h*m* Sapiens 1900 (1998)

[bunniefuu]

The image of man betrays that which
distinguishes him from all other beings:

His ability to observe himself.

It is man's fate...

that he not only rejoices in what he sees...

but is displeased by his faults...

physical and mental.

Man's urge to civilize compels him
to strive for the improvement...

not only of his material conditions...

but of himself, as well.

To pour and to cultivate.

The image of man bears
witness to this ambition.

Around 1900, eugenics,
race hygiene...

the idea of improving the human species...

would become a new century's scientific credo.

The message is dramatic.

The biological development of man is in conflict

with the civilization he has constructed:

Hereditary decay, degeneration, leads to doom.

In the face of this dilemma

two means of escape are offered:

to turn the clock back, to retreat

or to withstand the imminent catastrophe with the aid of science.

''h*m* SAPIENS 1900''

Dr. Victor Frankenstein,

a fictional scientist of the 19th century

is obsessed with discovering the
essence of life.

He brings life to an artificial body.

Intervening the process of nature

has always been man's dream.

He himself being the most
tantalising object.

To study human life

is the greatest challenge science has to offer.

Frankenstein.

Enlightened reason transformed
into a nightmare.

The scientist as the terrifying
symbol of the utopian era.

The sinister image of man.

''It's alive!''

Art:

The exultant artifact of self-contemplation.

The classical image of man strives for beauty...

harmony, free from disturbing reality.

The despair man seems to feel
in the face of his own inadequacy.

the inability to live up to the
image

he himself has created

moves us in its impotence.

The image of man...

fills us at times with compassion.

''What nature does blindly...

slowly and ruthlessly...

man will do providently, quickly
and kindly''...

says British scientist Francis Galton.

According to Galton...

man's evolution is impeded by the fact that

inferior people procreate more rapidly.

The idea that life, society,

the family can be cultivated like a garden

in which the weeds must be distinguished
from the useful plants...

is something that Galton wants
to develop into a science.

He calls his idea eugenics.

Eugenics...

The control of natural selection

offers two alternatives.

''Positive'' eugenics...

the improvement of the human species
by mating superior individuals...

Breeding.

''Negative'' eugenics...

preventing people with inferior
characteristics from reproducing.

The process of heredity is long
shrouded in mystery.

In 1900...

the genetic laws of Gregor Mendel
are rediscovered.

However, the theory gives rise to controversy.

The Lamarckists...

as the opponents of Mendelism are called,

contend that environment shapes heredity.

''If the newborn proves to be a weakling...

or if the infant is deformed...

the medical staff will afford it a humane death

perhaps with a small dose of morphine'',

says the German physician Alfred Ploetz in 1895.


He coins the term ''Race Hygiene''.

Positive selection combined with an
official weeding-out process.

Ploetz calls for a mobilisation

to create a new, comprehensive science.

ARCHIVE OF RACIAL AND
SOCIAL BIOLOGY

Other essential disciplines...

almost all of them, in fact,

would serve race hygiene as
'auxilliary sciences'.

''The new science'' develops
into an all-embracing...

confessional movement.

In Germany, race hygiene gains popularity.

''Since the achievements of Darwin...

we perceive the world in a new light'',

the German art journal Pan proclaims.

''and only a modern aesthetic based on
his theory...

can accurately reflect the aspirations
of our times..'

The object of this praise is Jugendstill.

The emergence of
biological science...

provides man with a new perspective on life.

The concept of degeneration...

now has an optimistic anti-thesis:

biology as the redeemer of the western world.

The whole world is in bloom!

And even art conveys the message.

Science seems not only to offer an
understanding of nature...

but also the ability to intervene
and adjust.

Everything is biology!

And, like man himself...

society is an organism ruled by its laws.

New discoveries and ideas...

produce new movements and beliefs.

Our way of life must be reformed!

PERIODICAL OF THE RACIAL
CULTURE OF THE BODY

How one lives, how one eats,
the way one dresses...

reflects biological consciousness.

POWER AND BEAUTY

THE CULTURE

HUMAN

FAMILY PROTECTION

''Clothing plays havoc with the selection process''...

proclaims Richard Ungewitter...

a pioneer of the German nudist movement.

''In order to promote sound selection...

I demand a culture of nudity...

so that the strong and
healthy may mate.''

To reject clothing...

is to be liberated from the
decay of modern society...

and demonstrates racial consciousness.

''For the human body to achieve
perfection'', says Ungewitter...

to create out of h*m* sapiens,
the ideal living work of art...

we must enlist the services of
conscious human breeding.''

The goals of nudism's apostle...

are not very far removed from the
budding ambitions of science.

HEREDITARY SUCCESSION AS
GUARD OF POWER

As the ''new science'' makes
its way into universities...

a voluntary army of wild-eyed
reformers...

racial fanatics and health zealots...

rally around the banner of race hygiene.

The watchword of the day is eugenics.

Throughout the civilized world,
race hygiene ideas take root.



In the lead role of physician,

his profession in real-life as
well, Dr. Harry Haiselden.

And a deformed baby.

Dr. Haiselden spreads the gospel
of eugenics in his own way.

By refusing live-saving
operations...

on deformed infants...

or by making the operation fatal...

he campaigns for his ideals.

DOES HUMANITY DEMAND THE SAVING
OF DEFECTIVE BABIES?

Dr. Haiselden's eugenics crusade...

makes him the star of his own movie.

THE BLACK STORK

The climactic scene.

Haiselden refuses the
child a warming blanket.

''There are times when saving a life
is a greater crime than taking one.'


Dr. Haiselden's campaign...

aims at liberating America
from defective heritage.

''If man could be induced to
fall in love intelligently...

if human matings could be placed
on the same levels as horse breeding...

the most progressive revolution in
history can be achieved''.

says Charles Davenport...

the father of the eugenics movement
in the United States.

Davenport founds an institute...

for evolutionary research on Long Island...

And sets up the Eugenics Record Office.

His dream is to create a nation-wide
eugenics register.

Davenport trains field workers...

to visit poor houses, prisons
and mental wards.

His goal is to document and eliminate...

inferior hereditary characteristics.

The champions of eugenics find support in

racial theories and concepts of degeneration.

The movement gains momentum...

through an aggressive campaign
against blacks and immigrants.

Nowhere else does the practice of eugenics

score such early successes.

In 1907, the world's first compulsory
sterilization law...

is introduced.

Over 20 states soon pass similar laws.

Tens of thousands are sterilized.

In 1922, in the small country of Sweden...

the world's first government
institute of race biology...

is established.



a unanimous parliament passes a sterilization law.

THE INSTITUTE OF RACIAL
BIOLOGY, UPPSALA

The Institute of Race Biology,
in Uppsala...

under its founder,
Herman Lundborg...

is the center of Swedish race research.

In the course of endless travel,
material is gathered.

Photographs and physical measurements
of thousands of Swedes.

In the pursuit of positive and
negative heritage...

towns and parishes...

prisons and correctional
institutions are visited.

In Germany, the Swedish efforts
arouse admiration.

''The Institute of Race Biology
in Uppsala''...

writes the journal Die Sonne...

will rouse Germany's dawning
race research to life.

Beyond the purely scientific motives...

The Swedes are committed to the
pride and welfare...

of their Nordic blood...

and, like us, to the Nordic idea...

which once again, and for even
more profound reasons...

strengthens the ties that bond
Sweden and Germany.''

The institute places particular emphasis...

on anthropological measurements
and racial attributes.

Despite this, Race Hygiene would be integrated...

into Swedish social policy.

During the 1920s and 1930s...

Sweden becomes a progressive welfare state...

in which ethnic conflict is
virtually unknown.

A ''passion for social justice''...

preserving the physical and mental
health of the Swedish stock

is the rallying cry.

Race Hygiene is seen
as central...

to the wellbeing of modern society.

In Sweden, Race Hygiene theories
merge with...

the vision of the welfare state.

Social engineers are responsible

for organizing society for
the greater good.

A nation ranks higher than
the individual.

The Swedish stock must be protected from

inferior and foreign elements

fortifying to meet the demands
of modern society.

Individuals with inferior traits...

must be prevented from procreating.

Positive eugenics, breeding,
is still a dream.

Thus, negative eugenics
must be accepted.

The sterilization law is not compulsory.

The Swedish variety is democratic:

''opposition shall be
overcome through persuasion.''

Since the turn of the century...

German anthropology had expanded
into other disciplines.

It becomes a unifying force...

in the mobilization of race
hygiene efforts.

Anthropology is not limited to

questions of race and origin.

Its task is also to safeguard the future

taking practical measures to
save the human race

from racial mixing,
degeneration and doom.

When Germany's first institute
of race biology

opens in 1927, in Berlin,

anthropology is accorded
a leading position.

In the ''Kaiser Wilhelm Institute
for Anthropology,

Human Heredity and Eugenics''.

Race Hygiene has a new home.

According to the Institute's
chairman, Eugene Fischer,

its task is to ''investigate the
connection...

between heredity,
environment and crossbreeding...

and to promote social measures

which benefit racially sound individuals''.

The opening of the Kaiser Wilhelm
Institute coincides with

the ''5th International Conference
on Hereditary Research''...

in Berlin.

The conference reveals the scientific shift:

the breakthrough of modern genetics.

There are few presentations about
Race Hygiene.

Geneticists dominate
the proceedings.

At the head of the Soviet delegation...

the largest group at the
conference, Nicolai Vavilov.

Hermann Joseph Muller,
an American...

announces one of the greatest
discoveries of genetics:

that the X-raying of chromosomes
causes mutations.

Another American,
Raymond Pearl...

denies that there is any
evidence supporting eugenics.

He argues that 90% of all highly
gifted individuals...

have parents with average, or
even below-average abilities.

Thus, sterilization could be counterproductive.

From the very beginning, the
Kaiser Wilhelm Institute

finds itself lagging behind the times.

Although genetics is incorporated
into race biology research...

it becomes just one more
''auxiliary science''...

overshadowed by an anthropologically-
oriented Race Hygiene.

The Soviet Union, 1924.

Lenin is dead.

The German neurologist,
Oskar Vogt...

receives a letter from Moscow.

Vogt is requested to undertake
the task of studying Lenin's brain.

With the brain of Lenin as its
first specimen...

Vogt establishes an institute for
brain research in Moscow.

One of the tasks of the institute...

is to assemble the brains of
highly gifted individuals...

in order to establish the bio-
logical foundations of intelligence.

The vision is a ''pantheon of the brain''...

a posthumanist home for the foremost geniuses...

of the young Soviet state.

The question
''What is intelligence?''...

''What moulds a human being
in his biological heritage?''...

provoked violent discussion
among Soviet scientists.

In 1928, a film is released in
Moscow.

THE SALAMANDER

What at first appears to be
entertainment...

proves to be part of the struggle
of what shapes man.

The film is an attack
on Mendelism.

A declaration that man
is not enslaved...

by his genetic heritage.

According to the Mendelists...

external factors cannot influence
genetic makeup.

Only characteristics possessed by their parents...

can be transmitted to their
offspring.

However, their opponents,
the Lamarckists...

insist that heritage is moulded
by external factors...

that acquired characteristics
are inheritable.

Today, we know that the
Lamarckists were wrong.

The film tells the story

of the Austrian biologist,
Paul Kammerer.

His fictional name: Professor Zange.

Kammarer is a Lamarckist.

Kammarer dedicates his life...

to establishing the validity
of the Lamarckist theory.

''The trends of the parents are
formed by its experiences...'

and affects the characteristics
of its descendants."

His experiments set out to prove...

that acquired characteristics
are inheritable.

'' These characteristics, acquired
through the environment...

'are passed on to the next
generation.''

''The yellow salamander becomes
gloomy, when placed in the dark sand.

Its descendants inherit this
alteration.''

But Kammerer is accused of scientific fraud.

COLORATION!

Perhaps he is the victim of a conspiracy.

COLORATION!

Kammerer commits suicide.

The Soviet Union wants
to turn him into a martyr.

In the film, Kammerer,
in the guise of professor Zange...

is rescued by a Soviet
government minister.

''We have to find Zange and
bring him to the Soviet Union.''

This official is not just
played by any actor.

He is Anatoly Lunacharsky...

the Cultural Minister of the Soviet Union.

Lunacharsky plays himself.

For safety's sake,
he also wrote the screenplay.

The film is an attempt to halt
the advance of Mendelism...

considered counter-revolutionary
by the Kremlin.

''Mendelism makes us
sl*ves of the past...

while Lamarckism
makes us captains of the future''.

States Paul Kammerer...

Giving us a glimpse of the matter's
ideological dimensions.

At the core of this
scientific controversy...

is the vision of the new Socialist Man.

The pioneering spirit
of the Russian Revolution...

also embraces science.

''The ideals of socialism are
bound up with our earthly life''.

says Russian biologist
Nikolai Koltsov...

''but the dream of a perfect
order is also a religious idea...

for which people will go
to their deaths.

Eugenics, creating through the
efforts of many generations...

a higher human being,
is worth the sacrifice.

Eugenics is the religion of the future...

and it awaits its prophets.''

Notions of degeneration
and decay...

play a subordinate role
in Russia.

The ideas of eugenics ride
on the crest of the revolution...

propelled by the early breakthrough
of genetic research in Russia.

The future, science and the arts
belong to the pioneers!

And while artists of the avant garde
craft symbolic constructions

of society in the future,

the pioneers of science will supply
that society with a new,

more efficient human being.

''If our civilization's best
elements are to survive...

human husbandry...

based on the principles of
scientific agriculture...

is necessary'', the American
Eugenics Society proclaims.

The gospel spreads from state to state.

The message is disseminated
at rallies and fairs.

Eugenics competitions are arranged.

Participants undergo intelligence tests...

and medical examinations.

A jury judges the family's ''pedigree''.

The winning family receives prizes.

Parallel to the advance of eugenics...

American genetics research
leads the world.

Herrman Joseph Muller...

one of the foremost geneticists
of the day...

is also a fervent advocate
of eugenics.

Muller, a communist...

has a different understanding
of the goal of eugenics.

As an outsider,

he witnesses the development and
decay of the eugenics movement.

A movement he disdains...

not only because of its reactionary
and r*cist tendencies...

but also its banality and popularism.

Muller doubts that
the goals of capitalism...

can be reconciled with
those of eugenics.

''Proportionate to the importance
of the eugenics revolution...

would be its danger if misused'',
says Muller.

''Such a system, if directed
by the same forces...

as our press and general propaganda...

would lead to a population
composed of a maximum number of

Billy Sundays, Valentinos,
Jack Dempseys...

even Al Capones.''

''However, after a genuine
eugenics revolution'', says Muller...

''it would be possible for
the majority of the population

to achieve the innate quality
of such man as...

Lenin, Newton, Beethoven,
Pushkin and Marx.''

A Petrogrado stricken by famine.

In the shadow of the civil w*r,
biologist Juri Filiptchenko...

launches the first eugenics
research project in Russia.

Filiptchenko is a Mendelist.

As a member of the committee,
aiding intellectuals and artists...

surviving the w*r...

he is able to convince
prospective participants.

Along with the committee's food packet...

dried fish, bread and oil...

the participant receives a questionnaire.

SCIENTISTS

ACADEMICS

ARTISTS

Information about family
members...

especially their intellectual
and artistic abilities...

should be meticulously detailed:

musicality, literary talent,
verbal skills.

By studying the genetic basis
of intelligence...

Filiptchenko hopes to obtain data...

faced by the practical tasks
of eugenics.

Many of Russia's most prominent
scientists and artists...

participate in the study:

Ivan Pavlov, psychologist.

Alexander Glazunov, composer.

Vladimir Bechterev, neurologist.

Alexandr Blok, poet.

Vladimir Vernadski,
geologist and philosopher.

This obsession with genius
was not a coincidence.

The eugenics movement in
the Soviet Union...

focuses on the brain and
intellectual capacity.

At the Institute For Brain
Research in Moscow,

brains of the intellectual
elite are studied.

As prominent Soviet citizens die...

the collection grows.

Meanwhile, eugenicists studied
the biological basis of genius.

They find their research
subjects among the living...

as well as the dead.

The ancestry of Russian geniuses
is charted...

and family trees drawn up.

Leon Tolstoi, author.

Karl Baer, zoologist.

Maxim Gorki, author.

Michael Bakunin, revolutionary.

Alexander Pushkin, author.

Piotr Kropotkin, anarchist.

Leonid Leonov, author.

While interest is focused
on the brain...

and intellect in the Soviet Union...

in Germany, it is the body
that attracts attention.

BETWEEN BOOKS AND ITS
SCHEMES, THE BODY WITHERS.

THE CITY DESTROYS THE NERVES.

In the vision of decay inherent
to modern society...

the degeneration of the body
is a decisive element.

ESPECIALLY IN THE LEISURE HOURS,
WE NEGLECT THE BODY.

NOT DUE TO NECESSITY, BUT
DUE TO CLOTHING.

''BUT ALL SIN IN THE LAND IS PUNISHED.''

In Germany, the body,
its condition and potential...

its ugliness and beauty...

eloquently mirrors the
conflicts of modern society.

The allegedly degenerate
human being...

is contrasted with the image
of classical beauty.

FOR SUCH PEOPLE IT IS
NOT ENOUGH TO ADMIRE...

THE WORKS OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS.

The ideal of antiquity,
the image of man...

also has a significant influence
on the ideas of Race Hygiene.

WE HAVE TO TRY TO BE AS
THE ANCIENT GREEKS!

IF WE MAKE A RECOUP...

WILL WE LOSE THE FORCE AND
BEAUTY?

While the theoretical basis of race
hygiene is studied at the universities,

the movement zealots articulate
the goals of race hygiene...

based on the aesthetics
of antiquity.

THE BODY WITH HARMONIC RATIOS...

IS THE IDEAL OF THE
ANCIENT GREEKS.

THE JUDGMENT OF PARIS.

''The incarnation of the
beautiful and the good...

can only be achieved through
racial breeding''...

says Hans Gunther.

Referring to Plato, he recommends
a ''biological aesthetic''.

Hans Gunther, self-taught
anthropologist...

arranges competitions to define

the parameters of racial beauty.

GERMAN HEADS OF SCANDINAVIAN RACE

In the jury, alongside Gunther...

was a man of science:
Eugen Fischer...

head of the Kaiser Wilhelm
Institute in Berlin.

It is in madhouses and asylums
the advocates of race hygiene...

were to find frightful evidence


in their struggle against decay
and ugliness.

The repugnance and loathing...

conjured up by the imperfections
of the human body...

become arguments for methods
of Race Hygiene.

''The National Socialists are
the first party...

with race hygiene as a central
demand in their program''...

notes Germany's leading
race hygienist, Fritz Lenz.

''While I do see a risk'',
he says...

''that is in all extreme
movements...

where psychopaths can play
a destructive role...

Hitler is the first politician
with real influence...

to have understood the central
significance of Race Hygiene...

and is willing to
fight for it.''

In 1933, Fritz Lenz
assumes leadership...

of what would form the scientific
basis of n*zi racial politics:

the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute.

COMPETITION: THE MOST HEALTHY CHILD

THE COMPETITORS.

Faith in society's ability
to mould its members...

is strong in the young Soviet state.

Not only the rearing of children...

but also the quality of the
offspring, awakens great interest.

ELECTION OF CHILDREN.

To give the child a better future...

and society a better human being...

is the intention of the
eugenics movement.

The battle over hereditary
theory has reached its cl*max.

At the Lamarckian theory...

that acquired characteristics
are inheritable...

is ideologically alluring.

THE MOST HEALTHY CHILDREN...

CREATED IN POVERTY WILL
RECEIVE PRIZES.

If the Lamarckists were right...

desirable characteristics
could be shaped...

simply by providing a suitable,
social environment.

Education and upbringing
could be propagated

to the masses from one
generation to another.

DIPLOMA

The Mendelists protest that
if the Lamarckists were right...

how could the oppressed lower
class ever assert itself...

against the aristocracy...

which, over the centuries, has
accumulated desirable traits?

The adherents of Lamarckism reply

that hard work has made the
lower classes strong...

while wealth has made the
aristocracy lethargic and degenerate.

But the Mendelists maintain that
the laws of genetics

provide the sole realistic
basis for human improvement...

and that positive eugenics is the only
effective means to achieve this control.

''Studies of methods for the
Labotary of the Central Institution''

Higher capacity, physical
and intellectual...

leads to increased productivity.

Scientific organization
and labour...

will harmonize man and machine.

The cadence of the life and the
rhythm of work will be harmonized.

To aid in this task, to promote
useful characteristics...

geneticist Alexandre Serebrovki...

wants to employ eugenics.

Though a Mendelist...

Serebrovski offers a
Bolshevik version of eugenics.

He is convinced that his findings
in the area of poetry...

and cattle breeding...

can be applied to people.

A Five Year Plan can be completed
in two and a half years...

Serebrovski claims...

describing a gigantic project for
the improvement of man.

''With artificial insemination...

a gifted father can produce ten
thousand children'', says Serebrovski.

Eugenics is...

''a science which can maximize
the productivity of our country.

and this is only possible
under socialism...

after the ultimate evolution
of the family.

Procreation must be
distinguished from love.

because love is a private
matter...

while procreation is the
responsibility of society.

Progress requires healthy
and gifted children...


and society has the right to make
demands on the quality of the product.''

''Instead of feeling pride in her
own children'', says Serebrovski...

''women, indeed society as a
whole...'

would cherish the common achievement
of this most wonderful of fields...

the creation of a new type of
human being.''

Serebrovski soon realized
that he had gone too far.

EUGENICS

Through its newspaper lzvetstia,
the Kremlin intervenes.

A poem satirizes Serebrovski's
ideas...

describing how ideal workers
of the future...

are afflicted with blisters,
in their zeal to produce sperm...

for his immense project.

A brand new man of perfect form

A state approved official form

Production must be authorized

eugenic quality supervised

Child by child we add and add

A superman will be their dad

Eugenic practice makes it grow

Soon Moscow's streets will
overflow

It is 1930. And these stances
are the death warrant...

of the eugenics movement in
the Soviet Union.

Genetic research obtains
a new reprieve.

THE LEADER OF THE DOCTORS OF THE
REICH OF GERMANY, LEONARDO CONTI:

Bad nativity, negative selection
and miscegenation...

are the main causes of ruin to
the people.

But it also contains the danger

of destroying human culture.

Temos que nos questionar...

If the modern form of life that
a civilized people must lead...

it does not make with that its factors
they take to the decay and degeneration.

The trajectory of the people
cannot be stopped.

It will either rise or fall down.

A people must be pure or impure.

The quality of the blood
and the race are decisive.

The German people has
demonstrated its worth.

It must become the central
focus of the great German empire.

We know that, for this conquest...

The important one is not the
individual, as a simple mortal...

but a people, who become more
fortified each generation...


and with eternal renewal.

A small village in Bavaria.

A home for unwed mothers was
just located here...

founded by the Lebensborn Society.

Here, unmarried women
considered racially pure...

could give birth in solitude

far from the disapproving eyes
of society.

Lebensborn, a movement founded
by SS leader

Heinrich Himmler was assigned
a more extensive task, however:

positive eugenics and breeding.

But a conflict lurks which seems
to have paralysed the movement.

Positive eugenics requires

the subordination of sexuality
to the quality of offspring...

and the separation of reproduction
and love.

Wild rumours and fantasies...

about human breeding farms by the
SS flourished.

Thus, creating the new German Man...

uncovered a paradox which
challenged burgeoise morality.

It was also in direct conflict...

with one of the pillars of
n*zi ideology:

the institution of the family.

Lebensborn was reduced to
a shelter for woman...

who had transgressed the
dictates of German morality,

preventing Aryan blood from
being lost to ab*rtion.

While convention and morality raised
obstacles to positive eugenics,

the practice of negative eugenics
involved no such conflict.

Infants judged to be unfit
were put to death.

The vision of positive Race
Hygiene was relegated to the arts

The image of man was not burdened
by its inherent paradox.

The task of the artist was limited
to creating an inspirational model...

to give the object surface and proportions...

which enhanced the intended aesthetic effect.

The World's Fair in Paris, 1937.

The vision of the ''new German Man''
is in the limelight.

Across from the German pavilion,
the Soviet building is erected.

In the Soviet Union, the winds of
revolution have shifted.

The era of the pioneer is over.

The scientific and artistic avant-garde...

have been forced to adapt to the ideals of the party.

The idea of the '''new Soviet Man''...

has been reduced to a socialist archetype

of the commitment to work in
the spirit of progress.

In the battle over hereditary
theories in the Soviet Union...

developments in Germany
become a weapon:

n*zi racial policies are
identified with Mendelism.

Genetic research is forbidden
as well.

Biological science has a
new figurehead:

Trofim Lysenko.

Crop failure and food shortages
brought him to power.

The country needed a miracle...

and Lysenko promised quick results.

Previously, you would plant
all the potatoes.

His ''socialist biology'' is
based on Lamarckism.

The idea that acquired
characteristics are inheritable.

The Lysenko method promises that
each sprout will grow as a potato.

As early as 1927, geneticist
Alexander Serebrovski...

had tried to stop the advance
of Lamarckism.

He had written an article
in Pravda.

FOUR PAGES THAT HAD SHAKEN
THE SCIENTIFIC WORLD

The article describes Herman
Joseph Muller's discovery...

that X-rays cause genetic mutations.

According to Serebrovski...

this finding demonstrates the
falsity of the Lamarckian theory.

Six years later, Muller arrives
in the Soviet Union.

Together with his Soviet colleges...

he hopes to raise Soviet genetics
to a position of world renown.

Obsessed by eugenic ideas...

Muller refuses to accept the
Soviet ban on eugenics.

Muller decides to turn directly to Stalin.

He writes a letter to the
leader of the Soviet Union.

What Muller offers Stalin,
is a biological plan...

for the creation of the
''new socialist man''.

''Dear comrade Stalin'',
writes Muller.

''As a scientist with confidence
in the ultimate Bolshevik triumph...

through all positive spheres...

I come to you with a matter of
vital importance.

The matter is none less...

than that of the conscious control
of human biological evolution...

that is, control of the hereditary
material, lying at the basis of life itself.''

Muller condemns the n*zi's
'vicious doctrine of racial purity',

Insisting that 'true eugenics
can only be a product of socialism'

and promises Stalin

that it will be possible in
only a few generations

to bestow the gift of genius

on practically every individual...

to raise the masses to the level at which
now stand our most gifted individuals.''


''With artificial insemination...

the reproductive material of the most
transcendentally superior individuals

the one in fifty hundred thousands,
can be used.

Many a mother of tomorrow
will be proud

to mingle her germ plasm with that
of a Lenin or a Darwin.''

Muller promises Stalin...

''that this turning point in the
long story of biological evolution

shall bear eternal witness to the
greatness of the October Revolution''.

Muller soon learns that Stalin
has read his letter.

The awakening is brutal.

His dream of the future has
apparently displeased Stalin.

At an official conference in 1936

genetics, eugenics and fascism
are branded as one and the same.

Arrests follow.

The same day that Muller
flees the Soviet Union...

one of his confidantes,
Izrael Agol, is shot.

It is 1942.

The United States is at w*r
with Germany and its ideology.

The American eugenics movement
is on the retreat.

The wave of sterilization
has begun to ebb.

But the terrifying events in
Germany is not the only reason.

In light of the progress made
by genetics...

the simplistic message of eugenics
seems unscientific and backwards.

Germany, 1943.

While n*zi racial policy...

strives towards its diffuse goals,
it is the task of the artist

to promote a positive image of
its stated intentions.

In Germany, negative eugenics
leads to the ultimate horror.

German racial policy results in the
endless purging of inferior human material.


sterilized, a 100.000 m*rder*d...

before the Race Hygiene project...

culminates in the policy of
mass extermination.

December, 1944.

In the small country of Sweden,
sheltered from the storms of w*r...

an 'ideal child' competition is held.

The professor says that the
young competitors...

are better than ever before.

The jury consists of:

Dr. Hultman, Professor Lichtenstein,
Sra. Rydbrant and Dr. Severin.

In Sweden, the Race Hygiene impulse

has taken the form of an
accelerated sterilization program.

Eight thousand people have been deprived
of the ability to have children

The number of sterilizations...

have continued to climb after the w*r.

Compulsory provisions have been
added to the sterilization law.

It would be over 30 years before
the law was repealed.

Moscow, May 1945.

World w*r II is over.

In the Soviet Union, it is Stalin
who dictates the laws of biology.

Man shall not be discussed as
a biological creature.

Eugenic ideas would never be applied.

Under Trofim Lysenko...

''socialist biology'' has been
elevated to state dogma.

''Words cannot express the joy that
I feel of living...

under socialism and the construction
of the Colcoz system.''

APPLAUD OUR GREAT STALIN!

Many dissenting biologists
and geneticists...

face the firing squad or die in prison.

Genrikh Frezen, Vassily Slepkov.

Izrael Agol, Solomon Levit.

Nicolai Belyaev, Georgiy Meister.

Nicolai Vavilov, Grigori Levitsky.

Underneath the streets of the city,
the graveyards of civilization.

The biological remnants of heredity.

''Oh, these new sciences'',
Emile Zola writes 100 years ago...

''These sciences that still speak the
stammering language of hypotheses...

and have not liberated themselves
from the power of imagination.

They belong just as much to the
poet as they do the scientist.

What tremendous fresco remains
not to be painted...

what colossal human comedy and
tragedy to be written

The material with which the
question of heredity provides us

seems infinite.''

Speculation on the meaning of
biological heredity...

has had a fateful impact...

on political and scientific
ideas in the 20th century.

Today, we know how heredity works.

Research on human genetic makeup..

is in the vanguard of modern science.

As political and social utopian
theories lose ground

the biological ideal acquires a
new lease of life.

Visions on genetics and its
social implications...

occasionally assume
utopian proportions.

In man's effort to define himself...

he continually encounters new
obstacles to overcome.

The idea of controlling the future
by means of genetics...

remains a dream.

Man, who he is and what ultimately
shapes him is shrouded in mystery.

Man has created a civilization which
isolates him from nature and imprisons

him in the conflict between pressing
forward and longing for the past

A civilization driven by the concept
of endless progress...

that knowledge can eternally open new doors.

The idea of improving himself
through biological means...

has accompanied man for thousands of years.

The fate in measurements transforms
this idea into science.

Eugenics is the dream of a
measurable man.

In the exploration of heredity...

and in the search for a
decipherable code...

man's intelligence constantly
comes to the fore...

What role does genetic heritage play?

what is biological necessity...

and what can be moulded by
environment and upbringing?

The genetic code, the human recipe

is a logical structure which can
be mapped and recorded.

Man's capacity can only be judged

by his actual achievements.

For man's talent, there is
no decipherable code.

Intelligence is a basic pre-requisite
for our civilization.

But about the biology of the
thinking process...

and man's capabilities, we know
very little.

The image of man sometimes reveals
despair in the face of this reality.

The image of man fills us, at
times, with compassion.