among others.